Victor and Mack's trip to Honduras Part 5

At Wilson and Axel’s place, we weren’t offered drinks – they were automatically provided in the form of glasses filled with warm Pepsi. While the family’s generosity was appreciated, I was at a loss about what to do with my drink. I needed my hands to carry and distribute the gift bags I’d brought, and there was no good place in the front yard to set my glass down. The best option seemed to be drinking the stuff quickly, except I can’t stand cola. I honestly don’t know what happened to my Pepsi. I might have set it down on a rock and ‘forgotten’ it, or maybe I handed the glass to my mom (who hates cola even more passionately than I do)? In any case, I was less focused on the pop than on the awkwardness of passing out gifts to the kids.
Axel had quite an audience for the presentation of his presents from Victor. In his front “yard” (made of dirt), there were siblings, cousins, a bunch of random adults, plus the other sponsored kids and their mothers, who were watching the proceedings from just outside the fence. Axel accepted his gifts with the same enthusiasm as Carlos had, but, again, the older Wilson seemed more embarrassed about the spectacle and didn’t want to look inside the backpack of goodies I’d brought for him. I cut him some slack and skipped straight to the bag of soccer gear, which was particularly special because everything had the brand name “Wilson” emblazoned across it.
I had brought my own bag of things for Axel, along with tons of stuff for Wilson’s sisters (the two I’d known about, anyway). I felt bad about Jonathan seeing me give these things to the siblings of my ‘other’ sponsored child, because I hadn’t brought anything at all for his two older brothers. The reason for this was simply that I had no idea what teenage boys in Honduras want/need, and it’s super easy to shop for little girls – teddy bears, coloring books, and My Little Pony. I had brought identical gift baskets for the two mothers, so everything was even in that regard, at least.
I also felt bad that there were so many kids around the place who weren’t getting any presents. I’d tried so hard to make sure nobody would be left out! Luckily, I had brought over 200 candy canes along on the trip, so I had SOMETHING, at least, to pass out to the others.
My gift-giving inadequacy problems were solved – somewhat - because Axel and his sisters did not open their gift bags outside in the presence of everyone. The bags were whisked off to the back of the house, where the cousins and Wendy’s youngest sister were able to help explore the contents and share in the Christmas-like atmosphere. Also, Jonathan and his mother were not able to see how much I’d brought for Wilson’s siblings.
Victor's Thoughts: I wound up drinking Mack's coke; her mother passed it on to me. The logistics of handing out the presents were a bit tricky. I decided right away I didn't care about diplomacy; I'd brought presents for my sponsored child and I was realistic enough to know that probably all the kids around would get a chance to play with Axel's toys. One of the things I'd gotten was a pack of four nice water guns, so I was counting on there being other boys for him to play with. One of the translators came to help me; setting up a chair for Axel to pile the clothes on after viewing them. He showed equal enthusiasm about the clothes as he did to the toys in fact. Probably my most poignant moment on the whole trip was after I had presented all this stuff to Axel, he turned and whispered something to the translator. She then told me what he'd said; that he couldn't believe that all that stuff was for him. That more than anything else brought home to me what sponsorship can mean for a child who has really never had opportunities to own much that is nice and new. When he hugged me, I thought he was going to break my neck!
I sort of felt a little bad that Wilson didn't show as much enthusiasm as his brother had, but that's just the difference in ages again.