Monday, March 14

Bienvenidos a la edición del Lunes del blog El Hogar.

Thanks to the neighbourhood rooster and the early morning rush-hour traffic we were up bright and early for the morning assembly where we were introduced to the El Hogar populus. A meeting with Directora Claudia followed breakfast where she discussed the importance of all the teams` work and gave us backgrounds of some of the kids that are living at El Hogar. Claudia spoke very passionately when she told us of the living conditions, treatment and psychological states of specific children before they came under her care. Although I couldn´t see it, there was tearing eyes among the group; myself included. Claudia described El Hogar as a miracle that happens everyday and she sees it in every child that is here. Claudia then introduced us to El Hogar´s latest miracles and after a quick round of handshakes, and one hug demanded by Louise, we were off to our next activity, classroom interaction.

First class was English where we were learning our pronouns. Do you know your pronouns? Next was science class where they discussed crustaceans, arachnids and insects. We were even reminded that Earth Hour is happening on Saturday so make plans to sit in the dark for 1 hour with friends or loved ones. Our final class was Spanish where we were told the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper which was excellently dramatized by the kids.

Another fantastic meal later and we were back outside for 2 projects; demolition of a cistern and painting the wall that faces the street. We divided into 2 teams and off we went. At day´s end team Wall Painters had finished priming both sides of the wall. Team Cistern Smash took care of the cistern roof with the help of sledgehammers, a pickax and several gallons of water.

It´s now time to play with the kids. Continue to pray for us, the kids, the staff and especially Claudia.

Blessings
St. Luke´s El Hogar Team 2011

Chris Payne
PS: I´ve been requested to give a shoutout to Barb Rathie

Sunday 13 March

Today we woke up to the familiar city sounds of Tegucigalpa! Car alarms, sounding,horns honking, roosters crowing, dogs barking and happy early morning voices of children in the background.

We are really here and settling in to our El Hogar routines!


Today we joined the parishioners of Iglesia Santa Maria Episcopal church for a Lenten service in Spanish! Our music was played by the church band. My annual visit to the Sunday school is always inspiring. There are about 40 young people ages 2 to 19 attending classes. Great to see!

After, we treated 10 El Hogar children to lunch at Pizza Hut, they were chosen as students of the week at El Hogar. This is a huge treat for these little ones.

The 5 pair of roller blades we brought down with us are in constant use. It means that 10 energetic children can race around the playground at full speed! Here are a few of us doing crafts with the children in the evening.

Monday is a school day for the children and some of the team will spend time in the classroom with the students while the rest will be painting and tearing down a cistern.
Hasta Mañana! Louise

El Hogar Day 1 - Saturday 12 March

We've arrived! It has been 30 hours to get here, but we made it and with all of our 30 bags and 15 carryons. Each step of the process went smoothly, but we must say we are glad to get rid of the responsibility of the bags. We have loaded them on and off so many vehicles, conveyor belts and luggage carts and dragged them through so many lines, that to finally get them here is a blessing and they all got through.

We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, some with their coffee in the warm morning sun before we had to get on the shuttle back to the airport. We found Susan at the departure lounge in Miami, our 15th team member from Jackson, Tennessee who had been up at 4 a.m. to catch her flight to Miami. Since she is the doctor amongst us, she brought 88 lbs of medicine. Antibiotics and such. We were not through with our 30 bags yet, for some of us have been sorting the medicine and all the other bags of all the wonderful things that people have donated to the school. Some will go out to the Institute on Wednesday and some will go out to the farm on Thursday.

But we are back. Raul and one of the teachers from El Hogar met us. One of the vans held the luggage which was piled right to the roof and the rest of us in the other van. For some of us, we remember the sights and the sounds of the noisy streets and the honking car horns, the people in the streets. To the new ones on their first visit, all those noises and sights and people, signaled an impoverished life such as we are not used to. It is only a 15 minutes drive to El Hogar and the gates opened as we drove in to several dozen of the boys to welcome us. It was emotional to see these little faces that we knew last year. Some have grown, many remember those of us who have returned and they welcomed the new group always with big smiles. After dinner of spaghetti and watermelon, we took our games, soccer balls, frisbee and skipping ropes out to the kids for our play time. But the favourite activity of the children are the new roller blades.

We will soon head back to the guest house where we will debrief the day and have our sharing time. Glad that you have wanted to share the day with us. Talk to you tomorrow.

Miami - Saturday 12 March

Here we are safely in Miami, with all our bags: 28 checked bags and 14 carryons. No problems on the trip down and all the bags arrived safely and on time although the Kennedy's bags did get the fine tooth comb by US Customs. We managed to get to the hotel on the shuttle in one trip though it was a tight squeeze! After a good meal at a local restaurant we had a good night and are now getting ready to head to the airport for the next flight to Tegucigalpa.

Commissioning and Packing Donations Sunday 6 March

With the commissioning of the El Hogar team at this morning's service, Canon Stuart officially sent us on our way for the one week mission trip to El Hogar in Tegucigalpa, Honduras:
Cathy P, Chris P, Darla T-S, Glen K, Janice S, Louise N, Megan S, Melissa K, Michael S, Ray P, Rick R, Rosalind R, Taylor R, and Tom Z.

Our flight leaves on Friday, and we arrive at the El Hogar school on Saturday. We are all excited and busy making last minute arrangements.

Check out the El Hogar website: http://www.elhogar.org/




















After the service we gathered in the hall to pack all of the donations received from parishioners and others. We will take all these items with us to El Hogar where they will be gratefully received and well used - jeans, shirts, toiletries, games, footballs,...




























Of special note are the 25 hand crafted dolls made and donated by Phyllis B and Kathryn R for the girls at the school.



























Muchas gracias a todos!

Less than 3 weeks to go!

We leave for el Hogar in less than three weeks and we are all getting excited! We recently had a team meeting to continue our preparation. A session to practice our Spanish started the meeting. We then went over all sorts of things: what we will take to el Hogar for them - transporting school uniforms tops the list; travel arrangements; items we as a team will need; preparing ourselves for the experience (What would Jesus take?);...

We look forward to the commissioning of volunteers at the 10:00 am service, Sunday, March 6. Our next meeting will follow that service, when we will pack all of the donated items in preparation for our departure. We are grateful to parishioners not only for donating items but also for donating suitcases so we can transport the items to el Hogar.














Como se dice '... ' en espanol?...






The 2011 St Luke's Team going to el Hogar.

Thank you!

Muchas gracias to all who purchased our handmade gingerbread churches. Your response has been tremendous to our fundraiser for our project fee on the upcoming trip to El Hogar in March. We made 156 churches! Thanks also to our friends who came out to help us with the gingerbread. Here are a few pictures of our team members taken at the Christmas Market...