Busy September!

We have been so busy here at JEC! After our "Walk for the Way" last week, (which by the way- I heard through the grapevine raised about $22,000 - WHICH IS AMAZING) we wasted no time preparing for our next big event - DIA DEL NINO. This literally translates as "kid's day", and pretty much means tons of pinatas, candy, cake, and games.

Of course last minute my coworkers drop the news on me that they will not be present for Saturday's actual events- which was planned to basically be like a huge field day here at JEC. I was told around 4PM on Friday that I would be in charge on Saturday. This includes the morning games, prizes/ceremony for winners, and the afternoon activities that included all the staff and their families. Naturally my first thought was I NEED A MEGAPHONE. Or a whistle. Or maybe at least another 24 hours to plan.

I immediately tried to get organized, assigning one adult/staff member to be in charge of a certain game. The problem here is describing how the game works in Spanish. That is the issue people. While a normal field day would be a lot to take on, remember I took this task on in a foreign language. I mean we're talking a whole new level. Needless to say, the morning games and getting the day started was difficult. Once the sack race, spoon & egg race were through, we could move on to the more fun games - such as "el borracho". This translates as "the drunk" game. This is what they called it here - but we know it better as putting your head on the bat, spinning in circles, and falling down while running. It was hilarious. Especially with some of the younger boys who literally couldn't stand up.

The rest of the morning was more about joking around and having fun, but we do have some extremely competitive boys here at JEC. After all, they are adolescent and teenage boys. Competition is a given, really.

The day finished and prizes were awarded to each house. We worked it out where every boy got at least a small toy and candy from the pinatas. The prizes were suck as tonka trucks, board games, candy, small happy-meal-like toys, and more candy. By around 4PM everyone was exhausted and sunburnt, including yours truly.

This week has been just as busy. Tomorrow Honduras celebrates the 190th year of Independence from the Spaniards (are you proud of me, Dad?), and so we've had celebrations, pinatas, and desfiles, or parades/marches, every single day this week. I didn't had the chance to visit the high school or elementary school boys' parades (did I mention we almost went 24 hours without power and then once it came back, the water tank bursted?), but today I got to briefly visit the Alison School's desfile before heading to Tegucigalpa for a day of errands. I unfortunately did not have my camera, but of course it was cute. All the boys were dressed as "old-fashioned" cowboys, and the girls were wearing typical, Honduran dresses (probably what we would refer to as aztec).

That's all for now - but one more thing. I almost forgot.

Did I mention we frequently have rainbows here?

JEC Walk for the Way

On Wednesday afternoon around 3:30 PM, every single little boy, all 59 nine of them (ages 5-18), gathered in the front of JEC and prepared to walk three miles. While walking three miles does not seem like such a big deal to me, I am in fact a 23 year old who likes to exercise. I am not a five year old with tiny, short legs.

The reasoning behind this was to show support and gratitude to those walking tomorrow, Saturday, September 10th, in the first Jovenes En Camino "Walk for the Way". The walk is to raise money and awareness about the orphanage here in Zamorano, Honduras. Honduras celebrates "Dia del Nino", or "kids day", every 10th of September, so we had to do our walk early.

We walked all three miles shouting "HOLA" at every car that passed. Not to mention we also took about 75 pee breaks for the little ones whose bladders just simply couldn't handle it. Although it was a long way to walk for such little boys, complaints were almost unheard of, and the boys took turns carrying the signs we had prepared earlier this week. For those who are familiar with where JEC is located, we walked from the gates of JEC to the market in Zamorano (where they sell the awesome banana bread) and the Expresso Americano. We stopped at those benches to celebrate our finish with OJ and cookies. We were lucky as we took our last few photos of the entire group, rain drops started to fall and thunder clapped. We hopped on our JEC bus that met us there and headed home for dinner.

This is Cristian Ochoa - he was my walking partner the entire way :) He's one of the boys I'm closest to here at JEC, and while he's 13 trying to go on 18, he's the transparent type, and I can see Jesus so much in him. He has an incredible heart, even if he sometimes doesn't want to wash his clothes or do his chores. But seriously, I mean what 13 year old wants to do that stuff?

Extremely Happy

This morning we had our monthly (all staff) breakfast. It was absolutely amazing. I got up at 6 AM this morning to make potatoes and eggs for 30 people, and we had such a spread. Beans, tortillas, papas (potatoes), eggs, chorizos (sausages), juice, fruit, coffee, and the list only goes on. It was absolutely beautiful. The staff here is unlike a staff at a regular workplace. Every single one here is extremely filled with a spirit to serve others. Not only for the other staff members, but to serve the little boys and young men we have here at JEC. Needless to say - I'm extremely happy here. I feel like this is exactly where I'm supposed to be at this point in my life - and who knows - maybe for more to come.

THIS MAKES ME THE HAPPIEST GIRL

Mary-Kate & Ashley Visit Honduras With TOMS


All my faithful years of watching Mary Kate and Ashley on Full House paid off. They give back to my favorite country!!


Watch the video of the girls and Blake Coskie, founder of TOMS shoes, in a small city outside Tegucigalpa at this link.

Ironically enough, I'm rocking my TOMS shoes here today at Jovenes.

A Letter from Jovenes' Director

This is a letter I translated for our director on this weekend's past visit to Choluteca. Three boys had the opportunity (thanks to some of my favorite people) to go and visit their families for the first time in many years.
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On Friday, August 26th, my family and I, together with Emelet and one of the drivers, Israel, headed towards the south zone of Honduras with the idea of looking for Merlin and Nery’s family and Dennis’ mother.

We arrived around 8 PM to Choluteca, where we stayed in a preacher’s house who lives in this area. Brother Carlos Rivera and his family opened the doors to their home that night and shared coffee with us the next morning.

The next day, Saturday, we left very early to head towards Corpus. Corpus is a very beautiful community, with stone streets and houses with tile roofs. This community is where Merlin and Nery’s family lives. We arrived at 7:30 in the morning to the central park in Corpus. There we were waiting for the mother and two younger siblings.

One day before we had agreed with Merlin and Nery’s family to meet in this place. There were many hugs and lots of happy faces. Later Mrs. Elba, the boys’ mother, invited us to visit her house. Her little house was located in the middle of a mountain between lots of trees and banana branches. The home was very humble, made of blocks of “adobe”, *****(teja) roof, and parts of the house made of plastic. Where there were holes in the roof, the family had placed blocks so the wind would not uncover the roof. There were also small doors and a dirt floor. Inside the house there was only two beds. The plastic seats we sat in were borrowed from the neighbors.

Mrs. Elba has four children total, three boys and one seven-year-old girl. Two of these boys are with us at Jovenes, Merlin and Nery. The other two live in the house with Mrs. Elba in Corpus. The mother suffers from the same sickness as Merlin, epilepsy. One of her other sons, Pedro, also suffers with epilepsy.

Mrs. Elba invited us into her house and offered us a coke she had purchased on credit from a little store close to her house. There was no sign in the kitchen that she had cooked that day or the day before. It seemed like it had been many days since they cooked in this home. It was also strange that Mrs. Elba and her sons hadn’t seemed to have drank coffee either, which is a common and traditional breakfast in our small towns here in Honduras.

In order to reach Mrs. Elba’s home we had to pass over many broken branches after passing through a small area where mules grazed. We had the opportunity to also meet the boys’ grandmother. She greeted and shared many memories with us, including how Merlin used to sleep with her when he was little. She was amazed at how much he looked like a man that day. Mrs. Elba informed us that she had an appointment that day in the hospital in Choluteca, but she wouldn’t be able to go because she did not have enough money to pay for the visit.

In August, Mama Lisa had left Merlin $10 as a gift. He still had 100 lempiras left, and his brother also had 50 lempiras he had earned from selling bracelets. Together they were able to pay for her appointment at the hospital.

Many say that illnesses such as Merlin’s are hereditary. Almost all believe that Merlin inherited his illness from his mother, but as we have looked back to his past, we have realized that most of it probably came from the malnutrition his mother suffered growing up on that mountain. There was an extreme lack of food and nutrients in their home from extreme poverty and misery.

Merlin and Nery also suffered from hunger. In Merlin’s case, this lack of nutrients left him suffering with epilepsy attacks and now has to take medication daily. Merlin has recuperated physically like many of our young men here at Jovenes, but unfortunately this problem affected his brain. While we can all recuperate physically, once it starts to affect the brain, the damages are irreversible. We have done all we can do here at Jovenes; the only thing left would be a miracle from God.

For Merlin and Nery it was very sad to see the condition of misery their mother and siblings live in. That day these brothers gave thanks to God for Jovenes en Camino where they have food, education, health, clothes, and house parents that love and take care of them. My wife, Daysi, asked them if they wanted to stay a few days with their mother and siblings, and they immediately answered no. We returned from Corpus at 10 in the morning that day. Later we directed ourselves towards the city of Choluteca to look for Denis’ mother.

Merlin and Nery are very appreciative of the brothers and sisters who collected the gas and food money to send them to visit their loved ones. Thank you to Mama Lisa, Papa Steve, and the rest of the group for having made this dream come true for these two brothers.

Welcome Home!

I'm currently at a new home! Here I am at Jovenes en Camino, and I've already killed about 25 spiders in my bedroom. That's neat I guess. I love it though. I could not be happier to be here with all my favorite kiddos.

One of my biggest jobs is going to be working with the 6 boys who attend Allison Bixby School in Zamorano, Honduras. This is a bilingual school where most of the day is actually taught in English, and IT IS AMAZING how fast and how much the boys have already learned. I am extremely impressed.

The only issue is that some of these boys suffer from malnutrition. When they were younger, unfortunately the damage was done at an early age as far as their health and emotional status is considered. While they have worked hard and long with the boys emotionally and mentally, their physical learning abilities were damaged from suffering from malnutrition.

This damage is easily seen in Jose Alexander, who now is in 1st grade at the Alison school. While it is incredible the progress he has made, he still suffers tremendously. Last night we were working on simple addition, but he struggles to even identify numbers in spanish, let alone how to say them in english.


Considering Jose was extremely neglected in every way when he was born, his progress now is quite incredible, even if it is behind his classmates. Yesterday I taught him how to say "pick me up", since he is one of the only ones who still lets me hold him! As you can see by his precious face, he is absolutely adorable, and I don't care one bit that he broke my sunglasses yesterday... haha :)



Miss you all!

The day my Honduran cough medicine looked like Harry Potter's polyjuice potion...

So clearly I'm doing just fine.