Friday, March 6, 2026

 

This is our last full day in Honduras as we leave tomorrow to head home.  Some of us attended Morning Prayer at 7:15 in the chapel with the students, led by Padre Gerardo, Dean of the Cathedral where we attended last Sunday. It was wonderful to be there with the chapel full of all the students.  Padre Gerardo stays for the morning to give religious classes.

 

Erika arrived and set us up with a Zoom meeting with Denise Vargus, who was not present here this week, and we had a wonderful conversation together.  She is an inspiring leader and she asks all the right questions of us and we find we are revealing our deepest thoughts about this organization and its students.  We shared a lot of our experiences of this week and what was meaningful for us.  We feel we are true partners with this organization and have many reasons for wanting to always come back.

After we wrapped up with Denise, we packed the van and headed north to Comayagua, close to the airport.  The drive is stunningly beautiful as we drove over the pass. 

Our favourite little historical hotel was ready for us when we arrived and we appreciate the service they have given us.  The hotel is on a small, interesting colonial street with restaurants and coffee shops and places to buy fresh fruit smoothies

 

Lunch across from the hotel.

In the next block is a chocolate shop where one can take a tour of chocolate making with the owner, and then buy his chocolate  in the shop which we all did.  

We had the afternoon to visit the central park and plaza in front of the Cathedral. This is where everyone gathers under the shade of the trees to chat with their friends and neighbours and the tourists can buy souvenirs from the sellers in their stalls. The cathedral has a clock which is the oldest clock in the Americas and still working.  It is said to be 900 year old!

We love this town which is full of Spanish Colonial architecture and was once the capital of Honduras.

 

Thursday, March 5, 2026

 

We are at the institute today, and up early to attend classes with the kids!  Awakened by the boys outside our windows lining up for breakfast.  That is before 6!   No problem for us get to the 7:15 class.  The day is spent with the new English teacher today, Profe Andrea. The first class was in the library reading The Little Prince in Spanish. The new library is a perfect place for this kind of class.

 

We then crossed over to Andrea’s English class and did a fun activity with the kids.  They had to unscramble words, in teams, as they had learned in basic vocabulary with a time limit, so it was a noisy exercise.

After lunch, we went to two more English classes, doing various language activities with the higher grades.  We liked the way they have worked in their team to accomplish their answers. We were the coaches and the scorers and timers. Andrea makes the exercise fun and exciting.   

As well as being in the English classes, we had an exercise activity with Erika.  Our groups of two, each with a different Honduran realistic monthly wage had to decide what was priority in life with the wage that we were given.  A great conversation about privilege in our lives and to understand that there are many things outside of the life of a struggling Honduran that they cannot control. An awarness exercise.

This was our last night of actiities with the boys and there conintues to be competive games
going like UNO and bean bag tossing and Chinese Checkers.  Near the  end of our time, there was about 10 pieces of the big puzzle to finish and when the clock struck 8:34, the last piece was put in.  Lots of hooting and holloring!

Ros and the Director Norma having a little chat in spite of the noisy background of the boys.  One of the overnight councillers is off sick and so Norma has to stay overnight with the 21 booys who are in residence.  The second time she has had to do this all week.  You can't tell how she really might feel about that, by the beautiful smile she constantly wears!

We know how you feel buddy.  It's been a long day!

Wednesday, March 4, 2026

Another day into Tegucigalpa and our favourite driver drove us again.  He certainly knows the back roads to avoid the morning traffic and we got to the El Hogar campus, by 9.  While it is in dry season, the landscape is still very stunning.  We imagine how lushand green it must be after rainy season.

Today we had a very interesting visit to ASJ, a nonprofit focused on strengthening institutions in Honduras to provide better social justice and governance for the citizens of Honduras, particularly those in challenging circumstances.  Their work to make the election process, to improve public education, health, security institutions more effective and worthy of public trust.  One of their financial supporters is Foreign Affaires Canada.  They are very data based and promote practical improvements to the government and build momentum through press conferences and social media.  

Great to see these capable and dedicated Hondurans working to improve their country.

Thanks to Erika Skafel for arranging this visit.

We still had enough time before lunch at the school, so stopped at a very special coffee shop with delicious coffee.  (Can never get a bad one here.) We took the long way home and got a tour of the contrasting neighbourhoods in the city. Narrow streets and the city quite hilly. 

Erika didn’t neglect to take us down a few steep streets to give us a moment of two of thrill (or panic?).  We saw lots of people at the sides of the street at their little businesses trying to eek out a living selling tortillas, salty treats, fruit or clothing (usually second hand).  It is hard to describe what we saw, Hondurans working really hard to survive.  Some of it heartbreaking.

 

Meanwhile, as we drive into the yard of the primary campus, it is recess and it is a joy to see all the children playing soccer or running with their friends.  The happy squeals of playing children. 

We were around to see the end of their day as many got on the school bus and the vans, depending on where they were going.  It was a noisy but wonderful time as they all said their goodbyes and we were fortunate to get lots of hugs.  They are in desperate need to get a larger yellow school bus, as their last one just totally quit running. It would help so with all their transportation of the kids back and forth to school.

It was our turn to head home and Efrain drove us with a request to stop at a roadside place to pick up more fruit.  He made sure that he watched over Rick as he bought the fruit. 

 

Patricia, the long time cook, was waiting for us in the kitchen, and she taught us how to make tortillas.   She said we did a great job.  There are always two kids assigned in the kitchen and they helped keep us organized. 

 And then we ate them for supper!

Our evening was spent with the boys again.  Such fun.  Tonight we introduced some painting along with the puzzles and games.  Even the evening supervisor, JJ enjoyed making a card using string art.

 Our evening debrief was about culture.  Honduran culture is a vibrant, family centric blend of  Indigenous, Spanish colonial and African, characterized by strong family bonds, warm hospitality and a relaxed attitude towards time.  We wonder what Hondurans think of us!

 

 Tuesday, March 3, 2026

 

Efrein, one of our favourite drivers,
drove us into Tegucigalpa after breakfast, after he tried to fix our showers.  Three of our 4 rooms had showers with no hot water and two toilets needed fixing.  We are tremendously grateful to him! 

You haven’t seen traffic til you travel in Tegucigalpa.  Forget the Toronto 401, it is much more exciting to be here.  Lots of crowding, merging, horn honking, darting motorcycles (few helmets), lots of exits and entrances to keep things interesting.   

Today was a very special day as it was a day at the Primary Campus.  We love the big boys at the institute, but the little ones are an active and energetic group with cherubic faces!  Profe Jessika is the principal of the school and welcomed us to the city campus.  El Hogar de Amor y Esperanza.  She had with her, a mother and two young students who told their stories and the importance of El Hogar in their lives.  Being part of the public school system provide many challenges for anyone attending and the girls were very behind in their reading and also experienced a lot of bullying as well.  Coming to El Hogar meant that they  eventually caught up to their peers and became confident in themselves.  It was an emotional time for all of us as they told their stories.  These children now have more confidence and dreams of what their future might look like.  THe photo is of the team and of Jessika and the three guests who shared their stories.

Another change that we saw was the building of a new dental clinic.  It has been a dream to expand the clinic to include more parents and the outside community with additional staff.  All this with help through “Sharing Smiles” staff and donations.  The clinic is an exciting project, in spite of it being on the site of our old volunteer guest house.  The place where many teams and especially St Lukes’ spent many happy and fun moments there. 

We had the privilege of being on the school bus when the kids were driven back home from school at the end of classes.  As in any family, the moms were waiting to receive their kids at the stop and was just part of a Tuesday routine. The parents and children are so happy to be part of a safe environment.

After lunch at the school (made by Dona Tona, who has been cooking for the children since the beginning of this school, more than 40 years ago), we headed to a Musee in the National Bank, (a brand new building)  discovering the history of the Honduran currency over the centuries, ending with the Lempira which weuse now.  

We enjoyed our evening again with the kids.  They love the games and the puzzles and the painting and are loads of fun.  

 


Monday, March 2, 2026

The campus has come alive today, being Monday, with all the non residential students, staff and teachers here.  Some of the children come from the Tegucigalpa campus where they stay the weekend and some from the surrounding neighbourhood.  There are 21 boys who live here all year round for a total of 116 students here during the day.

The director, Norma spent about an hour with us, relating that this place is her life, her passion and her ministry.  She has been here for 26 years.  She updated us on all that is happening here especially with the new entrepreneurial program and curriculum that is being added this year.  We toured the campus visiting the workshops and classrooms of the electrical and welding areas. 

We observed that anything that can be fixed, uses old parts taken from elsewhere.  That things are fixed at least three times before being discarded. 

Checked out some of the classrooms during class, this being only the third week since school started, so a lot of review is being done.  Especially in Profe Heyser’s math class.

We also got a peak at the changes taking place in the residence that are happening.  Because the number of residential students has reduced over the years, it is the plan to make this building into an apartment, rather than a dormitory. With living areas, and kitchen on the main floor and bedrooms upstairs, creating more of a family home than a residential building. 

New libary!

                                                                          After dinner was our first night of activities and games with the 21 residents.  THe Chinese Checkers and the Uno games got pretty loud!  It is a privilege to be with these young men.

A

 

We had the joy of sleeping in abit this morning after our long day of travel yesterday, so we so happy to have a relaxing start to the day.

Breakfast was brought down to us in the guest house and was a nutricious start to the day.

Erika came for us to drive back to Tegucigalpa for church at St Mary’s Cathdral.   Some of the students came with us, which is a real special outing, as it is not always possible to get into the city each Sunday.  We were so happy to worship with our Spanish speaking friends, recognizing so much of the same service that we know at St Luke’s.  We were so welcomed and recognized from the years past.  

With the 5 children we had with us, we stopped and picked up pupusas (a Honduran favourite) and drove to Cerro Juana, a lovely park with a central viewpoint of the surrounding city.  It was busy to get to the park as we had to pass the futbol (soccer) stadium where the Sunday futbol game was gearing up.  This is a soccer country indeed.

On our way home, we went to the grocery store and were given the task of seeing how much we could buy with the 500 lempira we were given.  We tried to meet the challenge, but failed badly.  While prices are lower than what we pay in Canada, we were still ble to get a lot of fruit.  Papayas, pineapples, melons.  And the mangos which we picked  up at the fruit stand at the side of the road on the way home from the airport yesterday.

 
We had a bit of down time and have to find the right places to capture the WiFi.  Forgive us for not getting our posts out daily, as we are having difficulty with the WiFi.  We will attempt to send something each evening.