Allen & Marcel Volunteer in Honduras

  We are in the tropics and with that comes some interesting critters. One of the first unusual (thankfully!) encounters was a snake in one of the volunteers’ bed. Julie, the volunteer, was sufficiently freaked out that she never returned to that room, as if the room alone was to blame. Sanne removed the snake with a long-handled strainer and took it outside. The snake was small, but apparently venomous, as we found out later when Al and I saw the security guards at the gate killing a similar snake with a machete. Possibly Poisonous Snake in San Vicente There are plenty of spiders around, but not unusually scary ones. However, lately, there have been a few encounters with tarantulas. These are not the super large ones that you see on TV or in the zoo, but more palm-sized. I don’t think they are poisonous, but have yet to look it up. We have found a few on the walls of the volunteer home, San Vicente, and Allen removed one to the outside. They move fast! And started up Allen’s t...

  About four times a year, NPH has a Visitors’ Day where families of the children come to spend a Sunday with the kids. Not all of the children have visitors and the ones that don’t can be pretty sad, so the Volunteers put on a day full of activity to occupy the children that do not have visitors and make them feel special. This last Sunday (2 days ago) was Visitors’ Day on El Rancho and a lot of work went into planning the various activities. We had lined up a couple of hours of field activities like sack races, 3-legged races, and capture the flag, followed by snack times, then chalk art, face painting, giant bubbles, slip n slide, and the ever-present pinata. Lunch time was next with a cake, then movies until 4PM. We expected around 80 kids, but there were less than half that because many of the younger ones were given an activity in the school. The volunteers arrived at the ball court around 7:30AM and started playing soccer (futbol), basketball, and volleyball for a half hou...

 Volunteers at the Ranch get three square meals a day just like the kids. Breakfast is served from 7 – 7:30 AM weekdays and a half hour later on the weekends. Lunch is from 1 – 1:30 and dinner from 6 – 6:30 daily. Volunteers can bring a plate or bowl to the kitchen (cocina) where the meals are prepared, have the plate filled, and then take it back to San Vicente (or other location) to eat. For the hogars, kitchen helpers fill large coolers which the hogars collect and then serve in their area. Allen and I have been eating breakfast with each other in San Vicente, lunch with our work companions, and dinner with the kids in our hogars. Breakfast is typically beans with rice or plaintains and often with “mantiquilla” which is not actually butter, but a sour-cream-like sauce. Sometimes there is also an egg. An alternative breakfast is cereal (granola, rice Krispies, or sometimes chocolate rice Krispies!) with warmed milk. Often this is supplemented with a banana and a roll (“pan”). A...

  I work with the Padrinos office (Padrino means godparents or sponsors) which is composed of two very friendly and organized young women (Dixie and Cintia) who enhance communications between the children and their sponsors. We get to do a lot of fun things like deliver letters (and sometimes gifts) to the Hogars, take pictures of the kids, update their biographical information, plan and hold celebrations for different groups of kids (funded with extra money sent by sponsors) and lately – organize a big Christmas card campaign. I have been enjoying time in the office, using my own computer and the lunchroom table for a desk as I update parts of the data base and transcribe letters and other documents for Dixie and Cintia. I was delighted when my new desk came so that I could have a more permanent place in the office. They also had a computer for me, but I was happy to continue using my own. When the desk arrived, we had to rearrange all the furniture to make it work. Dust was flyin...

  All the new volunteers got their hogar assignments at the end of last week so this is the first week that we have spent consistent time with the same children. For a refresher, a hogar is a home here on the Ranch that houses about 10 – 12 children with caretakers called “Tias” or “Tios”. So they are mini-families. The Ranch has hogars for the younger kids – under 12 – with boys and girls mixed. These are the Casa Suyapa hogars and the hogars have individual names like San Mateo and Divinos Ninos. There are also hogars for the girls over twelve (Casa Tulitakumi) and boys over 12 (Casa Buen Pastor). Plus there are hogars for handicapped children of which there are many here. Allen and I were both assigned hogars in Casa Suyapa: Mine is San Mateo, and Allen’s is Divinos Ninos.   Since families are kept together, especially at the younger age, we both have sets of brothers and sisters so it is kind of like getting whole new sets of grandchildren 😉 The children are here becaus...