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!

Victor's Trip to Honduras: Chapter 8: I Tawt I Taw My Lord Jesus

Chapter 8: I Tawt I Taw My Lord Jesus

The van was a bit of a tight squeeze. There were six kids and ten teens and adults. Also, I had two suitcases with stuff for the boys (darn bulky soccer balls). I was expecting to have the bigger suitcase on my lap, but they wouldn't hear of it. Two of the mothers took them leaving me comfortable but feeling very ungallant . The one nice thing is that the main roads in Honduras are actually pretty good. No bouncing over potholes or anything like that. The drive was quite pleasant and I chatted with Miriam while enjoying the view. There is a conspiracy by the cell phone company Tiga to take over the country as evidenced by the numerous houses painted electric blue with the Tiga logo covering one wall. We had found out last time that they offer to paint people's houses for free if they agree to becoming a free billboard - hey, as long as you don't mind blue, why not? But if you gave directions, there would be no point saying "My house is the blue one with the Tiga sign on it" - your guest would be hopelessly lost.

In case you are wondering about my title, on this drive I saw the weirdest piece of religious art I have ever seen in my life. It was on the back of a bus; a drawing of Wiley E Coyote asking Tweety Bird, "Do You Know Jesus?" This raises all sorts of questions but also answers some. The fact that the coyote knows Jesus explains how he is able to survive falls off of cliffs and numerous catastrophic failures by various products of the Acme Company. I'm not at all sure that he's an ideal evangelist given his homicidal tendencies nor why he has chosen Tweety Bird to try and convert. Mind you, given Tweety's close calls escaping becoming cat food, he might already know Jesus. My biggest regret on the whole trip was that I was unable to get a photo of this provocative piece of artwork, but both the van and the bus were moving. Alas.

Last year, there was an earthquake in Honduras. Nothing like the one in Haiti, but at the time, I had read that the bridge crossing the river into El Progresso had fallen. I had worried at the time; particularly for Axel's family as their house is on the side of the mountain, but apparently there was not much damage beyond the broken bridge. I decided to play dumb tourist and get my picture taken on the edge of the fallen bridge. The first house we reached was Jon's - they live on the outskirts of El Progresso so we were able to unload three people and get everyone a lot more comfortable. They had been sitting in front and Carlos took advantage of them getting out to come and claim the seat next to me. He pulled my arm over his shoulder and snuggled up to me in a way that was most touching as we drove up the rutted, mountain road to Axel's house. Getting there, we all got out and went to see him. I found him sitting in the front portion of their house with his arm in a sling. I could tell he was very disappointed at having missed the adventure and I could hardly blame him. I sat with him for a bit, chatting through the translator letting him know how much I'd missed him and then I started to give him the various presents I had brought. I always start with the clothes first; that is what they are going to be the least excited over, so build up to the good stuff. He really liked the soccer ball, but his eyes totally lit up at the ball and bat. So did Wilson's - I'm sure between the two of them it will get a lot of use, though poor Axel will have to wait for his arm to heal.

They told me that the dog they had had last year (Pimpa) had gone to the great beyond which was hardly surprising given that the poor thing had looked to be on its last legs. They had a new puppy called Champion and I was struck by the oddness of the fact that my sponsored kids all have dogs with English names while my dog has a Central American Indian name (Cocoa). We hung around for a bit, but I could tell that we needed to get the show on the road, so I said goodbye to Axel and promised him I'd come again soon and that we'd make sure he got to go along on the next adventure.

Victor's Trip to Honduras: Chapter 7: Circumnavigation

Chapter 7: Circumnavigation

Yea, the title is a fancy word. As a boy I was fascinated by explorers like Columbus, Magellan and Prince Henry the Navigator. I'll use any excuse to use that word; sue me :) . One thing that we had not done up to this point was float down the lazy river. You know what I mean; every water park has one. This slow-moving river that rings the park. Being worn out from hiking up to the slide a dozen times, I talked the boys into going for a float down this. Miriam was being a tad overprotective (to be fair, it's her job, I know) and said that Wilmer was too small as he wouldn't be able to stand. She wasn't keen on Carlos going either, but I told her we'd go in a double float and I wouldn't take my eyes off him. In fact, the water wasn't too deep for him to stand, anyway. The older boys and a couple of the girls came as well, as did Jessica, the other translator. I suppose it took us about half an hour to float down the whole river and get back to the start. There was all the sort of stuff that you would expect; splashing, going under waterfalls, the older boys horsing around and dunking each other. Just as we were getting to the end, I could see Carlos starting to get cold, so it was good timing. Miriam said that we should start getting ready to leave. While the kids had had a total blast, I could see that some of them were getting a bit tired, so it worked out fairly well. I quickly changed and then told Miriam that I wanted to get a shirt from the gift store for Axel since he hadn't been able to come. Originally, my plan had been to get all three of my kids a souvenir T-shirt, but I wanted to do something special for just Axel given how things had turned out. I didn't think it would help much, but perhaps just a bit. His grandmother picked out one she thought he'd like and we went with that. We exited the park and the driver went and brought the van around. While I was very sorry that poor Axel had broken his arm, it accidentally made me realize the best strategy for maximizing time with the kids - have CI bring them to where ever you are going to take them and then ride back with them to their houses. That way you can see their home still, but without using up valuable time in the morning. Plus, you can give them whatever presents you have at the end of the day. Depends on the logistics of the area, I suppose, but for anyone planning a trip, I suggest you try to do it this way.

Victor's Trip to Honduras: Chapter 2: Unlucky Break

I got a call first thing in the morning. It was the C.I. office in Honduras to re-confirm that I would be picked up at 10, but also to tell me that the oldest of my sponsored children, Axel, had broken his arm the day before and would not be able to come. I later found out that he had been climbing a lemon tree to get some lemons for his grandmother and had fallen. The break wasn't too bad; the doctors thought that he would not need a cast, but the C.I. representative didn't think he should come on the trip. In any case, he wouldn't have been able to swim, so being there watching the other kids have fun while he could only sit might have been just as bad as not coming. I was disappointed of course, but more so for Axel. These kids don't get many chances like this and to lose it because of bad timing on an accident was just really sad. I'm determined that I will come back and make it up to him before too long.


The C.I. van did show up - in fact, 15 minutes ahead of time. Along with the driver was Miriam, the translator who is in charge of El Progresso - the town where Axel lives, along Mack's two kids - Jonathan and Axel's older brother Wilson. She had been there last trip and I was happy to see her again. She wanted to take me to see C.I.'s new office in San Pedro Sula, so that's where we went first. The office we saw last year was apparently a building that they were only renting. This was one that had been built new and was owned by C.I. Not that there was anything shabby about the last one, but this one was nicer. It was two story and had plenty of office space. The parking lot was kind of funny - space being at a premium, all the cars were jammed into a walled area with no extra space at all. Either the first one there has to be the last to go home or everyone leaves at exactly the same time. I met several of the staff, all who were very friendly. After that, I was ready to go see the kids, who I was told were waiting anxiously outside the water park. Off we went!

Victor's Trip to Honduras~ Chapter 1- The Loot

Victor's Trip to Honduras

Chapter 1: The Loot

I had been planning this trip with Mack for several months but the day before I was scheduled to leave, Mack called to say that she was too ill to travel. It was disappointing; more so for her than me, of course, but I was sorry not to have the company. I told her I would cover for her kids at our planned expedition to the water park - I wouldn't be bringing them gifts, but at least I could do that. I flew over to Florida the next day and hit Target fairly hard. I was going to hit WalMart as well, but the one closest to the house of the friend I was staying with had just closed down. I thought WalMart put other people out of business, I never knew that they went down themselves. Perhaps Target did them in - it was huge.

Either way, I was straight. I got a bunch of clothes, a soccer ball for each of the boys, racecars, markers, some other toys for the younger two and a bat, ball and glove for the older one. The politically incorrect side of me bought a camouflage shirt for Axel and Carlos as well. Fortunately, I didn't have too much of my own stuff because it took up most of my two suitcases. Tip when flying to Honduras - fly TACA - they let you take two bags with no extra charge. I got off the plane and I had left behind cold Florida (how often do you hear that!) for warm Honduras. I've no doubt that it will be water park weather tomorrow.

Anyway, I am in my hotel and the CI van is due to pick me up tomorrow at 10:00 - I can't wait!

Mack & Victor's Trip to Honduras Part 11

CI Day, Part 11 – More Shopping:

The only kid who had not yet received any gifts (except the ones I brought her) was Carlos' 14-year-old sister. Victor very kindly took her to a large department store to pick something out as a "thank-you" because she writes all Carlos' letters for him.
Whether you're a Honduran boy, or one of any other nationality, it is always totally boring to wait around while a teenage girl tries on shoes! First, we messed around some with my camera, taking photos into a mirror … but then the kids discovered the escalator! Up and down and around and around they went, following Connor's bad example and trying to run up the down escalator, and vice-versa.
Next, I contributed to the boys' delinquency by encouraging them to take the wigs off the mannequins and where them on their own heads. One of the sales ladies yelled at us to "stop it", but I just shrugged and told her, "Sorry, I don't speak Spanish. I have no idea what you are saying." We weren't hurting anything!
FINALLY, the women were done with their shopping and we could all move on.
Victor's thoughts:
In fact, this is where I got something for Carlos’ brother. I knew that all the boys would be playing with the toys so there was no need to get something specific for him. I hadn’t know about Carlos ‘surprise’ brother as Mack put it; the one who was a year younger than him, but also figured that he’d be getting to wear Carlos’ clothes in short order as he grew out of them.
We went to this store – sort of a Honduran Macy’s – because I asked Carlos’ sister what she would want. She wanted shoes – nice ones with heels – what is it with women and shoes, anyway? She picked out a pair, but then we went upstairs because I wanted to buy an outfit for Carlos’ 12 year old brother. That took a bit of time; I had sister, mom and the translator with me and the boys’ department wasn’t easy to find. Once that was out of the way, our shopping was done!
Mack again:
I just have to add that even as a woman I really don't understand the shoe obsession, either. I only own two pairs of shoes: beat-up sandals for when it's not raining + water-proof army boots for when it's wet out. If I have to dress up nice, I borrow flats from my mom. I got married bare-footed

Mack & Victor's Trip to Honduras Part 10

CI Day, Part 10 – Toy Store Fun:

We had seen a toy store on the way in through the mall, and we wanted to take the boys there to pick out something frivolous. The CI staff and the mothers seemed to be against the idea, claiming that the kids didn't need any toys … but we ignored their protests.
It didn't take long for all four boys to decide that they wanted remote control trucks. Meanwhile, my mother did some shopping for Wendy's three daughters back home. She felt bad that we had not known about the youngest girl, who'd been left out when I gave gifts to her older sisters (but was also too young to know it had happened).
I think, at this point, Victor also bought something for Carlos' surprise brother. I really never got that family straight, so I'll let him explain.
Victor's thoughts:
We had gotten the boys shoes, but I did want them to be able to buy something ‘fun’ for themselves as well. Of course, all the women said that they didn’t need anything more, but as King Lear said “Oh, question not the need!” They all picked out some decent sized remote controlled cars. I wondered about batteries, but apparently they had internal, rechargeable ones, so no problem there.
Again, prices were not that great in the mall store; cheaper than in the US but not considerably so. The advantage was that those were big toys which would have taken up a lot of space in my suitcase but buying them there meant that the kids could enjoy a big toy as well as all the little ones we have brought them as well.

Did you say that you needed someone to help?

Look at these faces!!!! These are only a batch of pictures that I have in front of me that are for the children waiting for their turn in the fundraising line!!! Every child has a story to pull at your heart-strings. It is difficult right now as we try to get through this slow time for donations.

Each one of these families has special & urgent needs. I am glad that they will each get a chance. There are still several requests waiting for responses from the field. If your name is on this list, and you have the SNQuote & pics back from CI, please forward them ASAP. I need to set up the pages for these:

Robyn

Jennifer

Su (I need the pics only)

Steve

Stephanie

OK... Now, based on the list of ones we are waiting for responses for, I am pretty sure some of there kids on this blog will get their fundraisers bumped up. We already have a lot of kids waiting for our help (as you can see), so hopefully, we will get the other responses soon.

I will start project #14 on October 1st, and we will just keep plugging along on these fundraisers. The key is to never forget WHY we are doing what we are doing!!!

I have such a unique "job" (albeit un-paid). I get to know each one of these children as I set up their pages, look at their pictures, and hear about them from their sponsors. I feel like I have 50 sponsor kids all to myself!!!! I am so grateful that all of you have chosen to share your experiences, love, devotion, and monetary contributions with the group.

Together we are changing lives, one child at a time!!

Mack & Victor's Trip to Honduras Part 8

There was a Nike sneaker store adjacent to the food court, so we headed there next. The kids spent a long time choosing and trying on new pairs of shoes … and less time picking out socks. C'mon, how interesting can socks possibly be?
According to Connor, who knows such things, the Nike shoes in the Honduras mall were only slightly less expensive than they would have been in the States. Like $50, instead of $70 a pair. I don't know how much exactly, since I was afraid to do the math! All I know is that we kept a couple of sales girls VERY busy for 20 minutes!
Victor's Thoughts: We wound up in the Nike store because we wanted to buy them something. We'd brought them to a mall, so of course we wanted to shop! The moms at first were reluctant; we had brought so much with us for the boys already, it seemed they thought that it didn't seem fair to ask for more. But of course, we wanted to buy more, so they agreed that a pair of shoes would be nice as that was one thing we had not been able to bring. I'm not surprised that the shoes were not that much cheaper than in the US, as they are imported but I imagine the kids will be quite proud to wear them. I let the staff of the store earn their salaries; at least they knew at the end of it all, they'd have a nice sale. I didn't hurry the boys because I wanted them to get the full experience of shopping and being able to chose the pair that they really wanted. It occurred to me that they should get socks, too, so I suggested that to the translator to make sure the boys got some. Carlos wanted to wear his shoes home, but his Mom quite firmly told him no.