Didasko

Going to different children's homes will always be my favorite part of having groups here. I have only been to Didasko one time and it was just for around an hour or so when we brought the WOP band out to play with the kids and drop off food. Even though it was only for a short time I remember playing with a boy, Juan Pablo, almost the entire time that we were there. Since this was October I doubted he would have remembered such a short encounter. David and I showed up a little after the group and the were about to begin their Easter Egg Hunt. As I walked towards the starting line one of the kids ran up gave me a huge hug, it was Juan Pablo. Since nothing can take a kid away from the fun of an Easter Egg hunt we saved the catching up for after. He proceeded to tell me all about the last time I was there. He talked about playing soccer, how long I stayed for, when I visited, asked how my teaching was going, and of course remembered my name. I was floored when he asked the question why it took me so long to visit since I live just an hour away.

I told him that I will try very hard to visit more often, especially since I have the ability to see him being on a little under an hour away. He then showed me all around Didasko introducing me to all of the other kids including his two brothers that live at Didasko. His older brother is David and his younger brother is Minor. We then sat down and looked through pictures of my school and my old pictures where we found pictures from my last visit to Didasko.

As our time at Didasko came to an end we gathered up to pray over our meal. As we walked towards the cook out Juan Pablo asked me if he would be able to say the prayer. I asked the group if that would be okay and of course the agreed it would be awesome. As he prayed over the food and thanked God for the life he has and the great visit from loving people I was floored again at what an amazing litte guy he is and how I knew right then and there I would be finding a way to return to this awesome place on a regular basis to do what I can for the children of Didasko.

Return to the City Dump

I have not been to the city dump here in Tegucigalpa for weeks. With working at school and the normal feedings taking place on Wednesdays and now on Fridays also I am rarely able to go feed. However this week being Semana Santa gave me the opportunity to help on a very special feeding day. We started the day early as we were building a house in one of the nearby communities. Our group was amazing this week and was able to have three walls up and the roof started by 11 when we headed to the dump. This day Mark Tindall was spending the entire day working with the the people of the dump, digging through trash and sorting what would be valuable enough to sell back. David, the teenagers, and I went looking for him when we arrived and found him on a large pile of cardboard trying to tie it all up in a tarp. David and I ended up jumping in to help some of the people carry their findings.

As I was helping carry some cardboard I looked back to see Jose Antonio, one of our BC teens, also lending a hand to help. It was really amazing to see him jump in and help. After our first dump stop we headed up to the top of the dump to give out the rest of our food. When we arrived one of our teenagers, Arnol, asked me if he would be able to go around the outskirts of the dump to hand out water to those too busy to come get food. Of course we said yes. So Arnol and I walked around the perimeter of the dump handing out water. Seeing these two teenagers begin a journey of helping is truly amazing. I pray that God continues to work in them and mold their servant hearts to provide more and more assistance to the less fortunate members of their society.

Semana Santa

So yet again I am way behind on my blogging and so much has happened it seems impossible to begin but I guess I will try. I'll start by talking about Breaking Chains! The kiddos fromt he building that go to my school (Dayana, Jonatan, Arol, and Escarleth) are all doing great at school! I am so proud of all of their hard work in and out of school. Michael and I have our up and downs with them but overall it has been an amazing transition for them. They all seem to have no trouble making friends at school and are all well known around the school already, however much of this might be because most all of the students think they are my children.... I absolutely love seeing them all play with their friends at school, especially Jonatan! He was brave enough to dance in front of the entire student body this past Friday to Michael Jackson's Billie Jean with his friend. It was one of the cutest things I have every seen! Arol continues to show off how smart he is by excelling in all of his classes which makes me very excited to get a peek at his report card when I get back to school! Dayan is improving everyday and the time and effort that Michael has but in with her is showing! She can even write her name know! Escarleth is well Escarleth, I love this sweet little girl so much even though sometimes it would seem otherwise. I love seeing her enjoy her new environment and I love doing homework with her because the look on her face when she accomplishes something new is absolutely priceless!

Other than the little ones we have some great victories and some struggles from our teenagers. My main focus with the teenagers is Arnol. He was really the only one of the teenagers who would attempt to do a lot of communicating when I knew absolutely no Spanish, so as of right now we are able to communicate extremely well. I love this little guy so much because I see a lot of myself in him. He struggles a lot with being a bit of a loner, and can be quite annoying at times ( just ask Amber). He lives in a building full of 50 other people but really only spends time with us gringos and his girlfriend Rosa. I love when Arnol's brother Jorge comes to visit because Arnol just lights up when he is able to play and talk with his brother and best friend. I worry a lot about Arnol especially with him and Rosa, his girlfriend, expecting a baby in a few months. He is currently going to a vocational program to learn about computers and he loves it! The first thing he tells me everyday after I get to the building is the different things he learned. I pray everyday about his continued growth as a person and as a soon to be Dad, I remind him whenever I can that we will all be here for him as he and Rosa embark on their challenging journey of parenthood.

Exams! So Interamerican School has wrapped up the first Partial of school! This was quite a challenging period for me and my students. I am so happy with how my kids have adjusted to my method of teaching and teamwork. They are a great group of kids, even if some days I have trouble remembering that. Some of my kids surprised me so much these past few weeks. They studied hard for their exams and tried to make everyday better than the last in the classroom. I also just recently grew to 18 students! Since 18 is my favorite number this means that this year is meant to be amazing! If I keep going I will end up talking about my school until your ears fall off so I'll move on to recent events this past week.

Semana Santa! Semana Santa or Holy Week is underway here in Honduras. During the Holy Week all schools have vacation which means a nice relaxing week off for Mr. Corey... well not so much. David and I are hosting a group this week and they arrived on Saturday. Yesterday they spent the day at Breaking Chains and cleaned and scrubbed our church room! I loved their work ethic and seeing them fall in love with the people that live at the ministry. They also paid for a water filtration system to be installed at the building which will allow us to better serve the street population by being able to provide clean water to anyone who needs it! Then today was Build Day! As anyone who has built a house with me will tell you, I am next to useless on a build site. I do some work but I like to spend the majority of my time playing with the kids and talking to them about their school. Today we built a house in Rio Abajo a community near the Dump. The family has 11 members in it and were in need of another structure where they could spread out and live more comfortably instead of in their current very small mud house. One of the people living in the house is 7 year old Melvin. I like to say that I speak U-12 Spanish, which means I have passable Spanish when talking to kids but atrocious spanish when talking to adults. Well, Melvin and I talked about his school, his family, his pets, and then we talked about how excited he and his family were about the house we were building for them. We have many more awesome things planned with this group and I can't wait to see what else God has in store for our week!