Viernes

Election Day!

This was Election Day for the student executive, and an important civics project that the teachers have been working hard on with the students for the past month.  It’s not just a student election,  it is an in-depth exercise to teach the children how the democratic system should run in this country including all the principles as well as all the practical aspects of campaigning and voting.  Today was the culmination of the vote, run according to the rules of national elections and applied to the election here for the student executive.  The polling stations were run much like civic elections in Canada, complete with polling clerks running three stations.  Even the littlest people were very much into it.  We volunteers acted as international observers.  Well done, El Hogar!

The new president, Renee and his party are swearing their oath of allegiance after being announced as the winners of the election.  

Since the election took all morning, plans changed and after lunch we all went on a home visit which happens most years and helps us understand the whole story of some of the children that come here. Today was a heart wrenching story with a happy ending.  This week, Terry and Carrie decided to sponsor Orlin, a young man whom they had connected with during the week.  Today on our home visit, we actually went to his home and met his step-father.  (The mother was at work as she cleans houses to supplement their meagre salary). The father works as a gravedigger and they live at the edge of the cemetery in a small tin shack. The father was so receptive, welcoming and appreciative of El Hogar and we enjoyed our interaction with him.  He was pleased to meet Carrie and Terry who would be sponsors to his child.  (The shack where they live is in the picture at the left of Carrie's head.)

We then walked through the junk yard to the neighbour’s house and met a mom with her two young children.  She also has a child in El Hogar and showed us into her house.  A simple dirt floor shack with a stove of which the pipe ended under the tin roof at an opening in the wall and the smoke billowed dangerously back into the room. The pain of seeing this poverty was relieved by the happiness we felt in the appreciative parents whose children now have hope for their future because of El Hogar

  

After we had been inside her home and saw how this family lived in extreme poverty, we walked outside and Jane noticed a sign of  life and hope in a small tomato plant growing amongst the rubble and the dry dusty earth.







Meanwhile Lynne, with Ros' help is giving  a workshop to the teachers.  Whenever you saw Lynne, she was making notes, on her computer or preparing in some way for this.  Ros has been doing a whole lot of translating this week for the presentation and the testing.

From there, we headed straight to Valle de Angeles – a small artisan community which is our favourite place to shop for Honduran souvenirs when we get a chance to get there.  Our friend and driver Raul, took a coffee break from all his work and our million questions while we shopped.  Santa Lucia where the teen girls live, is very close and so we arrived there just after they got home from school.  All these girls have come through El Hogar and so we know them and enjoyed meeting up with them again.  They have changed so much as they all have grown into beautiful young ladies.  We also took up suitcases of donations today and it was just like Christmas for them - New jeans and clothes and all sorts of little surprises.  It was a joy to see them so happy and to know that they are all doing so well in school.   

 The location of this residence is in a beautiful spot with a breathtaking view, but today, as well as being so dry and brown, it was very smoggy and smoky with all the brush fires happening and so we couldn’t see well across the valley.

After supper was the Despedida, which is a farewell for us, put on by the children.  What a show – the students put on skits, modern dance and also a folk dance (they won third in a competition last summer), the Marimba band played and we also had a guitar duet.  There was appreciation for the voluntario team and we felt loved.   These kids are talented and their talents are nurtured and developed here. 

Our gift back to them was a treat of ice cream which they love.  In spite of their excitement, they lined up orderly to wait their turn. 

Our last mediation and devotional tonight was emotional with some beautiful sharing and we give thanks for this place and for each other.  





posted by Michael and Janice