Merry Christmas

I take off tomorrow on my trip home. I am going to Guatemala for 3 days in Antigua before flying back to VA on Tuesday. Antigua is high in the mountains and will be much colder than here. I stopped at the airport there in July on my way down here and it was much cooler in July than it was in VA. Not a tropical climate at all.
This is a photo of our Christmas tree with Miriam who works in our house.
The boys have one week of supervision when Tulisia comes to visit starting today and will stay with them. Thereafter, they will be alone in the house at night for two weeks. I am going to be returning here on New Years Eve and hopefully things will still be in order. There are always people around during the day so it is only the few hours at night before bedtime that they have to wreck havoc.
I look forward to seeing people at home, church, work and Mo's and plan on relaxing without worrying about things here. If I have a computer in Guatemala maybe I will post an update, but if not this may be it for the year.

Visit with Maynor

I made a quick trip to NPH to visit Maynor before Christmas. I took David with me this time to visit his former roommate at Casa Corazón. Maynor left here four years ago when both were 5. Now both are 9 and still the same size. They had a great time playing together again. It was quite chilly there this time, probably upper 50's, since they are in the mountains. It helped to get me ready for the chill when I get back to VA next week.

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David and Maynor

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The twins Tomas y José

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David with his new friend Varela

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . showing the cross Varela gave him

Milton's Graduation

Milton graduated from 6th grade on Friday. 6th grade is a big deal here as many people do not continue in school beyond that. Thus they have a graduation ceremony with diplomas and all. Here are some of the photos. At 16 he was one of the oldest, but not the oldest kid in his class. There were two boys older than him in Mauricio's 5th grade class.

Christmas Dancing Practice

This is my first attempt to post a video clip so I don't know what the quality will be like. It was taken from my still photo camera in video mode so it is not as good as a regular video camera but you can see almost all of the younger kids in this video.

Getting Ready for Christmas

It's that time of year again. The kids are all getting ready for Christmas and their annual Christmas Eve party. Christmas Eve here is much bigger than Christmas day. They have a big dinner feast and singing and skits. All the kids from the littlest to the oldest participate. So for the next month, we get to here them sing the same songs multiple times every day practicing. These are some of the photos from the rehersals.

Honduras Advances

It is a national day of celebration here after Honduras beat Mexico last night here in San Pedro Sula to advance to the next round in the World Cup soccer qualifications. Soccer is the national obsession here. The weather has been terrible all week, rainy and cold, but thousands of people were in the stadium all day. It is general admision so the earlier they get there the better seats they get. The traffic was a nightmare all day also. In the end, Honduras beat Mexico 1-0 to finish in first place in their group of four and advance to the next round of 6 teams, which includes the U.S. Now I am the enemy for the kids when it comes to football.

Graduation Night

Last night I had one of the most meaningful nights since I have been here. My very good friend from Amor y Vida, Darwin, graduated from nursing school along with Nolvia, also from Amor y Vida. Both Darwin (19) and Nolvia (17) were in the group of older kids who were forced to leave Amor y Vida in June when the administration decided to change to be a center for younger kids only. Both of them were in the middle of their 2nd year of nursing school on weekends while also going to high school during the week. They both moved to poor locations not very close to their schools and were not able to continue in high school so they will have to start the year over again in February in new schools close to home. However, both continued to travel every weekend to their nursing school and they finished the year and got their deplomas.
Last night was their graduation ceremony and banquet. Each of them got to invite only two people, their parents or spouse, who went up with them to received their deplomas. Since his parents are deceased, Darwin asked me to be his padrino (Godfather) and accompany him along with his Aunt. I was very honored to go with him as stand in for his parents. It means a lot to me to see him successfully complete this school after all the time and hard work I saw him put into it, giving up every weekend for two years, and especially that he thought of me to be there with him and sign the papers as his family member. Tito, who formerly worked at Amor y Vida, went as the padrino for Nolvia.
This was a very big and important night for each of them as they now have a degree that will help them to find a better job then just the normal schooling that most people have. It was also a sad occasion as now Darwin will be moving to Seguatepeque, about 2 hours away, to live with some Cousins he has there. I probably will not see much of him anymore, but he will still have to come back to San Pedro Sula once a month for his doctor's appointment and get his HIV meds. so I hope to visit with him on occasion during those appointments.









Darwin, Tito and Nolvia. . . . . . . . . Singing their national anthem . . . . Candle lighting ceremony










Me with Darwin and his Aunt . . . . . . . . . . Nolvia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Darwin

Nolvia with Tito and her Aunt

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All Saints Day

Yesterday, we had a special religious service for all saints day, a memorial service for all of the children who died while living here at the casa. There are 17 or 19 kids who died over the years, mostly in the first five years the casa was here. Originally the casa was somewhat of a hospice where families sent their kids with HIV/AIDS knowing they were probably going to die. With the improvement in the medications over the years and the availability to all of the kids at low cost from the government, only 3 of those 17 or 19 have died since 2000.

The older kids, 8 years and up, all went to the casa of the alolescent girls and we read prayers and the names of all the little saints who died here. It was a nice memorial service.

The rains have continued to fall here. The month of October was very wet and probably rained 25 days of the month. Mostly the rain comes every night, but we have had a couple of weeks of rain all day. It has made the weather quite chilly without the sun. The temps have dipped to the upper 60's which for this tropical area of Honduras is quite cold. The kids had to break out their long sleeve shirts and sweatshirts for the first time in a long time.

Also, yesterday the 1st of Nov., the girls started practicing singing their Christmas songs for the Christmas show they have every year. So I will be hearing them singing the Christmas songs every day for the next month and a half. Juan-Fernando got into the Christmas spirit also as you can see in his photo.

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School ends Monday for the private school so most of the kids will now be home every day for their "summer break" until February when the new school year starts. The public school kids have exams this week and the teachers say school will end this week also. The government is wanting them to extend the school year until Dec. 10 to make up for all the many missed days this year from the various strikes the teachers had, probably 6 weeks or more missed. The teachers say it was the government's fault they went on strike so they don't want to extend the year. That only affects 9 of the kids so maybe those 9 will be in school a little while longer than this week, but most likely not. Regardless, summer vacation has started for most of the kids in the casa so we won't have much down time for the next 3 months.

Still Here

Sorry for the absense. I have been here at the casa all this time but just have been neglectful in my writing. I have had my hands full most of the days. The newest boy in the adolescent's home has become quite a challenge for me and I spend a huge amount of my time watching over him. Although this casa is a great place for these kids to be raised and they live a lot more comfortably than most other children in Honduras, there are still kids here with problems. Imagine taking a random sampling of 38 kids growing up in the foster care program in the U.S. and how well adjusted/well behaved those kids would be. Probably not a lot are. My friend Kristina, Geri's daughter, is a wonderful success story of taking in foster kids and eventually adopting them into her family. But I would guess that there are a lot of problem stories to the contrary that balance that one out. Well, group homes (orphanages) in Honduras are not much different. Lots of great success stories, but a few troubled kids mixed in. Right now we have one troubled 11 year old living with me. It is very taxing to deal with a child who does not want to work, study, obey rules, respect adults or other children. Unfortunately is has occupied much of my time that I would spend doing fun things with the other boys in our house so they have to suffer. Please keep us in your prayers so I have the patients and ability to deal with these things properly and maybe the Lord can make a change in this boys life.

Weekend at NPH

I finally made it back to NPH to visit Maynor. Friday was his 9th birthday. He was surprised and very happy to have a visit for the weekend and his birthday. He continues growing rapidly and next year will probably move out of the little kids home into the first of the older boys homes where they live in groups with others of the same age. There are about 8 new boys in the childrens home where Maynor lives, mostly very young so after knowing all their names in the past I am back to seeing kids who I don't know again.
As always, it was much cooler there in the mountains and very nice to sleep at night without a fan pointed directly on me. Being the rainy season, the posa, the lake created by the little dam on one of the streams, was completely full. When I was there in May it was almost empty which you can see in the photo I posted back then. All of the kids kept asking where Mauricio and Maynor from my casa here are. I think I will take them back for another visit next month after they finish school for the year which is the first week in November.
The food there is always very interesting. Dinner and breakfast are generally about the same. Friday breakfast: beans, rice and tortillas; lunch: chicken soup; dinner: 3 paper thin pancakes. Saturday breakfast: beans, rice and avacado; lunch: chicken and potato salad, dinner: beans, avacado and 1 boiled egg.













Maynor on his 9th birthday

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Kindergarden class ..............................................................The dam where they swim.