Sunday, 20 March - more on Saturday and Sunday

We are now back home and travel all went well, but we were saddened to think of all that we left behind. Those dear little people who's lives have been changed because of the programs and the love they receive at all three sites of El Hogar Ministries. El Hogar was founded to break the cycle of poverty and offer a ray of hope for the future of Honduras. We have grown to love these children and see that ray of hope in their new found joy in life, in their laughter and affection and desire to learn (Honduras has an literacy rate of only 80%).

We are leaving so much behind and so it was hard to say good-bye. Our Saturday morning was spent in packing and leaving the volunteer house ready for the next group arriving in the afternoon. Excitement never ends in this place, for we thought that we might be staying longer than planned due to the fact that the door knob fell off and we were trapped inside the volunteer house until the inside people and those on the other side of the door worked on it and got us out!

We still had time for our group pictures.

And connecting with Jorge and his dear little sister, Andrea.

Raul, who coordinates all the volunteer activities is our trusted guide, driver and our friend, and graciously tolerated our numerous questions which was probably the same as every other volunteer team asks. He drove us to the airport one final time. La Directora Claudia, on her day off, drove the other van with all the luggage. Raul stayed with us until our flight left. We had time for a little shopping in the airport to get those few souvenirs.

We seemed to go through countless lines and checkpoints by the time we finally got out of the Miami airport. Because our plane was late leaving Tegucigalpa, there was no way that Susan could make her Memphis flight and so she joined us at the hotel overnight. We went back to the nice Venezuelan restaurant we found last weekend, down the street from the hotel and had a relaxing time together, sharing our experiences of the week.


We have arrived back in Burlington Sunday afternoon and after being on the Miami hotel 0800 shuttle back to the airport, more long lines of check in, security checks and baggage dropoffs, we arrived back safely and with thanks for the experiences we had. Whew, it is quite an experience to get 15 people though all these steps.

We will post more pictures in the next few days and so hope to see you back!