Amor y Vida

Some unfortunate things have happened at Amor y Vida starting while I was gone. The board of directors decided that they wanted to only be a center for children from newborn up to 10 years old. All of the kids who are over 11 and have any family, were told to leave and move in with their family members. While I was gone, 5 or 6 of the kids left and another 3 or 4 since my return. This is very sad for all of the kids, the ones who left and the ones who are still there and for me too. The kids who have no family are being allowed to stay.
For those who don't know or remember, Amor y Vida is another home (orphanage) here in San Pedro Sula for children with HIV. Our church group would usually visit there after visiting Casa Corazón. I stayed there with Joe and Tom the first three weeks I was here last year and I usually go there once a week to visit the kids. They had 39 kids and their kids were all older than the kids here at Casa Corazón because for years they would only accept children over 6 years old. The day to day director of Amor y Vida, Tito, left there a few months back and the president of the board and foundation in charge took over daily operations. Things changed quickly and many of the older children were not happy. The sudden change in policies and departure of 10 of the older kids was very sad and shocking. Rather than being a home for these kids to grow up in until they finish school and are ready to go to work on their own, it has become a temporary lodging place until they are old enough to take care of themselves when they must return to their relatives. In some ways I can see the reasoning because if they have family they should be with their family and not in an orphanage. But for the kids involved, this was their home for a long time and the sudden change in rules is really difficult. Some of them have relatives living in very harsh conditions.
Tito came by today to visit with me and talk about the situation. He still has a huge heart for all of these kids who were like his own kids for many years. He has been in contact with almost all of them very regularly since they had to leave. He is personally giving them money for their bus fares to get to the hospital so they can continue to get medications. He is also actively looking for a home for one of the girls who is 16 or 17 and had to move in with her grandmother who is very poor and lives in a tiny shack in a town near the coast. She cannot afford to go to school any longer nor take the bus to the hospital. Tito told me that she and all of the kids have been phycologically devastated by their sudden uprooting.
This really has been sad for me in visiting there. Many of the kids I was closest to are no longer there but I still want to see the others who have not left so I will continue to do so.
Please keep all of the kids from Amor y Vida in your prayers.

Day at the Beach

Saturday was a fun day for the kids. We rented a bus and took almost everyone to the beach. After raining all day Friday, we were worried the trip would be cancelled but it was a pretty nice day. There was a ton of trash on the beach that probably washed out from the rivers during the all day rain the day before, but the kids still had a great time. Here are some of the photos of the day.






Things have been going well at the casa. The computer used as a server in the office crashed so I have not had access to the internet in quite a while. I am using another computer now because mine cannot be hooked up to the network until the server is fixed.

Brian

This is our newest little boy, Brian. He is 2 years old but he is very small and thin. He cannot walk yet. His mother is in the hospital in the final stages of AIDS and is not expected to live much longer. They are from the Santa Barbara area of Honduras where there is more Spanish influence and less indian so the people are much fairer skin color.

After a very long day of traveling, I made it back to the casa last night around 9:30 p.m. our time, 11:30 in VA. I had to take a tour of Central America on the way back down, visiting Guatemala and El Salvador before returning to Honduras.

When I got to my gate at the airport in Charlotte, I figured that Pastor Marty must have been praying for me because they put me on the Pittsburgh Steelers airplane (his team). I had no idea that USAir painted airplanes with football team logos and I did not see any other teams at the airport so the Steelers were quite unique. As we flew over Guatemala City they must have thought the team was coming to town for something because it looked like we were on a private team jet.



This is the view of part of Guatemala City from the airport terminal during the down-pour of rain.











Shortly after taking off from Guatemala and rising above all the rain clouds, you could see the peaks of the volcano stiking through the clouds.










This is the Pacific Ocean and the El Salvador coast just outside of San Salvador where we landed a few minutes after this photo was taken. Two oceans and four countries in 14 hours made for an interesting but very long day.








The 4 boys were all waiting up for me when I arrived (past their bed times on a school night) and we were all very happy to see each other again. The house was not too messy either so I was happy. I had a great reunion with all the little kids in the morning, especially Juan-Fernando. He was very happy to see his Daddy and they all told me he was very sad when I left. Not much changed while I was gone that I have seen so far, but we got a new little boy today, a 2 year old named Bryan. I will get some photos of him posted soon.
I had a really great month visiting my family and friends and thanks to all of you for treating me so well during my time back in VA. I will try to keep posting more regularly this time.