Posa project underway
Thanks to everyone who donated to the Posa project! Carl has hired some masons and the contruction of the pavilion is underway.
Heading out with the hogar to load sand for the project
Unloading sand at the pavilion site
Even more frustrations
Oh my gosh I got so mad today. A series of frustrating events put me in a bad mood. First I wasn’t sure if there were classes this morning due to various rumors that the tias were meeting with the teachers to discuss grades. Of course no one tells us volunteers anything, ever. I thought there were no classes, but it turned out that there were. I started my first class only to be interrupted. “You need to come and talk to the tias and tios!.” So, we had classes, but were also expected to talk to the tios and tias…hmmmm. Volunteers are ALWAYS the last to know what’s going on. Then, my last class of the very busy morning was the fifth graders(ages 11-14)…they are always very difficult (hormones raging, emotional problems, etc). They were taking a test and were totally off the wall as usual. It was difficult to get them settled down. I caught one kid cheating which is pretty standard. I am convinced that other teachers do not care if they cheat, because some of the kids always try to cheat. After the test they were working in groups practicing for a play tomorrow. They were wild. After class was over, I noticed the pile of tests on my desk was missing. Furthermore, my bag of prizes was missing from my drawer. I was ready to quit. I was furious. Later, I come to find out that Roberto, my colleague, had put the tests way back in a drawer, because he noticed kids around the desk. I was so relieved. The bag of prizes…that’s another story…gone.
Anyway, I was feeling particularly non-giving after all the things that we have had stolen lately, and we had two boys coming over for dinner…now I had to cook for THEM. One of the boys, who is extremely shy, is new to our hogar, and we learned at dinner that his mom abandoned him. She went to the market one day and never returned. She called several months later from LA. He seemed so sad talking about her. Being left by your mom has to be worse than her dying. He must think that he isn’t good enough for her to stay with him. I stopped being mad at all the kids after hearing that…sigh.
This is what happens when I put some popcorn out for the boys. Its a 30 second feeding frenzy!
frustrations in a developing country
Just finished moving into a new house on the ranch. Its is larger house built for volunteer families with several children. We moved there so another new family could move into our house. The house was just finished…well, not really. It’s sort of finished. Our move has been delayed weekly since January because the carpenters never seem to be able to finish it. The house was a total mess. The carpenters didn’t pickup after themselves at all. There was a 1/2 of dust everywhere. We spent Friday evening and Saturday afternoon just cleaning out the house. Sunday morning we moved our stuff, and cleaned our house, and washed all the sheets, blankets, etc by hand. The workmanship in Honduras is so shoddy. They put in these white tile floors, but when the carpenters painted and varnished, they never put down a drop cloth so there is paint and varnish all over the tile floors. Its SO annoying. Then they put the varnish and paint cans on the brand new table and there are big varnish rings on the table. For a detail man like Carl, its pure torture. We’re still waiting for shelves and places to out stuff. Right now all our stuff is in piles on the floor.
We also went to the boy’s soccer game Saturday. We were told the game was at 10, so we brought the team at 9:30. Of course the game wasn’t until 11:30, and the referee didn’t arrive until 12. Mind you, the field has no shade and it was in the 90’s! It must have been pushing 100 by noon. The kids were parched before the game even began. Someone from Talanga stole one of the brand new pairs of shin pads. That’s another frustration here. If it isn’t tied down or locked, it disappears. At least the boys won the game: 5-0. We figure the boys on the ranch have an advantage in the heat, since they spend so much time outside working under the harsh sun.
The starting team
Thanks for the donation
Many thanks to Lauren Kundra and family for some extra cash for our boy’s hogar. We had a pizza party the other night with some of the money. They loved it!!!! They were so excited the day we had it, that they kept asking me all day long if we really were getting pizza tonight! Its so much fun doing things for these boys, because they are so appreciative of the smallest things.
more traveling
Haven’t blogged in awhile because we were off traveling. Carl’s father, Dan, was visiting, and we traveled to the North
Coast for 10 days. The week of Easter here is called Semana Santa. It’s a huge deal. Everyone has school off for the week and every Honduran with any money at all seemed to be traveling too. As per usual in Honduras we waited for hours for our meals, nothing worked in the hotel rooms, and there was music blasting everywhere. Dan was convinced we were trying to torture him (maybe a little). The five hour drive down a pot-holed dirt road over some mountains was the final straw. His neck couldn’t handle another mile. We did get to see Olancho. Olancho is like the “Wild West” of Honduras. It is sparsely populated and is mostly range land. The cowboys round the cattle up on their horses and still wear side arms. Apparently, the land is lawless and the Olanchonians take most problems into their own hands. They are completely self-reliant as they are miles from any kind of civilization. It’s true…they are miles from any kind of civilization! If our truck had broken down, we’d still be out there. We returned to the ranch and within five minutes a pile of boys were at our house to greet us. How nice is that!
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Traveling with men- a pee stop in Olancho!
Playing marbles on Utila
Honduras 
