Day 7 Friday

Today was our last full day at El Hogar.  It was a time of completing projects and tying up the last of all our work. 

The team was up bright and early so that part of the team could leave for the home visit with Claudia at 0730.  The home was occupied by the mother of one of the El Hogar students.  Cesar’s mother lives in one room with a special needs 22 year old daughter.  They live in a small single room sharing a bathroom with 4 other families.  While she has a job picking up litter on the streets, her meager wage is not enough to support her family with food and medications needed.   We were able buy her a month’s worth of groceries which she was grateful to receive.  

Lynn, Ros and Erika spent the morning presenting their seminars  to the teachers .   Erika’s seminar about Applied Behaviour Analysis was well received by the teachers.  They could see the usefulness of these strategies for dealing with behavioural issues in the classroom to achieve positive outcome.    Lynn’s presentation concerned informal assessment of reading and provided activities to use to remediate reading difficulties  Ros spent all week translating  the material that was handed out.  These ladies worked hard all week. 

While the seminars were going on, the rest of the team left for the drive to Santa Lucia where the El Hogar teen girls now reside.  The location is one of beauty and serenity .

The girls who are now in Grade 8 and 9 are up and out by 6 a.m. each morning on their way up the steep hill to catch the bus to the high school which is a long walk up a cobblestone street. We usually see them on the weekend when they come down to visit El Hogar.

 Matt Engleby, the Director, who has his office on the property  welcomed us and we spent a bit of time discussing the programs of the El Hogar Projects and the importance of sponsorship.

We were able to stop for lunch before our annual treat of being able to shop in a wonderful artisan’s village for our souvenirs.  We arrived back in time for the Farewell event which was a thank you for the volunteers put on by the children.  Some of the children sang, danced and then thanked us eloquently for our time at El Hogar.  The piano students of Louisa, Melissa and Glen had their debut playing “Mary Had a Little Lamb”.  We were able to present some of Kay’s handmade dolls to some of the girls who were recognized  by their peers for their special contributions to the El Hogar community. 

On behalf of the volunteers, Stuart sang a musical selection in Spanish that summarized much of our experience with the children this week.  It spoke of brother and sisterhood, hopes, dreams, the strength of relationships and aspirations of freedom. 

The children presented us with a painting of the Canadian and Honduran Flags.that represented a permanent bond, connecting us together.
 Another highlight was the presentation to each team member of a CD of the new school “Home of
 Hope and Love" Anthem. 
 

          In in Inkeeping with our tradition, we served  Ice-cream to the children.  And they loved it of course!  It was a parting treat for them, but what we received in return  was lots of thanks and hugs.  A fun time! 


 

posted by Lynn and Louise