Return to Honduras
Juan Carlos and Patricia spent a few weeks in Switzerland and came back home to the other children at the beginning of September. Although they arrived late in the evening, all the children were awake and greeted them with candles, self-picked flowers and banners. The children’s eyes shone like little stars.
Dia del Niño
September 10 is the national day of the child in Honduras. This holiday arises from November 20, 1959, when the General Assembly of the United Nations came together with the goal to celebrate the universal rights of the children as a special day in every country of the world. On this occasion we received visitors every weekend of the month. Different organizations such as the Red Cross, the church Great Commission, a religious group from San Salvador and a secondary school class sent people to celebrate this day with us.
Most of them brought a delicious lunch with cake and piñatas (colored container filled with sweets), played with the children and did dance-competitions and so the children spent wonderful children’s days not only on the holiday itself but on every weekend.
Recently received children
Our “yo quiero ser…” family has grown since September 11. The three brothers Josue Daniel (six years), Yoac (three years) and Jancerk (two years) have been abandoned by their 22-year-old mother. She left the children with a neighbor and never returned. The neighbor grew desperate after a few days and as the family did not want to look after the three boys, they were given to the country curate who asked us to accept them.
The state of health was poor; the two youngest had huge stomachs due to parasites and the oldest one is malnourished. All they wanted to do in the beginning was eat. By now, they are all well and they got used to the everyday life quickly.
However, Josue Daniel has difficulties sticking to rules, as he never had to do this in his entire life. He is in first grade temporarily in order to get used to going to school. His brothers are in the Sala Cuna and are very happy by now.
Santa Rosa de Copán
September 15 is the national day of independence and due to this, the children have one week of vacation. As always we went to Santa Rosa de Copán.
This time, we did not have any water or electricity in the first few days, so we had to get water from the spring with buckets. This experience helped everyone to appreciate the comfort that we normally have.
In Honduras, it is dark at 6 p.m., which means that the children are forced to go to bed that early. They were, however, all awake by 5 a.m. the next day.
This change of scenery does everyone good and life there is simple and down-to-earth. We all get to relax a lot and the children enjoy the swimming pool and the unlimited freedom of the natural environment.
Gathering with other children’s homes
This year, as every year, the children’s home Emanuel organized a gathering with 17 children’s homes. On this day, more than 600 TOMS shoes were given to the children and the afternoon was loaded with surprises for those present. Among others, Polache, one of the most famous singers of Honduras, attended the event. The children were asked to feature as choreographers and Carlos did a very good job. At the end, it was only him and Polache on stage and he was selected as the best dancer.