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 Carlos’ mother had abandoned the newborn boy on the lawn next to the hospital. The social worker found him in a dismal state, they named him Juan Carlos and brought him to IHNFA. We even had a local TV network broadcasting on Juan Carlos’ case and we enjoyed the day in Gracias with a simple picnic at the park and the visit of a colonial castle.
The kids spent the remaining days swimming in the pool, enjoying the unlimited freedom and the peace and quiet.
Christmas
Here in Honduras it is common for children to wear new clothes at Christmas. Thanks to generous donations, our children, too, were able to present the new fashion. We savored a wonderful dinner together (pork, rice, mashed potatoes) with apples and grapes for a very special desert. At midnight, we had traditional Tamales and ice cream. On the stroke of twelfe p.m., we gathered in front of the Crib of Christ to listen to the Bible verses on Christ’s birth. Then we spent hours playing volleyball and everyone went to bed on a full stomach and happy minds.
On St. Stephen’s Day, we were invited to pizza. The kids love going for pizza, which is a very special event for them. To our great surprise, our new one-year old Ana ate two entire pieces of pizza.
New Year’s
After having dinner on the soccer field, we watched videos of the kids we took during the year. There were hilarious episodes among them and everyone was having great fun. Just before midnight, we mused about the expiring year 2011 and everyone wrote down their bad habits on a piece of paper. We put them in a cardboard figure, which we ignited at midnight.
With friendly hugs and the best felicitations we started into the new year 2012.
Visitors
Various organizations, churches and schools visited us to play with the kids, brought little presents and sometimes passed entire days with the children. Our children prepared a special show with dancing and singing for one group and the audience was very pleased at the performance.