Events at the Hogar

Hello friends and family! I have been in Honduras for about 2 full weeks now. My Spanish is not near where it should be yet, but it is slowing coming along. I am learning that a lot of the time words are not needed to communicate with these children. Hugs, laughter, and quality time spent with them say so much more than any words could to them.

To back track just a bit, when I first got here it was so hard to be myself around the kids because I was, yes, worried about what they would think of me, silly as it may seem. All of the volunteers have assigned seating in the cafeteria, and I was assigned the table with the teenage girls…talk about attitudes! I never thought that the girls would warm up to me. One girl in particular was giving me extra attitude, but even though I couldn’t really talk to her in Spanish I tried my best to show her that I care about her… a week and a half in and no change on her part. She was still giving me attitude even when I would ask her a simple question. Last Friday night at vespers, to my surprise, she came and sat next to me. I didn’t think much of it because some of her friends were sitting near by as well. Half way through the vespers service she put her arm around me!! Not just on the back of my chair, but around me. I almost started crying. I had been praying so much that I would be able to show these kids love, and I was getting so discouraged… but that just made me so happy to know that something inside of her changed and she was able to see that I really do care about her. All of the children here, young and old(er) have been abused in some way, shape, or form. Most of the older girls have been sexually abused, and have had to have tough attitudes to try to protect themselves. I have to keep that in mind when they don’t warm up to me right away… it has gotten way better with the girls at my table. I am here for a reason, and if that reason is just to smile and laugh with these girls, that’s enough for me. They are all so precious.

Also, within the first week and a half I got really sick. I had a fever of 100.3, and had no energy… luckily at that time I hadn’t been assigned my responsibilities yet, so I was able to sleep a lot and take it easy. My fever broke last week, but I am not completely well yet. I have a head cold now, so please pray that I can recover fully soon. I thought that I would be working at the daycare here, or teaching, but I will not be doing either of those two things. Instead the staff here decided that they would like me to help around the Hogar with things here and there. My daily schedule goes like this… wake up at 5 a.m. every morning, fix breakfast, go to devotional, eat breakfast, then when the kids get back from school I, along with another volunteer, supervise the kids while they do their chores… then later on I help the 1st graders with their homework, then supervise the pool, then more chores, and then dinner. My day starts at 5 a.m. and ends around 6-6:30 p.m. Yesterday was my first day with my new schedule, and it was tiring, but I am up for the challenge. I wish I could get well soon so I could have more energy though.

I keep remembering things that happened. Sorry if this blog is really scattered… ha. Last week the kids were told that they had to clear a whole field by the end of the week, and they started last Sunday and were finished by Tuesday or Wednesday. It was a big field too! The staff saw how hard they worked and decided that they would reward them with a trip to a water park! We went last Thursday and had to leave at 5 a.m. for the water park because it was about 3 hours away. We went to a beach and then the water park for the rest of the day. It was so much fun! There were several pools with slides at the park, but only one of the pools were open the day we went. There was one big slide and no lifeguards anywhere! It was amazing to see all the dangerous ways the kids thought of going down the slide. One kid stood up and surfed the whole way down the slide, which I thought was extremely scary, but impressive. Ha. I didn’t get to dangerous with my slide experience… the worst was when I went down backwards in a train with about 4 other people. I think that was the most dangerous… ha. It was a lot of fun though.

On a more serious note… the old president made it back across the boarder yesterday, after being kidnapped and taken out of the country by force. All of this is causing rioting in big cities, and causing the current president to get a little uncomfortable. I don’t know the whole story, but I know that the old president wanted to be re-elected, whish is not an option here at all, and they have already tried to kill him off a couple times already… so, the president in office now issued a country-wide curfew from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. I have heard that that is his way of keeping the rioting to a minimum. The kids do not have school today, and they might not have school all week depending on how things go. We don’t know how long the curfew is going to last for, but I hope not long because I do not get done with my days here at the Hogar until after 6 p.m. So, it’s going to be interesting for awhile… if worst comes to worst we will have to go home early. I pray that things will not get out of hand, and that no wars start… I would really like to stay here and work with these kids for my full term… please pray for Honduras and all of the political situations right now. I don’t know what to expect, or what’s going to come of all this… but I know that God will protect us no matter what.

Thank you all for your prayers. I miss you all very much!

P.s. Sorry I can’t update this more… I don’t have wireless internet like I thought I would here… wish I could write you all individually, but when I do get internet in the library I only get one hour at a time, and they don’t like us using the internet very often. :( I love you all very much, and know that you are all in my thoughts and prayers…

The one week mark...

It's happened. I have been here one week as of tonight.. it's been an eventful week, and I am pretty happy with how much Spanish I have learned in these past few days.

Today we went to a water park with the kids. It was great fun! We left the Hogar at 5:00 a.m. and got back around 9. It was a long day... but all of the kids were really good.

I wish I had more time to write tonight, but unfortunately it's already late and I need to get up early tomorrow. I should have internet tomorrow night, so I will try to write more then...

Love you all!

I'm here!!

Thanks to all of the prayers that I know went up for me today.. I made it here to the Hogar De Ninos safely.. I am exhausted.. but, I made it. God was with me the whole entire way, and put wonderful people next to me on my flights...

The kids are great. I will need to learn Spanish really REALLY quickly, but when I got here, they all ran to give me hugs, and gave me nothing but a warm welcome! 

I will write more later, but I am so so tired right now..

Much love,

Laurel

Accepted!

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! Today I received my acceptance letter saying that I am for sure going to Honduras!! If all goes as planned, I will be leaving sometime late next week! Please continue to pray about the flight/travel plans... this will be my first time traveling out of the country by myself. I'm a littler nervous to be honest, but I know God will help me through it. 

Thanks again for the prayers! 

<3