I really have no idea where to start. I´m tempted to start with the fact that I´m in Honduras... and there are probably bugs crawling through my stuff as we speak... but that´s probably not a good idea because I could go on all day about how much I despise bugs. I´ll just start from when we got here.
We arrived in San Pedro Sula and the second I got off the plane, the humidity struck (I´m not the biggest fan of feeling sticky all the time). We were greeted by a nice man named Nelson and two girls from Southern Adventist University named Hannah and Amanda. I can´t tell you how relieved I felt when we were on that car ride and they were spilling advice on me such as how to get rid of lice (yes. lice) and how we should watch out for tarantulas (yes. tarantulas). It was so nice to have people who have experienced what you´re about to experience and can give you whatever you need to know. I can´t imagine being here all by myself like they did.
We stopped to eat at a Seventh Day Adventist restaurant. This was my first meal in Honduras and I have to say, it wasn´t bad. I don´t think I would mine living off of this for 9 months. We were talking to Nelson about how he came to work at El Hogar de Ninos. He said that the founder or head of Reach International came to visit Honduras. He was trying to speak to the people in his church, but no one understood English. Because Nelson knew some, he was able to understand why he was here. He was planning to help out with an orphanage. Nelson showed him around different areas and when the day came for Reach´s founder to leave, he handed Nelson a 9,000 dollar check. He told Nelson that he saw a great need and that he wanted Nelson to build an orphanage with that money. The man never asked Nelson for reciepts or anything, he just gave him the money and trusted him with it. It was 1994 (i think... i have a terrible memory) and Nelson started building. He built El Hogar de Ninos with the money and they had started with 7 children. After many years, they grew and grew and helped more and more people. He says that now there are around forty children staying at the orphanage and being helped. Just hearing Nelson speak about El Hogar and the children and his mission reminded me why I was here in the first place. God´s love was definitely coming out of this man. You could tell that he really cared for El Hogar and the people in it. He said that when you do things for God, you have to be prepared for the blessings that follow. El Hogar doesn´t only take in children who have no parents, but they take in children who need help, who are being abused by their parents or malnourished.
Which brings me to the part where Hannah was talking about the children. The children really don´t like it when El Hogar is called an orphanage. The children do have parents and even though they´re not taking care of them as they should, they still hold on to that as strongly as they can. She was telling me how sad it is when the child has a father who doesn´t take the time of day for their children comes one day and brings them a glass of orange juice and the child keeps repeating that their parents do love them because they brought them orange juice. They just want to be loved and that´s something I´m so ready to do. I want to make sure they feel loved.
Arriving at El Hogar was great. When our van parked, kids started trickling out of the front and looking at the two new strangers coming out with their massive amounts of luggage. They were so cute and so friendly. I half expected them to be on the mean side of things because of all that they´ve been through. They´ve had hard lives, but instead, they come and they say hola and grab our bags and they just wanted to talk to us. I was really touched and I can see how much God is working through El Hogar. These children are well taken care of and they´re happy. I´m glad to be apart of this.
The next part was the hard part. It was the tour of the place. Our room was really hard to take in. I can´t really explain it. We live in the little boys room. There´s a wall and door that doesn´t go all the way to the ceiling and so everything we say and everything they say can be heard. I heard the kids screaming the song deep and wide at the top of their lungs while in the shower today. oh and we found our first cockroach today. It was clinging on to the shower curtain... which by the way... showers are ice cold. The room is very small, and our beds are pushed together because of it. We also made less room by pushing our beds away from the wall. we refuse to sleep next to the wall. We´re not a big fan of crazy bugs. My first night here was very difficult. I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn´t go back to sleep. I felt like there were things crawling on me, but I didn´t want to look. I rolled in a ball for a while until I finally convinced myself that all they would do is bite me and that can´t be too bad. We slept in until 10 which will be the last time because the schedule has us wake up a little before six in the morning every morning.
This is only my second day here and there is so much to say. I´ve been trying to speak to the kids in spanish, but I have to say... it´s not working. My spanish is terrible. The kids are laughing at my failed attempts. I´m learning though. It´s going to take a looong time, but I´m excited.
Oh and we got a fan in our room today!!! You don´t understand how happy we are to have a fan in there. We were dying in there. I tried to write in my journal, but I couldn´t think because of the heat.
Okay, I think that´s it for today. The internet is crazy slow and I won´t be able to post as much as I want to, but I´ll try.
Goodnight! I´m off to sleep with the bugs.. tear...
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