CI Day, Part One - Main office + Carlos' project + Carlos' houseWe arrived at the main San Pedro Sula office at the agreed upon time of 8:30 am. There, we met a woman named Irene, who is the English-speaking liaison person. I had assumed that she would be the one accompanying us on our visit, but she explained that another sponsor was there that day to visit SIX kids, so she was assigned to that person.(This made it seem like they have sponsors coming and going continuously, but later our CI representative told us that we were only the third sponsors to come visit any of the 30,000+ kids in her project area.) (I'm not sure of the accuracy of this information, because she was talking about huge numbers of kids in each sub-section, but the CI website says there are only 20,000 kids served in all of San Pedro Sula.)Anyway, we were told that we would need to wait 45 minutes for another representative to arrive and collect us. A couple minutes later, Irene decided that to make things quicker we should drive our rental SUV to another project office and meet the CI van there. She sent a man in a white truck to guide us. He drove like a maniac, weaving in and out of traffic. At one point, he even lost us completely. We were kind of scared, having no clue where we were or if we'd even find him again! It was all my fault, I guess, because Irene had asked me if she should tell the truck driver to go slowly, and I said, "No, let's go fast. Victor is a good driver." We drove straight ahead blindly for maybe 15 minutes, and the truck was waiting for us at the next intersection.
After probably an hour since the time we'd left the main office, we arrived at another Children International building. We weren't sure where we were, exactly, but we got out of the car and went inside. It was a modest building, with lots of adults and kids going in and out. We never got a tour, but I saw rooms with Spanish labels over the doors saying "Library" and "Medical Services".Carlos (almost 8) and his mother were inside. Victor recognized them immediately from the photos he's received, so he went over to say "hi" and give hugs. Probably 5 minutes later, a woman approached me, introduced herself (sorry, but I don't remember her name) and asked where my friend, Victor, was (in the restroom). She said, "Carlos should be around here somewhere; let me find him." I replied that he was right over there, and we'd already met.Since everyone was together, we headed out to visit Carlos' home. Our group returned to our rental car, while the Carlos, his mom, his sister + the representative got into a large van that had been rented for the occasion. I think we get billed for that later.We drove maybe 20 minutes to the remote neighborhood where Carlos lives. The driver made a wrong turn at first, leading us off the highway onto the wrong little dirt road. I'm wondering how that mistake was made, since the family was in the car with him. Probably, they told him the wrong turn because they aren't used to driving to/from their house?Carlos' house was constructed of brick, and was nicer inside than Victor had anticipated. Of course, he had previously sent money for them to buy a door and put cement over the dirt floor.We were ushered into the living room where we sat down. We politely declined drinks, not knowing if the beverages offered would be contaminated. Victor took out the gifts he had brought for Carlos. The kid seemed a little bit uncomfortable with the flashing cameras and so much attention focused on him, but he was young enough to adapt OK. First, he pulled out and held up all of the items in the backpack that Victor bought him - mostly clothes. Then Victor started taking the toys from another duffel bag, which earned him even bigger smiles from Carlos. The gift-giving session ended with a grateful hug!I had brought a pretty box full of stuff for Carlos' 14-year-old sister, Mitza. I also brought boxes of toys for his brother, Jose (12), and one for Carlos. Then we learned that Carlos had another 6-ish aged brother that nobody knew about, so I hope he got Carlos' toy box. The two brothers were not there. The older boy was probably at school? The younger one was with a sitter, but we met him later.We posed as a group for photos with the family members who were present - Carlos, his mother, and his sis. There is no father in the picture (both literally and figuratively). The representative asked if it would be OK if Mitza came shopping with us. The girl demurely shook her head, but it was obvious that she wanted to come. Of course, we didn't mind. I would have liked to take ALL the siblings of our sponsored kids out, but the van wasn't big enough for that.In the yard, we met Carlos' dog, Blackie. I knew that my Jonathan had a dog, so I'd brought plenty of treats - with extras, in case the other boys also had dogs - so Blackie scarfed down some Beggin' Strips.Now, it was time to get back into the cars and travel 40 minutes to the town where the rest of the boys live.
Victor’s Thoughts: Driving in Honduras was quite an experience. I realized right away you can’t drive ‘defensively’ like they teach you in drivers ed – you’ll never get anywhere. I soon figured out that the best thing was to think of it like a videogame and just go for it. Once I had my mind oriented that way it was both easier and kind of fun. Of course, my passengers might have had other thoughts on the matter!
I had expected we would meet Carlos at his house and was not expecting him at the center. It caught me a little off guard – I had intended compose a short greeting to him in Spanish but didn’t have the time and was lucky to get out “Hola, Carlos”, but I did get down on one knee and let him give me a hug. I didn’t want to overwhelm him – there were five of us in the group so I sort of let him get used to us before trying to interact with him much. Somehow he was smaller than I was expecting – probably because in all the pictures I’ve seen of him, he’s standing next to his very petite mother so my mental scale was off. But it was very nice to see this child I’d only had pictures of for the past three years actually in the flesh.
It was nice to see the difference that the improvements to the house had made – A couple hundred dollars here and there – while not much to me, had clearly given Carlos and his family a somewhat better quality of life. I brought an equal amount of clothes and toys and showed him the clothes first – saving the toys for last as I knew he’d like those better! He seemed to like the clothes a lot too, not as much as his mother did, though. I’d put the clothes in a new backpack which I also gave him as well. I also gave the family a framed picture of myself which they put up next to the TV – apparently a place of honor in a Honduran household since the same thing happened with my next child. Carlos was a very happy little boy when I had finished giving him everything and it was worth every penny to me just to see his smile.
After probably an hour since the time we'd left the main office, we arrived at another Children International building. We weren't sure where we were, exactly, but we got out of the car and went inside. It was a modest building, with lots of adults and kids going in and out. We never got a tour, but I saw rooms with Spanish labels over the doors saying "Library" and "Medical Services".Carlos (almost 8) and his mother were inside. Victor recognized them immediately from the photos he's received, so he went over to say "hi" and give hugs. Probably 5 minutes later, a woman approached me, introduced herself (sorry, but I don't remember her name) and asked where my friend, Victor, was (in the restroom). She said, "Carlos should be around here somewhere; let me find him." I replied that he was right over there, and we'd already met.Since everyone was together, we headed out to visit Carlos' home. Our group returned to our rental car, while the Carlos, his mom, his sister + the representative got into a large van that had been rented for the occasion. I think we get billed for that later.We drove maybe 20 minutes to the remote neighborhood where Carlos lives. The driver made a wrong turn at first, leading us off the highway onto the wrong little dirt road. I'm wondering how that mistake was made, since the family was in the car with him. Probably, they told him the wrong turn because they aren't used to driving to/from their house?Carlos' house was constructed of brick, and was nicer inside than Victor had anticipated. Of course, he had previously sent money for them to buy a door and put cement over the dirt floor.We were ushered into the living room where we sat down. We politely declined drinks, not knowing if the beverages offered would be contaminated. Victor took out the gifts he had brought for Carlos. The kid seemed a little bit uncomfortable with the flashing cameras and so much attention focused on him, but he was young enough to adapt OK. First, he pulled out and held up all of the items in the backpack that Victor bought him - mostly clothes. Then Victor started taking the toys from another duffel bag, which earned him even bigger smiles from Carlos. The gift-giving session ended with a grateful hug!I had brought a pretty box full of stuff for Carlos' 14-year-old sister, Mitza. I also brought boxes of toys for his brother, Jose (12), and one for Carlos. Then we learned that Carlos had another 6-ish aged brother that nobody knew about, so I hope he got Carlos' toy box. The two brothers were not there. The older boy was probably at school? The younger one was with a sitter, but we met him later.We posed as a group for photos with the family members who were present - Carlos, his mother, and his sis. There is no father in the picture (both literally and figuratively). The representative asked if it would be OK if Mitza came shopping with us. The girl demurely shook her head, but it was obvious that she wanted to come. Of course, we didn't mind. I would have liked to take ALL the siblings of our sponsored kids out, but the van wasn't big enough for that.In the yard, we met Carlos' dog, Blackie. I knew that my Jonathan had a dog, so I'd brought plenty of treats - with extras, in case the other boys also had dogs - so Blackie scarfed down some Beggin' Strips.Now, it was time to get back into the cars and travel 40 minutes to the town where the rest of the boys live.
Victor’s Thoughts: Driving in Honduras was quite an experience. I realized right away you can’t drive ‘defensively’ like they teach you in drivers ed – you’ll never get anywhere. I soon figured out that the best thing was to think of it like a videogame and just go for it. Once I had my mind oriented that way it was both easier and kind of fun. Of course, my passengers might have had other thoughts on the matter!
I had expected we would meet Carlos at his house and was not expecting him at the center. It caught me a little off guard – I had intended compose a short greeting to him in Spanish but didn’t have the time and was lucky to get out “Hola, Carlos”, but I did get down on one knee and let him give me a hug. I didn’t want to overwhelm him – there were five of us in the group so I sort of let him get used to us before trying to interact with him much. Somehow he was smaller than I was expecting – probably because in all the pictures I’ve seen of him, he’s standing next to his very petite mother so my mental scale was off. But it was very nice to see this child I’d only had pictures of for the past three years actually in the flesh.
It was nice to see the difference that the improvements to the house had made – A couple hundred dollars here and there – while not much to me, had clearly given Carlos and his family a somewhat better quality of life. I brought an equal amount of clothes and toys and showed him the clothes first – saving the toys for last as I knew he’d like those better! He seemed to like the clothes a lot too, not as much as his mother did, though. I’d put the clothes in a new backpack which I also gave him as well. I also gave the family a framed picture of myself which they put up next to the TV – apparently a place of honor in a Honduran household since the same thing happened with my next child. Carlos was a very happy little boy when I had finished giving him everything and it was worth every penny to me just to see his smile.
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