Finally, today I arrived in Chicago O'Hare airport! I was only about 14 hours late arriving. I decided that since I was not able to update a lot throughout my trip I would write a longer blog now that I am home. Here we go.
Day one: I arrived in Honduras and finally felt some warmth! It was beautiand ful there were mountains everywhere and everyone was very welcoming. We went to the hotel and got settled in just spending the night getting to know everyone and learning what we are going to be doing through the week.
Day two: The second day was a calm one because it was a welcoming day and just getting to know our surroundings. We began by going to Por Venir where we drew with the kids about our lives and played with them trying to become accustomed to using Spanish. I soon learning that the little Spanish I do know was very helpful and that although there was a language barrier there were other ways to communicate. We then went to Siete de Abril which is the largest squatter village in Honduras and where Shin and Cosmo (the founders of SHH) saw Carmen who inspired them to help the children in Honduras. It was sad to see all the poverty but there was beauty in the closeness of everyone in the community. We then went to Villa Soleada (the village that SHH created) where we had a surprise. The people of the village had made a balloon arch and the children had made happy new year cards and welcome cards. It was very beautiful. The kids then preformed dances and we got tours of the village.
Day three: This was the first day of work. We started in Villa Soleada and learned that we were going to be digging ditches, 2 feet deep and as wide as our shovels. This would be for piping that would allow the houses to have running water as soon as they can get the water tower up. It went very quickly and we made it a lot of fun by making up songs and just being cheerful. We then had our first day of teaching at Por Venir where we started with addition which most of the children were way far past, most knowing division. We also taught them A, B, C, D, and E in English as well as words that started with them in both languages. It was a lot of fun! That night we had salsa lessons, which were surprisingly easy and not surprisingly fun!
Day four: This was the day that we got to sleep in!!! It was nice to get an extra hour of sleep. Then we went to the market to get souvenirs. We got to have lunch at Baleada express which was AMAZING! From there the day got a little bit sad. We went to the orphanage Infa. Infa is state owned so the adoption process is very complicated and out of state adoption is impossible. Most of the kids there are there for the long hall. The only hope most of them have is when they are babies, then private orphanages (that are church owned) adopt them. The kids just wanted to be loved and played with and we were happy to provide them with this need. Everyone was running and playing and I would say playing with them was more work than shoveling!
Day five: Another day of work to start. The other group had finished the digging so now we needed to lay the pipe. The problem with this was that it had rained so we needed to get the water out of the ditches, the ditches are small though and buckets couldn't fit and so we used bowls and such to get the water out. I got very muddy because I had to be kneeling in the dirt to reach the water. As well this was the day that I got bit by ants, they were no fun. The kids saw me freaking out and decided it would be funny to start throwing random bugs at me and just making fun of me. We then of course had another day at Por Venir where we taught them more body parts in English as well as the months in English. That night we went to the Mall (which contained a grocery store) where got snacks for the movie we watched later that night called Sin Nombre, it was really good but sad as well. It was in Spanish but we had English subtitles on and it did not make it hard to understand.
Day six: This was our last full day of work :( we filled the ditches and completed the water system! The day went by slow because it was really hot, the sun was out for once! We had to take more breaks and we got exhausted quickly. We still got our goal accomplished and now the Villa Soleada project is ahead of plan. Por Venir was going to be sad because we were saying goodbye to a majority of the kids. The teacher knew we were tired so it was a short day, we went over math for a majority of it, reviewed what had taught them in English, and then they were allowed to make cards! We got out early and got to play with them for over an hour. They were very sad to see us go. That night some of the families meet us at a restaurant and we all ate dinner together. There was dancing with the kids as well as all the reflection groups we had preformed our dances as well! It was so much fun but very tiring.
Day Seven: We woke up and headed to Villa Soleada for an expected tree planting ceremony, not expecting that we would be planting an entire garden. We planted to two identical gardens with trees, each of us paired up with a kid and planted a tree. The villagers thankfully pick axed the garden for us, most of us were not prepared for digging or anything of the sort. We named our tree Flore (which means flower in Spanish). It was a nice ceremony. We then packed up the busses with us and 40 kids and headed to the beach. It was an hour drive and it was beautiful. The weather was great, although I was getting burnt so I spent a lot of time in the sun, I had a relaxing time all around though. We then went back to the hotel for dinner, to pack, get ready,and to have a refection. After the reflection a majority of people went to rooms to drink a bit before we went to the bar that night, I choose to write in my journal. The club was a lot of fun! We danced a lot. I left with one of the SHH employees and some other girls that wanted to go back to the hotel about a half hour before everyone else and fell asleep!
Day eight: We had to leave for the airport at 9am and my flight (a majority of our flights) weren't til 1:25pm. Well, that was what we thought, we found out soon that our flight was delayed an hour, well until we found out that it was delayed until 3:50pm, I was worried about making my flight in O'hare or any flight for that matter. We passed the time quickly in the Honduras by playing card games and it was a lot of fun! We bonded a lot in the airport and it made it that much harder to say goodbye at Atlanta. When we arrived in Atlanta we found out that we had missed every flight to Chicago (and a few others to their destination) by minutes! They provided us with food vochers and a hotel for the night and I got a flight to O'Hare at 8:30am.
Overall my week was amazing. I realized how much I take advantage and got my eyes opened to so many things. It was the best thing I have ever done and can not wait to go back (yes I'm planning on going back). If any of you want to go let me know and I can get you more information! I deffinately suggest it! I will post pictures later!
Hope you all are well!
(Above)
