We all felt rested this morning after a short night the day before and and welcomed breakfast when it came at 0830 with the weekend cook and a couple of the students.  There are special things that we look forward to and the local coffee and the plantain are some of those.  As well the eggs will be from the El Hogar farm chickens.  On the highway not far from here, we pass by El Indio - a coffee roasting plant.  Some days here we can detect when coffee is being roasted. 

There is calm and beauty in the early mornings here.  The air is so clear and no signs of smoky forest fires today.  It is very quiet, as the boys are up at the soccer field, probably practicing for the Honduran Episcopal soccer tournament being held in a few weeks.

So because the boys were busy, we spent some time sorting the crafts that we will take up to the girl's school this afternoon.

Eventually the boys started coming around, those who weren't doing laundry or studying and so there were games of Frisbee and Foosball and happily doing a puzzle.

The "casa de voluntarios" is quite comfortable here and our bedrooms are two bunkbeds to each room, each with a bathroom.  We understand that the house belonged to the original owner of the property before El Hogar bought it.  We have a nice common area where we can work and share.  

We had a long drive from the institute to Santa Lucia.  A long but interesting and educational drive looking at the sights and sounds of the city.  A bustling place on a Saturday.  We picked up some lunch for the 16 girls that are at their residence there and had a fair bit of time to do activities with them.  Puzzles and games and they especially loved the wool felting and cross-stitch.  It was a delight to spend the time with these teen girls.

The school is in such a picturesque village and we appreciated Erika's good driving on the hills and valleys and the traffic in the city.  The view from the girls' residence and common area is breathtaking and one picture or the other will be in this blog each and every year that we visit an post.  The air is a little hazy with smoke in this photo, but the view is still stunning.  

An early night for us as we have a very early morning tomorrow 

 

Friday, March 22, 2019

We have safely arrived.  We have all come from different parts of the country - from 

Burlington, P.E.I., Florida, Kansas, New Hampshire - but we all found each other in Miami before we boarded the last leg to Tegucigalpa. A full plane on the last leg to Honduras and we were grateful for just the 11 of us to organize and not the 38 teens from North Carolina who are here on their own mission team.  Can you imagine organizing them all! 

With this being dry season, we knew that there were a number of forest fires happening in the area, but not as bad as we expected and visibility was OK as we landed.  By the time we got all our luggage together, it seemed like forever, but Erika was waiting for us with Carlos, our friend who changes our money for us right there in the airport.  He says that he has been doing this for 29 years.  

Outside, Gustavo who drives us in the big bus was waiting for us to take us to Amerateca where we will be staying for the week at Instituto Tecnico Santa Maria.  Lots of room in the El Hogar bus for us all and our luggage.

It is the weekend and so we were rushed to the auditorium before we even unloaded luggage as many of the boys would be leaving to go to their homes for the weekend.  We got a rousing welcome from all the boys - all 75 of them, with even a couple of them speaking on behalf of the school to welcome us. How touched we are.

 There was then a parade of young men carrying our bags into the guest house where we will live together for the week.
Erika explained about the goals and the schedule of the week and we are anxious to get started.  

 Then it was time for supper and we will eat in the guest house.  The area where we ate in past years in the large dining hall with the boys, is now a study area.  But we like our space and it will be a time of learning and sharing this week here together for sure.  








The technical institute is 3/4 hour from the airport in the country and so it is peaceful and delightful to be back here again.  
It was an early night for most of us after a day of travel where most of our alarms went off  around 2:30 a.m. this morning.  We did have time for a moment to watch the sun disappearing behind the mountains.

The day ended as we shared the day's experiences together.

 We have spent a few days working on our famous St Luke's Easter eggs available for sale in time for Easter - March 31, April 7 and 14th.  These are all handcrafted, delicious fondant centre with the finest Belgian chocolate coating and for sale at the same price as last year - $6 for one and 5 for $25.  We know you will love them if you haven't tried them before.  

 It all starts at the mixing bowl with the best ingredients, and can get a bit messy with all that icing sugar flying. 






Hand molded into into the proper oval shape and that is no yolk!

We were pleased to have some of our alumni return to do the chocolate coating and packaging today. 





How did that chocolate get there?

A few little tasty rewards after the work is done and the eggs are coated!
Well  deserved, don't you think, after making and chocolating eggs-actly 327 eggs!  





Our supervisor Kerry watches over our day's work.  She generously comes each session we use chocolate in our eggs or our bark to guide and direct us in the proper temperatures and applications.  There are ways to work with chocolate to provide a superior finished product.  

Final packaging and ready for sale.  Starting March 31.  

When the day was done, and before we cleaned up the chocolate from the counters, the floor, the cupboards,(and from our faces where telltale signs of snacking was evident) we took some time for a group picture, very proud of our good work!  It was a very egg-hausting day, but so much fun and certainly team building.  

 Just a week before we leave for Honduras on our Service trip.  Canon Stuart says a prayer for our team this morning as part of our commissioning.  And with our church family supporting us.  We are so grateful for the prayers of the congregation, for their good wishes and for the welcome donations that we will take with us.    

After the service we packed up all the toiletries that were so generously given, both by the people of the congregation and by friends.  Six suitcases packed to their maximum weight.  We had a little help from Lily (age 3) who was so willing to help.  Her mom Heather who has been to El Hogar twice before is helping her keep all the toothpaste sorted.  

I wonder how long this will last?  How much toothpaste does a boys' school of 75 students go through anyway?  We may be able to answer tht when we get back! 

El Hogar Team 2019 and Poverty in Honduras

 The St Luke’s El Hogar Team is getting ready for our next trip leaving on March 22^nd, 2019.  We are so delighted to have 6 new team members this year.  Some from our own church and 4 people from out of town and out of country!   We gathered in this picture after a planning meeting which included Rod, Ros, Mavis, Alan, Rick and Janice.  On Skype is Becky from New Hampshire, Sue from PEI, Dave from Kansas and not skyping that day is Michael on his phone, vacationing in Florida and Greg from New Hampshire.

We have been working together all fall to build our team and to raise funds for our work project when we get there and for the children that St Luke’s sponsors and so now we plan for our travel.  Are our shots and passports up to date?  What will be our plans for our time with the students?  We will spend the week at Instituto Tecnico Santa Maria, the Technical Institute, which is about 45 minutes outside Tegucigalpa and so our plans will be for the teenage boys.  We are also beginning to gather our donations to take with us - hygiene products, soaps, shower products, deodorant and razors, toothpaste, floss and toothbrushes.  If you wish to donate, please watch for news about when we will be collecting these items – a few weeks before we leave.   

 It takes a lot of soap and toothpaste for the use of 250 students.  Can you imagine!?   And can you imagine how some of these kids may not have known about soap or toothpaste before coming to El Hogar.  These disadvantaged children come from the poorest of conditions where they have seen much too much of the painful, devastating aspects that life can bring.  These children have been in unstable living conditions with an incredibly difficult childhood.    

 When you come as a new person to Honduras and as you fly into Tegucigalpa for the first time, you will see that the city is in a beautiful setting with a stunning landscape amongst the mountains.  By the time we have landed and throughout the week, we can see poverty in all its stark, raw images, throughout the streets and in the homes of some of the students that we visit.    But amongst this, inside the gates of El Hogar at any one of the locations were our students are, we see happiness and smiles with hope and love within the children. We strive to come to grips with the poverty in our own community and what I read in yesterday’s local paper is that in our own region of Halton, 1 in 10 children were living in poverty.  When I looked up the statistics for Honduras, I find that it has the highest level of poverty in Latin America, with a poverty rate of over 66 percent. 

In Honduras, life doesn't come with guarantees like medical treatment for illnesses, having shoes to wear to school and getting an education.  The education that the children receive at El Hogar is one of the most powerful ways to reduce poverty and improve health, gender equality, peace and stability.   

 

We are grateful for those who are part of El Hogar everyday - directors, teachers and staff, volunteers and sponsors who help this school and home provide all these things to the children in a nurturing environment - breaking the cycle of poverty and giving these children hope for a bright future.  

I love this picture of the stunning red flowers on these trees within the city of Tegucigalpa.  This taken at the end of the dry season where the country has not seen rain in weeks or months.  Yet, in this drought where the air is thick with dust and the land is parched, the tree blossoms in beautiful flowers bringing hope that rain is to follow soon.  I think of the children as they come from devastating circumstances in the drought of their lives and how they find hope in the love they are part of at El Hogar.  As a team, we hope that in some small way, we can contribute to the journey of these children in their young lives.  We hope that it will be a time of learning and understanding for us of where they are coming from and the challenges they have in their childhood.  We hope that we can help them understand with our presence that they truly matter to us and matter greatly in God's eyes.  

Giving goes a long way in Honduras to help these kids and to those in poverty and by pulling together, we can make a difference in these children's lives.  There are many ways that we can all help this school and it is worth checking out the El Hogar website.    

http://www.elhogar.org/     

The 2019 El Hogar team and friends and alumni have been awfully busy since September working on our fundraiser for El Hogar and to produce some very fine products for you this Christmas.  Our Gingerbread churches and houses, all hand decorated and each unique, are our popular sellers.  But then people love the chocolate bark and of course the beautiful note cards that our dear friend Marilyn Barnes produces for us each year.  All will be on sale at the St Luke's Christmas Market this year on December 1st (9 am to 2 pm) 

This particular table of decorated churches was after a productive afternoon with a number of people helping out.  




One of our new members, Mavis, has got the idea and is now very intent in her creative skills.  Looks like Alan is checking for ideas on how to do his decorating.  






Nan looks like she has enough candy to make her church very tempting for anyone!










Busy at work and each intense in their own creative world!!

 Before we can decorate, the structures have to be constructed.  So far, it is just our engineers who do that with preciseness and carefully putting together different size pieces in spite of the fact that in the rolling cutting and baking, we try to be exact. 









We had two groups with us this year, one from the Community Pathways Program from Bateman School who will take their decorated churches back for their school Christmas sale.  

Malene, an El Hogar friend who comes each year to help decorate, was able to bring two young colleagues from her business to spend an afternoon as part of the community volunteering program in their company (Wawanesa Mutual) that provides charitable support for programs in their community and they chose us!.  Thank you to our volunteers this year that have added to the dimensions of our project.  



To add to our Gingerbread, we also bring you our popular Christmas Bark back again this year!  With the thanks from our good friend and expert Chocolatier, Dr. Kerry Beal (http://www.thechocolatedoctor.ca/), we were able to package up 350 bags of our famous Bark made with high quality Belgian chocolate.  

First is to make sure the chocolate is just at the right temperature.





Spread and cooled in a pan.  

Packaged 

And ready to go.