El Hogar Honduras Mission Trip

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2011 El Hogar A (adult) team blog Saturday, April 30, 2011  Day 1

We are on our way!!  Daughter Shannon took Fr. Rob, Nancy and me to the airport.  All 12 us us arrived by 7 am except for Deania.  Her car broke down on the way from Jax but she will make another flight tomorrow.  Perry and Jane gave us a great send off.  We had about 10 extra large suitcases along with our own.  Time stood still for 2 hours on our flight to Tegucigalpa…we left at 11 am and arrived at 11 am.  We are in the Central Time Zone without daylight light saving time!  Exciting landing at Tegucigalpa airport, over the mountains, down and around.  All aboard clapped and
cheered!!

Van trip to El Hogar took about 30 minutes…much traffic and to our surprise it is not in the country as most of us thought.  Right in a bustling city with huge walls all around it.  A needed compound we are told.  Clean open spaces with lots of concrete surfaces for soccer.  Kids everywhere!!  Mostly in groups of 6 to 12 playing creative games with a teachers guidance.  Creative games in the most elemental sense, sack races, spoon races, kicking all sizes of balls around.

We met in the auditorium where Raul and Matt briefed us on our schedule and gave us a good history of the place.  Took a tour of the grounds, dining hall, kitchen, huge dorm building for the 100+ children…about 80 boys and 20 girls, age range from 6 to 15.  Back to our dorm for a rest.

I strolled around about 4 pm and all were sweeping and cleaning up the grounds.   Began seeing and feeling the rhythm of the place.  Supper in our dorm at 5 pm and then out to play at 6 pm till 8.  These kids are unbelievable!!  The little guys are sooo fast and nimble on their feet with the soccer ball.  There are all sorts of curbs, poles concrete blocks and corners and they are like bats with radar the way they miss hitting anything as they dash around and tussle over the ball…and in the dark with dim lights as well. The ladies had all the girls dancing to the music we brought, twirling around and having a great time. Robs soccer versatility exploded!! Carl’s new soccer balls were a great hit.

Back to our comfortable dorm for some sharing and devotions.  Bunk beds are fine and we all divided up easily into our various rooms.  It turns out, it being the night before their Labor Day holiday, it was not a quiet night.  However, in the morning we were all miraculously rested and ready for an adventurous day.

Bill Gridley

p.s. to see photos-video we have posted, go to Photobucket. Username: elhogar1, password: 2011ateam.

2011 El Hogar A (adult) team blog Sunday, May 1-Day 2

After a good night’s rest, we were all up early to a beautiful Sunday. There were crepes and good coffee for breakfast followed by time for reflection. Four of the younger boys who have sponsors from All Saints attended church with us at St. Mary`s Episcopal. It was a glorious service and we got into it with singing, clapping and bongo drums. After church and to the boys delight, we lunched at Pizza Hut!!

In Transformation, we studied Stepping Out of Your “Comfort Zone”. Any fear about this trip to El Hogar was unfounded. El Hogar is a continued flow of God’s Love, both giving and receiving. Tonight, we are planning to engage the children in crafts, games, popcorn and more playtime with them.

Tomorrow, we visit the St. Mary’s Technical Institute and plan to begin a work project there on Tuesday.

All the team members are in awe of the love felt at El Hogar. Christ is alive here. Our experience cannot be adequately expressed in just a few words.

p.s. to see photos-video we have posted, go to Photobucket. Username: elhogar1, password: 2011ateam.

Carl Croft

All Saints Ateam member

2011 El Hogar A (adult) team blog Monday, May 2-Day 3

We began another illuminating day with the boys and girls here at El Hogar at 7AM when we joined them for morning devotionals in the open air meeting grounds.  The children were arranged in a big square facing each other with a professor standing in the middle of the square.  He began an amazing extemporaneous talk, while strolling back and forth and around the center of the square of children, discoursing on the subject of justice.  This was an erudite treatment of  the concept of justice, as it should be practiced each and every day by citizens with each other in a free society, and he then wove into the lecture the relevant concepts of Christianity and how these concepts were, at heart, the very basis of a just society.  This was just another example of the high quality of instruction and context that these children are exposed to every day.

We then boarded the minibus, driven by Raul, the institution’s director, and proceeded to the Technical Institute for a tour.  The St. Mary Technical Institute is a modern, beautiful facility which houses 96 boys who have graduated from the elementary phase of El Hogar and have elected to continue their course of instruction in one of the three fields of carpentry, welding, or electricity.  The course of instruction takes three additional years of practical training and classroom education. These skills make the boys very employable in  Honduras, and even in other countries.

The campus consists of  separate buildings for practical training, a modern dining hall and classroom building, a dormitory, a chapel, an administration building, and a new pond in which the fish, tilapia, are scheduled to be farmed.

The boys spend their mornings receiving instruction in their chosen trade and, after having changed from their work clothes into fresh, white shirts, take lunch in the dining hall.  After lunch, the boys repair to classrooms above the dining hall and spend the rest of the afternoon in general scholastic instruction, which includes English.

We were served lunch at the Institute, and we can tell you that the food, while not fancy, is very tasty and wholesome.  We visited the new, airy and high walled chapel, which displays a just completed full walled mural of the risen Christ.

The boys who are sponsored by members of All Saints were excused from class and letters written to them were read in each case by Nestor de Armis.  Those of us on this trip who sponsor boys were able to meet our boys and talk with them at length through the interpretive services of Nestor, and have our pictures taken with them.  In talking with our boy, Kevin Garcia, we were overwhelmed by his humility, manners, and  his thankful attitude for having been afforded the opportunity given to him by this fabulous institution.

We don’t quite know how these teachers and administrators do it, but these children, both at the elementary school and the Technical Institute, exhibit the most gracious manners and attitude imaginable.  We couldn’t help but be very favorably impressed with the decorum of these children and be again gratified to know that our small contribution to their future is one of the best and rewarding investments that we have ever made.

Harry Lawrence

A team member

2011 El Hogar A (adult) team blog Tuesday, May 3, Day 4

“Transformando vidas con le ayuda de Dios” – Transforming lives with the help of God.  I was taken back for a moment when I read those words about the purpose of  El Hogar´s  Insituto Technico Santa Maria.  It is the very same purpose and vision we have at All Saints! Our third day continues to call us to this transforming risk taking mission we are all grateful to be a part of.

Today was a very fulfilling day for us.  We joined the children for their morning devotions at 7:00 am with the fresh morning breezes gently reminding us of the promise of the day.  We are beginning to form relationships with these beautiful children and know many of them by name and by recognition.

To be greeted by their smiles and to hold a little hand in yours is a priceles,  genuine gift of grace.  The devotion centered on the theme of the priviledge and power of participation and the empowering choice to be involved. The teacher reminded the children that  ”you have a voice here at El Hogar.” The transformation of lives is so is visible. Imagine the hundreds of changes that take place from being an orphan on the street, to playing in a quality percussion and marimba band here at El Hogar!

Eight of us  returned today to the Technical Institute to begin our team project, while four others remained to do work  at El Hogar. We are buidling a brick wall for security and privacy. I have been so impressed by the willingness of our team to work hard, get dirty, participate, and give of themselves without complaint. Nestor and Bill Gridlely spent a good portion of our tine today digging a trench for the wall with pickaxe, hoe, and shovel.  It looked so much fun that I got a chance to try it too. The others ( Nancy, Susan, Missy, Jane, Dave and I), spent most of our time transporting bricks by the arm and wheel barrow load to the site of the wall. We were joined by an enthusiastic group of the boys who turned the whole brick transport  into a great game of who could go the fastest with the most bricks. Talk about muscle power. Wow!  Again, not one word of complaint or reticence on the part of these boys. Carl Croft joined us and spent quality time with the boy he sponsors at the Technical school.  Carl´s compassion is amazing as well as his humor,  cracking us up with great jokes.

We had a delicious lunch at the school: beef, rice, mashed potatoes and tortillas.  It´s hard not to love the pace of life here. It´s the Honduran way: a little at a time gets the job done. We  worked very hard, but rested. The pace of life is unhurried. Hard work, yes, but never in a hurry. In other words, as Nestor always asks: “Are you having fun yet?” For us today, the answer was an unqualified yes.

God´s work, God´s Kingdom, is truly present when we seek  and serve Christ in others, loving our neighbors  (the children of El Hogar) as ourselves.

Fr. Rob Lord

Team Member

2011 El Hogar A (adult) team blog Wednesday, May 4, Day 5

Today started out with a wonderful lesson in the middle of the children’s courtyard about Liberty. The teacher explained that Liberty means the freedom to choose yet not all choices are beneficial. She told the children that Christ died to make us free and reminded them that the cost of that freedom was his sacrifice. Wonderful!

Harry later led our devotion time with a poem called How the Great Guest Came by Edwin Markham. In the poem we see a man waiting for Jesus only to find that Jesus had already arrived and dwelt among the visitors in the man’s path. A beautiful analogy as Jesus surely dwells among us here at El Hogar.

Later in the morning ten of us were off to the technical institute for an afternoon of transporting bricks. My favorite part of the day for me however was the van ride. With Raul at the wheel we bump along the highway and get to see sights and smells we’re unfamiliar with, a coffee processing plant, roadside vendors loaded down with mangoes, plantains, and quavers, buildings and homes in disrepair with no hope of being resurrected, and an unforgiving landscape that features rocks, scrub, and an occasional burrow with building materials on its back. I also enjoy the mornings van ride for the morning chatter and the chance to get to know my fellow team members. You never know who you’ll sit next to how someone will unfold. Our faces are more relaxed, our protective skins are shedding, and future relationships being built.

A note from Betsy,

Betsy, Deania, and Terry stayed at El Hogar and helped in the reading classes. A teacher was home sick so their help was especially appreciated. Children read silently and aloud, wrote answers to questions and summarized stories. Betsy supervised twelve students on her own! Terry joined her and helped students stay on task. Deania enjoyed bringing her video camera to class. Students recorded themselves reading and then put her on the hot spot making her read, correcting her pronunciation. A great time was had by all!

A team member

Missy Miller

p.s. to see photos-video we have posted, go to Photobucket. Username: elhogar1, password: 2011ateam.

2011 El Hogar A (adult) team blog Thursday, May 5, Day 6

Today opened again with children gathered in the courtyard. We find that every day we learn something more about how El Hogar helps orient these children to their faith and to their daily lives.  Today’s discussion and lecture centered on the concept of quality.  How would you define quality? A child defined it as doing something in a way that makes others want to imitate you.  Others then stepped in and gave examples–how you shine your shoes or tuck in your shirt, how you rake the yard, how you form your letters.  For the devotional, they sang a song with hand motions that emphasized the following theme:  those who have faith, have joy and praise God.

Following breakfast, we travelled to the Agricultural School, weaving through construction sites that overlooked a valley and surrounding hillsides dotted with homes made of corrogated tin roofs topped by bricks to hold them down. The houses are stacked on hillsides that may wash away with the upcoming rainy season. On the highway, we had many vendors approach the van with plantains, mangos, or bread, and Raul instructed us to close the windows. Security is clearly an issue.  Barbed wire sits atop many of the chain link fences and roofs.  Windows and doors are barred with few shops open. Security guards or police armed with shotguns, batons, and pistols stand on sidewalks or in front of businesses.  Garbage litters the roadsides. We passed a few women who had filled plastic garbage bags with bottles; they were carrying these on their heads to the recycle site on the side of the road, where apparentlymaterial is consolidated and sold to other countries. We passed trucks carrying iron ore, another export item.  We saw little to no cultivated or manicured areas; water remains an expensive commodity.

We arrived after one hour and forty-five minutes still intact and left behind the dry ,dusty landscape of Tegucigalpa and its surrounding hills to enter the Agricultural School. Immediately, you have a sense of reprieve; it’s quiet and sheltered and above all, GREEN!  The grounds are well kept and orderly.  Set in a valley, the farm feels orderly and serene, a contrast to the beeping horns, near contant car alarms, and noise that fills the city. Several boys greeted us. We visited the chapel, dorms, dining area, and classrooms. Next, a guide took us on the tour of the fields, showing us the various crops: plantains, corn, coffee, and papaya among others. The youngest class is learning organic farming methods. Tea trees grow amidst the plantain trees and its leaves generate a pungent odor when boiled, thus serving as an insecticide. We visited the chicken coops (chickens lay eggs between seven a.m. and two p.m, producing 270 eggs a day). While most of the crops are used to feed the students at the three schools, any surplus–such as the eggs–are sold at market. Additionally, we saw cows, turkeys and their young ones, chicks raised for consumption, horses, and goats. Second-year students learn about tractors (how to drive them in addition to how to repair them).  Much of the property is irrigated. Additionally, the farm has a lake that will hopefully become a tilapia farm; the fish serves as one of the nation’s most common exports. Our guide was a graduate of El Hogar in 1982. He went on for advanced training at the local university in agriculture.

Following the tour and lunch, we had the chance to meet with a visiting father and son. The father asked for a photo and explained how he wanted his son to have a better life, hence the boy was attending the school.  The boy assured me with a big smile that he was indeed working hard both at his studies and in the fields.  The boys rise at 5:30 for breakfast and are in the fields until 11:30. Then following lunch, they attend classes all afternoon, do their  homework in the evening from six to eight-thirty, and go to bed by nine. It’s an arduous life, so not all the boys succeed. The school only takes the poorest of the poor to bring change to their families. It can only accept one out of four applicants who come from as far as five hours away by bus.  Boys are allowed to visit parents on the weekend if they are following the rules, working hard, and succeeding in their studies.

Bill Gridley’s hat made a big hit (a visor with fake hair). He fooled several boys (who at first thought the spikey bleached hair was his); they laughed hard when they realized the trick!  Several boys followed us to the van as we departed,  and one played magic tricks, making my camera lens cap vanish and reappear!

We happened to pass as we were leaving a student who will be the next chief of the indigenous ethnic group of Honduras.  He will replace the current chief, reported to be 108 years old.  This impoverished group has been willing to send some of its children to El Hogar. Apparently, girls marry at fourteen and begin having babies right away. El Hogar is currently working on developing a program for these girls once they reach sixth grade.

The day ended with craft activities. The girls were given paper dolls to decorate and butterflies to color. To our surprise, they combined the two to make angels.  Next, younger boys joined us for mask making from paper plates. As always, we were surprised by the notes the girls and boys wrote to their parents or friends. Again and again, they emphasize how much they love their mothers, how much they love God, and how much they love their family, which, for many, is El Hogar. “God is love” is a common sentence they write on their cards. A teacher and I exchanged information about the difficulty of learning a second language; he’s been working on his English for two months. Like others we have met, he graduated from El Hogar and now plans to attend the University full-time. He teaches at El Hogar in the evening to supplement his income. In general, the aim of the school is to help the boys and girls to support themselves so that they may have the opportunity to continue their studies or work in a job that allows them to live independently.

We are amazed by the quality of the facilities and the people here. Most of the children know more English than we know Spanish. We continue to learn every day about the meaning of hope and the willingness of staff and children to forge a new pathway–one of light and love!

Betsy Nies, team member

2011 El Hogar A (adult) team blog  Friday, May 6, Day 7

Today started out with a wonderful lesson in the middle of the children’s courtyard about Liberty. The teacher explained that Liberty means the freedom to choose yet not all choices are beneficial. She told the children that Christ died to make us free and reminded them that the cost of that freedom was his sacrifice. Wonderful!

Harry later led our devotion time with a poem called  how the great quest came by Edwin Markham. In the poem we see a man waiting for Jesus only to find that Jesus had already arrived and dwelt among the visitors in the man’s path. A beautiful analogy as Jesus surely dwells among us here at El Hogar.

Later in the morning ten of us were off to the technical institute for an afternoon of transporting bricks. My favorite part of the day for me however was the van ride.  With Raul at the wheel we bump along the highway and get to see sights and smells we’re unfamiliar with, a coffee processing plant, roadside vendors loaded down with mangoes, plantains, and quavers, buildings and homes in disrepair with no hope of being resurrected, and an unforgiving landscape that features rocks, scrub, and an occasional burrow with building materials on its back. I also enjoy the mornings van ride for the morning chatter and the chance to get to know my fellow team members. You never know who you’ll sit next to how someone will unfold. Our faces are more relaxed, our protective skins are shedding, and future relationships being built.

A note from Betsy,

Betsy ,Deania, and Terry stayed at El Hogar and helped in the reading classes. A  teacher was home sick so their help was especially appreciated. Children read silently and aloud, wrote answers to questions and summarized stories. Betsy supervised twelve students on her own! Terry joined her and helped students stay on task. Deania enjoyed bringing her video camera to class. Students recorded themselves reading and then put her on the hot spot making her read, correcting her pronunciation. A great time was had by all!

Jane and Susan, ateam members