Soccer field Our 3-year old soccer field was in a dismal state due to poor construction. Not only sneakers and crocs, but also kids’ toes were affected by this. The kids accomplished an amazing task and took away the old surfacing and filled the holes with cement in manual labor. The new surfacing also saves us some soccer balls.
Inauguration drive of the new bus to Santa Rosa Our longtime-loyal bus has become too small by now. We’ve used it daily to drive the kids to school for 4 years. Unfortunately, it only consisted of 14 seats, which resulted in two kids having to share a seat and being short of space. Thanks to Mr. Odermatt’s generous donation, we could now purchase a bus with 29 seats. The inauguration drive led us to Santa Rosa de Copan during Christmas vacation. We spent 5 wonderful days there and one day we went on a trip to Gracias Lempira, Juan Carlos’ native city.
The judge and the social worker couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw our little sunshine boy. Juan…
Soccer team Real España The national soccer team Real España from San Pedro Sula and the company Foam Honduras provide a social project with a bed or with mattresses with every goal scored. Our children’s home, too, is a project supported by them, which is why we were able to participate in a press conference, in which the kids could meet the national stars, talk to them, and urge me to take lots of pictures. For the kids, it was a special experience to see the soccer players and to become aware of the fact that those “men” are normal people, too.
Graduation Deyvin Meza, the oldest of our kids, is the first to complete elementary school. It is common here to celebrate this with a graduation party. During his last school years, Deyvin stood out due to his helpfulness and loyalty rather than his good marks. Everyone liked him very much and the nuns didn’t want to let him go. Here in Honduras, few children get the opportunity to go to high school. Many of them can hardly afford…
Visit from Gerard van Kesteren Our foundation council’s member Gerard van Kesteren visited us for the second time in October. We all were really excited about his visit and our kids prepared a surprise for him. 8 kids sang typical Honduran songs, Enrique sang a solo and a group performed a play.
After the performances, we were ready to dance. Gerard even had the courage to dance punta with Maria. He got everyone of us a „yo quiero ser…“ tee and treated the kids to ice cream in the afternoon. We enjoyed our time with him and hope that he will come back soon.
Children’s home gathering CEPUDO is an organization that provides us with food, polish, toiletries, and gifts on a regular basis. Once a year, they organize a reunion of several children’s homes from Honduras. On that day, more than 600 girls and boys met here in San Pedro Sula. In the morning, various games were on the agenda and in the afternoon we had a Miss and Mister CEPUDO beauty contest, with a disco to round off. We sent…
Pavilion Our area includes a total of 15.000 square meters. We have 5 buildings as well as 3 mango trees, 3 Avocado trees and 5 coconut trees. However, since we lacked a shady place outdoors, Edwing built a pavilion for us. It now also functions as a gathering place for visitors, or as a place for study as well as a common venue.
Corn Crop As I mentioned in the last couple of newsletters, we are owners of a cornfield. In August, we were ready to harvest the corn. Our cooks performed a feat for us to savor various corn dishes such as Tamales (corn pastries with peas), Mantuca (corn pastries with pork and chicken), Elotes locos (corn mash), Tamalitos (corn mash similar to polenta), Riguas (corn tortillas) and Fritas (deep-fried corn).
IHNFA Our children come from the state home (IHNFA). This home repeatedly had problems during the last couple of months, with the staff going on strike in August. Imagine a children’s home with 150 kids and no staff! Our kids participated in a children’s…
Behavior & Sanctions Since many of our children are pubescent and prepubescent, we had to introduce a method to be able to control them. Thus, we now complete a feedback for every child, every day. A total of 25 aspects is being evaluated. Those include:
1. Body Hygiene 2. School achievement and diligence 3. Behavior at the dining room 4. Obedience 5. Attention with things 6. Bedroom tidiness and cleanness 7. Fighting 8. Performance of little chores 9. Vocabulary 10. Punctuality 11. Not walking around shoeless etc....
All the educators evaluate every child and the feedbacks are filled in together. For items not accomplished, crosses are assigned. Evidently, the goal of the month consists in receiving as few crosses as possible. In order to eliminate the crosses, the kids have to perform tasks such as wiping, cleaning, collecting wood, etc.
Vacation at Santa Rosa de Copan On June 29, the saint of the city, San Pedro, is commemorated. Due to this fact, the children were on a holiday…
From this month on, we have a new family of employees at our home. Victor, 39 years of age, is employed as educator and responsible for agriculture, while his wife, Blanca (22 years old) looks after the little ones of Sala Cuna in the mornings and does homework with the older ones in the afternoons. They have a one-year old son, Daniel, who also lives with us.
Our students go to a private nuns’ school called Laura Vicuña. Since May is the “Month of the Mother of God”, they had a special religious program during the whole month. One morning, they had to be at school at 5.00 a.m. to say a rosary, with subsequent procession. They also had to go to school at evenings to pray for an hour. The month of May also is the merry month of May. We adopted the literal meaning and converted our home into an agricultural home. Since our home is full of little, green spots, Victor planted a variety of vegetables with the kids: Tomatoes, Capsicum, as well as cornfields. If everything grows nicely,…
The first week of April meant a lot of studying for our 27 students, because the first midterms were on the agenda. Our educators and the teacher spent every afternoon preparing them for their exams so that we could joyfully collect their grades. Together, they have an average of 5,3, the best reached a 5,7 and nobody went below 4,5. We’re very pleased by these results, which represent the fruits of our daily work and reassure us of the fact that every child is on the right track to fulfill their dreams.
Furthermore, Easter week was just around the corner. In Honduras, this is an intense religious week on the one hand, as well as a tradition of going to the seaside and celebrating on the other. Many people lose control, which makes the situation here in Honduras even more dangerous and unpredictable than it already is. In order for our children to avoid those circumstances, we were granted a week of relaxing holidays at a Finca in Santa Rosa de Copan. Although the house is very small,…
Currently, we have 5 infants at Sala Cuna: Mayte, Elvin, Alden, Wendy and Josue. In order for them to be able to experience a special day, we took them to the seaside and spent the whole day at the beach of Puerto Cortes. Our little ones had heaps of fun dabbling in the water and playing with sand.
March 11 was Patricia’s 30th birthday. The children sang the “Mañanitas” in front of her room at four a.m. That’s a custom which shall bring luck to the birthday child. Foundation council member Gerard treated the kids and the staff to a tasty lunch, a cake, a floral bouquet, and a Piñata. Thanks a lot, Gerard, for this wonderful surprise. The day was completed by a “disco” at the children’s home.
The main attraction of the month is represented in Juan Carlos. The little, abandoned boy was lying in a little bed at IHNFA, the public home, as Edwing and Patricia saw him. At IHNFA, infants are scarcely looked after. He immediately caught their eyes with his special charisma, which resulted in…
On February 7, the time had finally come for the children to go back to school after 3 months of holidays. However, it is a big organizational issue to get ready. Here in Honduras, children have to wear a school uniform, which means that we have to buy two uniforms for every child. Our children go to a private nuns’ school. Currently, we have 27 students, two of which are in preschool; we have two 1st graders, five 2nd graders, thirteen 3rd graders, three 4th graders, one 5th grader, as well as one 6th grader. Our children are among the classes’ best, and thus among the school’s best. We’re very pleased by that fact, since it is a little sign to us that our daily work pays off and bears fruit. School starts at 7.00 a.m. and ends at 12.00 p.m. After lunch, everyone has to do homework before they can go and play.
On February 20, we went to Cerro azul Meamber Park (Fog-Rainforest). It takes about 1½ hours to get there by car from San Pedro Sula. The hike took us 3 hours and we saw…
