Mack's 2010 Trip #8 – Jonathan

A post by Mack:

I wasn't lonely at the park because 15-year-old Jonathan was happy to hang out with me all day, along with his 17-year-old brother, Jimi. We spent a long time playing a game I call "Tube Tag", where the person who is "It" tries to throw an inflatable ring over the head of another player. The captured player then becomes It, and must catch someone else. (See the video on LiftOne for a demonstration of the game)(which cannot be properly played while holding a camera). Another favorite game was for us to stand up on the edges of the tubes and try to knock each other off balance.

Jimi was a riot. He loved to playfully harass his little brother, and try to embarrass him. At one point, Jimi communicated to me that I should 'make' Jonathan go and play on one of the kiddie slides. Jon had a "Do I really have to?" look on his face, but Jimi pushed him into the children's area, saying something that must have translated as "Go on. If you're sponsor says you gotta do it, then you gotta do it!" Once Jon was up at the top of the slide jostling the 5-year-olds for a position in line, a grinning Jimi pointed to my camera and insisted that I capture the moment on film.

Mostly, the three of us (or four, when we dragged Wilson along) rode down the slides in one huge tube, but one of the slides required us to use individual tubes. Jonathan insisted on carrying mine up to the top of the hill for me. Jimi decided that if Jon was going to carry mine, then he really should carry his big brother's too. Jonathan looked so cute staggering blindly beneath a whole stack of tubes!

I had fun with Jonathan and his brother, but I hope that Wilson didn't see all the time that I spent with them as me playing favorites. I tried my best to lure him into our games, but he didn't seem interested in joining us. I didn't want to force my company on the kid, but I can't help fearing that he was just shy and was actually hoping to be forced a little. Anyway, Wilson seemed to have a good time at the park, regardless. When he wasn't tagging around after Darwin's sister with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, he seemed to bond best with Carlos' brother. This is strange since they live in different towns and have only met (I assume) one time before, when Victor took everybody to Zizima in January. I wonder why Wilson and Jonathan aren't better friends. They live near each other and they are in the same grade at school, plus they share an awesome sponsor, so I'd think they'd be best buddies. "Why aren't you two friends?" is the kind of personal question that you just can't ask your sponsored kids. Even if I was rude enough to ask, I probably wouldn't get an honest answer (for instance, "We belong to rival gangs at school, and we have to fight the impulse to beat each other up every time you take us somewhere together."). I think the children only tell us sponsors what they think we want to hear. Seriously, am I really expected to believe that all my kids just LOVE doing chores around the house? Someday I'd like to get a letter that says, "At home my job is to sweep the floor, but I really hate doing it because it cuts into my soccer-playing time, and besides the floor will just get dirty again in, like, five minutes. What's the point in even sweeping it, huh?"

Mack's 2010 Trip #7 and #8 – Wilson/Jonathan

These are the only photos that I have of Wilson and Jonathan together. I didn't think to have them pose for one while we were there. I also didn't think to get a picture of me with just the two of them, I never think of this stuff until it's too late! Miriam took a photo of the three of us together on CI's camera, so maybe she will send a copy to me? I don't know, cuz I only got photos from my 2009 visit (both of me and Wilson). Miriam was shocked and horrified when she heard this, so they will probably make a point of sending me a lot this year.

Mack's 2010 Trip #6 – Children's Day at Zizima

A post from Mack:
After changing into swim clothes, we started out the day playing on rings in the wave pool. I think that was the favorite activity for all of our kids, and they probably would've been happy staying there all day. The wave machine was turned on occasionally to add excitement, and about every 15 minutes, a big barrel filled with water and dumped down onto the heads of the children waiting eagerly below. (You can see it in action in the background of the photo of Victor's three boys)

Our "camp" was set up in the shade near the wave pool, where the mothers sat in chairs and guarded our stuff. We would return there for drinks, breaks from play, and (in my case) to switch out camera batteries. All was well until we tried to venture forth into other portions of the park.

I was afraid that my older kids were getting bored in the wave pool, so I petitioned the group to relocate to the slide area. Chaos ensued at that point … well, for me, anyway. I wanted to go down the water slides with my boys, but I also wanted to be on hand to document every moment of our park experience on film*. This task turned ugly, because now everyone was scattered hither and yon. Most of our group members were engaged in the cycle of zooming down a slide, then hiking back to the top to go again (happily, the lines to ride were nowhere near as bad as they get in the U.S.). But the slides were too scary for some of the younger kids, so Sam and Darwin disappeared into the kiddie area and Victor took Carlos on a float around the circular "river". Somewhere during all of this, little Wilmer was discovered missing. An immediate hunt took place, and he was quickly located playing by himself in "Laguna de los Micos". (I have looked up the Spanish translation of "micos" and have learned that it means either a long-tailed monkey or the external parts of a woman's genitals. I assume the park was aiming for the former definition, because their mascot is a monkey.)

*I should mention that I was using my scuba diving camera, so I was free to frolic in the water and take endless photos all at the same time.

We re-grouped and returned to the wave pool, while Victor went to order lunch for everyone. This was where the park's over-population problem really hit us. The line to order food was long, and the line to pick it up even longer. Eventually, though, we were all seated with our drinks and chicken boxes. Ick. At least it was inexpensive chicken, as I heard Victor saying that the bill for feeding 23 people was only $60. Sixty is the magic number at Zizima, I guess.

After lunch, I brought out about eight inflatable beach balls for the kids to toss around. First, they had to be inflated, which proved to be a difficult task. Jonathan was able to blow his up right away, and Axel eventually managed one. I'm not sure how the rest got done, but the kids had a really great time once the balls were round and ready to go! The older ones showed off their soccer moves, while the little ones just knocked 'em all over the place. At 15 cents each (on a post-summer bargain table), the beach balls were well worth the money I spent!

The kids were allowed to play for probably longer than they should've been … but all too soon, we were told it was time to leave …

To be continued …

Mack's 2010 Trip #6 – Children's Day at Zizima

A post from Mack:

Before we get started, here's a quick review of our group's Honduran sponsored kids …

I sponsor two boys: Jonathan and Wilson

Victor sponsors three boys: Axel, Carlos, and Wilmer (not to be confused with Wilmer in Guatemala).

Sam sponsors one boy: Darwin

Joining us on our day out would be a mother/relative for each child, plus a collection of siblings. I only know the names/ages of my own kids' sibs, but here's the breakdown:

Jonathan = One brother, Jimi (17)

Wilson/Axel = Two sisters, Sayda (13) and Soreli (9)

Carlos = One brother (13?)

Wilmer = One sister (7-ish) + one cousin (11-ish)

Darwin = One sister (teenager)

Our CI hostesses were Irene (the sponsor relations director) and Miriam, one of the women who accompanied us on our mall trip in 2009. Jessica, our other 2009 hostess, could not join us this year because she is expecting a baby, but I got to see her during my visit to the SPS headquarters.

We arranged to meet the CI reps and our children at the Zizima Water Park entrance at 10 am. This allowed me plenty of time in the morning to slather my entire body in ridiculous-looking white sunscreen. At about 9:30, we loaded the back of a taxi with gifts galore and headed to the park.

When we arrived, there was a line-up about a half mile long waiting to get inside. This was surprising, as the park had been practically empty when Victor took the boys in January. We'd expected a better turnout this time around, but nothing like the crowd that milled before us!

While Sam and I waited with all the stuff, Victor took a look around to see if the CI vans had arrived. They had, and he was actually able to spot our group amongst the masses. Fortunately for us, the mothers had staked out a position near the front of the queue waiting to enter the park. The only thing we lacked were our tickets, which I planned to pay for with my credit card. Irene went with me, and together we schemed to lie to the ticket agent about the number of people in our party – claiming that we had MORE, not less! We needed to purchase entry tickets for 23 people, but if we'd had 25, we would pay half-price for everyone. It wasn't entirely a lie when we told the park employee that we were a group of 25 … we simply bought tickets for the two van drivers, even though they had no desire to come with us into the park. With the discount, the total for everyone's tickets came to about $60.

To explain the crowds, Irene told us, "It's Children's Day in Honduras, of course. That's why you came today, right?"

We had to admit that we had no clue about the significance of the day we'd selected for our visit. It was complete dumb luck. Besides, I wasn't entirely sure we were lucky to be sharing the park with so many other guests. With the place so packed, it was difficult for us all to stay together and do things as a group. On the other hand, Victor thought that this second visit to Zizima was better than the one back in January. All park activities were in full swing and there was plenty to do. The other time, the staff had been reluctant to even turn on the water slides for such a small number of guests, and only one restaurant had been open.

To be continued...

The Sponsorship Scam~ AKA Jon and Wilson Pick up Their Packages Together

I received letters from my two Honduran boys after sending them packages back in November. I opened Wilson's first, and was startled to see him photographed standing next to JONATHAN'S mother! My first thought was, "I guess all the child sponsorship critics were right. The whole thing is a scam. They hire people to pose for pictures and attend sponsorship visits, but this time they forgot which actress was supposed to play the mother of which boy. LOL

Of course, Jonathan's mother was also in the photos with her own son. It seems she must have escorted both of my kids to the community center to pick up their packages on the same day (the families do live fairly close to each other). I've always wondered if Jon and Wilson ever spend time together outside of my/Victor's visits, and now I guess it's confirmed that they do. I'm glad that I sent both boys the same items, but I'm embarrassed that their letters were basically the same, with only small sections personalized on each. Should I start writing totally different letters to the kids, so they will know that they are individually special? Dang, that would be a lot of work!

Greetings Dear Sponsor:

I greet you very affectionately along with all people around you, I hope our Holy Lord bless you and to your family.

I want to thank you so much for all you sent me and thanks for the presents you sent me, you are so special and important in me and my family's life.

I am enjoying of my vacation as I finished my primary school and I hope to continue the secondary school this coming 2010.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and that this year 2010 be a successful one for you and your family.

I love you so much and I always pray for you.

I say goodbye to you with a strong hug and a kiss.

Your sponsored child, Wilson

Jon Receives his Christmas Package 2010

Jon's letter in response to the package that Mack sent him:
"Greetings Dear Sponsor:

Hello! How are you? I hope you are well along with your family and may the Lord bless you today and always.

Well, I am pretty good, thanks to God, and so is my family.

Thanks for the presents you sent me, and I am happy to hear that you went to Mexico and that you enjoyed your anniversary. May the Lord bless your marriage.

Yes, my brothers are nice with me and I tell you that I am so happy to hear that you will come to visit me again and that we will celebrate my birthday together. I love surprises.

Well, take care of yourself. I love you so much and I am so excited for your visit day!

Jonathan"

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 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 6: Sliding

Chapter 6: Sliding

Perhaps fifteen minutes after we had all finished eating, I led the kids back into the water. They STILL hadn't turned on the big slides, but they had water flowing over most of the small ones and that satisfied the kids - especially the smaller ones. Of course, boys being boys, several of them were soon doing things that they were not supposed to such as climbing up the slides after going down them. It took them a while to figure out that the guy with the whistle was blowing at them and telling them not to do it. For the most part, I was right there playing around with the kids. Wilmer in particular, seemed happy about this and he kept calling "Padrino, padrino!" ("Sponsor, sponsor!" for those who don't know Spanish) trying to get my attention to join him on one slide or the other. I keep meaning to tell the kids that they can call me Victor, but where I live it's actually considered rude for a child to call an adult by his first name and I don't know what it's like in Honduras. A kid here would call me Mr. Victor if he knew me well - I really need to ask the translators what's the best way to handle it.

It turned out that we were waiting for the water park staff to finish lunch to turn on the main slides and at last they got them going. Well, actually, they didn't turn them all on, they sort of rotated which ones were on, but that wasn't an issue. There was no line to wait as the park wasn't very full and you can only go down one slide at once. The trick was that you had to walk up a substantial slope to get to the top (while carrying an inflated tube to ride on) so you'd get tried pretty quick doing it over and over. Carlos was somewhat intimidated by the size of the slides, but agreed to go with me. Needless to say, Jon and Wilson had no hesitancy about it and went down repeatedly. Carlos and I went down a few times and then I found Wilmer and asked if he wanted to go as well. He was even more intimidated than Carlos, but I could see he wanted to try it too. He and I went down twice but after that I was more or less worn out from lugging the floats up to the top, so figured we should try something more mellow as we only had about an hour left in the park.

Victor's Trip to Honduras: Chapter 3: The Flying Tackle

Chapter 3: The Flying Tackle

The water park was only about five minutes away from CI's new office. We pulled up in the van and I saw the kids and their various guardians standing around in front. I was barely out the door before Carlos came running up and hugged me so hard that he almost knocked the breath out of me. I got down on one knee so I could hug him back and he held onto me for the longest time. Then he went over to his mother, got something and came back to present it to me and hug me again. They'd had a picture of him done at a portrait studio somewhere and gotten it framed for me. Rather appropriately, the picture frame featured the WB cartoon Tasmanian Devil character. The picture had his name on it, as well as the date it was taken. It was a total coincidence, but the day it was taken was my birthday - January 10th, so that made it extra special. He also gave me a bag full of tamales that his mum had made for me.

I saw Wilmer standing there with his grandmum and sister. Of course, I only got him last year, so we had not met before. I went over and said hello - he was a bit shy as I had suspected, so I was careful not to overwhelm him. I knew the kids were all ready to head into the park, so I went and paid and everybody got plastic bracelets. I was also expecting to have to buy a lot of swimsuits, but in fact everybody but Jon's brother Jimmy had one. Miriam explained that CI had made sure that the families got swimsuits out of the last set of money that I had sent down, so they would all be prepared. Most of the kids were already wearing them, so a minimal time was spent changing and then we went into the park itself.

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!

Letters from Mack's boys

Wilson (above) and his letter (below)

Jon (above) and his letter (below)

Mack wrote:
"Here are the two letters I got from Jonathan and Wilson after they received their musical Christmas cards. I sent them packages quite a bit earlier, but I guess the cards arrived first."

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!

Special Donation for Jon in Honduras

A letter to Mack from Jon:

Hello! How are you? I hope you are in good health and may the Lord bless you and all your family and I tell you I am well, and that I am attending school and I am doing well, thank God.

My family and I thank you for the special donation you sent me and we are so happy because we purchased a food basket and a long cushion (mattress). Thank you for everything and may the Lord pay you.

I am greeting your mother and other family. I am playing soccer a lot, and also with the car.*

I say goodbye to you. So long,

Jonathan

*That Mack bought him during their mall visit

Doesn't Jon like Washington State?

Mack wrote:

These are the photos from the 1st package I ever sent to Jonathan in Honduras. I'd lost these, but I found them again while cleaning the house recently. Jon is wearing the shirt that I sent him that time in his most recent CI picture ... but he doesn't look happy about it, lol.