Currently I’m looking at two great views. One is the Caribbean Sea stretched out in front of me on Honduras’ north coast. The other is Jeff Parker and Jasmin, Jessica, Rosa and Isabel playing like kids together in the swimming pool. I guess they all are kids, except for Jeff, of course, but who at times seems to have drifted right back into his younger days.
Before I talk about today, let me catch you up on what’s happened the last two days. Thursday was the final day at the Hogar which meant a short work day and a long goodbye. We started that day by going to Santa Clara secondary school in the city of La Paz. There we witnessed the children, some of whom live at the Hogar, perform the Signs of the Cross. Because Holy Week is approaching, these children put on this program which is a yearly event for them. I’m no Biblical scholar by a long shot, but the signs of the cross are basically the steps along Jesus’ path on his way to his crucifixion. It was interesting to see the Tierra Santa children out of their regular environment and to see them interacting with non-Hogar kids. All in all it was a fantastic cultural experience.
Topping off the cultural experience in La Paz was my driving to the school in one of the Hogar’s pickup trucks, and Holly driving us all back. And the highlight of that was when Holly got pulled over at a police check point. She was very calm and collected and simply smiled as the police officer checked her driver’s license. Those of us in the back of the truck took pictures and tried hard not to snicker.
Our day at the Hogar involved a little work, quite a bit of final farewells, and a program that we put on for the children. Debbie, Luis, Annie and I prepped the little ones and performed with them for two songs – “De Colores” and “Aya en el Rancho Grande.” Jeff, Ronny, Joey, Austin and Luis acted out “Little Red Riding Hood” in Espanol. Many of us danced along with Tahire the dance she taught us on Tuesday. And to top it all off, we danced the Hokey Pokey with all the kids. Jeff gave an awesome farewell thank you to the group, and I presented Santiago with a photo collage from our most recent trip.
Saying goodbye was not easy, by any means, but definitely easier than my first trip to Tierra Santa. I hugged and kissed dozens of kids, received letters from many, and did a lot of “no adios, hasta luego” with the kids. In other words, “not goodbye, see you later.” Kenia was especially difficult to say goodbye to. She’s older and ready for college in a few months, and she is feeling some anxiety over this. I just want her to be happy and to have success and to not worry. I hope she can overcome her fears and go off to happy days at the university.
As always, our group touched the lives and hearts of many Tierra Santa kids. I feel very proud of the work we did. Chief among the positive things we did with the children was to form close relationships with many of them. Of course the hope is that those relationships can last a lifetime.
Friday was the day of the road trip. We traveled by Coaster (a small coach bus) from Comayagua to our hotel near La Ceiba.
The four girls from the Hogar joined us in the morning and we were off by about 7:00 a.m. It was a fabulous drive. We stopped many places including Bongos for breakfast, a sugar cane processing plant, Lake Yajoa, the Pulpahanazac waterfall, and another stop for lunch. We didn’t get to our hotel until around 5:00 in the afternoon, but the trip was a very pleasant one in my book. The best part for me was sitting next to Jasmin during the ride and listening to my iPod. We each took an earbud and jammed out together to Kumbia Kings, Celia Cruz and other Latin stuff I had put on my iPod before the trip. It was awesome! She sang all the songs and tried to teach some of them to me. She got pretty frustrated, though, at how lame a student I was.The night was fun at the hotel. We had a couple hours of daylight after we arrived so of course most of us swam in the ocean which was quite a kick. Dinner followed soon thereafter, proceeded some some chatting on our balconies, and then bed.
I definitely need to write about today´s events, but I just moved into the Internet cafe down the beach and it´s excrutiatingly hot. Gotta go for now!
