Monday, March 30th

Hola todos!

Hoy fue un buen dia - un dia buenisima! Que grupo de Minnesota!

We're having a fantastic time. I suppose I should really speak for myself, but I feel fairly confident to speak for the entire group in this regard.

In a nutshell, we shopped in the morning for food in La Paz at a grocery store and an outdoor market, we worked at the Tierra Santa school helping many of the students write letters back to students in Eden Prairie, some of us got started on building tables for the new computer lab, we played soccer, we constructed kites, we played with balloons, and we began a weeklong art project.

When I say "we", of course I cannot include myself in all those experiences. At any given moment we have two or three various things going on simutaneously. And if you asked the group, they'd probably tell you that I wasn't really doing any of them. Ha Ha. Actually I love to bop between activities and give my support wherever it's needed.

I pitched in this morning at the school helping with the letter writing. Thankfully, so did Debbie. She was a big help in talking with the teachers and making sure we all knew what we were doing. The first class was a bit difficult considering we were working with 1st and 2nd graders. Think about writing letters with 1st graders back home, and you'll know how difficult it is writing letters with students in Honduras who have not had nearly the quality of education that most Minnesota kids have had. In most cases, we read the letters from the EP students to the Tierra Santa students out loud. And in many cases, we also wrote the letters back taking dictation from the kids here. They told us what to write and we wrote it. The second class was much easier. This class was made up of 5th and 6th graders. They seemed to love the project and love the fact that they were corresponding with real live kids an ocean away.

One of my highlights outside of Tierra Santa today was the open air market in La Paz. I just love that place. I started out my stroll by buying a plateful of fresh fruit. Later on when that ran out I bought a donut from the local bakery. I was tempted to later buy some fresh french fries cooking in grease before my eyes, but I held off. Regretting that decision just a bit. I reunited with some old friends in the market. Not really - but I did deliver pictures to some of the vendors I had met last time. They thought it was quite a kick that I had a picture of them in my pocket. One of the guys even stared me down as I was walking up to him. He actually remembered me, and I remembered him. He's my new friend now, Luis.

At Tierra Santa I had a lot of time to hang out with the kids today. I spent a lot of time with Ricky. I am his padrino, or in English, god father. He just stayed at my side most of the afternoon. Earlier in the day, I delivered to him a gift I had brought with me. It was a Twins shirt, Twins shorts, and a Justin Morneau cap. He loved it all. He's a great kid, nine years old just like my daughter Sammie.

One of the best things for me, and I've mentioned this before, is just strolling around the Tierra Santa courtyard and having children yelling out "Christopher" as I pass by. I love the fact that I'm getting to know these kids on a more personal level.

We ended the night with a dinner at La Fonda. We were joined by Jeff and four Tierra Santa kids - Jesus, Henry, Karolina and Yani. After dinner we all strolled down to the central square and enjoyed some ice cream. My favorite moment of the night was watching all the kids, Tierra Santa kids included, playing catch with three juggling balls at the foot of the cathedral. I think that image with stay with me for a very long time. Thanks to all the EPers for a great journey so far!!!

Allison's First Blog!

So far we have had a wonderful time here in Honduras! The first day was really long, but it was worth all the traveling to be able to meet all these kids. Today Chris, Debbie, Kate, my mom, and I went to the elementary school to give the kids letters that Ausitn and my Spanish class wrote. They then wrote some letters back to the kids! The first and second graders had a harder time with it, but we helped them write and they drew a lot of pictures. The fifth and sixth graders were wonderful and wrote suprising long letters back. It was a neat experience to see their school, and how different it is from anything that I have ever attended. The kids get done with school and noon so when they came back we just hung around with them and talked. I am really surpised at how much spanish I actually know. I am able to communicate really well which really surprised me!

Kali, Kim, and I found out really fast today that the girls LOVE temporary tatoos. They basically ripped them out of our hands! That was really fun too. They are also very good photographers and i-touch users! It is kind of amazing.
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The food here is SO good! We had the best chinese food I have ever had on Saturday. Sounds weird right? Well there is actually a fairly large Chinese population in Honduras.

I am bloging from the new building at the Hogar which has a preschool, some computer rooms, and of course the water treatment plant. We got a tour of that yestarday and it sounds really cool. They are really excited for it to be up and running!

Well I have to get back to the kids!
Saludos,
Allison

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

Wonderful Sunday in Honduras.

I’ve learned after three trips that the Sunday routine is very much the same. But, that hardly means it’s routine or that I’ve grown tired of the experience on the first day at the Hogar. In fact, after my experience on my last trip here back in December, I’ve learned that this first day, as routine as it is, is one of the best days.

I enjoy it so much largely for the fact that when I walk through those front gates of Tierra Santa I am greeted by name by so many of the wonderful children that I have gotten to know this year. The kids remember me. The kids know me. What a joy that is to have made these connections with so many awesome kids. It just warms my heart to know that I have over 100 friends living thousands of miles away from my home.

Berto was one of the first kids to come running up to me. Berto is probably about seven or eight years old and is the twin brother of Keekay. He ran up to me, called out my name, and opened up his arms for a big hug. Then the rest of the day I was hard pressed to not find his hand intertwined with mine. He didn’t want to lose me during the day. He also kept asking me if I was coming back tomorrow.

As I said, we did all the typical Sunday things including a tour of the home, a banquet of Honduran food at Santiago’s house, then a welcome reception put on by the kids back at the Hogar. In between all that we unpacked donated items and spent tons of time kicking back with the kids, shooting hoops, reading books, looking at pictures and more.

Books were again a bit hit. After unloading some of our stuff, I grabbed an armload of some books written and created by students from Mrs. Holtan’s class back at Oak Point and brought them out in the courtyard. Within seconds, students were swarming around the books, grabbing them and sitting down to read them. It’s terribly rewarding to spend time looking at books with the Tierra Santa kids. They just eat it up. They love to read and they love to be read to. And you can tell that they think it’s really cool to hold in their hands a book created for them by a child back in America. They loved looking at the “about the author” section at the end of the book to see just who it was who wrote the book. Spending time with the kids and seeing how much books mean to them makes me feel like we, as an organization, really need to keep fostering this love of reading with these kids. They just soak up these good books. And, of course, what a great way for them to learn, to become more literate and to be able to continue to be successful in their education.