Casa de Mauricio y Isaac

These are some of the photos that I took at Mauricio and Isaac's home last weekend when we went back to visit their family again. Their house has a really nice view of downtown San Pedro Sula in the first photo. The second photo is of me with Mauricio and Isaac along with their youngest brother, Jovan, and their sister, Jaimy, who is between them in age. Neither of their siblings have HIV. You can see that Isaac's 6 year old brother is taller than he is at age 10, and their 11 year old sister is taller than Mauricio at age 13. HIV really stunts the growth of these children. The third photo includes several of their younger uncles and aunts.

The first photo below is Isaac and Mauricio with their uncle Victor in front of the casa. The second photo is the oldest sister of Isaac and Mauricio, Claudia, who is 16. The third photo is of their uncle Daniel (22) who goes to school in Tegucigalpa studying to get his degree to be a social worker to help poor and needy children. He is really impressive to have such a great desire to help others at such a young age.

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The first photo below is Isaac and Victor with their house in the background. We were up the hill behind their house picking limes and sugar cane. They also have bananna trees there too. The next photo is their youngest uncle, Jonathan (11) with one of their cousins.

Eclipse

We got to see the eclipse of the Moon last night. It was very clear here so the boys got an excellent view of the full eclipse. I took these photos shortly before it was completely full. After it was full it was too dark for others to come out clear.

Josalin

The youngest and most recent addition to the Casa Corazón family passed away at the hospital yesterday morning. Josalin came to the casa on January 18th. He mother had gone into the hospital very ill and took Josalin with her because there was no one to leave her with. Her mother died in the hospital a couple of days before Josalin came here. The doctors asked us to take her in and she came to live here. She was very weak and ill for about two weeks and the doctors decided to re-admit her into the hospital. Miriam, one of the workers here, spent every day, 7 days a week, 12 hours a day with her and the other workers alternated nights staying with her. In Honduras, the hospital nurses only give medications and the family is responsible for all other care for the patient such as feeding, cleaning, etc. Josalin was very weak and could not breath on her own and eventually lost her struggle to live yesterday. Gigo, the casa's driver and handyman, drove the truck to the hospital and picked up her body in a little casket and brought her back to the casa. A service was held here for her with all the kids and workers which lasted about one hour. Then the older kids went in the van following the truck carrying her body to the cemetary about a half hour outside of San Pedro Sula where all the other children from the casa who have died are burried. There was a small service there before Josalin was burried. Everyone was very sad, especially Miriam who spent so much time with this precious little girl.
Josalin is a sad reminder to all of us of the severity of the infection that all of these kids have. She is the first child from this casa to pass away since my Godson Junior died January 28, 2004, over 4 years ago. Unfortunately over 5,800 people die every single day in Africa from AIDS, mostly due to the lack of medications available there. The children here at Casa Corazón are very fortunate to have the medications they need, some provided by the government and others paid for through donations to the casa. These medications have prolonged the lives of all of these kids and makes them seem very healthy, but for the side effects of the medications. Josalin is a sad reminder that AIDS can work very fast to kill a child or anyone and sometimes the medications are not enough once the child is ill. It is a sad reminder to the other 37 children living here of what can happen to them also and how fortunate they are to have Casa Corazón taking care of them. Please pray for the peace and comfort of all the children here who are scared because of this and for Miriam to be comforted in her sadness.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school for three of the four boys in my casa. The photo is of Milton and Mauricio. Milton, the oldest boy in the casa, started 6th grade (again) and Mauricio started 5th grade. I will probably have a little more free time in the mornings now that they are not here for 5 hours each day, although I am going to miss spending time with them as I have been doing a lot lately. Especially Mauricio; he has turned out to be a really great kid and a wonderful addition to our house. I went to the casa of his grandmother with him and his brother Isaac on Saturday and met much of his family. He has 18 cousins and several uncles and aunts. He has one uncle who is younger than him, only 11 years old. It was a real return to reality here in Honduras as his family lives in very poor conditions as most of the people here do with lots of them jammed into very small casas. He is in a much better place here thanks to all the people who support Casa Corazón.



The Mother of Juan-Fernando finally came to visit him for the first time 5 months after dropping him off here. He was very timid and did not know who she was. It was very difficult for me because he wanted me to take him and sit with me but it was her time to visit with him so I wanted him to stay with her. He kept grabbing my hand and giving me looks like he wanted help. The ladies here told me that was going to happen since he thinks I am his daddy and he spends all his time with me. The girl in the photo is his oldest sister, Heidy, who is 16. Juan was very quiet the entire time they were here but returned to his playful manner right after they left.

Gustavo had a visit from his very large family last weekend also. The man is his grandfather who visits him almost every week. The older lady is his mother's sister and all of the girls are her daughters. The young boy is Gustavo's brother who also regularly visits with his grandfather. Gustavo was so excited to have all of them here at the same time and he cried when he had to go eat dinner and when they left later on.

Weekend at NPH

Words really cannot describe what a great time we had visiting NPH near Tegucigalpa this weekend. It was so nice to see Maynor and Mauricio from Casa Corazón away from the casa and enjoying a vacation for the first time that I have seen. They were so excited getting ready to go and I have never seen anyone so exticted to me on a bus as Maynor was Thursday morning. They really loved being in the outdoors, playing with a bunch of new kids, collecting fresh eggs from the chicken coops, seeing the cows and pigs, hiking up the mountains, swimming in the river by the dam, and just having the freedom to walk around outside without worries of the crime we have here in San Pedro Sula. Maynor Galvan, who lives at NPH, was also completely thrilled to have three guests for the long weekend. He loved seeing his former housemate, Maynor Madrid, for the first time in three years.

Maynor and me, Maynor and Mauricio at the dam, Maynor Galvan and Maynor Madrid

The vegetable fields, the chicken coops, and up on the mountain.

For those of you who don't know, Maynor Galvan lived at Casa Corazón three years ago. They located his biological brother who does not have HIV and moved the two of them together to NPH which is a giant, 2000 acre wooded ranch about 25 miles north of Tegucigalpa. 600 children live there, many are siblings of each other as NPH likes to bring families together to live rather than separating them.