Mike's Honduras Mission

The End of the Blog

2010-05-22T15:55:00.002-06:00

After 3 years, my mission in Honduras has just come to an end. I arrived back in the USA last Friday. As it was in Dec., I was very sad to leave the casa and the kids. I went to the airport with Masbely, Xiomara and Juan-Fernando. This time he really understood that I was leaving and what it meant after experiencing it in Dec. for a couple of months. I told him that just like so many other kids in Honduras, his papa was going to the US to work and I would be back to visit him. Unfortunately for the boys I was living with, there was no plan for after I left, just like in Dec., so the boys will be living on their own without any adult with them. I can only pray that someone else will feel called to go there to help out like I did 3 years ago, or that they decide to hire a new employee to stay with the boys at night.

The most positive news that happened the last couple of weeks that I was there was that Carlos Roberto decided to get baptised in the church he has been going to. Carlos is now 20. He had a lot of problems when he lived in the casa and was eventually kicked out at age 15. After living with Xiomara for 3 years, he moved out on his own and was living with a former employee of the casa and her son and Josué in our neighborhood. They are the next door neighbors of the boys new home where I was living. Carlos still has motivational problems and rarely works, but he is getting better and maturing. He began going to church last year and made the decision to get baptised.

After I got home, I got a message from the casa that the dog Mau (like the Chinese emperor) died. Mau was a donation from a Spanish couple returning to Spain and they could not take him with them. He actually had his own trust fund also as the couple would donate money for his food and vet bills. They told me the kids were very sad to see him go. They burried him in the park.

After 3 years of living at the casa surrounded by kids, it is going to be a big adjustment returning home. It will be nice to return to a somewhat normal living arrangement, but I will definitely miss all the kids and having them around constantly. It will be sad going to the supermarket without Juan. As I told them at the casa, I am not leaving forever. I will continue to visit as I regularly did in the past before 2007 and I look forward to this. I hope that you all enjoyed keeping up on my mission with my little blogcito here.

Adiós!

Moving along

2010-04-24T15:56:00.006-06:00

I am still here at the casa, 3 more weeks before time to head back to Va. again. Things have been going along as normal. It is hotter than ever; 104 degrees Friday and Sat., 107 on Sunday and supposed to be the same today. And no it is not a "dry" heat like Arizona, it is sticky. It is so hot inside our house that it burns when you touch the table or kitchen counters. No, we don't have a/c. My toothpaste has melted into toothliquid and the liquid hand soap is very hot when you use it. It was 120 degrees when I was in Egypt years ago and this heat is way worse than that desert heat was.

http://www.timeanddate.com/weather/honduras/san-pedro-sula/historic

Kimberly, the youngest girl at thee casa, went back to live with her mother. It was a little sad because she was doing so well here. She had recently learned to walk on her own and she had been moving about the casa alot. She was eating really well and gained a lot a weight, a real chubby little girl. That was the main reason for her coming here; to get well and in good health. The sad part was that her brother, probably 2 years older than her is skinny as a twig and really malnourished. The grandfather says he does not like beans or vegetables so they don't make him eat either. The fear is that will happen to her when she returned to her family. They talked to the family services people who said since the mother placed her here at the casa voluntarily she can take her home when she wants and there is nothing they can do. We will pray for the best for her and hopefully the family will put into practice the nutricion advice they were given.

I went to lunch yesterday with Darwin and Mauricio. Darwin is my friend who grew up at casa Amor y Vida and left there 2 years ago. He lives about 2 hours from here and comes every other month to the hospital for his check up and get his HIV medicines. We always go to lunch when he is in town. It is nice to keep up with him after he left the area. He started back to school in Feb. after being out a year due to missing paperwork he was never given when he left Amor y Vida. Mauricio had his hospital visit the same day and came along with Darwin who me met through me in the past. Mauricio lived in my casa for 2 years and returned to his family, living with his aunt and uncle, in Dec. He is doing well and is growing a lot.

Two months down, one to go

2010-04-09T17:15:00.002-06:00

Obviously my blogging has changed during my return to Honduras. This is partly due to me relocating with the boys to our new house a few blocks away. It is not that far of a move, but far enough that the office, which before was just a few steps from my room, is now a couple blocks away. Also, I am busy most mornings when I would use the computer the past few years. All the boys in our house now go to school in the afternoons, except Jaime who splits days with Masbely, Sandra and me for homeschooling. Unfortunately he has not changed much.

Speaking of Jaime, one of his older brothers came to visit him for the first time a couple of weeks ago. His brother, Wilfredo, is 16 and lives in another childrens home here in San Pedro Sula. He spent a little time with Yohanna and Jaime who are siblings. They have another older brother Rigoberto who is 18 or 19 and lives with their father. Maybe some day they will come to take Jaime to live with them. I think living in a family would be the best thing for him.

This week was Milton's 18th birthday. Last year he was told that he would have to move out the day after because he had be somewhat of a problem as well, but that changed and he is going to continue on here hopefully to complete school if he sticks with it and does not get into too much trouble here. Milton is the 4th boy from the casa to reach 18, the other 3 have already left. Josué and Carlos live next door to our new house so I see them a lot. Unfortunately, neither goes to school nor works which is a disappointment. This is the main reason they decided to let Milton stay dispite his problems because they did not want to see a 3rd boy being unproductive. Sindy will turn 18 in May and Alba in October so this year there will be 3 reaching the age of "majority."

Last week was Semana Santa (Holy Week) and the kids were all out of school. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are national holidays and almost everything was closed. We set up the swimming pool again and the kids got to swim. We even have a little one in our house for the boys to use. I went to Tegucigalpa on Friday to bring Maynor from NPH here for the week, but unfortunately there was bad miscommunication (not on my part), normal for Honduras, and Maynor went camping with all the other boys for several days. I had just gone there 2 weeks before to finalize the visitation and everything was on track and all the right people knew, so I don't know where the miscommunication happened after I left. Anyway, I spent a night at NPH alone and returned the next day without him. Everyone here was disappointed that he did not come for the week.

I have just about 1 month left here. I leave on May 14th. My plans are to return to work after returning home. I don't think I will have to shovel 4 1/2 feet of snow this time back.

Yes I am in Honduras

2010-03-11T14:40:00.007-06:00

I have not posted since returning last month, but I have returned to the casa in San Pedro Sula. Quite a change from my extended vacation in the U.S. A little more than 3 weeks ago I was shovelling 2 feet of snow out of the drive way and today the thermometer busted through the top and it is currently 105 degrees here, 41C. The first week I was back here was actually quite mild and cool in the night, but it is officially summer now. They always say March and April are the hottest months of the year because it is the dry time with no clouds nor rain.

There have been some changes here. First of all, the boys and I have moved to a different house. The original casa has two subsequent house additions next to it where we used to live in one and the oldest girls in the other. The next group of girls was ready to move on from the younger kids house so the boys moved over to another house where the sisters used to live. They still own the house and it was renovated before the boys moved over. We now live about 2 blocks away from the main compound. That is good and bad. Good in that we don't have the constant pass through traffic of people going from the main casa to the office which was right behind us in the former location. Our house is much more peaceful now that we are isolated. The downside is that it is not as convient for me to get to the office to use the computer which is okay, but that is my excuse for not updating my blog. I keep my computer in our house now whereas in the past I kept it in the office since I lived right next door.

In the former house, I had my roommate the gecko, but now our new house is the Hokie House San Pedro Sula. Our neighbors have a turkey family who wonder the neighboring area and always come up to our fence for food. I hear the gobble gobble of the turkey 5-10 times a day and it always sounds like the recorded gobler at the Tech football games.

The positive thing that I had for the past 3 weeks was that all 4 boys in my house went to school in the afternoons. Last year some were in the morning and some in the afternoon so I had my hands full all day with homework and supervision with literally never a minute alone in the house. Now I have (had) the afternoons quiet. I was not spending my afternoons in the house alone; I usually went to spend time with the younger kids in the other house, but it was nice to have the quiet house to come back to for a rest occasionally. I say had because that all ended today when Jaime got expelled from yet another school, his 4th I think. So now he will be home schooled again in the mornings and stay in our house in the afternoons doing homework.

I just made a quick trip down to Tegucigalpa area to visit Maynor Galván at NPH. I went to make plans for him to come and spend Semana Santa (the week before Easter) with us here. I will go back there in 2 weeks to pick him up on Friday and bring him back. His brother Carlos will be coming along also. They will be here 9 days and then I take them back on Easter Sunday. It will be their first trip out of NPH overnight since they moved there 5 years ago. Maynor just had a 2nd operation on his his ears. He has had really bad ear infections for years and they operated on each ear to open the ear canal wider hoping it will help.

All the kids were very happy to have me back, especially Juan and David. One of the first things Juan asked is when are we going to the supermarket, his favorite thing to do with me. We have been a few times since and he is very happy to be back in our routine. I did not give him the shirt in the photo, someone else here did, but I like it. Roberto started school because his birth certificate says he is 5 but there is no way that is accurate, he just started talking and quit using diapers the later part of last year. I have seen so many birth certificates with errors and it is amazing how those typing errors effect the kids lives. At least he is starting early rather than late, but he will probably not be able to pass pre-school at his early stage of development.

Sister Eva came back for a visit and is here for a little less than a month.

I'm Going Back

2010-01-27T15:13:00.002-06:00

Well, I thought I was leaving the casa permanently to return to work, but it has not worked out that way. My former job at GEICO is not yet open as expected but hopefully later this year. I miss the kids terribly and decided to go back for a 3 month visit to pass some of the time until my job eventually does open up. So you can tune in after Feb. 13th for more updates from the casa.

Return to Political Normalcy

2010-01-27T15:05:00.005-06:00

The new, democratically elected by popular vote, president of Honduras was sworn in today. Everyone involved in last years problems got amnisty. The former ousted president, Mel, left Honduras today for the Dominican Republic with his family and possibly on to Mexico. This should put to rest all of the political problems of the past year... Hopefully. At least Honduras will begin to receive its needed international aide once again. Link to the full article if you are interested: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100127/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup

The Kids of Casa Corazón

2009-12-21T17:28:00.027-06:00

These are the most recent photos of each of the 38 children living at Casa Corazón de la Misericordia.

1. Sindy 2. Milton 3. Alba

4. Mauricio 5. Maynor 6. Kenia

7. Rebecca 8. Jonathan 9. Jaime

10. Karla 11. Norma 12. Escarleth

13. Isaac 14. Jhonny 15. Carlos

16. David 17. Digna 18. Ater

19. Ester 20. Nicole 21. Rosa

22. Dariani 23. Antonio 24. Heidy

25. Dania 26. Jovel 27. Gustavo

28. Johanna 29. Erick 30. Estella

31. Dulce 32. Denia 33. Mirna

34. Juan Fernando 35. Roberto 36. Misael

37. Bryan

38. Kimberly

Mr. Jesse's visit

2009-12-21T16:36:00.006-06:00

The kids were all happy to see Mr. Jesse again last week, or as they say, "mee-ster Jesse." Jesse lived in Honduras a few years back for a couple of years and was a regular visitor and tutor to the kids at the casa. This was his first visit in about 4 years, but most of the kids remembered him immediately. He had a little party for the kids and brought a lot of personal letters for each of the kids from students and various church groups he is involved with. The kids had a great time, especially hitting each other with the large blow up hammers that each one received.

Back in the USA

2009-12-19T10:21:00.004-06:00

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I left the sunny, 90 degree heat of San Pedro Sula at 1:30 p.m. Friday and landed in Washington D.C. during a snow storm at 9:30 p.m. I went to the airport with Masbely (took the photo), Xiomara, Mauricio, Maynor, David and Juan Fernando. The photo on the right is from my parents front door this morning. The snow is supposed to continue all day until Sunday. I think I went the wrong direction. Maybe this is another one of those messages being sent to me.

Please tune back in this week as I have more photos of the kids from my last week I will post to this blog.

God Winks

2009-12-15T16:04:00.004-06:00

Not to long ago I finished reading a book my sister gave me in August titled When God Winks At You. The author says a God Wink is when the Lord speaks to you not orally but through something that happens to give confirmation or a message to you. Sometimes just a little thing that happens to let the person know they are not alone that God is hearing them. Some people call these coincidences or other things. The book is a compilation of stories where people had thing happen that they felt were like a message from God giving them hope, confirmation or help in making decisions or all sorts of different things. I got a nice one this week.

As hard as it is going to be to leave here this week, I am pretty much ready to head home. I am going to miss all of the kids a ton, but a few in particular much more than others. I can explain my leaving to most of the kids but how do you tell your 4 year old who believes you are his father and only parent he knows that you are going to leave him in an orphanage alone. I have tried explaining my leaving to Juan Fernando a few times without much feedback other than silence. I doubt that he really understands the concept of time and when he hears his papa is going away for a long time to him that means a few days. Juan came to the casa a couple of months before his 2nd birthday and has been here over 2 years now. I adopted him or he adopted me as his own the first day he arrived and as Forest Gump says we have been like peas and carrots ever since. For a year, he would cry every time I left the casa, literally. It took a very long time for him to accept that I was not abandoning him and I am always next door from the main house where he lives. Before he could speak, he called me daddy, and after he learned Spanish he changed to calling me Pa or papa. He still is the first one to run up to me when I enter the casa each day and he spend most of his time with me. The other kids, when they want to bother him the way kids do to each other at times, will come up to me and say "mio dady" or "mio pa" which means "mine" because they know this will really get Juan mad. He is very possessive and will immediately grab me and say "no, mio." I usually take him to the supermarket with me on Tuesdays which he absolutely loves. Leaving him here is the hardest part of my leaving; lots of guilt and waking up at night thinking about it.

Well, yesterday, his family came to visit him for the first time in well over a year and a half. We found out that he has a brother who is just a year older than he is, Hector, who came with his mom, her sister and her sister's son (Juan's cousin). Juan and Hector had a great time playing with each other for about an hour. He really bonded well with his family for the first time since he got here. On her two prior visits, Juan did not know who his mother was and was not happy to be with her when she was here. I have routinely shown him photos of her on my computer from their prior visits and now that he is older when I explain who she is he understands, so I think that helped him recognize her and understand who she is. She indicated that she will be back to visit more frequently and hopefully can take him home some day before he gets too much older. When she left I really had a better feeling about his situation, not necessarily at the casa, but his life in general. He has a family and a brother very close in age and probably will join them to live with them at some point. I don't see him being here until he turns 18 like the kids who have no one or only distant relatives. I thought about the book I had read and how his family coming here was a nice God Wink to let me know things will be okay with him after I am gone. It still won't make my leaving any easier, just a little nicer knowing the family finally came back to see their little boy Juan Fernando.

The first photo below is Hector, Juan Fernando and his mother. The photo on the right is Hector, Juan, his cousin and his aunt (mom's sister).

50th Anniversary Celebration

2009-12-11T16:35:00.005-06:00

The Sisters of Mercy celebrated their 50th anniversary in Honduras this week. Since Casa Corazón is one of their bigger projects we had the party here. First there was a formal service in the main casa. The photo on the right is Miriam who works in our house and Mauricio.

Everyone had to get dressed up for the service so the boys and I are all in our best cloths. L-R Maynor, Jaime, me, Mauricio and Jonathan. Milton is in the next photo on the right.

After the formal part, everyone went to the park/play area where we had a lot of performances by the kids and one by the adults. Big tent to keep the guests out of the blazing sun. On the left, some of the kids waiting for the shows to start.

L - Mauricio

R - David, Carlos, Isaac, Jovel and Ester doing their dance routine. Ester was a little nervous at first, but she got more into it a little later.

The younger girls dancing on the left: Wendoly, Lucy, Dania, Digna and Rosa.

Next older girls on the right: Ester, Karla, Iveth, Escarlet singing with Isaac playing the guitar.

More dancing by: Lucy, Wendoly, Dania, Digna, Rosa and Heidi on the left.

The kids doing a little play on the right: David, Rosa, Yohana, Ater, Kenia, Karla and Jaime.

The workers were forced to do a traditional Honduran dance also (I mean forced!) L-R: Nilda, Nancy, Miriam, me, Meche, Alba, Mama and Prof. Pedro.

Some of the Sisters and associate members of the SOM with the huge cake in the office.

The older kids enjoyed dancing in the park to blasting music. The gate was open to let the neighborhood kids in also. A Michael Jackson imitator showed up and entertained everyone lipsinking and dancing to several songs.

To Vote or Not to Vote, that is the question.

2009-11-28T15:23:00.017-06:00

Personally, I think you have to vote if you want your voice to be heard.

Tomorrow, Sunday, is election day here in Honduras. The "resistance" or "opposition" to the current coup installed government has taken the position of not voting to show their opposition. I think that is crazy and if they are for democracy and against the coup, they should be going to the polls to vote democratically to elect the candidates of their choice.

Here is a review of how we got here:

Nov. 2008: National primary election to select the two major party candidates for president, Liberal Party and Democratic Party. Pepe Lobo and Elvin Santos win as the two candidates. The presidential election is one year later, Nov. 29, 2009. Mel Zeyela was the president at the time of this primary election. He is not a candidate because Honduras does not permit the president to serve more than one term.

Spring 2009: Mel makes speeches saying the Constitution should be amended to allow the president to serve longer than one term. The Congress says we set the Constitutional Conventions and no way, we don't want this. Mel then sets up a national vote for an "opinion poll" to see if the voters want to set up a Constitutional Convention to amend the constitution. If the poll vote is yes, a question would go on the Nov. 2009 ballot for a formal vote to appoint the Constitutional Convention. This would not put Mel on the ballot for reelection this Nov. but would make him eligible to run again in 2014.

May 2009: The Supreme Court says Mel's opinion poll election is unconstitutional and cannot happen. He says tough, he will not obey the court and sets the vote for June 29th. Then the Attorney General files charges against Mel in the Supreme Court for treason, violating his oath of office, etc. In Honduras, the military is in charge of running all elections. The head of the military announced that they will follow the Supreme Courts ruling and not help out in the election. Mel immediately fires the head of the military and goes with his people and confiscates all the ballots. The case against Mel is in the investigation stage and the last week of June the Supreme Court issues an arrest warrant for the military to bring Mel to the court to testify and trial.

Here is where everything went down the toilet. The military took the arrest warrant and arrested Mel on June 28th, but rather than taking him to the Supreme Court as they ordered, they took him to the military base, put him on a plane and deported him to Costa Rica, announcing he is no longer the President. This is the Coup. The military says they do not want to take over control of the country. The Supreme Court cannot do anything because Mel is not here to testify or have a trial.

The next day, June 29th, the Congress votes to remove Mel from office and the president of the Congress, Roberto Micheletti, takes over as President per their rules of succession. He tells the world he was democratically placed in the presidency. Internationally he is not recognized and called the defacto leader of the coup installed government. Most countries break ties with Honduras and impose sanctions. Micheletti does not budge.

The president of Costa Rica is agreed on as a mediator and recommends Mel be returned to a unity government where he has limited power, not in control of the military, and he gives up all attempts to amend the Constitution. Mel agrees to this but Micheletti refuses. Finally, last month, Micheletti says he will sign the accord but it is the Congress who must vote to reinstate Mel or not, he does not have the authority for this. Mel signs. Micheletti signs. The interim governors are appointed. However, the new president of the Congress says they won't vote on the return of Mel until after the election, more than a month later. All the Congress is up for reelection also and don't want to vote for or against Mel before the voters vote on them - politics.

So here we are. The Mel supporters new motto is NO VOTE. They don't want either candidate because both have supported Micheletti since his appointment. I say that if they want democracy they need to vote. Vote for the candidate they want to be president and if they are in the majority/plurality, they will win. Although the two major party candidates were picked a year ago, other candidates could be put on the ballot up to a month ago so the "opposition" could have nominated their own candidate if they don't like the two picked last year. I think their fear is that they are not in the majority so they could not elect anyone so they have chosen not to vote. I think that is not democratic at all.

I strongly disagree with what the military did and think Mel should have been returned to the presidency and removed legitimately after trial, but this does not make the elections illegitimate. I hope after the elections they arrest and prosecute the head of the military for his actions in the coup. This might make everyone a little happier but he will probably be pardoned by the next president and the discontent will continue. Pepe Lobo, the clear leader in the polls, indicated he would probably pardon Mel for his crimes so he will probably pardon the military man behind the coup too. No accountability for serious political crimes!

But still, voting is the way to go. This is all a tough lesson for the kids to live through and shape them and their future political views.

My Last Month

2009-11-19T11:45:00.002-06:00

The past 2 1/2 years have flown by and I am down to one more month living here at the casa. I will be returning home to Va. on Dec. 18th for Christmas and thereafter hopefully return to the world of the employeed, wage earners that is. I have been fairly employeed or occupied for the past 2 1/2 years, just not for a salary. This job has probably been more stressful than GEICO, certainly more hours because I never leave, but the rewards have been great as well.

It is going to be very difficult to leave and a big change for the casa here as well. They are trying to find someone to take over as the adult supervisor in the boys home after I leave, but don't know exactly what will happen here. Really, they need a couple adult supervisors, one for the girls house too. If no volunteers are found, hopefully they can find the funding to hire a new person to take care of the older boys.

There are lots of things that I am going to miss about Honduras and the casa, but others I will be glad to leave behind. Regardless, it will be a huge adjustment getting back to the commercialized world of 24 hour news, my paved road neighborhood and speaking English. Culture shock!

Photos from Gracias

2009-11-18T10:53:00.009-06:00

1. Mauricio and Jonathan at a restaurant overlooking the town

2 and 3. Streets in the town

4 and 5. The boys playing in the pool. Very cold water.

These are photos taken at the old fort above the town.

These are at the hot springs.

During our hike up the mountains.

It was a sunny day but you can see the background is all cloudy after we go up rather high beyond the cloud layer.

More swimming in the pool while they set up for the concert.

The last 2 photos are at night duriing the show.

Santa Rosa de Copan

2009-11-15T17:47:00.002-06:00

The 3rd day of our journey we traveled to Santa Rosa de Copan, a larger town on the main highway between El Salvador and San Pedro Sula. It is high in the mountains and was extremely cold when we were there. It was cloudy and rainy too. We arrived around 4 pm and left the next morning around 11 am. It was so ugly out and not much to see that I did not even get the camera out. The only photos are of our giant hotel room. Three double beds for the 3 of us. The hotel was nearly empty so they gave us the big room for the same price as the double.

Copan Day 2 Horseback Riding

2009-11-15T17:30:00.008-06:00

The last 5 photos are of the place we went on the horses where the women make little dolls out of corn cobs and husks and the little kids are all trying to sell them. They also have a place there where they make bags and other textiles. Mauricio is demonstrating how to do it after they showed him. The young guy with the white hat is José, our guide. He walked and ran the entire time with us rather than going on a horse too. We probably went somewhere between 6 and 10 miles with him on foot the whole time. Great exercise.

Copan Day 2 Mayan Ruins

2009-11-15T17:25:00.005-06:00

The guacamayas in the last 3 photos are free birds that live near the ruins, not in the bird park.

Day 1 Copan Photos

2009-11-15T14:36:00.010-06:00

1. View from roof of hotel . . . . . 2. Rooftop of hotel . . . . . . . . . . 3. Hotel room Copan

1. Mauricio at bird park . . . . . . 2. Jonathan with me . . . . . . . . . 3. Mauricio with another Guacamaya

1. Mauricio with Toucan Sam . . . . 2 and 3. Mauricio and Jonathan at bird park

1. Coffee beans, a couple ripe . . . . 2. Boys eating a snack . . . . . . 3. From cafe with view of Copan

Back in San Pedro Sula

2009-11-15T13:55:00.000-06:00

We made it back to the casa today after a great week on the road visiting some small towns of Honduras. I will begin to post my photos in the order of our trip. This may take a while. I have never figured out how to put labels with photos on blogspot and always have to use spaces and periods to try and line them up because blogspot automatically deletes blank spaces. It ends up looking fine on my screen, but I have seen my blog on other computers with bigger or smaller screens and the photos look messed up so try to figure out the labels the best you can.

Day 3 Gracias

2009-11-14T21:56:00.004-06:00

Today was an adventurous day. We went to the National Forest Park at Mount Celaque, which is the tallest mountain in Honduras, rising up to 9347 feet at its peak. We did not climb to the top as that is an overnight, 2 day trip. We did climb a long way though to an area supposedly with a view of water falls. I say supposedly because we never actually saw any falls that high up. We got close enough to hear the falls and kept going thinking they would be around the next bend or next peak, but they never appeared. We went fairly high up to the top of one of the lower points along side the mountain which was about 7000 feet high into the cloud forest, about a 3 hour climb up and little more than an hour mostly out of control run down. You cannot see down below from there nor can you see these peaks from the town below because they are surrounded in clouds all the time. We did hike along lots of cascades of the rivers with small falls along the way. The water was freezing cold. No bathing is allowed because this is the drinking water for the towns below. Definitely the cleanest rivers and streams I have ever seen in Honduras. We passed lots of coffee plantations along the way up in the lower areas before it got too steep for people to live. These high altitudes with clouds are the ideal climate for growing coffee and this is the season too; lots of red bean pods on the plants. My legs are killing me!

We went from the town center to the entrance to the park in a moto-taxi, which is the little form of taxis they have in lots of towns in Honduras. The front looks like a motorcycle with two wheels in back and a place for 3 people to sit, covered. The trip from town up the mountain over a terrible dirt, rock, pothole road took 40 minutes and cost the equivalet of $5. That is such a good wage that they guy was happy to agree to return 5 hours later and pick us up for the return trip, same price. Nearly 3 hours of his time in total driving 2 round trips over terrible terrain for $10.

When we got back we all went to the hotel pool, which was freezing cold, but felt refreshing after being so tired. Yesterday was the hot tubs, today the cold tub. They were having a sound check poolside for a concert that was going on later in the night. The concert was later in the evening with three different singers, all supposedly famous Honduran singers. The boys were embarrased to swim at first with all the people there setting up for the show, but got over it before too long. We went back later on for the show which was nice. Recorded music with each of the singers singing his songs live kind of like keroke. It seemed like big doings for this small town on a Sat. night. Nice way to spend our last night here.

Gracias a Dios day 2

2009-11-13T18:00:00.000-06:00

Today was a beautiful day; sunny and warm all day! We went walking around the town and the old fort in the morning. The fort is the burial place of a man named Juan Lindo, who was president of both Honduras and El Salvador during his lifetime in the 1800´s. He is best known as the founder of the public school system. It was his dream and desire that all Hondurans have the opportunity to be educated for free and fought much of his life to bring this to a reality. What a great person. I bet he is a little disappointed on how the educational system is being treated by his countrymen now.
This afternoon we went to the pools at the hot springs about 5 miles outside of town. There are two springs that feed round hot tubs and these drain into two very warm pools, one of which was quite large and 5 feet deep. Those pools drain into a 3rd pool a little lower that is cooler than the other two. I guess the water cools as it moves on from one to the next. We all had a great time. I will get the photos on here next week when I get back to my computer with the cable for my camera.
I forgot to post that yesterday was Juan Fernando´s 4th birthday which I missed. Juan´s birthday is the same date as Junior Fernandez who was my first Godson in the casa. He would have been 12 yesterday had he not gone to be with the Lord 5 years ago.

Gracias a Dios

2009-11-12T17:24:00.004-06:00

We arrieved in Gracias a Dios today, a pretty little colonial town in the mountains. The name means Thank God, supposedly named this when the settlers said this upon finding a little flat area amongst all the mountains and said ¨thank God¨. We spent last night in Santa Rosa de Copan, about half way between here and Copan. It was freezing by our standards here. It was probably in the 50´s this morning and rainy, very miserable for us San Pedro Sulans used to the 90 degree heat everyday. That is why we decided to come here after just one night in SRC and I am glad we did. The weather here is much nicer, no rain and probably 70.

The highlight of the trip so far for the boys was our 3 hour horseback riding excursion in Copan. We went along the Copan river, up some mountains and to an area where women make little dolls out of corn husks. If you have seen the Travel Channel show where Samatha Brown goes to Honduras, it is one of the places she visited and filmed for the show. The boys loved the trip although we all still have sore cabooses 2 days later : ) Jonathan was almost crying from fear when he first got on his horse, but after a few minutes he was riding fine and all smiles. The boys want to go again here in Gracias.

Thanks to my mom, we upgraded here to a nice hotel that has a pool. Although it is cool out, the boys plan on getting in the pool and swimming while we are here. They still love just watching cable t.v. in the room. I rarely permit them to watch t.v. at home so this is a real vacation for them.

Now my negative commentary. I was checking the news on Yahoo and saw the photo below and it really made me sick. I have no idea what this girl was protesting and don´t care either, I only know she is lost. There are lots of things about the U.S. that I miss here in Honduras but in all my time here, I have never seen a person with a sign that says God Hates anyone. This is something that I am not looking forward to seeing when I return home. This person obviously does not know God, does not have God in her heart and is the type of person who turns so many people against the church because they think this is how believers think and feel. WE DON´T!! People see signs like this and think ¨If that´s the way those religious people think I don´t want to be one nor associate with them.¨ WE DON´T. The person who made and the person who is carrying this sign are lost and don´t know the first thing about God or Jesus Christ, but God still loves them regardless.

I am going to enjoy these few days in this beautiful town beautifully named Gracias a Dios and I will give thanks to God for bringing me here to see the wonders of His creation knowing that he loves us all.

On the Road

2009-11-10T12:51:00.002-06:00

I am writing from the nice town of Copan. I am here with Mauricio and Jonathan. We are on a week travel to visit some of the smaller towns of Honduras. It is very nice here, cool and very safe. No razor wire on the houses here! Don´t have my cable to post photos, but I will next week from the casa. We went to the bird park yesterday and the Mayan ruins this morning. Cafe copan is fresh here, but more expensive than in San Pedro Sula. The boys love just being in the hotel room with cable t.v. Typical.

Back to Square One

2009-11-06T10:29:00.002-06:00

Nothing has changed politically here in Honduras. The false hopes put out last week were just propaganda. Both sides signed a document thinking they could get their way with loopholes and neither side wanted the other to get its way, so really there was never a deal, just a paper with signatures that don't mean anything. Zelaya thought the deal required his return to the presidency and Micheletti says the deal only said the Congress would vote on his return but the deal did not say when they have to vote so they can vote in January if they want to wait until then. Politics as usual in Honduras.

This is from the AP:

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said Friday that a U.S.-brokered pact failed to end a four-month political crisis after a deadline for forming a unity government passed.
"The accord is dead," Zelaya told Radio Globo from from the Brazilian Embassy where he has been hold up under threat of arrest. "There is no sense in deceiving Hondurans."
Forged last week with the help of U.S. diplomats, the pact gave the two sides until midnight Thursday to install a government with supporters of Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti, who was named interim president by Congress after Zelaya was ousted on June 28.
Jorge Reina, a negotiator for Zelaya, said the pact fell apart because Congress failed to vote on whether to reinstate the deposed president before the deadline for forming the unity government.
The pact did not require Zelaya's return to the presidency. It left the decision up to Congress. Zelaya interpreted that to mean that Congress had to vote on the issue by Thursday.
Supporters of Micheletti, who was named interim president by Congress after Zelaya was ousted on June 28, disputed that, saying the pact required that members of the unity Cabinet be in place by Thursday but that there was no deadline for Congress to meet.
"The de facto regime has failed to live up to the promise that, by this date, the national government would be installed. And by law, it should be presided by the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya," Reina said.
Shortly before midnight, Micheletti announced that a unity government had been created even though Zelaya had not submitted his own list of members. Micheletti said the new government was composed of candidates proposed by political parties and civic groups. He did not name the new members.
"Everybody, with the exception of Mr. Zelaya, recommended Hondurans to lead the institutions of our country as part of the new government," Micheletti said.

Time Change

2009-11-02T17:48:00.003-06:00

Since your time changed, I am now only one hour behind eastern time. Honduras does not do daylight savings time so what was a 2 hour difference last week for us in the central time zone is only one hour now.

No progress today in the congress approving the accord. They are moving forward with the other parts of the agreement, setting up the overseers, etc. but everyone is still waiting to see if the congress will vote to return Mel as president. If not, it will all fall through. No word as to when we can expect a vote.

Goings on in Honduras

2009-10-31T14:33:00.008-06:00

Hello, I'm back. Most people don't know that I was gone, but I had to leave the country for 3 days. If you have been reading this blog for over 2 years, then you may recall all the problems I went through in 2007 to get my residency visa to live here. Many problems, lots of paperwork, money, and months of waiting. Seems they don't like foreigners coming to their country to stay, regardless if they are here to help out or not. Kind of "its impossible for our people to go to your country legally so we're going to make it hard for your people to come to ours too." In the end, I was given a visa with a maximum stay of 2 years from the date it was approved, Oct. 29th, 2007, no more. This expired on Thursday. So in order for me to stay any longer, I have to do it the tourist way. Each time a tourist enters the country, they are given a 90 visa. The original 5 Central American countries (Panama and Belize excluded) are in a pact to make the borders open for all here, thus entry in one country is considered entry into all and they can cross the border freely. The down side of that is you have to leave all of Central America to get a new 90 day visa. In the past you would just cross the border to Guatemala, get a new stamp for a new 90 days. Inconvenient, but cheap. I was planning to go to Belize to spend 3 days on vacation and return with my new 90 days. The cost of getting to Belize is outrageous now. The airline ticket from San Pedro Sula to Miami was almost half the price of going to Belize and 1/3 of going to Panama. So I went to the US, Miami, for 3 days and got back here on Thursday, legal again to stay up to 90 days as a tourist. I stayed in a cheap hotel in North Miami but it was a very nice, relaxing 3 days.

I got back to the good news of a supposed agreement to resolve the political problems here. The news here is not as positive as I have seen and heard it was put out in the US. They are still saying there is no deal here, but the interim president, Micheletti, agreed to the San Jose Accord, which would return the ousted president, Mel, to power, with limitations and restrictions, until his term ends in Jan. The former pres., Mel, supposedly agreed to this as well. The international media has reported problems resolved. However, the not so fast part, is Micheletti says it is the Congress and Supreme Court who both must approve the agreement for it to be effective, not only him. I thought that would be like a rubber stamp thing and it was a sure thing, but lots of people here are saying the Congress may vote no. Maybe Micheletti wants them to vote no but take the heat off him, who knows. I am more hopeful and think they will go along because he has been the leader and voice of the "coup" all along so when he agreed to the accord, I think they will follow. We should know soon. I think the Congress is to meet on Monday. The head of the Congress said he wants the Supreme Court first to say if the agreement is constitutional or not. The military deported the president which the supreme court said was unconstitutional and he is worried that returning him to power may not be constitutional??? Big head scratch on that one. However, the paper said they are talking about the interim unity government being set up as early as Nov. 5th if approved so hopefully they are thinking it will be approved and it will be soon.

New Baby

2009-10-20T16:23:00.006-06:00

This is Kimberly. She is 13 months old and arrived at the casa today. I don't know her story yet other than her mother brought her here so she is alive. The kids are all very interested in her as they always are with a new one. It has been over a year and a half since we had a new baby in the casa, Misael, who as of today is no longer the youngest child here.

Holiday

2009-10-15T08:24:00.002-06:00

Yes, I was right in my prediction last night. The president did declare today a holiday and cancelled all classes in all schools, public and private. Now you know the priorities here. Today was supposed to be the last day of school for the kids in public school, but since classes were cancelled, the school year is now over for them.

Last week the government decided to just count the days the kids went this year as a full school year, not extend the year. They set Nov. 17 as the last day of classes. The teachers were angry and wanted to work until the elections the end of Nov. They then asked to work to the end of Oct. but again were rejected. The supposition is the government does not have money to pay them so they don't want them teaching anymore. The teachers decided they were going to have meetings on Friday so today was to be the last day of school, until Soccer intervened and the celebration took priority. I went to the meeting with the kids teacher on Tuesday and she gave out their grades from last month, said there would not be any more exams and the grades they already had were the final grades.

World Cup

2009-10-14T20:35:00.003-06:00

Honduras is going to the World Cup, South Africa 2010!

Huge deal here. Honduras beat El Salvador tonight 2-1 and moments later the US scored a goal to tie Costa Rica, sending Honduras to the World Cup next year for the first time in 28 years and only the 2nd time ever. It will probably be declared a national holiday tomorrow!

Columbus Day

2009-10-12T09:11:00.003-06:00

Today is Columbus Day in Honduras too and most of the kids are out of school. Unlike the US where it is pretty much known that the Vikings discovered North America before Columbus, it is still believed that Columbus was the first foreigner to actually come to Honduras. Also unlike the US where the colonists lived separately from the indengineous people, in Honduras the Spaniards who came after Columbus intermarried with the indengineous people and most of the population has both Spanish and indengineous relatives in their family trees.

The US soccer team was here Thur. to Sun. and beat Honduras 3-2 Sat. night about a mile from the casa at the stadium. Unfortunately for Honduras, it makes the road to the world cup very difficult now. They need to beat El Salvador on Wed. and hope that the US beats Costa Rica the same night. If not they will have a very difficult playoff against a strong team from South America, possibly Argintina. Soccer is HUGE here and the build up to the game on Sat. was more that you see in the US before the Superbowl, front page of the papers for days before and 20+ pages of coverage the day after, hours of TV coverage before and after. The game is of so little interest in the US it was not even on TV, and you really had to look hard on the internet sports pages to find coverage in the soccer sections, burried after the NCAA, NFL, Baseball, Golf, Tennis, etc. on the front pages.

Happy Birthday Darwin

2009-10-09T15:58:00.005-06:00

Yesterday, Oct. 7th was Darwin Euceda's 20th birthday. This is an awesome milestone for a young guy who was born HIV+. When Darwin was born in 1989 there probably were not many people who would have given him a 20 year life expectancy at that time. Thanks to the wonderful advancements in the medicines that they take, today he probably has a normal life expectancy like any other 20 year old. Praise God!

Darwin lived at Hogar Amor y Vida for all of his teenage years until last year when all the older kids were forced to leave. He now lives in a town about 2 hours from here with an aunt and cousin. He comes to the hospital in San Pedro Sula every other month for his exam and to receive his medicines and we always go out to lunch together when he is here before taking the bus home. The photo on the left is of him at his graduation from nursing school a year ago, along with his aunt and me, his family representatives since his parents are deceased.

Darwin always reminds me that his birthday is also the anniversary of the day that Jorge Gomez died in 2003. Jorge was one of the two first boys who I became godfather to, both of whom died within 3 months of each other, Junior in Jan. 2004. I arrived in San Pedro Sula 2 days before Jorge died and was able to visit with him in the hospital the day before he died. The photo on the right was taken in the hospital during our visit, Oct. 6, 2003. Jorge was 2 years younger than Darwin. Darwin said even though he is no longer at Amor y Vida for them to remind him every year about Jorge on his birthday, he will remember him on his birthday the rest of his life.

Most rights finally restored

2009-10-07T11:59:00.003-06:00

UPDATE 10/8: NOT SO FAST! I got an e-mail from the US Embassy that Micheletti's promise to restore the rights yesterday did not go into effect and they don't know when it will. It basically says, watch out, you still don't have those rights.
--------------------------------------------------------
After having nothing but condemnation from outside and within Honduras, including most of his own congress, the acting president has modified his order and restored most of the rights here. It is still illegal to meet in groups of 20 or more without prior government approval. Technically that prohibits churches from holding services without approval, but from the beginning the law was imposed for selective enforcement. It was really only enforced to stop the resisitance people from meeting, talking, putting out information, broadcasting on TV and radio, etc. People meeting in large groups for church are technically breaking the law but they are not enforcing the law that way.
Representatives from numerous outside countries are here today to continue talking, negotiating with both sides to try and resolve the problems. The reports have been more optimistic lately, but I am not sure why because one side demands the return of the former president and the other says absolutely no way he will return. But they are optimistic so lets hope and pray for the best.

100 lost days

2009-09-30T10:37:00.004-06:00

It was reported in the newspaper here today that yesterday was the 100th school day that the public school kids have missed classes this year for all the various reasons they cancel school. A representative of the school board said it was actually the 85th day missed, as if that makes it better. The school year starts the first of Feb. and goes until the beginning of Nov. usually. That means classes started 34 weeks ago times 5 days per week equals 170 total week days during this school year. The students are supposed to have 200 days of classes to finish a school year.

Thus far they have gone to class 95 days by the counting of the school board, 70 by the counting of the newspaper, and classes normally end one month from now. At this point they don't know what they are going to do, either (1) give the kids a free pass and count the 90-120 or so days they go to school by the beginning of Nov. as a full year, (2) make them stay in school until Jan. and only have a couple weeks off before the start of the next school year, or (3) make them repeat the entire year. I cannot imagine they would do the last option, but who knows. I'm in favor of the second option, more school to make up the time, but of course all the kids are in favor of the first one of just pass us along to the next grade.

As I have said before, fortunately about 20 of the 31 kids who go to school attend a private school where they have not missed nearly as many days as the public school. 9 of the remaining 11 go to a public school with a Principal who does not follow all the strikes, but only some of them. Those kids have gone to school more than the numbers above for the schools in general. Only the two youngest boys living with me in our separate casa, Jonathan and Jaime, go to a regular public school that follows all the strikes.

US Embassy E-Mail

2009-09-29T17:57:00.002-06:00

Just so you know I'm not making this stuff up, this is the e-mail I received.

Subject: Warden Message - State of Exception Imposed
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:16:33 -0600
From: usahonduras@state.gov

U.S. Embassy Tegucigalpa
Avenida La Paz
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

To: All American Citizens
From: American Citizens Services Unit, Consular Section
Date: September 28, 2009
Subject: Warden Message – State of Exception Imposed

The Embassy advises citizens residing in and visiting Honduras that the de facto regime issued a decree suspending certain rights under the Honduran constitution on Sunday, September 27, 2009. This decree affects all people in Honduras, including non-Hondurans. Specifically, the following articles of the Honduran Constitution have been suspended for the next 45 days (until November 11, 2009):

Article 69: The right to personal freedom
Article 72: Freedom of Speech
Article 78: Freedom of Association
Article 81: Freedom of Movement
Article 84: The right to due process _

For the next 45 days, the defacto regime has stated that the local and national police, at times to be assisted by the military, will arrest individuals for the following reasons:

Disobeying announced curfew, or appearing to engage in suspicious activities Gathering in public without prior approval from police and military forces Carrying out media announcements violating the law or government resolutions , or offending human dignity or any public official

The de facto regime has also stated the following:

Individuals that are arrested for violating the above listed restrictions will be detained
All public installations which are occupied by demonstrators or which are occupied by persons carrying out activities prohibited by law will be cleared.

The de facto regime has been imposing a curfew of varying time periods affecting various cities throughout Honduras since Monday, September 21. It is expected that this practice will continue for the foreseeable future. The Embassy recommends American citizens monitor local television and radio for updates to constitutional and travel restrictions and other security measures. The Embassy strongly recommends that American citizens abide by these restrictions. Barring a change in the security situation or the imposition of a daytime curfew, the Embassy and the Consular Agency in San Pedro Sula will remain open to the public. Non-immigrant visa services remain suspended for all but emergency medical cases.

Honduran airports re-opened September 24 for domestic passenger flights and international cargo and mail flights. Most International passenger flights resumed on Friday, September 25. Those whose flights were cancelled due to the curfew should contact their airlines for further information.

The U.S. Embassy distributes its warden messages via email, and posts them on its website.

Update

2009-09-28T17:08:00.003-06:00

Mounting pressure and outrage over the human rights violations, and your prayers of support, have led to the possible rethinking of their opressiveness. According to the AP, Micheletti may soon get rid of his order which removed all the rights and freedoms of the people here. Thanks

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090928/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup

Bad to Worse Human Rights in Honduras

2009-09-28T09:01:00.008-06:00

There has not been violence, but the political problems here are terrible. The coup leader, Micheletti, is now pretty much acting like a dictator in running the country and taking away rights as he pleases without the congress voting on anything.

All the curfews have been dictated by him personally, not the congress. Last night, he declared that the right to free speech has been taken away, the right to free assmebly has been taken away, freedom of the press has been taken away, arrests without warrant are now allowed, all acts or speech against the current government or in favor of the ousted president, Mel Zayela, are now illegal and punishable by jail. He announced that the military took over and closed down the radio and t.v. stations that did not support his regime and broadcast info in support of Mel. All newspapers are also prohibited from publishing anything against him and his regime.

What countries of the world does this sound like? North Korea, Iran, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Sudan. Now add Honduras to that list.

Yesterday, the teachers had announced they would strike Monday and Tuesday in opposition to the current government. Striking is speech against the government and they could now be jailed for this, thus school is in session today. This is from the same government that allows teachers to strike about 1/3 of the time normally. Anyone who has read this blog for the past 2+ years knows how often the teachers strike without any repercussions from the government ... up until now. I am glad the kids are in school, but not that it is under threat of arrest of the teachers.

Analogy: Imagine if Obama declared the same in the US. No one could speak against him or his policies or his government. Fox news taken off the air. Rush, Hannity, Olly North all taken off the air and told they will go to jail if they speak anything against Obama. Anyone living in the US who says anything against health care reform can be arrested and jailed because that is speech against the current administrations policies. I wonder how those people who have warmly embraced Micheletti as the democratically appointed president of Honduras would feel about living under his dictated rules in our country.

Saturday, Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica who was mediating with both sides before, trying to resolve the problem, told the AP that he cannot help any further because on Friday Mecheletti refused to allow him and representatives of the Organization of American States to enter Honduras to speak to him. Micheletti responded that it was a misunderstanding and they are free to come here to talk. They came yesterday, Sunday, and at the airport all were refused entry and forced to get back on their plane and leave the country. Micheletti's statement about this was that he was not ready to talk yet.

The international community is now probably going to turn up the heat and sanctions on Honduras. This is a very poor country that is very dependent on foreign aid from all over the world. These people who have been civil and going along with the whims of the current regime, although protesting against it, are going to break if things don't change and they have their basic human rights restored.

Don't worry about me, I don't go out and get involved in any of this political stuff. Though, having been born and living my whole life in a free, democratic country that allows all sides to openly speak their opposition to each other, it is difficult to watch all of this and live under it while the people in charge still claim to be "democratic." They have a lot to learn. The kids and I are all still safe here in the casa. We never went out at night anyway so the curfew has not affected us too much. Church has been cut short and the time moved up because of the curfews, but other than that we have not needed to get out for anything the past few days. We continue to pray for a peaceful resolution of this and restoration of all the human rights lost.

Some Freedom Today

2009-09-23T16:38:00.004-06:00

They finally took away the curfew today (temporarily). We were allowed to go out for 6 hours, 10 am - 4 pm. I tried to go to the supermarket to get food, which I normally do every Tuesday. The traffic and lines in front of 4 differnt stores I went to were horrendous to say the least. I was at a complete stop in traffic for a half hour, a block away from the store I usually go to. When an opening finally allowed me to pull through and get out of the area, I could see about 1000 people in front of the store waiting for it to open. I went to the other stores and all had the same thing. I have no patiences for huge lines and we still have food in the house, so I headed for home. All the gas stations had long lines as well spilling out into the streets which caused the traffic to back up all over town. I figured I would try again after a couple of days on Friday. Gigo also went to the supermarket with the girls and they had more patiences than I did. They waited in line from 10 am and finally got back to the casa at 3 pm. Each time a person left freeing up a cart, the next person could go in with it.

When I checked the news this afternoon, the headline from the AP was exactly what I saw here: "Curfew-trapped Hondurans seek food amid crisis" http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090923/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup
One line from that article really sums up how I see most of the people feel here: "Many Hondurans feel caught in the middle of a fight between two leaders — neither of whom they support." That says it all. I don't think there are that many people who actually like Mel Zeyala and probably even fewer who like Micheletti.

The casa in San Pedro Sula is 4 hours north of the capital, Tegucigalpa, where most of the political problems are. There are rallys and protests here, but nothing like what is going on down there. Today was somewhat normal for 6 hours, just jammed with everyone going out at the exact same time to do the same things, get food and gas. Life inside the casa is just like any other Saturday or Sunday. No school and if you don't listen to the TV or radio you would never know there are any problems going on in this country. I think thats a good thing.

Curfew

2009-09-22T15:06:00.008-06:00

We are still stuck at home in the casa due to the nationwide curfew that started yesterday afternoon and will continue until at least tomorrow if not longer.

The interim president, Micheletti, in a letter in the Washington Post today, arguing that he did not take power in a coup, said that, "Coups do not allow freedom of assembly. They do not guarantee freedom of the press, much less a respect for human rights."

Freedom of Assembly: At this moment it is illegal to leave your house and go out in the streets. The government closed all the airports and borders.

Freedom of the Press: The public radio station broadcasting support for Mel Zayela was taken off the air.

Respect for Human Rights: The supporters for Mel gathered in front of the Brazil embassy were disbursed with tear gas and battons as were rallys here in San Pedro Sula (ditto Freedom of Assembly).

It seems that Micheletti's definition of what freedoms are taken away after a coup is exactly what has been taken away here and now.

Very unfortunate for Honduras and the people here who have to live under repression from the government from carrying on their daily activities or speaking out against the people in charge. Reminds me of the news stories from Iran, but this is Honduras where I live.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090922/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup

Honduras Gov't.

2009-09-21T11:13:00.001-06:00

The ousted president of Honduras, Mel Zelaya, returned to Tegucigalpa today and is organizing his people to take back the government. Keep an eye on the news for updates because my internet connection may be cut soon.

News as of Tuesday morning:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090922/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_honduras_coup

Día del Niño

2009-09-11T16:05:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was Children's Day here in Honduras. Unlike the U.S. where we only have Mother's and Father's day, they also have a special day set aside for children. The kids all had parties in their schools and were alowed to wear regular cloths rather than their normal uniforms. In the afternoon after they got home, a local radio station came to the casa and broadcast live for about an hour or two. They had a piñata, cake and food for the kids and gave each of them a gift. They also let several of the kids talk on the radio and sing along with a couple of songs. The kids were all very excited. The visiting groups will continue throughout the weekend. There are groups scheduled for today, Sat. and Sun.

The kids at Amor y Vida got a visit from the San Pedro Sula professional soccer team, Maraton. There was an article in the paper today about the visit and this photo of the kids with the players.

Church

2009-08-23T11:11:00.006-06:00

Here are some photos from church last night. Normally this church has services Friday and Sunday nights, but last night was a special one. Each of the home groups put on little skits or sang or some kind of presentation. All of the members of each group wore matching colored shirts so the church was really segregated by color last night. My group wore yellow, but since I don't own a yellow shirt I had to wear tan which was okay because a few others in the group did the same. If you think the inside of the church looks a little unfinished, the last photo is the outside of it. It has looked like this outside since I started coming to the casa in 2002. A work in progress ... progress is a little slow.

Washington at 6:00 a.m.

2009-08-22T17:18:00.002-06:00

I am back at the casa in Honduras. I got back shortly before 11 am today after a 6 am takeoff from DC today. I took a video out the window of the plane during the takeoff so you can see the view of downtown Washington and a few of the monuments.

I was met at the airport by Mauricio, Maynor and Masbely. It was really great to see them there. She told me there were a few problems while I was gone, but nothing too bad, but they are glad the kids have a supervisor again. I had to wait to see the little kids after their naps that go until 3pm. They were all happy to see me. It was great seeing all of them also. Juan practically choaked me hugging my neck and not letting go for a long time. He wasn't talking and initially told me he was mad at me, but after about 20 minutes sitting with me he said he was not mad anymore and started talking a little more. I will have to find out all the details of what has gone on the past month while I was gone.

Swimming again

2009-07-22T11:21:00.005-06:00

The big pool has been taken down for awhile but we filled the two baby pools today for the little kids. They had a blast splashing around. It was tough getting a photo of their faces because there was so much splashing going on.

Talks end without any agreement

2009-07-20T08:44:00.003-06:00

Unfortunately, the current Micheletti government refused to budge and the mediation ended yesterday without any agreement. The mediator said he will continue working, but it does not look of much use.
Link to video news report: http://www.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=108253&newsChannel=worldNews

Link to article detailing current situation. http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1749101420090720

Mel's wife had said he will return on Friday, the day I am planning on leaving. This article says the weekend. Regardless I am probably getting out at a good time because the expectations are not that he will return to a calm happy homecoming.

No Resolution in the Talks

2009-07-19T08:56:00.002-06:00

The two sides in the Honduras governmental battle spent the day in mediation Sat and did not resolve the dispute by the deadline Mel Zelaya set for returning to the country as president. The president of Costa Rica is the mediator trying to reach an agreement. He put out a seven point proposal that suppoesedly Mel's people are somewhat willing to agree to but the current people in charge have not been willing to accept. They said they will try to talk more today, but Mel already said he will take his own actions if there was not agreement Sat. night.

The seven points are:
1. Reinstate Mel as president to finish his term in Jan.
2. Install a national unity government with representatives of both sides governing until Jan.
3. Mel gives up his efforts to amend the constitution to seek another term in the future.
4. The elections get moved up from Nov. 29 to Aug or Sept. supervised by international authorities.
5. The control of the armed forces is transferred from the president to the election tribunal one month before the election so Mel has no control over the election process.
6. All parties involved are given amnisty for anything either side did politically in this crisis, i.e. they don't prosecute Mel and he can't prosecute them when he returns.
7. An international pannel with representatives from the OAS is put in place to monitor the government and make sure everyone is in compliance.

It seems like a workable resolution to the problem, returning him to power, but limiting his power and having watchdogs supervising. So far the people who removed him are not willing to accept it because they said they would not agree to any proposal that reinstates him as president under any conditions. That's a strong line in the sand that may not move.

Mel has said his plans are to return this week to take back the presidency one way or the other. I don't plan on sticking around to see all that go down. I will be leaving on Friday to go home for a month and hopefully the problems here will resolve during that time so I can return to a stable country once again.

School

2009-07-14T17:12:00.002-06:00

Fifth week without school. The teachers think that by continuing their strike it shows their opposition to the current governments overthrowing the elected president.
The support of the two sides in this matter really falls on class lines. Better off class favors the new president, poorer class favors the old president. The better off class all send their kids to private school so the strike is not affecting them anyway so I really don't know what the teachers think they are accomplishing with the strike.

Still Calm Here

2009-07-07T09:50:00.003-06:00

Not much change in the political situation here. There were lots of problems in Tegucigalpa on Sunday, 4 hours to the south of here, but nothing in our area. I took the boys to the movies on Sunday and everything is business as usual in town. You would never know there were political problems going on from the looks of things here in San Pedro Sula. That's a good thing.
The private schools started back yesterday after 3 weeks out of school. That is the majority of the kids here at the casa. However, the public school strike goes on, The 12 kids who go to public school are now in their 4th week without school, 2 weeks closed for the flu outbreak and 2 after the president was ousted. That is not expected to change soon, but hopefully it will. The ousted president is in Washington talking with Hillary and the new government said they are now willing to "talk" but won't reinstate the old president. That's progress at least.

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T11:01:00.005-06:00

This is the 7th time I have been here in Honduras on the 4th of July over the past 8 years and this time I appreciate the democracy that our founding fathers started more than ever.

Things here are still very, very calm, but part of that is due to the removal of several constitutional rights. The pro-Mel (ousted president) people have not been allowed to protest anymore. The new government got rid of the right to assemble in public and have prohibited them from passing on highways towards the capital for rallys. The press has been 100% in favor of the new government, very different from what I hear here in the neighborhood. They covered extensively a big rally in favor of the new government yesterday that the military did not break up as they have with the pro-Mel rallys the past 3 days. I am trying not to take any sides in this, but the taking away rights from one side and not the other is very bothersome. Both sides need a voice in any democracy for it to be legitimate.

Imagine Obama coming to office and getting rid of all Bush supporters in the congress, state and local governments and prohibiting people from rallying in support of Bush. Or imagine the impeachment of Clinton taking place in secret one night without him there nor the media and the result carried out by the army at 5am the next day, and Clinton supporters not being allowed to protest against this.

I didn't like Mel as a president and still don't, but even more I don't like the way he was taken out and the current system denying basic rights of the people to express themselves and travel freely in this country. Let freedom ring. God bless the USA and our great form of government, lasting over 230 years now. Sure there are problems and issues at times, but those founding fathers way back when really got it right. When you look around the world at all the other countries and how they are doing it, some places may have a few things better here and there, but overall we have it great and are the shinning light on the hill for all the world to see and try to emulate.

Happy 4th of July. Give thanks for our wonderful form of government and pray for Honduras.

Volunteers Head Home

2009-07-01T15:51:00.002-06:00

Megan and Bianca said goodbye to all the kids and we took them to the airport for their trip home today. They wanted to stay but were concerned over the political unrest here. The kids were all sad to see them go so soon, but enjoyed the time they all had with both of them.
Everything else is still very calm here; business as usual for now. The ousted president's uninvited return got delayed from Thursday until Saturday to give the Organization of American States time to try and work out a peaceful return. Lets all pray for that!

Still Calm

2009-06-30T13:22:00.002-06:00

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

2009-06-28T15:35:00.004-06:00

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

2009-06-23T17:05:00.009-06:00

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

2009-06-08T08:49:00.005-06:00

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

2009-06-07T16:45:00.004-06:00

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

2009-06-07T16:24:00.007-06:00

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

2009-06-04T11:31:00.003-06:00

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

2009-06-02T15:46:00.003-06:00

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.

Earthquake!

2009-05-28T13:22:00.007-06:00

EARTHQUAKE!!!!
We all woke up early, around 2:30 a.m., when the casa was shaking and rocking from a big earthquake. My bed felt like I was in a sleeper car on a rough train, shaking back and forth, fairly rough. Being asleep, it took a while to figure out what was happening, but when I realized all the furniture was moving and I was not really on a train, I figured it was a real earthquake. The house was shaking and creaking very loudly and sounded like it was going to cave in so I and decided to get out of the house with the boys. It was a little tough trying to walk and the power went out so there were no lights so we never actually made it out before the thing stopped about 30 seconds after I woke up. The boys were way more excited than scared, wanting it to start again. Each of us thought at first that the others were in our rooms moving the bed as a joke.
Lamps and books and things fell off shelves, but we did not have any damage here, maybe a few cracks in some walls. All the laundry fell off the line. The doors to our closets all opened. Most of the kids in the main casa were scared by it, but a few like Isaac and the smallest children, slept through the whole thing.
The worst thing in our casa was the power went out for about an hour. It has been one of the hottest weeks of the year this week and sleeping with out a fan is nearly impossible. We were fortunate with the power though because most of the people who came to work this morning still did not have power. The kids all got a day off school.
I have not been out to see around town. The bridge on the road connecting San Pedro to Tela and the northeastern coast collapsed so travel that direction is going to be difficult for a long time. I have heard that several people died when homes collapsed but we have been without internet, radio or T.V. all day so I have not seen any reports of that. No one here or that we know personally was hurt, thank God.

I'm Still Here

2009-05-25T11:57:00.007-06:00

As Mark Twain reportedly once wrote, reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.
It's not very interesting for me to write about routine daily activities and the past month has been nothing much but routine. The kids are all the same and still doing well physically, still struggling with school. Mauricio got all A's & B's but the other three in my house are all on TV restriction, for failing classes or behavior problems in school (you know who). I've gotten to know Jaime's teacher fairly well after having numerous conferences with her. She says there is nothing we can do to change that boy other than pray for him. She is very patient, probably more than me with him. Teachers had a week of strikes this month but the kids are back now.
Last weekend I went with Mauricio to visit the family of his oldest uncle in Quimistan, which is a little more than an hour from here. It is always a good expierience for me to go places like this so I can remember that most of the people in this country do not live like we do here at the casa. They live in a small house in the outskirts of a small town: no running water or plumbing; small unfinished house with dirt floor and occasional chicken wantering through; No kitchen; campfire outside with a piece of metal above it is the stove; meals are very small portions; they bathe outdoors standing on a stone next to a large bucket of water - no shower curtains here. Their electricity is extension cords running through the house. They walk to the local store before each meal because they don't have refrigeration to keep food. We went fishing in a little stream and pond near by and they caught a few 2" long fish.
Sister Eva is in the final countdown to her departure, June 15th. She is leaving the casa after 12 years here. She is still planning on doing fund raising for the casa, but she will be doing it from her new home in RI where she is from. The two summer interns from Notre Dame arrive in a couple of weeks so I will not be the only English speaker here after Eva leaves on the 15th.

Easter Sunday Photos

2009-04-25T13:27:00.006-06:00

It has been a while since my last post. A cold has been passing around the casa and I was feeling pretty lousy all week, but I am back. Here are some photos of our outing on Easter Sunday. The oldest girls were going to the cathederal in the center of town with Sr. Eva. I was going to take the boys so we hitched a ride with them. After the church service, Eva took everyone to Wendy's for breakfast.

Jonathan and me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Isaac and Jaime . . . . . . . . . . . Josue, David and Carlos

Kids always find the video games! . . . . Breakfast at Wendy's

Our solution to little kids peeing in the pool, get them their own mini-pools. They seem to like them better anyway because the water is not as deep.

Viernes Santo - Holy Friday

2009-04-10T17:32:00.006-06:00

Greetings and blessings to everyone on this holiest of holy days, remembering the day that Jesus was crucified and died for the sins of the world. This entire week, Semana Santa (holy week) is a holiday and there are many events related to the churches in recognition of the significance of this week. Last night the local bishop and a group of priests went to the jail to wash the feet of the prisoners, symbolic for Jesus' washing of the feet of his diciples. Today was a reenactment of the procession of Jesus through the streets of Jeruselum to the location where he was crucified. The procession started at the Catholic church at 7 a.m. and went throuout most of the streets in our neighborhood, stopping at 14 locations for various ceremonies, reading from the Gospel of John. It finally made it back to the church grounds around 10:00 for the reading of the remainder of the Gospel and reenactment of putting Jesus on the cross and later in the tomb. Several of the older kids followed the procession the entire way, while most of the others joined in when it passed our house, near the end.
This was a very moving and symbolic procession and ceremony which they do every year. Today is the big day for holy week here, recognizing that it was Jesus' death on the cross that freed all believers from our sins. Easter Sunday is the day for celebrating the resurrection with parties and dinners, but today just about the whole country is closed down for a somber day of reflection and giving thanks. This is a 4 minute video of the end of the procession and crucifixion. I will post some photos a little later.

More pool fun

2009-04-06T10:30:00.005-06:00

Sunday was another pool day. Here are a few more photos of the kids playing and enjoying an escape from the heat.

Semana Santa

2009-04-04T11:19:00.008-06:00

Yesterday started the official week of Semana Santa, holy week. The week leading up to Easter is a holiday and all the schools are out. Wed. thru Sat. is a national holiday and just about everything is closed. The casa has to pay the workers double time for their hours on those days. They have always said that semana santa is the hottest week of the year, but I always felt it was worse in June. Well, I was proven wrong yesterday. Yesterday the temp got up to 39c which is about 102. The forcast for today is 40c, which is 104. I went to NPH is Tegucigalpa this week to visit Maynor and the return trip yesterday in the bus was terrible. Even though the bus was moving most of the time, the wind coming in the window was like having a fan in your oven blowing hot air at you. My water bottle got so warm is was not at all refreshing to drink 100 degree water. Now I know why the rich people pay 4x the price to go in the buses with a/c.

Yesterday they pulled out the swimming pool that they bought last year and filled it up to start using today. The little kids got to go first this morning and had a great time. Here are some photos and a video of them from earlier today. The kids are all taking turns to swim in groups. First the little kids, then the younger girls went and so on in groups. I thought they should have started with the biggest kids for sanitary reasons, if you get what I mean, because three of the youngest boys are still in diapers. I think I will dump some clorox in the water before I get in.

2009-03-30T16:48:00.004-06:00

The people here at the casa are quite talented at making toys. The other day, Nancy, one of the caregivers, made two kites for the youngest kids to fly during the morning when the other kids are in school. Just some small branches from a palm tree and parts of a grocery bag for one and colored paper for the other. The kids loved it. It was the first day that I saw the new boy, Ever smile and he has been doing well ever since. He adjusted much faster than other kids in the past. Brian, who has only been walking a couple months, also had a great time running with the kite close behind.
These pictures were all taken in the ball field very close to our casa. We live just behind the yellow bus you can see in the first photo. Every afternoon, this field is filled with boys playing soccer, but in the mornings it is usually empty when the kids are in school.

Ever, the new boy, flying . . . . . . . Nilda, one of the caregivers . . . . . . Nancy, another caregiver, with

one of the kites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . with Nicole, the newest girl. . . . . . . Brian flying a kite and Misael.

Photo on the left is Nilda with Nicole. Misael is closest to her and Brian closer to the camera.

Photo on the right shows the kite way up in the air above the church. The half built building is the church where we go Friday and Sunday nights. They ran out of money for the 2nd story so it has been in this condition since I arrived almost 2 years ago.

Happy Father's Day

2009-03-19T13:44:00.004-06:00

Today is Father's day in Latin America. I received a bunch of cards that various kids made in school or at home. Mauricio put the sign on the wall in our kitchen. I took Juan into the city center this morning to relax at the café inside the hotel Sula by the central park, where our mission team ate most of the mornings they were here. There is a pool by the outdoor café and Juan wanted to get in after watching a boy playing in the pool. However, when I put him in his shorts and he got in the first step of the children's pool, he started to cry, so that was the extent of his swimming. He was very content to sit with his daddy and eat some french toast. Tonight, they are bringing in Chineese food to our house for a little celebration for me.

This diploma says: Recognition on Father's Day to Papá with love, for your abnigation and sacrifice, for giving me strength, security, love, for being a guide in my live and for giving me hope and faith. Thank you dear Father! Your son: Mauricio Cruz. Father's Day for Mike.

New Boy

2009-03-17T17:15:00.008-06:00

We received a new boy in the casa yesterday afternoon. His name is Ever, which they tell me is not an unusual name, but not real common. He is 5 years old and very skinny as all the new kids usually are. His story is very familiar unfortunately. His mother died a week ago and his father could not take care of him because he has to work so the hospital asked Masbely to take him in, which she did. He is very sad as is also common for the first weeks of a new arrival. All the kids are very interested in new kids when they first arrive, but it is really the last thing the new kid wants is to be surrounded by a bunch of other kids staring at him. He is the 39th current member of the family living here, 18 boys and 21 girls.

Pizza Night

2009-03-14T20:37:00.008-06:00

In our house we got in a routine of making pizza every other Sat. night. They usually sell pre-made crusts at a grocery store so I just make up everything to put on them and let the boys put them together. This week they did not have the crusts but we had already put all the other ingredients in the shopping cart so I decided to go online and find instructions on how to make pizza crust. It took forever given I don't know how to cook with yeast, but it worked and the crust grew in size as it was supposed to and actually turned out pretty good. Not nearly as good as Mary Dyer's, but she would be proud of us. The photos are of the boys in my house, Milton, Mauricio, Maynor and Jaime with their friend Marcos who usually spends Saturday nights with us.

Not much else to report lately. The rainy season appears to have about ended as the hot temps have returned. I got to the point of not minding the rain and muddy roads because the temps were lower and it was comfortable sleeping. It also looks like we lost an hour on everyone back home. Honduras does not change clocks for daylight savings so I am now two hours behing Eastern time.

Latest Slideshow

2009-03-01T11:53:00.004-06:00

A lot of these photos are already on the blog, but this is the video of them together with others.

Dentist

2009-02-15T11:45:00.004-06:00

All of the kids got the treat of going to the dentist, in the casa. A group of dentists from different areas of San Pedro Sula came to the casa over the weekend to do an all day dental clinic here. They examined all the kids, cleaned, pulled and filled teeth all day long. They even treated all the ladies who work here. They have come here in the past, about 3 years ago to do the same. Dental care is far down on the list of priorities of most families in Honduras so for all the kids who arrived at the casa during the past 3 years, this was their first visit to a dentist. It really showed too. I have never seen so many teeth get yanked out. The kids are made to brush their teeth here after all 3 meals, but still there was a lot of work for the volunteer dentists. It was also quite an entertaining show for all the kids. The ones who were not currently in the hot seat were constantly spectators watching the other kids getting worked on. Public desplays of drilling and pulling were not my thrill so I took some photos to document the event and got out!

Mauricio in the paper

2009-02-10T16:26:00.003-06:00

Mauricio was very excited because his picture was in the newspaper today. He was at the vet with the dog last week and the reporter was there doing a story about the vet and took a photo of the dog, Mau, with Mauricio and the vet. Here is the link.

http://www.tiempo.hn/index.php/secciones/el-pais/9998-animales-de-la-calle-ya-tienen-quien-los-proteja

Huelga

2009-02-09T13:39:00.003-06:00

Huelga is the spanish word for strike. You just learned more than the public school kids did today because the school year started off on the right foot today with a strike. The teachers still haven't been paid for all of last year. Fortunately most of the kids at the casa go to private school so for them it was a normal day but the 11 kids who go to public school did not go for the first day. It is a shame that this happens every year, far too frequently.

First Day of School

2009-02-06T17:17:00.004-06:00

Wednesday was the first day of school for most of the kids, all the ones that go to the private school La Salle. It was the very first day ever for school for Yohanna, Erick and Dulce, in the photo. They all started the first year of pre-school. Erick was afraid to go and did not want to get in the van to go. It reminded me of my first day of school years ago when I did not want to go either. He enjoyed himself though and was happy to go back on Thurs. Monday, the public schools start, so about 7 other kids will start school then. Milton and Sindy start Jr. High (7th grade), and most of the others are starting a new school, where Sindy went last year, because it is better than the school in our neighborhood (less strikes). The 1900 teachers in Honduras are still owed pay from last school year so we will see how long it takes before the first strike happens.

My Two Favorite Bears

2009-02-06T09:09:00.001-06:00

NPH, Casa de Maynor

2009-02-04T16:57:00.007-06:00

I went to NPH in Tegucigalpa again to visit Maynor. This time I took Mauricio and David with me. We all had a great time and got to stay longer than I usually do. We were there Wed. to Sun. School starts this week so it was a nice get away before the kids start back to school. Here are some of the photos from our trip. The first is Maynor dressed up for a traditional dance that he did with his class at a presentation. During the time off from school, the kids there take fun classes like sports, dance, judo, etc. The last day of the fun classes was a presentation from each of the classes on what they learned. Maynor was very good with the other kids dancing traditional Honduran dance.

Video of Maynor's dance. He is wearing the red belt.

Beach Photos

2009-01-27T14:03:00.008-06:00

Here are some of the photos of our trip to the beach on Friday. We left the casa at 9am in a large bus (former school bus in the U.S.) with everyone packed in. It was a little cloudy when we got there but the water was still nice and just about everyone went swimming. After a while the clouds went away and it was a very pretty sunny day. Lunch was hotdogs which we brought with us. After lunch more swimming. We ended up staying longer than usual and didn't get back to the casa until 6pm. Everyone was wiped out by then. Brian and Mary got to join us for the trip before returning to the cold winter of NY the next day.

Beach Video

2009-01-26T17:45:00.003-06:00

These are some video clips of our trip to the beach on Friday.

Brian and Mary's Visit

2009-01-22T16:15:00.014-06:00

Brian and Mary from New York returned to visit the kids again. They have been regular visitors for 10 years or more. One of the things they always do it take the older kids out to lunch in town, a great treat for the kids. We went to Pizza Hut. The kids always like Pizza Hut because they have a huge play area for them to play in. The three oldest boys and eight oldest girls got to go.

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Maynor, Mary and Brian . . . . . . . . Ester, Karla, Rebeca, Alba & Gigo . . Norma, Kenia, Escarlet, Mauricio

Escarlet, Norma & Rebeca . . . . . . . Alba & Maynor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Milton & Cindy with desert

You can see the American commercialism here in the middle photo above, the kids are sitting in Pizza Hut with TGI Fridays out the window in the background.

Hey Rob, Milton still has the hat you gave him!

All of the kids are also very excited getting ready for our trip to the beach tomorrow.

Christmas in January!

2009-01-22T15:55:00.007-06:00

Thank you to Lauren and Mark Loboda and everyone at Saint Mary's Church in Hudson, Ohio who contributed to and sent four boxes of Christmas presents to the kids. The boxes arrived today and every child in the casa received their own individual present and Christmas card. This was very thoughtful of you all and it meant a lot to each of the kids to receive individual presents with their names on them. It was actually better that the mail moves at a snails pace to get here because they usually receive lots of treats from visitors the week of Christmas so it was nice having them a month later. The kids went to the office in groups of 3 or 4 for their present and card and then returned to the main casa to begin playing. They all had a great afternoon.

"Summer" break

2009-01-06T10:47:00.008-06:00

The school year here starts in February and ends in November, so the kids are all on their summer break right now. Thus, it is busy during the days. The oldest girls, Sindy, Alba, Claudia and Fannie are helping out in the main house with the kids during the day. Today was play time in the park so I took a few photos.

Kenia and Denia . . . . . . . . . . . . Gustavo, Dariani, Rebeca, Yohana . . Yohana, Jhony, Carlos, Escarlet

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jhony, Carlos, Dulce, Jonathan . . . . . . Jonathan, Sindy, etc.

Ester and Norma . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dariani . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Erick, Ater, Jhony, Ester, David

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Juan, Jonathan, Antonio, Norma

Jhony, Juan, Ater, Norma . . . . . . . Ater, Jhony, Misiel, Estela

Just before I left in Dec., we received a new little girl, Maria Nicole. She is 5 years old and has polio, cannot walk nor talk. She came here because they thought she had HIV but she tested negative so she probably will not stay here long and will go to another casa that can care for her special needs.

She is in the photo with Roberto Josué who turns 3 years old today, Jan 6th. Yesterday was Mauricio's 15th birthday, but he is still at his grandmother's home staying with his family for 2 weeks. I took a birthday cake to their house, but he was off fishing with his grandfather and brother Isaac. He reminded me frequently last year that no one gave him a cake for his birthday last year (oversight because he had been here only 2 months and the birthday list was not updated) so I wanted to make sure he got one this year. I was sorry that I did not get to see him, but I am sure he was happy when he got home to find I had made the trip to see him anyway.

Antigua Guatemala

2009-01-06T09:41:00.001-06:00

Here are the much anticipated photos from my extended 3 day vacation in Antigua, Guatemala the beginning of Dec. on my way back to the U.S. It is a very beautiful old colonial village, full of tourist from Europe and the U.S. It was noticably cleaner than Honduras and much cooler since it is in the mountains. The town is surrounded by 3 volcanos. The trade of choice in the town is shoe shinning. There are literally hundreds of boys and men carrying boxes of shoe shine equipment to shine shoes for Q5, less than a dollar.

Volcano from the roof of my hotel . . . . . . Roof of Sky Café . . . . . . . Volcano from roof of Sky Café

Cathederal in the central park . . . . . Volcano view from my room . . . Other volcanos from the hotel roof

Central square/park . . . . . . . . . . . . Calle del Arco

Back in Honduras

2009-01-01T21:33:00.010-06:00

After a very fast moving 3 week trip home for Christmas, I made it back here yesterday around noon. Sr. Eva and Milton met me at the airport. Mauricio and Maynor are both visiting their respective grandmothers for the new year, Mauricio for a week and Maynor for 3 weeks. Jaime made a welcome home sign for the front door, his attempt to get back in good graces. Lets hope he is behaving better now. The little kids were all happy to have me back, especially my two favorites David and Juan-Fernando. Juan wouldn't let me out of his grasp for a couple hours and got teary-eyed when I told him I needed to go get a nap. I had to get up at 3am in VA, 2am here, to get to the airport for my before dawn flight (At least it got me here by noon) and they had a new years party planned for last night so I would be up until midnight. It was tough napping for more than an hour though because the firecrackers were going off all afternoon.
A couple of the other kids have also gone to visit family for days or weeks. Sarai, a 3 year old girl was adopted by a local family who regularly visited her so she is gone. That was close to being approved before I left so I had expected her to be gone before my return. It is very rare for a local family to adopt so it is a real blessing for her to have found a nice family.
The two youngest boys, Misael and Brian, both started walking on their own during the 3 weeks I was gone. They were both close before but needed help, so it was a big surprise to see they both easily walking around. I posted a video below of the two of them showing off their new talent.
The party last night was a lot of fun. All the kids got to stay up, even the smallest ones. The two youngest, Brian and Misael who are in the video, crashed out around 9pm. Juan hung tough until 11pm. I knew he was tired when he asked to go to bed. Usually putting him to bed is impossible for me as he always cries. The fireworks were going off all night, but at midnight they got even louder. They had a bunch of sparklers for the kids to play with and they loved that. The fun and games continued on past 12:30 when I gave up and went to bed.
I woke up to the usual sound of roosters before dawn and again later to the neighbors lighting more firecrackers at 7am. Welcome back to Honduras!
Unfortunately for the casa, Honduras passed a new minimum wage that went into effect today, substantially raising the minimum pay for all jobs. The casa decided to let 4 of the workers go because they could not afford to keep all the employees on at the new wage. I guess the intent of the new law was to help workers, but here it is helping the 10 who get to keep their jobs, but the 4 who lost their jobs can't be very happy about the new wage. It is really going to make it hard on the remaining workers so they are expecting the older kids to help out in the kitchen and with the laundry. The older girls started helping out taking care of the younger kids during the day. They are hopeful that the donations this year don't go down with the bad economy and they need to let anyone else go.

Brian is the first boy in the green shirt. Misael comes second in with the grey shirt.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-05T16:57:00.002-06:00

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

2008-12-05T16:22:00.011-06:00

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

The twins Tomas y José

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

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

Milton's Graduation

2008-11-28T12:08:00.005-06:00

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

2008-11-26T11:53:00.006-06:00

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

2008-11-21T14:22:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-20T12:13:00.004-06:00

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

2008-11-08T13:20:00.009-06:00

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

All Saints Day

2008-11-02T10:12:00.007-06:00

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

2008-10-26T15:51:00.002-06:00

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

2008-10-13T10:29:00.013-06:00

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

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

Youngest Kids

2008-10-02T09:58:00.010-06:00

It was about a year ago that I posted the photos of the kids who stay at home during the mornings because they are too young to go to school. Well there were a lot of additions in the past year. Last year Erick was the only boy at home during the mornings with 8 girls. Now the boys out number the girls 6 to 4. Dulce and the 5 boys other than Erick were all new additions to the casa during the past year.

Brian (2 yrs.)....................................... Roberto (2 1/2) ...................... Misael (19 mos.)

Dulce (4 yrs.) ........................................ Sarai (2 yrs.)......................... Gustavo (4 yrs)

Erick (5 yrs.) .............................. Juan Fernando (almost 3) ..................... Mirna (3 1/2)

Yohanna (5 yrs.)

Photos of Copan

2008-09-15T10:17:00.012-06:00

House at the end of the street..........View from the the roof...............View to the right from the
in the middle is where I stayed........of the house where I stayed....................roof.

Roof-top café serving................... The little 3 wheeled taxis.......... View from the mountain across
Café Welchez with a view................. used in the town.................. the Copan River, towards town

Copan River (color cafe) ..................Copan River .......................................Copan ruins

More ruins ......................................Wild Macaws outside ..................This was in the bird park
.........................................................the ruins

Also in the bird park .....................The river going through ..............Macaw in the park
...............................................the bottom of the bird park

Last Day in Copan

2008-09-13T19:20:00.004-06:00

I am enjoying my last day of vacation here in Copan. Today was the rainiest day yet here. I rains just about every afternoon late in the day or evening but today it started about 2.30 pm. There is no colin on this keyboard! So today was a good day to enjoy Cafe Welchez in a cafe and check the score of the Hokie's game on the internet. Hokies won!
I went to the ruins yesterday and enjoyed walking around on 1300 year old rock building formations. It is amazing that they really don't limit you from walking on most of the ruins, only a few are off limits. I did not make it on the Cafe Welchez tour this week. They are charging $30 now and I was told it is not coffee season so you won't see the harvesting and processing part anyway. But I did spend pleanty of time in the Cafe Welchez cafe here in town. An interesting observation: I am in the town where Cafe Welchez is located and their coffee plantation is only a short distance from here, yet they sell their Cafe Welchez for more than it costs in the stores in San Pedro Sula. 65 lempira here vs. 50 lempira in SPS. This is really a touristy area and everything seems to cost more so that is probably the reason but I was expecting a bargain at the outlet store which was not to be.
I head back to the Casa tomorrow in time for the kids to have 3 days vacation. Monday is independence day, Sept. 15, Tuesday is also a holiday for independence day, and Wed. is the day of the teacher. Given their strike for almost the entire month of July and some of August I was surprised they still got a day of celebration, but go figure. Thankfully most of the kids at the casa get to go to private school for free so only a handful are affected by teacher strikes and days off. I will get some photos posted soon after I get back to the heat. It has been enjoyable here with lower temps due to the mountains, but I am looking forward to seeing all the kids again.

Futbol (soccer)

2008-09-11T10:14:00.002-06:00

There was a great celebration here and around the country last night when Honduras beat Jamaca in the first world cup qualifications. Honduras won 2-0. The game was broadcast on a large screen in the center of town here. You could hear a very loud cheer each time a goal was scored. After the game was over, you could hear lots of fireworks and there was a spontaneous parade of cars and taxis, about 10 minutes long driving around the town up and down all the streets honking their horns and yelling. The parade of cars passed our house twice.
Honduras beat Canada 2-1 last Saturday so they are now solidly in 2nd place in their bracket with 6 points where the top two teams advance to the next round. Canada and Jamaca each have one point and are tied for 3rd place. Futbol is the national passtime here to this is huge for them. Ironically, the Honduan star of both games and new national hero, Ramon Nunez, who scored 3 goals, was born in Honduras but has live most of his life in the U.S., going to school and college in Texas and playing a few years in the MLS before returning here last year.

I`m in Copan

2008-09-08T14:54:00.002-06:00

After being here in Honduras for more than a year without doing any traveling other than my visits to see Maynor at the other orphanage, NPH, near Tegucigalpa, it was time for me to get away for a little bit. Juan was sick two weeks ago and thus I was sick last week and Masbey told me to take a vacation to rest so the time was right. I decided to finally visit Copan, the town of Mayan ruins everyone goes to visit except me in the past 6 years. I took the chicken bus to get here. They call it that because it is very slow, stops all along the way, and occasionally people carry livestock onboard. Yesterday I was thinking it was just the slow bus to Copan when about half way through the trip a lady got on the bus with a box full of baby chickens cherpping away. So it literally was the chicken bus yesterday.
Copan is really quaint and pretty in the mountains. I am staying with a family that I just met yesterday. $12 a day for a room in their house with 3 meals included. When you are living on donations from other people you can´t go staying at the Mayan Grand Plaza. They are very nice and the house is very nice and modern also. Rob will appreciate this one: This morning for breakfast they made Folgers coffee. Here I am staying in the prime coffee growing area of Honduras where Cafe Welchez and Cafe Copan are both produced and they serve Folgers! I plan on going to the Cafe Welchez plantation for the tour and sampelling on Wed.

During the mornings I am studying Spanish with a lady here in town and I will be using my afternoons to be a tourist for the first time. I did not bring the cable to hook up my camera to a comuter so I will have to post photos after I return to the casa this weekend.

Van Resolved

2008-09-04T12:24:00.008-06:00

The insurance company finally settled the claim for the van that was stolen in February. The original van was a large Nissan that could carry just about all of the kids. It was exactly like many of the local bus routs use all over town, thus was a high theft item. We had it exactly one month before it was stolen. The insurance company paid 70% of the purchase price for the insurance claim. Insurance here is not what it is in the U.S. While my former employer GEICO would have probably deducted a little from the cost, they would have paid a lot more than 70% for a one month old vehicle.
The one nice thing the insurance company did was to give a list of vans sold here and which are high theft ones and which are not in demand for theft. They indicated the smaller vans are not stolen nearly as much because they are not big enough to use for he public buses. Thus the decision was made to buy a smaller Hundai van as the replacement. We do not have it yet, but my understanding is that while it is smaller, it can still carry the kids that go to school in one trip and will serve all the needs for transporting them. It won't be big enough to carry all the kids from the casa at one time, to the beach for example, but it is rare that they all go out at one time. We rented a school bus the one time we went to the beach this year and it worked out great so that will be the plan for the future.

What the New Van Will Be

Van Same as the Stolen Van
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New Painting

2008-09-02T15:58:00.002-06:00

This is the newest addition to the wall paintings in the main casa. This was done by Alesia, one of the summer volunteers from Notre Dame. They returned to the U.S. in August after spending 8 weeks living and working at the casa with the kids. Included in the photo is my ever present shadow Juan-Fernando.

My Plant Project

2008-09-02T15:33:00.009-06:00

This weekend I parted ways with my Papaya plant project. Back in March, as an experiment I planted some papaya seeds that I took out of the fruit that we bought and ate. Mama Laura told me that it would only take about a year for a papaya plant to become fully grown and bear fruit. I thought it would be a nice agricultural project for the boys to help out with and learn a little about planting. The first two photos are of our plants taken on April 11th when they were in a 2 litre coke bottle and clorox bottle.

Recently, the plants had gotten too big for the new pots they have been in and were ready to go in the ground. We don't have an area at our house to put these where they would be safe so I decided to give them to Masbely, Eva and Sandra to put in the yard of their house, reserving all rights to the first fruit. The photos below were taken on Sunday before we took the plants to their house.

This is the yard where we planted them. The other plant is a little farther up in the yard out of the picture. Papaya plants with fruit are usually only about 6-7 feet tall. So if Laura's projection for 1 year is correct, we should be eating some sweet papayas in March.

Mission Team Visit

2008-08-22T17:15:00.002-06:00

Here are some photos of the recent visit by a mission team from North Carolina, Louder Than Words Ministries. One of the first opportunities I have had in a long time to get a group photo of most of the kids together.