Victor's Trip to Honduras: Chapter 9: Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Chapter 9: Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

With four more people gone, we had plenty of room now and drove on to the town of St. Rita where Wilmer and Carlos live. Carlos remained glued to my side and every couple of minutes he would just look up at me with his eyes all wide and smile. I really can't put into words how that made me feel - let's just say it made me melt inside and leave it at that. When a kid looks at you like that, you are reminded just how important you are to them and how much of a difference you are making in their lives. I hope everyone on this blog who sponsors kids gets to receive that look at least once - it makes it all so worth it. Honestly, it made me to resolve learning Spanish better. I know enough to get by, but not to have a decent conversation with a young person. I'm told Rosetta Stone is the way to go so we'll see.

St. Rita is probably about twenty five minutes drive from El Progresso and Wilmer's house was the first stop there. I hadn't seen his before, so that was new. We had to park at the base of a hill and walk up. Their house was fairly decent as far as these things go; better than Axel's and not quite as nice as Jon's - probably about the same as Carlos'. Wilmer was very excited to see what all I'd brought for him and seemed just as excited about the clothes as the toys. He gave me some really tight hugs in the course of it all. If their house needed anything, it would probably be some better furniture and Miriam told me she was going to suggest to his Grandmum that they might want to use some of my next donation to do a bit of home improvement. She also told me that "You are like an angel to these families." I say that not to inflate myself but to reiterate that all the rest of you are held in just the same esteem by your own sponsored families.

Back in the van, it was now just me, the driver, the two translators, Carlos, his Mum and his siblings Jose and Mitza. He knew that we were soon going to be at his house and held me even tighter. We got to his place and I got out and went inside with the family. With various family members gathered around, I gave him his share of the loot. His dog Blackie made an appearance and I am happy to report that he's still looking quite healthy. Blackie, as you may remember from our last trip, isn't actually black!

I didn't mention it before, but I'd brought pictures for my kids of my home town and dogs and such. I also gave Axel and Carlos framed pictures of me and them from the last trip. In the case of Wilmer I just gave him a framed one of me. I stayed as long as I could, but knew that we had to go. I gave Carlos a big hug and then went and got in the van. Miriam came out behind me and told me that poor Carlos was crying because he didn't want me to go. Well, I had to go back and give him another hug and promised that I'd be back soon. Of course, 'soon' to me is a long time to an eight year old kid, but what can you do. I was ready to hide him in my now empty suitcase and he'd probably have been quite willing, but I think the translators might have noticed.

Oh, one other thing - I probably shouldn't say it because I'm sure you are not supposed to, but I slipped 250 Lempiras (approx $15) into the front pockets of the new jeans I'd got for each of the boys along with a note saying it was for them. That way, they will just discover it randomly when they are wearing them. Up to them if they want to tell anyone about it or just buy themselves something they want. Either way, I hope they indulge themselves.

Miriam, Jessica and I talked on the way back to El Progresso where they both live and then I was alone with Santos the driver. He didn't speak English and my Spanish wasn't good enough to carry on much of a conversation, so I just rested. It was now dark, anyway, so not much to see out of the window. Before too long, I was back at my hotel and planning the next trip. I had asked Miriam about the possibility of taking the boys to a soccer game on the next trip. She said that it had never been done before, but she called her boss and she said it could probably be arranged. I know the boys would have a blast and I'm sure I would too. My three boys and I all root for Olympia whereas Jon (and Mack) root for Maraton so the ideal situation would be to find a date when those two teams were playing each other. And, of course, Olympia will win!

That's really it for the CI portion of my trip. The next day I took a fantastic eco tour. If anyone is interested I'll do one more entry on that, but I'm not such a narcissist that I think anyone wants to read my rambling travelogues if they don't involve my sponsored kids!