Island Time

After 3 weeks in the orphanage, a visit from my sister could not have come at a better time.  Which means, time to check out the country and island life!  Our first destination was to the little town of Copan.  Copan is only 5 miles away from the border of Guatemala...so obviously we decided we wanted to take a nice lil jog 2 the border.  However, considering we were told that the road leading up to it was part of the drug cartel, we decided against it.  We decided to check out the Copan Ruinas instead....don't worry.  :)
Tiffany of course, being the little sweet talker that she is, somehow snagged us a tour guide for free.  Normally a guide would cost $25 per group....since there were only two of us and the other groups didn't even seem to be speaking English or Spanish....we decided to just go tour the ruins on r own.  Long story short, we kindly stole another group's guide after they had begun their tour.  It all happened so fast, it's kind of a blur now.  :)

Us at the top celebrating r climb AND free guide :)

Our friends in Copan from the States and El Salvador

It was hard to leave Copan after only a few days because we met some pretty awesome people.  But after 2 buses, a ferry, 2 taxis, and 13 hours later, we finally arrive on the island of Roatan in the Bay of Islands.  The journey was most definitely worth it though bcuz this island was freaking beautiful.

One of the first days we were there, Tiffany found a huge deck that she could dive off.   Of course she was doing crazy dives, flips, handstands and all that jazz...I on the other hand didn't look so cool with just a plain jump.  But to each their own, right? On r water taxi ride back to r beach, the guys decided to let us fish.....for free!  I think they were sick of asking us if we wanted to pay for a fishing excursion, and us always rejecting, so they decided to just let us fish anyways.  Unfortunately we didn't catch anything...we had a few bites that we may or may not have lost for the guys...but still, it wuz pretty sweet considering we were in the middle of the ocean during an awesome sunset.  Lucky us :)

Pretty sure our friend here was quite nervous

Our fishing poles that were 2 big 4 our bodies

 

The Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, one of the world's largest reef systems, lies right here off the coast of Honduras.  We were able to do a ton of snorkeling and it wuz pretty darn cool. We also took out some kayaks to check out the sunset from out on the ocean.   An added bonus, the kayaks had glass bottoms....so needless to say, it wuz a pretty sweet night.

Tiffany with our friend Christian

Some more of our friends from the island

 
     Coming back 2 the orphanage felt great after being gone for awhile.  To sum up our time with the kids while Tiff was here...it was great, chaotic, hectic, and awesome to have someone else to talk English with.

We helped to make tortillas for dinner one night...not saying we were good at it, and the girls were able to do about 4 tortillas to our 1...but still, we helped.  :)

Teaching English here is a pretty much enter at ur own risk activity.  One minute the kids can be all for it and super excited...and the next minute you turn around and they're gone...along with your water bottle.  One of the first nights Tiff was here she managed to keep their attention for quite awhile.  I'm guessing it was because of the great classroom and materials she had.

Teacher Tiff

One of the last nights, Tiff brought out her materials to make friendship bracelets.  Not thinking much of it, we had NO CLUE how absolutely crazy these kids were about to get.  It was definitely an adventure to try and help 20 of them all at the same time make a bracelet.  And even harder bcuz I had never even made one myself. :)

While I'm holding 2 bracelets for the kids, please note kid in the green....Yeh we're not sure either :)

After an awesome time, Tiff gets a pretty amazing goodbye from all the kids. :)

Find Waldo....I mean Tiff

Hasta Luego!!!!

Mas Pueblos

So I have finally figured out which kids to sit by during meals....The little ones that can't eat everything on their plate and then give it to me....my new best friends. :) Luckily I love eating rice, beans, and tortillas because again, that is seriously all they eat here.  Even one of the drinks they serve is rice blended with water and sugar.  Although the other day for breakfast we did have some type of corn flakes and fruit loops in HOT milk....and if ur wondering, yes, i now know what barf tastes like.  Needless to say, my skittle that I have for dessert every night never seems to disappoint.  Thank you Sarah Mans.  :)
Anywho! Another group of women came down to help at some more of the nearby villages.  Lucky for me, they let me join.  :)  We were able to take rice, beans, salt, soap, sandals, and clothes to 30 families in the village of Mt.Olive.

Anne Marie and I packing rice and beans

The families from the village of Mt.Olive were very grateful for everything.... AND they were most definitely in need of anything and everything we had for them.

I decided this girl would want another all pink outfit :)

   One of the last little kids I saw was this tiny lil naked boy.  He was probably about 3 years old and ended up fitting into clothes that were for 18 month old babies.

Little naked boy :)

When I wuz helping him get dressed, I thought I wuz dressing a toothpick he was so little!

Little naked boy with clothes on  :)

Some of the villagers and us from Mt.Olive

 The following day we took some of the kids from the orphanage up to to their home villages to see their families.  I was told it would be about 6 hour roundtrip drive.  I figured not too bad, so decided to go.  I should have realized they were telling me in Honduran time...because 11.5 hours later we finally arrived back home. I  also later found out that for one of the kids they don't even know where his real family is.  The village we went to visit was where his friends live, but he refers to them as his family.  Although spending almost 12 hours in the car was not really what I had in mind, seeing the kids with their families wuz definitely worth it.  :)

Reina hanging with her little sister she never gets to see

I also found out an organization called Soles4Souls (an organization that distributes shoes to poor countries) was actually going to be in El, Progresso while I was here.  I went to a shoe donation with them at a home for boys who are taken right from the streets.  We did a lot of shoe fittings for the guys and a lot of the shoes were actually pretty sweet. Nikes, New Balances, Toms, and Tony Hawks.  However, if the guys didn't like the style of the shoe they were trying on, they would say it didn't fit.  We didn't have enough shoes or sizes for them to picky so pretty sure I was telling this guy if he doesn't like the style and it fits, tough luck buddy.

Shoe fittings with Soles for Souls

And now......vacation time!  Time to check out this lovely lil country of Honduras...  :)

Village Time

Since I still cannot understand everything (let alone much) in Spanish, I of course had no clue where I was going when Sister Teresita and a van of 5 women picked me up for the day. Luckily for me, the 5 ladies spoke English so I could finally have a real conversation!  I soon found out we were going to a small, poor, villages to set up a free health clinics for the communities.  Over 6 days, we were able to help out 4 different villages, 505 patients, and filled 1550 prescriptions.
Below is a pic of one of the villages we went to up in the mountains...they were able to host us in their school.  Here is the "line" of people waiting to see the doctor.  :)

The people who live in these villages are amazing.  They LITERALLY waited all day for their turn to see the doctor.  The majority of them were there from before 8am until sometimes after 4:00. They never complained and were only full of smiles. Of course, all the kids tried to get all the suckers, hats, and stuffed animals out of us that they could.  And of course some people were ALL OF SUDDEN really sick....but that's to be expected right?  I guess if I had a doctor's appointment at 8am and wasn't able to be seen until 4:00, pretty sure I would say everything was wrong with me too. :)  Below is a pic of our oldest client....93 and counting!  And below...just another cute lil old man who waited around 4EVER very patiently. :)

At the first village, we were able to give out toothbrushes.  Unfortunately, we only had enough for the this village, but these kids LOVED them.  Though it looks like they may have loved the empty pill bottles that they would use as water bottles even more.

 One of my favorite lil guys....

 Some of the kids...and yes, I had to teach them the peace sign!  The kid in the front gave me the peace sign all the way to the car...hes obviously going to be a Honduran hippie when he gets older. :)

I'm extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to work with these 5 lovely ladies from Connecticut.  They brought down all of the supplies, volunteered their time and were the ones who made this all possible..... of course along with Sister Teresita...aka the Mother Teresa of Honduras :)

Until next time...chao!!

Copprome Beginnings

After a lovely, almost hassle-free day at the airport, I am alive and in Honduras!  I guess if you classify sprinting thru the airport to catch a plane while everything is falling out of your backpack hassle-free, ok then.  But I made it and now have 45 lovely lil roommates.  Along with about 85 chickens and a couple ducks.  And how could I forget  about the tarantula I heard about on my first day that had been crawling in someone's bed.  Yep, exactly what I wanted to hear when first arriving.  A big thank you to everyone who donated money or items for the kids...I'm still working on getting everything distributed but here's a few pics showing everything I was able to bring and somehow how everything fit in 3 big suitcases, a backpack, and a purse. 

The first night I was here I decided to bring out my haki sack....I figured why not considering I didnt have any friends, no one could understand my spanish, and well, i had nothing else to do.  None of the kids had ever seen a haki sack before so we played for about 3 minutes before it ended up turning into a  game of soccer.  I should have known.  Hondurans are soccer fanatics!  And let me tell you, these little kids are ballers on the soccer field....I had 5 year olds out there whoopin my booty.  After a couple of days of playing soccer, I realized this is obviously going to be an everyday activity.  Which is awesome because my soccer abilities are about as great as my Spanish abilities....aka non-existent.

The kids at the orphanage here range from 18 months to 18 years old.  The 18 month old's name is Harry and he is the cutest lil thing ever.  Except he should be able to say some words by now, but he can't.  And the other day I found him napping on the ground outside in the hallway.   Needless to say, there are some things here that are hard to see. But here's a picture of him playing with the mop and then trying to hide when he saw me coming.  And of course getting pushed around in a laundry basket.... which is always real safe when a 5 year old is doing it.  :)

 The other day lychees were donated and the kids absolutely LOVE this things!  I'm pretty sure I am allergic (weird i know) so sucks for me, but the kids go crazy for these things.  Here's a pic of Evelyn...I"m pretty sure she stole some from some of the other kids because no one else had this many.  :) 

The kids obviously love any food thatz brought to the orphanage.  I"m guessing that's because their diet, and now mine, consists of refried beans, a single tortilla, and sometimes rice.  Which is always real fun to eat without a fork.   I didn't know I was in India yet, but I guess it's good practice.  We don't get silverware because it just makes for too many dishes.  :)

Needless to say, this place is a definitely chaotic and overwhelming at times with 45 kids here, but so far amazing.   :)