Another day, another lesson

I suspect this entry may be brief (well brief for me) as I just finished yesterday`s blog (http://mathworkselhogar.blogspot.com/2009/05/kids-at-school-and-play.html) and today was another busy day.

We started today like my other days - get up, make and/or drink coffee, head over to Devotions, eat breakfast (once again eggs and refried beans) and got ready to get on the road.

Today we headed out to the Episcopal Agricultural School and Farm. This school is a further distance than the technical school and it took us even longer having to sit in traffic for a while.

The school is really beautiful, it was a bit of an overcast day when we got there, but hope you get the idea.

We got a tour of the fields with lots of explanations on what they are trying to grow and some of the challenges we are having. Thanks to Mark B`s translations we were able to understand what we were being told. We were being escorted throughout the tour by two boys who had being doing most of the work (planting and maintaining of trees, building a green house etc).

We then got to see all the animals. Yeah I just can`t resist taking pictures of them. The animals in Honduras don`t seem to be any different than the animals in the States, but they were there and I had a camera...

Holy 2 Cows Batman these calves are identical twins.

The sheep were tired of us and heading into the great blue yonder.

Does this hen looked ticked or what?

On the way too and from the Agriculture school we got to see more of Honduras. Here is one picture I took as we were flying along in the van. It gives an idea of how cramped in all the small shack style homes can be.

When we got back to El Hogar it was our 4th and final day of work. As others have stated in their blogs, we did a lot of shoveling again today. My blisters now have blisters and I suspect I will wake up stiff yet again tomorrow. But that is ok, because it was work well done.

Dinner tonight was a nice surprise. It was the chicken and potato dish we had when we arrived Saturday afternoon. Yes there was still rice and corn tortillas, but no beans. Did you hear that - no beans!

After dinner and going through some older MathWorks trivia thanks to Jason, we headed out to spend time with the children. Tonight may be the last time we get to see some of the children so we wanted to spend as much time with them as we can.

Here is me and Ramone again. I love the smile and wave I get when I see him. I still don`t know his story yet, how he came to El Hogar, when he had the cleft palate surgery and if he has any family to speak of. After Mark T took this picture I got another one of Ramone`s thumbs-up!

After spending some time going around to see what was going on, I ended up at the futbol game that Tara and Stuart were playing with some of the boys. I joined in for whatever good I did. I did not play soccer when I was little and it showed. I occassionally got the ball away from a boy or blocked a pass, but really I just screamed like a girl a lot.

As the game progressed I started playing with this little boy, I believe his name is Santos Roque Sevilla. He accidentally bumped into me and I tickled him a little. He then kept sneaking up behind me and trying to tickle me. I would put my hands behind my back and tickled this boy who maybe came up to my waist. He would then squeal and run away. He would come and we would repeat. After a while I just gave him some tickle monster treatment and he would roll around on the floor with the biggest laughs coming out of this little person. There were times I thought he was going to bang his head he was laughing to hard, but he did not care. I am not sure, but I think this must have gone on for about 30 mins. To be honest I am not sure who was having more fun, him or me.

As a lot of things, our playing turned into tag and a few friends joined in. Then tag turned into swinging off the rafters and being wild animals that chased me all over the grounds. These boys really do have an amazing imagination which is so great to see.

Through all the hard times in their lives, they have not forgotten how to play. Life is short, play hard. Life is hard, play harder. The more time I spend around these boys, the more I seem to learn.

I hope at some point in time they are able to appreciate how much they give to those that join them here in El Hogar. For a few days they let us into their lives and their hearts and I know I am a better person for it. Now it is my turn to make sure I give of myself, the way these brave, sweet and loving children do.

But I will not figure out how tonight as we have another early day tomorrow and I am crashing. Only one more full day to go. How is that even possible? Didn´t we just get here? Time does fly when having the experience of a lifetime.

Melissa