Kids at School and Play

Ok, I am a little behind on my blogging (sorry mom). Yesterday was such a long day that by the time I got on the computers I uploaded some pictures got caught up on blogs and comments from those watching (please keep the comments coming, they are great to read) and then needed to head back to play `Celebrity`with the rest of the group. The way I performed, I should have stayed here and blogged ;-)

As people have probably read, we went to the technical school yesterday. We gave a ride to a 21 and 22 year old boys from St. Fransis, who were going to be doing work at the Technical School for the day. The 22 year old boy, I believe he said his name was Saul (at least that is what it sounded like.) He wore a hodded jersey, with the hood up, as his face was cut up. He told us that he had been jumped by a gang just outside El Hogar. It is hard to know why he may have been jumped, if it was random or perhaps not-so-random. Either way this young man just seemed to want to talk to a few people. Perhaps I am just a sucker, or seeing something that was not there, but there was something sweet in his lost eyes.

At one point during the ride we got pulled over. We later found out it was because the van didn`t have reflective tape on the front of it, but when we were pulled over Sahul had mentioned a woman had been kidnapped the night before and that perhaps the police were looking for information. It was a little reminder of what lies beyond the safety of El Hogar.







Institute Tecnico Santa Maria (ITSM) St. Mary's Technical Institute











Thankfully the rest of the ride was uneventful. When we got to the school, after making a trip to the baños we got a tour of the school, starting with the sidewalk that Jason and Tara laid the foundation for a few years ago.

We then got to see the 3 existing shop classes (Wood, Metal, and Electrical) and the soon to be Auto shop.

We got to see the boys in action and some of the work they have produced. They are really quite talented. In the wood shop one boy was working on a hutch-china cabinet I know my mom would love and a group of boys were working on vases to give to their teachers for Mother`s Day.

In the Metal shop we saw metal crosses and candle stick holders that were beautiful. It is amazing to see these boys create things of beauty after having been through so much. Just like the children at El Hogar, the Home of Love and Hope, the boys at the Technical School are just as inspirational, if not more so.

After checking out all the shop classes we got to checkout the dorms. You will notice the bars on the windows. They tell the boys the bars are there for their own safety, but the truth is it is to keep the boys in (though not necessarily for the reasons you may think...) The bars are not there to stop the boys from running away, but to stop them from sneaking out to meet girls.

During this trip we keep making the observations about how universal childhood is and what being a teen ager is. No matter what the backgrounds kids play the same and teenagers do stupid teenage things. It is a nice reminder that as a whole we people aren`t that different. We may not look the same or speak the language but our behaviors as humans can be quite similar. After this trip perhaps I will remember that more.

Next stop - lunch. Anyone who read the blog yesterday saw what lunch looked like. But in case you missed it, here is my reaction to it.

We`ll just say it was interesting. The soup had cooked bananas (that tasted like potato), cabbage and melon with some kind of beef (like beef stew meat, but more fattier). I thankfully was able to eat it all (as we can not leave food on our plates), but like someone said, I will not be trying to make this at home.

After lunch we got to see the chapel and what will be the computer room. The buildings are really quite beautiful. The chapel does not have windows and doors at the moment (which is ideal this time of year), but will become critical when the rainy season hits. They will be putting in stained glass windows which I am sure will look absolutely beautiful.

When waiting for the group to leave Mark B and I got the same idea to checkout the sound of running water behind the school. It was some natural beauty alongside the beauty of the architecture and the boys at the technical school.

When we got back to El Hogar we got changed for Day 3 of `Move the Sand`. The fun challenge today was moving the sand into a section of the property that a wheel barrel could not easily get to from the pile of sand. So we spent the day shoveling sand into a wheel barrel, dumped the sand from the wheel barrel at the closest point that it would fit, and then on the other side of that point shovel the sand into another wheel barrel and move the sand to the required spot. Didn´t follow that description? Don`t worry about it, not sure we completely got it either, but it was what was needed to be done. A few blisters aside, it was a good day of work. I didn't have my camera with me, so checkout the other blogs for potential goofy pictures (not that I posed for any myself).

Dinner was once again eggs, refried beans and corn tortillas with hot sauce. The more times we eat this the more hot sauce we add (Ivan should you come to El Hogar, I highly recommend you bringing a supply of hot sauce with you) . I had a little of that and some instant oatmeal just to add a little variety to the evening.

Once dinner was over, it was time to play. I got to spend a little more time with Wilmer (who I mentioned kicking the ball around with the day before). We learned about his family situation from Claudia the day before. They don`t know who his mother is, but his father is an alcoholic that Wilmer used to watch over when he passed out. Wilmer often wanted to see his dad, but the last time he went with his dad, his father did not return him. It took the police 3 days to find Wilmer to bring him back to El Hogar. His father no longer sees him (assuming he is still alive, as people suspect he may have AIDS). Wilmer has just the cutest disposition. You watch him play by himself and he appears to still have that sense of fantasy and imagination which surprises me after all he has been through. Later in the evening a group of boys were playing soccer, excuse me futbol, with Lori and Diane. Wilmer was playing goalie but asked Lori to stand in for him. I watched Wilmer as I was curious as to why he was leaving the game. There is a woman at El Hogar who has a hard time walking and she was dragging a bench so she could sit and watch the game. Wilmer went over to help move this bench that probably weighed more than he does. To see a boy that age being that observant and thoughtful was just surprising and heartwarming. I hope he doesn´t lose this as he gets older. He truly is a very sweet boy.

Here is a picture of Jason giving a letter to Eber Raul from his sponsor, and fellow MathWorker, Helen. It was like Christmas and Jason was Santa Claus when he pulled out this letter. Eber Raul just lit up and all the boys swarmed around to see.

I spent some time tonight walking around seeing what the children were doing. I stopped into the library and the kids were eager to show me their books. I did not stay long as it became evident that they were supposed to be doing homework. Oops. Funny how they forgot to mention that ;-) I ran into Eber Raul and he was still going through the postcards of Boston with messages from Helen. He asked me to read them to him again. You could see how much getting these letters meant to him.

Other activities on tap besides homework and futbol was tic tac toe, drawing with chalk, hide and seek and of course throwing paper airplanes.

Tonight I only watched the paper airplanes, I did not participate in hopes of avoiding further injury.

Cristian loved showing off his chalk drawing of a pimped out Cadillac. How does one say pimped out in Spanish?

This little girl just wanted me to keep taking her picture. She loved the camera and as you can see the camera loves her too.

Here we have more young ladies loving the camera!

We love to read `Beauty and the Beast`.

I then went back to watch the older boys play futbol as they had since taken over the game from the younger boys. There were a few of us sitting on the wall watching the game and playing with the younger boys. They would sneak up behind us and put their hands over our eyes until we said `Como se llama?`. They would then say their names in sily voices until we guessed them. They were just too much!

After sitting there a while, my buddy Ramone came over to sit. He never really tries to talk to me, but he sat next to me leg to leg and would just look up and smile. We just sat and watched the game and I rubbed his back. He just sat there with me, occasionally smiling, until the bedtime snack bell rang.

And of course there are the big kids at play! To the left Jason and Tara are showing Jen and Mark how to play Euchre (ok this picture is from the night before, but cards were played last night and I didn`t have a picture to show. I consider this taking creative license). To the right Diane had been playing tic tac toe. I think the competition was tired of winning and took off. Nice to see I am not the only one who can`t win at this game ;-)

After the boys went to bed and I uploaded some pictures I went to play Celebrity with the rest of the group. As I mentioned earlier I was not very good at it, so I will leave it at that. I then watched a few games of cards and headed to bed.

This was another full and amazing day. Sadly we are more than half-way through this trip and I am surely not ready for it to be over yet. Here is hoping the next few days do not go by too quickly.

Melissa