Jueves (Post 4)

Barb Anderson

I think it is Thursday. It is hard to keep track. I finally saw my first clock today -- in the kitchen -- as we washed and cracked 240 eggs, shaped about 600 rolls (to be baked in the adobe oven outside), cut up 2 wheelbarrows of squash, chopped peppers, washed cucumbers, prepped beans, unpackaged pasta (to be cooked 20 minutes in the pressure cooker), and squeezed pasta sauce out of the tubes they came in. Some of the others weeded the garden while yet others collected eggs. I thought the boys would be hard to rouse this morning, but they were up and off to breakfast at 5:45am (oops, an hour early!). I think they had already played soccer by the time I was up for my cold shower at about 6:30am. The cows are right outside of the boys and girls rooms and apparently pretty noisy in the morning, so tonight some were going to sleep with earplugs.

This is an amazing place. A 2000 acre oasis in the midst of a chaotic country. A place full of the life and laughter of around 560 kids and the adults who love and care for them. Stefan, the director of NPH-Honduras, came and spoke with us tonight. Each person in our group got to share what we really liked about our day and what was hard. For me, the good part was watching the kids take pride in the jobs they were assigned. I saw, what looked like little three year olds, pushing wheelbarrows, hoes and shovels. The hardest part for mehas been not being able to converse beyond a few words here and there. As part of our debriefing, Stefan asked to share his highs and lows of the day. One part of his "low" today was a meeting about NPH's finances. Every part of the world seems to be struggling economically. Here it has meant layoffs and less meat for the kids. His best part of the day was tucking the kids into bed at night. Speaking of bed, I guess it is time for me to go to bed too. It is off to work in the garden tomorrow.
--Barb