Volunteers Head Home

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

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

Military Coup

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

Volunteers Here

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

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

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

Quakes

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

Happy Birthday

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

Week of Fun

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

Beach Day

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

Still feeling aftershocks

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

Earthquake!

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

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

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.

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

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

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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

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

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

Semana Santa

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.