Josef

Josef the (almost) 2 year old we live with is absolutely adorable. He loves his Mary, Katie, and Trinity. None of us were in the car when he just started to shout our names out of the blue...

Mission Miqueas

On March 2nd Mary and I will be headed to El Progreso (a city a little south of us here in San Pedro Sula) to stay at an orphanage there called Mission Miqueas for two weeks. We are going to get to know the kids there, help with their school, bring TOMs, and play.

Right now Mary is heading up a fundraiser to get 25 beds for the kids at the home. There aren't any beds there. The kids sleep on mattresses on the floor. Each bed costs around $85 dollars to get made. For more info about the project or donating please see Mary's website and read the posts about Mission Miqueas: http://whereintheworldismary.com/2012/give-a-child-a-place-to-sleep-part-2/

Kid Olympics

Today, since Trinity is studying Greece, we held a "Kid Olympics." The events? Mini golf, a sack race, ball toss, and long jump. Then as a tie breaker we did a "Minute to Win It" game of stacking dice on a popsicle stick thatyou hold in your mouth. We had SO much fun! Trinity came in first, Gilberto (our neighbor)came in second, and Mary won the bronze. It was a great way to have fun family bonding and teach Trin about the Greek olympics.

Christmas at Widow's Mite

On Tuesday Mary and I went for our first day of tutoring at Widow's Mite. We tutor there Tuesdays and Thursdays while we tutor at Hogar Esperanza on Mondays and Wednesdays. There are only six kids there, and they live in the home of an older couple that go to our church, Bob and Joyce. They pay for the kids to go to the best Christian, bilingual, private school in the city. They also have hired a full time tutor and really are giving these kids the best possible opportunity as orphans. They are doing a true service to these kids, and Mary and I are loving helping the kids with their homework in the afternoons. Since there are not many kids at the home, Mary and I are getting to spend more time one-on-one with the kids, and it's a great bonding experience for us.

I have had the opportunity to work a lot with Pedro. Pedro is six years old and struggles with Cerebr

al Palsy, ADHD, dyslexia, and several other learning disabilities.

He learned to write right-handed, but the Palsy took away his movement in his right hand for a long time, so he

had to re-learn how to write with his left. He struggles with reading but excels at math. I really really enjoy working with him.

Remember the Christmas boxes that we were sorting through last week? Well one of the homes receiving the boxes is Widow's Mite! So we got to deliver the Christmas boxes right after our first tutoring session. It was so cool to see the kids' faces light up to see their new cool toys and candy. There is really no feeling like bringing a smile to a child's face. I don't think I will ever get tired of that.

El Primer Dia en Hogar Esperanza

Today was our first day tutoring and visiting the kids at Hogar Esperanza. The home (orphanage) is made up of two houses, a dirt yard, and a playground. The girls live in one house, the boys live in the other. Mary and I were there to help the kids with homework. Most of the kids are studying English, so we helped them with that homework, and then after they finished they wanted help with their other homework: math, social studies, science, etc. Most of them barely speak any English though, so I got to use my Spanish a lot! It's really improving here (my Spanish that is), and it's nice to hear "Hablas muy bien espanol, no?' The kids were such a fun group of kids to hang out and play with. We had a blast there, even though it was one of the hottest days of the year. We will be back on Wednesday to help them again with their homework. The pictures here are of Jose and Brian, two of the sweet boys I tutored today.

Family Fun and Christmas Boxes

First things first, Trinity (the nine year old we live with), insisted that our first craft together would be to ensure that I have amailbox that goes on our room door so that we can send and receive notes todo del dia in an oh so cool way... so we made me a mailbox for our door, and already our life is more colorful :-) Last night we had four older girls from Hogar Esperanza (one of the orphanages)come over for pizza and a movie. We watched Penelope. It was super cute and fun. Jorge made homemadepizza, and it was phenomenal.

Early this morning Mary and I went on a run (we are going to try to get/stay in shape and save the world), and

I am not sure I have ever been so sweaty in my whole life. We went early to stay out of the heat, and today is relatively cool (only 90 degrees Fahrenheit with 10

0% humidity)...and it is only going toget hotter..

When I arrived, there were two huge boxes in the living room filled with shoeboxes full of christmas gifts - sound familiar? It is not through Samaritan's Purse, but it is similar and throughR.O.O.M. (Reach Out Orphanage Ministries, remember?). So we spent the early afternoon going through all the shoeboxes for four orphanages. We checked to make sure they were all gender and age appropriate and that they allhad a game,candy, soap, and toothpaste. One of themhad Tiffany! Then we had to pack them all up to ship or take to the four orphanages. Such a fun thing!

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the WHAT

So I just realized that many of you reading my blog might not know what is going on here exactly... SO I am here in Honduras doing a combination of orphanage outreach work and general mission work for the next 3 months. I will be working with my friend Mary from college and we will be doing service projects and tutoring orphans in English through Reach Out Orphanage Ministries (reachoutorphanageministires.org) which her cousin Tara Garcia started. You all should check it out! I will also be doing a considerable amount of traveling while I am here (provided I have funding) to the various orphanages around the country that ROOM supports (there are 25 +). If you have an insatiable urge to support me while I am here you can donate here: http://reachoutorphanageministries.org/Honduras.html and put mine or Mary's name in the memo line and the funds will get to us to help us travel and reach more kids than ever. Thanks for reading! Besos a todos.

I have arrived

Yesterday, after two short flights and an easy layover in Miami, I touched down in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. I was greeted by an exuberant Mary running at me outside the teeny little airport between the drivers asking me, "Taxi? Taxi?" Okay, so here's the thing about Honduras: it's HOT. I mean. SO HOT (and apparently it was the cool part of the day). I know I live in the mountains and am a pansy about the heat, but man... Its sticky. One stays sticky constantly. The good news is: no hot water in our bathroom, so thats a relief. Jorge and Tara are the "grown ups" in my house and they have two kids and one on the way! I think Tara is probably supermom. She and Jorge are 31 and 35 respectively (Tara is American, Jorge is Honduran) and the kids Trinity and Josef are 9 and 2. They are adorable. The family is wonderful, and our house is great too. Pretty big and in a safe neighborhood - Colonia Tara is what it's called I think. Anyway we ended up getting free tickets to a movie last night (We Bought a Zoo, in English, Yay!) and I had a whirlwind introduction into the craziness of Honduras. The traffic is absolutely unreal - no one follows any kind of rules. But there are all sorts of weird ones that people are supposed to know. Who knows what today holds? It's all a very exciting start to a new adventure...