Day 7

The day started like a usual one, 7 o clock breakfast and 8 o clock on the bus. We began our day driving to Campesino to deliver beans, crayons, candy, birth control and much more. The village was very different from Grandma´s Kids. The houses are made of wood and have plastic to cover the walls and roofs (apparently this is a a huge upgrade from before). They are not only very siimply made, but also very small. I saw some homes as small as the size of my own room! The school is one room and the power house of the village, it holds all the lines for electricity. The rooom is bare and there are about 4 desks. The kids have no books except small paper notebooks; I barely saw any writing utensils. The kids then moved to the front of the room to sing for us. The girl in charge of the choir was only 11 years old, and at 3 had fallen into a well and almost died. It was after this and later in her life she began singing. Just watching you could how thankful she and the rest of the village was for all that HHK does for them. They were appreciative for the plastic covers on their homes! After the children finished singing we handed out boxes of crayons to them. It was not till after that I learned that some of the girls as young as 11 were not holding their siblings but their own children! For many of these girls it is rape and some consensual. It was heartbreaking to see girls younger then me, have the responsisbility no girl should have till much later in her life. As hard as it is to see people live in such harsh conditions, I beleive it is truly necessary for people to have this type of firsthand experience. because you honestly feel helpless.
We then moved onto the JUngle school where we had our lunch and waited for 5 of the Jungle school kids to get out. These 5 are all related and everyday must hike 2 hours one way to get to school. We started our hike with our water bottles, snacks and any necessary items in case we got stuck out there. We looked very unfitting standing next to the kids, who carried their books and wore their school uniforms. The hike was upill all the way there and on a small path. The path went into the jungle with lush trees and out into the open where the view was breath taking. As we neared the house, we were greeted by cows and bulls. On a small path on the side of a (very large) hill they walked amoung us (literally!). When we reached the house we were greeted by the moher who cooked us all homemade flour tortillas with beans and cheese. Dave told us this was the amount of food they used for a week. It seems as if the people with the least give the most. The inside of the house was a dirt ground and one large room separated by walls. There were no doors, not even for the bathroom. The kids slept within 3 feet of the parents! aAs we stayed there we learne that the father walks every day to La Ceiba to work and doesnt get home till later. The 5 children were unphased by our utter disbeleif of how this family lived. They seemed so thankful with all that they had. We continued are hike back to the Jungle School, which I might add was still long but much easier going down. The view was the most beautiful thing I´ve ever witnessed. There was not enough time to take it all in.
We went back to the hotel, showered and ate the ususal meat and bean dinner at Ex Patriot. Which for me, never failed at being delicious. We went to one of the Honduras souvenir shops after, where everyone spent countless limpiaras on hamicks, necklaces, bags etc. the items were all honduras made and very beautiful. For many we bought, found more and rebought again! No one walked away empty handed.
As for me I am not looking forward to leaving, this has been a trip that I beleive has changed a lot of us for the better. I can say I won´t look at things the same way anymore, and I am content with that. In this past week so much has happened and words are hard to find to describe it all; both sad and happy. But today is not the last day, we have one more day left of work and playing with the Hogar kids. Till then...