Still Calm

Things are still moving along here at the casa despite problems in the country. Masbely and some of the ladies went with some of the older kids to the rallies in the city center in favor of the return of Mel as president. Today is a general strike nationwide with most workers supposedly going on strike in protest of the coup. I am not going out to see what is open or not and I am following the embassys advice to stay home and not participate in the protests. Hopefully the UN, US and others can work out some deal to end the matter soon.
Joe is passing through here today to visit after spending 6 weeks in Costa Rica studying Spanish. He was planning on staying longer but decided to cut short his visit so he is heading home.

Military Coup

The Honduran president ousted from power today was trying to go against the constitution to allow him another term despite the current term limits and it was supposedly a pro-constitution and pro-democracy move, so not your typical violent coup (although no coup is democratic). The new president put in power, Micheletti, is the brother of the director of Amor y Vida. Things should stay calm.
Do not worry... Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life. Matthew 6:25, 6:27

Volunteers Here

I am a little slow in posting, but the two summer volunteers from Notre Dame arrived for their two months. They are Bianca (left) and Megan (right) in the first photo. We took the older kids for the walk up the mountainside to the Coca Cola sign. It is about an hour and a half walk up, it is walking on a paved road although fairly steep grade. It is a nice view of the city from up there. The kids had a good time, something to do and get away from the casa.

Schools have all been closed for the past two weeks due to the flu. They were worried the swine flu was spreading here like in Mexico and the U.S., but most of the flu cases are a different strain of the flu. To protect the kids, we have not allowed any visitors for the past two weeks and the kids have had to stay in their respective casas rather than visiting each other. It has worked so far as several of the younger kids have had cold/flu but none in our house.

It has been both boring and pull you hair out nerve racking at the same time. I did not realize how much time I spent in the main casa with the little kids until we were not permitted to go over there. Our house has been like having a two week long snow day or hurricane day where the kids are home from school and can't leave. Kids get on each others nerves and argue and always pull me into the middle of it. Probably my mom's revenge for my sister and I as kids.

Quakes

We're still moving down here. It has been 11 days since the big earthquake, 7.3, but we are still feeling smaller quakes many of the nights here, occasionally during the day. Last night there were two more, 5.7 and 5.4 so not nearly as bad as the original, but the worst we have had since it. They were enough to wake me up in the night and feel the house moving back and forth. Nothing fell over this time, but my keys were klinking together as they were swinging back and forth on the post I hang them from. It is strange that for two years we had nothing and now it feels like I moved to California and have the house shaking every other night.

Happy Birthday

Friday was Jaime's 12th birthday and Saturday Erick's 6th. Jonathan, Mauricio and I took Jaime to Pizza Hut to eat and play on Friday; he was granted clemency from all punishments for the day. Erick's godmother, Tuleisha, who live here for 8 months a few years ago, sent a gift to Erick for his birthday so these photos are for her to see him in his new cloths. He also likes his new Spiderman toothbrush.

Week of Fun

Friday was the last day the group from East Texas Baptist Univ. was here. The kids really enjoyed getting to know all 17 of them, plus the 4 or so Honduran helpers along with their group. Having them here 6 days really helped the kids build relationships which hopefully some will continue through the internet. They were here on a mission trip set up through the Buckner Foundation. 10 more groups will be coming here this summer through Buckner. The last day all the kids got a goodie bag with toys, games and other little things. You can see in some of the photos, the kids eating ice cream and making bead necklaces. The group also donated a ton of school supplies for the kids, a great blessing to the casa.

Beach Day

We went to the beach on Sunday with the adolescent kids, the three oldest girls and four oldest boys, who live in the separate casas apart from the main casa of children. Josué also went along and Fanny who lives with the older girls. She is Alba's sister and is going to college here in San Pedro Sula and working part time in the casa in exchange for living with the girls. Eva wanted to go the the beach one last time before retiring and returning to the US and for several years she has wanted to take the dog, Mau, to the beach. Mau was a donation from a Spanish couple about 4 years ago when they were moving back to Spain and could not take him with them. They send donations specifically for him to cover his living expenses, separate from the children. We often joke that the dog has his own bank account. Eva has always wanted to take him to the beach, but it was too much trouble with all the little kids so when they decided to go with only the older kids, the opportunity was there to take the dog also. He seemed to enjoy swimming in the ocean and river located there. There were quite a few people at the beach on Sunday, so the dog did not get to run free, because he is a theif of food and would scare the children who were there. The older kids also enjoyed the day without all the work normally involved in taking all the younger kids when we normally go with everyone. It was much more relaxing for me too.

Still feeling aftershocks

It has been almost a week after the earthquake and we are still feeling small after shocks. They are nothing like the original quake, just minor moving that lasts just a couple of seconds. I have been out a few times and there are several building with walls that collapsed and more often brick fences that have fallen over. There are some roads that have large cracks in them also, but not very much damage.
The biggest problem the past couple of days has been the traffic. There is a meeting of all the countries in the Americas here in San Pedro Sula this week and security is sky high. There are armed military police at most of the intersections all around town and numerous roads are blocked off. Yesterday there were several police helicopters flying all around when Hillary arrived at the airport as the U.S. representative and during the drive to her hotel. I go to the grocery store on Tuesdays and I had to go to another store today because the one I usually go to is too close to the area of the conference and all the roads were blocked off. It's a big deal for San Pedro to have all the international attention, especially having Hillary here.
There is a large group from East Texas Baptist College, about 17, here all this week. They were here Sat. and every afternoon this week through Friday. They are doing numerous activities with the kids here in the casa and helping with homework too. This is the first group we have had in the past two years that has come back numerous times.