New School Year

Hola Muchachos! Well the Honduran school year is about to start up again and I was up at the school with Todd another long term volunteer and we are going to be teaching a computer class for grades 1^st through 6^th . More like I will be his assistant because I am not the most computer savvy even when it comes to the easiest of things!

When we got up the hill to the school all of the girls were out dusting and cleaning out the rooms…I felt like I was set back in time out on the Prairie where all the towns’ kids gather and lend a helping hand to get things moving. Imagine about 40 kids *age 5-13* moving desks and old time sewing machines picking up brooms and sweeping and moping the rooms out. Todd and I were marveling at how well they worked together and how they did not even need much direction…Maybe because it is the only thing that has happened in a while there…so they wanted to be part of the action. I don’t know…but it was truly amazing. Todd and I helped clean out one room that had about 30 table top sewing machines and a huge lawn mower that had a busted tire. About 5 little girls and Todd pushed from one end while 8 girls and I pulled from the other…there were so many hands on the machine it was hard to find space to hold on to…but after a long struggle we got the lawn mower out of there…wish I had pictures of this it was so funny! Then after we got that out there came a line of girls pushing the sewing machines one after the other…they snaked them through like a train and within 15 minutes the room was clean and good to be used as the new 5^th grade!

Later that day I went back up and played with the kids…I have a few great pictures of them playing this game with these tires…they would roll the tire up to the top of the hill and then a line of kids would gather going down the hill and one of the kids would roll the tire down and they would all jump up over the tire as it was rolling down…doesn’t sound like too much fun but you should have seen the kids they were sooo funny laughing and screaming as it came rolling down the hill! Pretty Fun!

Last night something pretty amazing happened. We had a family show up out of no where. A mother and 4 kids *ages 9,8,3, and 1* The younger boy who was 3 had no pants or underwear and no shoes. The entire family was so dirty and from the looks of it probably had not had a shower in a few weeks. They were only carrying one small bag with them…who knows where they came from and how long it took them to get here…by bus or more likely by foot. The past few nights have been really cold and you could tell they were freezing. The young boy was crying. We had an empty house open in the moms project so we opened that up for them and brought them a few clothes from donated goods that had been brought down by a volunteer group along with a bar of soap and some shampoo and tooth brushes. Every Saturday night the Moms make bread so they fed the family with the bread they had made along with leftovers from their dinner.

There is one woman here who is the director and she okays whether or not a family can stay and the other Moms were worried that she would not let them because they were so dirty. Yojaira *one of the Moms* even told one of the volunteers that they were going to try and wash them before the director came to see them so they looked a bit cleaner. Fortunately the director said they could stay but I went up to see them last night and bring them the clothes and all 5 of them were huddled under one blanket…looking so happy to have a place to lay their head. I just hope that they stay long enough that we can really help them get on their feet and maybe put the kids into school here. Pretty crazy to think that I look at some of the moms that are currently in the Moms project and think that their lives must be really hard and then to see the shock on their faces at how dirty and how little the new family had was a true eye opener.

I hate to leave on a sad note…but hopefully things will turn around for this woman and I know we will help her in anyway possible!

I wish you all the best this week!

Adios amigos!

Joan