Lunch at the Comidar

One of the great things the Hogar does for the community is offer lunch every day for the neighborhood children. Alba opens her home to 20-30 neighborhood children every week day.
Today, there were about 20 children from age 1 to 11 eating spaghetti and cabbage amidst the dogs chasing the chickens in the yard.

Today was a special day at the Comidar because Ann and Chris K. read books to the kids as they ate. Then, after lunch, the kids washed the spaghetti off their hands and faces and waited for a special surprise. Wrapped in paper, each child received a book of their own. It was so fun to watch them open their gift with such excitement. It will be a lunch to remember.

Larry

Fishing and Kindergarten day 2

Yesterday, was another eventful day. After my kindergarten lesson we headed out to the fishing pond, where we proceeded to teach the children the basics to our way of fishing. Many have fished before, but never with poles. Sometimes they have used a string and a close pin. Other times they have used a net. They loved casting out and reeling it in. Although we didn't catch any fish, the children had a ton of fun. On my next trip the plan is to make it out to Lake Yahoa, which almost occurred on this trip.

After fishing, all 18 of us piled into the truck with the fishing gear. However, there was one small problem, we didn't have any gas. We spent the next 40 minutes walking back to the hogar with all of the gear. The truck we used doesn't have a gas gage, so that makes things very difficult. It was a fun walk, because I got to have a very long conversation with Julisa about life in Honduras. Julisa was the first child that I met when I got off the plane. We road back in the school bus together for four hours so our connection was immediate. Anyway, on our long walk back we talked about hopes and dreams. I have a strong connection with Julisa and plan to correspond with her for a long time.

This morning I spent working in the kindergarten room. We played the "Cheerio Math". It was so fun, but also extremely difficult. I cannot wait to show the video and pictures to my students in Eden Prairie.

It was great having a lot of extra hands helping with the project. Thank you Kevin, Jeanine, Larry, Chris, Mitch, Lois, Becky. The kids really started to get it, which is one of the reasons I became a teacher. Many children had the "Ah ha!" moment. It was a total rush. It's great to be a teacher!

Hasta luego!

Nick Windschitl

Beth and Marcela

When i first brought up Hogar Tierra Santa at Eagle Heights, Beth told me that she had been there before. We quickly sat down and shared our experiences and pictures with each other. Beth told me one story of a little girl named Marcela. During Beth's first week, Marcela arrived at the hogar. She was only about a year old and in desperate need of attention. She clung to Beth and called her mama. Marcela and Beth were together everyday while she was here. Beth asked me to check up on Marcela while I was here. Well Beth, Marcela is doing great! When i first got here she ran up to me and gave me a big hug! Shorty after, i sat down with her and told her about Beth. I told her that one of my friends that i work with was here the day she arrived at the hogar. I told her that Beth still thinks about her and loves her. I will never forget the look on her face. She said "really? she remembers me?" And i told her of all of your pictures Beth, and how she is the one you talked about most. She just had this huge smile on her face. It was great. I am going to talk to her more about you today. I just wanted you share that with everyone and with you Beth. I know that this story has made her month...or year. I hope some day you can come back and reunite with your little girl. Lots of love!

Sarah

Weepy Wednesday

The day began as most others in my life…chopping the mortar off bricks in the 90 degree weather! O.k., that’s not exactly what I do for a living, but some days at RSM are equally as aggravating...I mean challenging....I mean rewarding!

Next on the agenda for the day was Lice Shampoo treatments for over thirty of my closest girlfriends. This was quite the process but what was most impressive is how the girls, even the two and three year olds, knew exactly what to do and how to use a lice comb. Not a talent shared by many toddlers and teens from Minnesota. YUP, I did save two bottles so we could do a group de-licing before we leave on Friday. Head Lice is a souvenir you do NOT want to take home from Honduras.

Although my natural reaction was to feel sorry for my brothers and sisters of the Hogar, I can’t help but think about how lucky these kids are to have each other and to have this safe place to call home. It certainly may not meet my personal standards, or those of many of us from Minnesota, it is their home, a SAFE home, and they take great pride in it.

There were countless awesome moments throughout the day. I brought a journal along and began to have the kids sign it / write in it today. Those pages will be cherished and read and re-read for a long time. Oh my goodness…how are we going to make it through Thursday afternoon - driving away in the bus and not knowing “tomorrow’s” fate for the boys and girls we have begun to claim as our own? I believe we have indeed found “the least of these” and all we can do is continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers for the days, months, years to come.

Lois Hegland

Video from Wednesday afternoon

Video from Wednesday morning

Hi from Chris from Wednesday

Guess what? We had another dia fantastica a el Hogar!

As other days, there were just so many activities going on throughout the day. At any point during the day there were probably five or six groups doing five or six different activities. We did everything from lessons in the kindergarten room to window sill repair to tie-dye to lice removal to fishing to reading to the kids. It’s like this constant buzz of activity going on at any given time. I try my best to capture it all on pictures or video and still have time to do some work myself and visit as much as I can with the kids.

Ann and I worked a bit more in the library in the morning preparing for a lesson later in the day. In the course of the last couple of days we had removed some of the outdated books or books that had a great deal of damage. We placed them in a box with the idea that they could be thrown away. But today Iris, Santiago’s wife, took a look at the books and did not seem to like the idea of getting rid of them. Sarah explained to us that for the Hogar it is very difficult to throw anything out. But from our perspectives as librarians we know that if a library is half-filled with books the kids would have no interest in reading that the kids will have less successful experiences using the library. If the kids have to sift through shelf after shelf of poor quality books to get to the good stuff, they’ll get frustrated and just give up. I don’t know how we’ll ever communicate this to the folks at the Hogar, however. But the library job could be a large, ongoing project that, if given the chance, we could really make better. We’ll see what happens.

In the afternoon, Chris A and Karla helped Ann and me organize a library lesson with about thirty or forty of the kids. We held the class out in the courtyard. Chris helped us translate. Ann and I talked to the kids about how to properly take care of and handle books. We also gave them some basic things to think about when using the library. But by far the best part was when we gave the kids time to touch the books, read the books, or have the books read to them by the many adults who helped us. All the books were in Spanish so the kids were able to pick them up and dig right in. The older kids, anyway. The younger kids were read to by many folks from our group, even though many of us don’t really speak Espanol. But we tried, and that was awesome!

We also showed the kids the book that I wrote, which was really fun for me. Because it is a graphic novel, the students I sat with could actually follow the story without knowing how to read the words. They asked me lots of questions and I tried my best to help explain the story.

Beyond the books that were donated by Capstone and Scholastic, the kids also got to take a look at the books that were created by students from Deb Haraway’s 6th graders back at Oak Point. This was super fun! I sat with a couple different groups and read them a counting book about foods. They were able to practice their English words. Another girl sat and read two of the story books. The books were written in English and I don’t think she knew what she was reading, but she pronounced the words very well. The kids from Oak Point should be proud of the gift they gave to the Hogar.