Happy Children's Day

Today is Dia del Niño (Children's Day) in Honduras. Since Mother's have their day and Father's have theirs, the children have their own day here also. I am very surprised that Hallmark has not picked up on this and tried to capitalize (make $) by creating this holiday in the U.S. so they can sell more cards.

The kids have had group after group come to visit over the past 3 days. The groups are mostly high school classes or church groups. Each group does pretty much the same thing. They bring a lot of candy, cakes and soda to sugar up the kids. They all bring piñatas with more candy inside them. The kids love it, but the adults are very tired from the constant screaming and playing of the kids who are all buzzed up on sugar.

The whole concept of the group visit is very interesting. If it wasn't for the casa opening up for group visits, I never would have come here and would not be here now, so they definitely are good for potentially getting new people connected with the casa. From the visitor's perspective it is great. The visitors come to spend an hour or two playing with some unfortunate children who don't have families or "normal" lives. For the casa it is good also because it spreads the word about the good things they are doing for these kids and opens up doors to potential future volunteers or donors.

After being here now I also see it from the child's perspective also. The kids are very comfortable living here with everyone here as their family. Once a week or so several cars or a bus comes by with a group of strangers and they are expected to interact and play with these strange people that they don't know and will probably never see again. The little ones mostly are okay and love to play with anyone, but some are shy and don't like it. The older kids all seem not to like the visits because they are being forced to interact with total strangers who have come into their home. It is kind of like they are on display for the outsiders to come and see. They tend to stay off to the sides together and not really talk to the visitors unless cornered by them. Maybe it is because they understand the whole HIV situation and know all the visitors know their medical condition and that makes them uncomfortable. Maybe they just feel the same way any American kid would feel if a different car load of strangers came to their house to visit them every weekend. However, they all like the soda and candy they receive.

So happy children's day to all your kids.