Day Seven!

Hola, it is Alida and Hilary once again reporting live from Honduras. This morning we woke up a little disappointed that today was our last full day in this beautiful country. We started a day with a breakfast of eggs and beans...how surprising. The Gringo van departed from Casa Awesome and headed towards the Agricultural School, which is the third school under the ´Projectos El Hogar´ umbrella. The boys who graduate from El Hogar have the option of going to the Agricultural School as well as the technical institute, but this location also accepts boys from local communities. It was another very long and scenic drive. We stumbled out of the van and found ourselves admiring the blue skies and farm life that surrounded us...and the smell that was soon discovered to be coming from underneath Hilary's wellies. Our guide, Johnny, showed us around the farm and showed us the variety of crops being grown as well as the classrooms that the boys further their education in. After seeing the pineapple, banana and coffee plants growing Janice was thrilled to get her very own grapefruit straight off the tree, although it was still a little green and it looked more like a lime than a grapefruit, but she was pleased none the less!

The first year boys hard at work in the field:














Coffee plants! (and our guide Johnny)


Next we saw the animals. Louise does great impressions of them too! There were goats, sheep, chickens, and cows. We were lucky enough to see the newborn calves, one of which was only one day old. They were pretty darn cute and we stopped to pet them on the head. We moved on from the animals and headed back towards the main building for lunch. Once we got there, we were impressed to see the boys waiting in the dining hall for us to get our food first. Everyone thought that was really nice of them to do. Our main course was some pork, vegetables and rice with tortillas...No wonder we didn't see any pigs outside.

When last did you see cows in a banana grove! These city kids are amazed at the sight.


The day old calf didn´t want to get up, so one of the farm hands got her moving:



After lunch, it was back to the famous Gringo van, except this time it smelled a little funky. Maybe that was from Hilary's wellies which she took off in the van, but we aren't sure if the smell came from the bottom of her boots or from the inside. She had to stick her feet out the window to air them out. The drive back to El Hogar was a quiet one and everyone seemed tired from all the fresh air. We arrived back at Casa Awesome, but only for long enough to use the bathroom and then we were back on the road, headed towards the Valley of Angels for a little shopping excursion. The weather didn't hold out for us and we got a lovely shower while walking from shop to shòp, but that didn't stop us from shopping! Everyone found a little trinket of some sort and Matt bought the entire pottery barn for some home decor. The trip back to El Hogar was surely an interesting one. Due to accidents and narrow winding cobblestone steets, our journey home took much longer than expected. We stopped to pick up 5 gallons of ice cream, spoons and cups at the store. Then our journey carried on. There were many more narrow cobblestone streets and a few close calls with buses and cars, but we made it back safely and no one was car sick (but that was also a close call). We owe our safe arrival all to Raul with his precision steering and knack for the Honduran roads.

We were back just in time to attend our good-bye party with the kids, where we sung the Honduran, Canadian and American national anthems and were presented with posters from the kids. The kids were ecstatic about the ice ceam we were serving to everyone, and they were given the choice of chocolate, vanilla or strawberry. Yuuuumy!



The children left to go to bed, and the volunteers went back to Casa Awesome to retire for the night. And it was just in time, because shortly after, the skies opened and the monsoon rain began. On their way over to the computer lab to write this blog, Hilary, Alida and Erika got more soaked than they have ever been. Since they were already wet they decided to splash around in the tropical rain storm as well. Why not?!

Tomorrow we will say our final good-byes, which may be tearful ones, but we will all surely miss the children and people from El Hogar who have touched our hearts. This week has truely been a memorable one and hopefully we will take these memories with us and cherish them for years to come.