A month full of surprises, visitors and activities In Honduras Christmastime already starts in November and of course we joined the pleasant anticipation. We decorated the house, put up the tree and prepared the Christmas crib, so all children realized, that the special time of year was about to come.
New «temporary» kids From necessity the three siblings Rixi (8 years), Alexi (11 years) and José (12 years) knocked on our door. During his daily work cutting and collecting wood, Alexi cut his finger with a bush knife very badly. Returning home after a long working day, Alexi’s mum was shocked and worried about the injury. As they are impecunious, the mum didn’t even have any painkillers to soothe her son’s agony. The next morning the three kids decided to come by «Yo quiero ser» to ask for help. Our doctor took care of Alexi and luckily saved his finger. For us this was a great opportunity to ask the siblings to stay with us. As Alexi, Rixi and José always had to work to support the…
Collaboration with the Japanese embassy Our foundation „yo quiero ser…“ in Honduras is the link between the public school “Centro de Educación Dioniso de Herrera” and the Japanese embassy for the renovation project of the school. It means, that we are in charge to oversee the construction and that we can ensure that the Japanese donations will be used appropriately for the defined cause. This elementary and secondary school counts approximately 1’000 students and is located on the outskirts of a slum. The school was in a utterly devastating condition; the roofs about to fall apart and the electronic installations a real threat. Since November, the renovations are taking place and the project should be completed by the beginning of February. This would enable the teachers and their students to start their school year under much better conditions.
Birthday kids Due to the number of birthdays we celebrate, we decided that all children born in the same month get to celebrate their big day…
Safety To ensure enough safety for our inhabitants we decided to increase the overall height of the wall surrounding our lot and provided it with a barbed wire fence. This adjustment has another advantage and made our boys very happy. Even though our soccer field is surrounded with a net to catch the balls, some still find their way out of our lot into the neighbourhood where the balls stay hidden forever. That means that the higher wall increases our safety and decimates at the same time the loss of balls. But at the end we count on our guardian angels which support us on all our walks of live.
Bakery Our youth care worker Karin bakes twice a week with the older girls. They provide us with a lot of delicious baking. For breakfast there's bread, as a snack chocolate croissants, buns, muffins, etc. and for lunch or dinner chicken tacos, chicken potpie, pizza and many other goodies. Slowly our girls have grown into proper bakers and cooks and they also have developed great joy and fun…
Dia del Niño In Honduras do all children impatiently wait for the 10th of decembre because it is “Dia del Niño” what means children’s day. On this special day all children were dressed in a new outfit, sponsored by Greta and Peter Hofmann. At school they had different games planned, festive food was served, gifts were handed out and the Piñatas were neither missing. Our high school kids handcrafted their own Piñatas for the „Dia del Niño“. They formed different objects with paper mâché and stuffed their centre with candies. Afterwards they banged, blindfolded with a broomstick, onto the hanging object until the candy fell out and everybody jumped on it. Not only the 10th of September was special, all month has been quite different because each Sunday did we welcome visitors. Once a group from a salsa school, medicine students from the university, a youth group from church and one Sunday did our friends from Gran Comission come bye. All of them brought presents along, food, great…
Festivities at the schools Some of our turtles took on a day trip to the kindergarten. The adventure of our reptiles was based on the idea on how to present the state of Atlantida. As we know are our children very imaginative and innovative, starting at the earliest age. When they were faced with the challenge on how to present the state they just learned about, they wanted to create an adventure. We were very supportive and liked the idea of bringing the turtles to the class room. What else could have represented Atlantida better? The children were very excited and it ended up being a huge attraction for the whole school. Many wonderful presentation about the different states were showcased, along with them was traditional food served from the different areas and typical dances were presented by the students. The kindergarten girls were all dressed in folk costumes and the boys in “Garifunas”. Those garments gave the final authentic touch on stage and created a great ambiance. At…
Carolina Cross Connection This month we were once more blessed with the regular visits of our Carolina Cross Connection- Friends form the USA Each Tuesday and Wednesday they came bye and had some great plans for our children. At one occasion they brought violins along and the children had the chance to experience how it is to play a stringed instrument for their first time. For approximately five hours we had a constant violin concert, I leave here some space for imagination . Our girls and boys which are 12 years and older, were invited by CCC to a weekend camp in Peña Blanca. It is a beautiful place, like an oasis. The children spent 3 days with same aged children from 4 other children homes and made a lot of new friendships. They had plenty of time to bond, to laugh and to play. It even had huge swings which went over a river, that’s where they spent most of their time. After 3 days they returned back home with colorful t-shirts, designed by themselves, big smiles and plenty of…
Inauguration ceremony for the 2nd storey 6th of June the inauguration ceremony took finally place, the children were longing for this event quite a while. For this special occasion, Gerard van Kesteren, our angel and sponsor, travelled all the way from Switzerland, with his lovely wife Teresa and the board member Giatgen Scarpatetti and board member of Kesteren Foundation, Martin Aerzethauser, to San Pedro Sula to be part of it. On the soccer field tents were put up and the tables were set up for 100 people. At 11 o’clock the first guests arrived including the local TV and radio station. After the opening speech, Mayte and Gerard cut the band, after old traditions and the bishop consecrated the new storey. During the aperitif did the children present songs to express their gratefulness and presented some dances to say thank you. A folkloric dance group from church had also an appearance and animated the Swiss guests do dance along and showcase their best moves. After the main course,…
Wonderland At the moment is Honduras facing an extreme heat front. The temperatures are reaching easily 40 degrees and the government decided that the school time must be shortened. During two weeks the children finished school at 10.30 a.m. instead of 1 p.m. We took advantage of the great weather and spent a whole day at the water park wonderland. The little ones had their fun with the water slides while the bigger girls were excited to dance with the animators. The heat was soon forgotten and the moves dominated their short time of fame. Everybody was left speechless than they were able to keep up with the professionals. It was great to watch.
Rotaract The Rotaract Club San Pedro Sula invited us to a dental examination at an other children’s home. The afternoon started off with some explanations about the oral hygiene and how the children can protect their teeth, afterwards they received some hands-on instructions on how to brush the teeth properly. Later they were split into groups…
Silke Silke Ramsch from Hilzingen Germany spent six month with as a volunteer. While the children were on summer break she taught them English, helped labelling all school books for each child and ensured that everything is ready for the new semester. At the end she even helped us painting the walls and pipelines oft he new building which turned out beautifully. The music association Schlatt am Randen, where Silke is a member, organized a Christmas concert to the benefit of the childrens home “yo quiero ser...”. The company Dachser, for which Silke used to work, organized a fundraising campaign as well. It is very touching to know that people are generous and moved when it comes to children, actually to our children. They feel connected to us through people they know and are ensured, that their donations are going where most needed.
Semana Santa The last years we used to spend the easter week in Santa Rosa de Copan. Unfortunately, this year it wasn’t possible due to a damaged pipeline…
Finishing and furbishing the new storey While the construction of the new storey was completed in no time, the painting and furbishing took a bit longer than anticipated. Furthermore, was the electrical installation quite time consuming but end of March the first storey was ready to move in, kids friendly decorated and furbished as desired. The children who had the pleasure to move in were utterly excited about their new rooms and happy that the time of improvisation was finally over because the smallest girls slept in the dining hall of the Sala Cuna, the older girls in the living area of the staff house and the youngest boys had to find some space between the big boys. There was chaos everywhere because nobody felt at home and therefore neither responsible to keep it tidy. Thanks god, almost everything is finished only the wooden flooring of the second floor has to be pre-treated and painted before the rest can move in. Our young girls have to be patient for another week or two but…
New storey on top of the main building Reto Blattmann, Sepp and Erwin Annen, Helmut and Samuel Zurbuchen traveled on the first of February, together with Luisa and Paul Scarpatetti, to San Pedro Sula with a mission on their minds. Within only 3 weeks, they wanted to build a new storey on top of our main building. This project has been funded by our board member Gerard van Kesteren and the construction firm Strüby AG from Seewen Switzerland did the planning for this large-scale project.The construction was done by the Swiss professionals and one local crane operator whereas Reto, the project manager, had the lead. He was also the one who drew all the sketches which enabled the experts to design the final plans. On the first day, the crew covered the 35 / 13 meter surface of the building which was necessary to be properly prepared for the wooden elements which were soon to arrive. The specialist were ready to get started, unfortunately did the seven containers only get delivered on day…
Santa Rosa de Copan Since the school vacation started in November, the weather didn’t do us a favor. Due to the heavy rain was it impossible do go to Santa Rosa de Copan for a holiday. Beginning of January did we decide, despite the ongoing rainy weather, to hit the road and travel up to our vacation home. The children as well as the employees were highly appreciative for this change of scene and enjoyed the days in the different environment greatly. The project in Santa Rosa de Copan is progressing which pleases us all. Help was nonetheless needed then the land had to be cleared of the wood. With all the helping hands was it an easy task and the land is now ready for the next steps. In the evening did the children enjoy playing table games while during the day they were very creative coming up with new outdoor games. It was wonderful to observe how the older children integrated the smaller children in their activities which kept everybody happy and busy. Our cook had a couple days of…
