Dia del Nino (Sunday 9/10/2023)

 In 1954 the United Nations recommended that a Universal Children's Day be instituted in all countries, but suggested that each government choose the date on which it would celebrate it. Honduras established September 10th as Children’s Day which fell on a Sunday this year. The goal is to have a holiday dedicated to children, to promote their well-being and rights. With the many celebrations, it should be called Childrens Days. Last Saturday (September 2), one of the local Honduran companies sponsored a party for the children on the ranch with bounce houses, music, soccer, clowns, and of course pinatas and lots of food. Then this weekend there were three different celebrations: 1) Friday at Mata de Platano which is an outlying NPH community support location 45 minutes away, 2) Saturday at the Ranch, but for children in other outlying communities, and 3) Sunday at the Ranch for the NPH children.

Working for the Padrinos has its perks, one of them being able to participate in all these fiestas. Mata de Platano had two celebrations to accommodate the children that had different school schedules, one from 9 – 11AM and the other from 1 – 3PM. These were “smaller” groups of about 50 kids with old fashioned games like sack races, musical chairs, and slip n slides. Food was donuts and juice plus goodies from the pinata and “bolsitas” – little bags with candy and toys. They were also each given a toy. Apparently there is a company in Spain that donated more than 1000 toys to NPH Honduras this year and NPH’s job was to distribute them as needed. These were substantial new toys like soccer balls, basket balls, dolls, games, and stuffed animals – quite a treat for these kids.

Sack Races at Mata de Platano

Pinata at Mata de Platano

All day Saturday, about 300 children from other nearby communities came to the ranch for a big fiesta. This was the biggest party I have seen yet, with four bounce houses, music, ball games, food, and pinatas (of course). I have never seen a big group like that so well behaved and mostly they were just enjoying the playground equipment at the NPH school. These were primarily younger children ages 5 – 12. These kids were also given individual toys from the big toy donation.

Four Bounce Houses at the Saturday Fiesta

In addition to the party for the NPH children (~200) on Sunday, there is a tradition here in Honduras to have a procession that makes noise and lights fireworks for a person’s special day. The procession to wake up the children started at 6AM at one end of the ranch and progressed to the other end. I am usually walking around the ranch in the early morning anyway, but Sunday I had lots of company! I was joined by lots of Tios and Tios, some of which were dressed up in funny costumes, and also most of the volunteers. The wake up procession had fireworks, songs, and noisemakers to wake up the kids.

The Sunday party had more old fashioned games like jump rope, hop scotch, London Bridge, and lots of kids music and dancing. There was even a dance competition and it was really cute to see the little ones dance. Some were quite good!

Big Conga Line at the Sunday Fiesta

I hope next week is less eventful as I could use a break from all the fiestas. Oh, wait – I almost forgot that Monday Al and I are having some kids from my Hogar over to San Vicente to celebrate the youngest one’s birthday!

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