Hi all! Megan and Kemarah here. Sorry for the long post but we did A LOT today. Highlights include a home visit, a meeting with a women's empowerment group, and a meeting with the director of the El Hogar elementary school.
Today started bright and early with breakfast at 6:10. We considered ourselves lucky as the middle school boys get up at 5 to do chores before eating. Beans, tortillas, eggs, cheese, sweet plantains (Kemarah was ecstatic) and CREMA was served.
Following breakfast we had free time which has come few and far and between on this trip. Members of our group used the time to reflect, tan and paint toe nails. Bella looked onto the soccer field that she would have to say bye to and left a piece of her heart.... and her skin #leakyknee
Following our break we visited a home of a former student of the technical school. After driving down a dirt road for mile we turned onto the highway where we eventually pulled over. We were greeted by a young boy dressed in a perfectly white uniform shirt and black slacks. He had been walking along side the road coming from the opposite direction. We walked around the property and took it all in. A quaint abode complete with a rusted galvanized roof and wooden walls. Maybe 300 square feet in total. The home was furnished with a new fuel efficient wood stove and three small mattresses. The teen explained that him and his mom have been collecting bricks to build a new home. The area was covered in litter. Their backyard was a valley. A banana tree stood tall on the side of the home.
Thinking back to our reflection from the night before, one could think of this family's situation as sad, hopeless or as a glass half empty. However, there is much to celebrate here. This family owns their own property, this mother with the help of her two sons built a home for themselves, and are sustaining. One son is in the 10th grade (a fantastic artist!), another son is in 8th grader studying at the El Hogar Technical Institute, and the last son is in 4th grader at a local elementary school. While there are systems playing against this family, they are taking steps to improve their situation. This mother is now working full time and the sons are motivated to continue with their education and are looking forward to helping to build a sturdier new home.
After the home visit we returned to the technical institute campus to tour the spaces where the young boys of El Hogar become licensed carpenters, welders, or electricians. We were completely blown away by the work the boys have done and impressed by the intricate and fun pieces, hand made by the students, that adorn the grounds of the instituto technico. Might I too add there was a cow eating grass in the middle of campus. Not unusual I promise.
We piled in the van back to El Hogar's Tegus campus for lunch where we quickly enjoyed spaghetti and tortillas. We then ventured out into the city where we had the privilege to meet with Nessa from a women's empowerment group Centro de derechos de mujeres (CDM). Nessa provided us with a powerful run down of how the guns in the United States have a direct impact on the violence against women in Honduras. She highlighted the fact that Nicaragua has fewer murders per capita compared to Honduras even though it is only 3 hours way by car due to links in US policy. We appreciate CDM's hospitality and we look forward to continuing a relationship with Nessa.
Following our meeting we returned to El Hogar to meet the director Claudia. She told stories and recalled experiences from the past 27 years. She talked about success stories and challenges she, the kids and the organization has faced. El Hogar has also been reflecting on it's programming due to changes in policies the country. Claudia hopes that El Hogar will continue to work with young people to bring them to strong futures.
In the evening half our group hosted a game night at the basketball hoop while the other half spent the evening trading dance secrets with the masterful dancers of El Hogar. With dance and music we saw what Bella pointed to about soccer earlier in the week. Music and dance are two different yet powerful modes of communication that can bring people together. We not only broke down language barriers but we were so inspired by the passion and culture that we saw in the young people of El Hogar that now we have an entire folk dance routine down!
We ended our day with a meaningful reflection led by Kemarah & Kate inspired by a questions formulation technique by the right questions institute. We generated questions that we had about our day and one of the major themes was US policies and how they have an impact on poverty and violence in Honduras. We are also very interested in the stories of the staff that we've encountered and about what brought them to El Hogar when reflecting on the question of what is the difference between a job, vocation and "calling."
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