Padrinos (Friday 9/1/2023)
The
Padrinos office where I work is particularly busy at this time of year because
of the two major projects going on: 1) Annual photo update of each child in NPH
Honduras and 2) Annual Christmas cards to every sponsor. There are about 350
children in NPH Honduras counting the ones that are under special care in the
communities and in High School and College in Tegucigalpa. The children have
multiple sponsors so the total sponsor count is over 2000 from a dozen
different countries. About 40% are from the US with another 30% from Italy. The
other contributors are mostly European countries although New Zealand and
Canada also have sponsors. Padrino means Godfather in Spanish and the child is
considered an ajihado or godchild.
Allen and I have been
padrinos for many years. Our godchild grew up in the NPH in Haiti and last year
“graduated” out of the system and is now making a living as an electrician. We
are now sponsoring a different child in Haiti and will likely be sponsoring one
or more in Honduras before we go home. We get regular updates on our godchild
and usually get to see his grades along with a letter from him. We send letters
back also, but have not done this frequently. As I now see how much the
children treasure their letters from their godparents, I am vowing to write
more often!
Taking photos of the
children is one of the more fun activities that I get to assist with. Dixi and
Cintia borrowed a Nikon camera from one of the University students who was into
photography. They know how to use some special features and take professional –
style photos to include with the Christmas cards and in the database. Today a
student came by and the girls were gone so I took his picture with my cell
phone. Apparently it was satisfactory!
This year there are three
different types of Christmas Cards in order to satisfy the desires of some of
the different country offices. The most commonly chosen one is a postcard that
will later have one of the new photos attached. I will probably be doing a lot
of cutting and pasting in the near future 😊
The children that are old
enough to write are supposed to write their name and the sponsor’s name on each
Christmas card. This seems easy until you see it in action. First of all, “to”
and “from” are in English and the kids don’t know where to put their name vs
that of the sponsor. Secondly, the sponsors’ names are very different from what
the kids are used to. While the kids are told to write them exactly as typed
out for them, sometimes the name or names are too long and the kids have
trouble squeezing them into the space provided. Often there are errors and
several cards may be needed to satisfy the quality requirements of the
padrinos. Thirdly, it is common for a person in Honduras to have four names:
two first names and two last names. Rarely do all four names fit in the space
allowed, so the kids are told to just write their first first-name and first
last-name. Let's just say that I had to help a lot of kids and handed out
a lot of extra cards.
One of the card types
requires that the kids draw something Christmassy in a rectangular area. They
want to do a good job, so few of these are drawn free-hand. More often, the Tia
or Tio helps the child find a suitable picture on their phone or from a coloring
book, and the picture is either traced or drawn carefully by the child who then
colors it. This last week, we have been going to the Hogars in the
afternoon to help them with the Christmas cards. One would normally think that
this is early for Christmas preparations, but Allen and I have still not
received a package that Tracy sent two months ago, so I believe it when Cintia
and Dixi say we need to have these ready to send by the end of September.
If you are interested in
becoming a sponsor here is a link for more information:
Godparent Frequently Asked Questions
– NPH USA
Here is a link with
information about the volunteers: Current International Volunteers
| Former Volunteers – NPH USA. If you want to contribute in our name, you
can click on Donate to support
me and the NPH children. under our profile.
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