Kids with Jandals

Here is a photo of the kids with their new jandals.

Celeste is the lady sitting down on the right-side of the photo – she organised all the jandals/flip-flops/chancletas/whatever for the kids, over 100 pairs!  We still have a a couple of bags full of jandals for when the kids need more.  Im only putting the photo up now because i had forgotten to get a copy from Celeste earlier.

Celeste left early this morning and will be missed.

You can view all the photos from the jandals day here.

With support from some people in NZ who are donating money, we bought some things for the baby who has been very sick.  Heidi is her name.  She was brought to the orphanage about 8 weeks ago, very sick and on the verge of death.  She was 6 months old but looked like she was 2 weeks old.  She had numerous hospital visits and has been staying at the home of the owner of the owphanage for the past few weeks so she could have better care.  We have been buying milk powder (which is flipping expensive here, NZD$30 for a tin), and nappies, medicines and other things for her the last few weeks.  Last week we also purchased some baby toys and dummies for her.  She is doing much better now and has gained a little weight.

This morning we paid for some new school shoes for a girl closely linked to the orphanage – but who doesnt live there – whose mother recently lost her job.  The old shoes were old and too small and giving her blisters every day.

Thank you very much for donating money.  There are many more good causes that need your donations.

Celeste arrived from Florida on Friday with a suitcase full of jandals for the kids.  She had actually mentioned to me a month or so ago that she was going to try and bring jandals with her when she comes, but i had forgotten and was getting ready to get shoe sizes from all the kids and get them some new jandals.  Thankfully I hadnt gotten around to it!

The kids generally have one pair of shoes.  Usually black, plastic, hot, sweaty, extremely poor quality shoes that they wear every single day at every moment unless sleeping.  Their feet can get pretty gross as you can imagine.  Especially when like right now there is no water (most of the town hasnt had water for the last 2 weeks – including the orphanage) – thats water in the pipes, not drinking water – so they dont get to wash themselves very often or very well.

Celeste bought over 100 pairs of jandals.  We laid them out upstairs, took 3 kids up at a time and fitted them with a new pair and wrote their names on them.  The rest of the jandals are in bags here at my place where they are available for when their jandals break or get lost.  Celeste took photos of the event so I hope to put some up in the next few days.

Other news:  I made hot cross buns on Sunday. Yum.  You cant get them here, nor easter eggs.  The bread here is quite different, sweeter.  Marmite on toast isnt nearly as enjoyable on sweet bread as it is on the bread we have in NZ.
I saw Anchor butter from NZ, about NZD$10 for the same sized block you normally buy butter in!  I went for the local butter.
Made Mango Float and am eating some right now.  They fed us Mango Float until it was coming out of our ears in the Philippines.  I’ve made it a few times in NZ but the mangoes are never as good there – over here they are delicious.  It still tastes amazing!
Finally got an oven (the old one didnt work, landlords couldnt get replacement parts so put in a new one, a gas one thankfully as the power is out quite often).
Its been very hot the last few days.

The past week (Semana Santa – Holy week) has been a holiday for all the kids in town.  Many adults were also on holiday all week.  Friday, the whole country closed down (almost everyone was on holiday, most people go to the river or somewhere to swim on the Friday) – a lot of people had trouble with transportation because the buses werent running.  Thankfully, someone told me before Friday that all the shops would be closed so made sure I had what I needed beforehand.

The Thursday night, two streets were blocked off (one being mine) so the cars couldnt pass, and people make massive ‘carpets’ out of sawdust.  First they lay down the plain sawdust and flatten it out, then use templates out of cardboard they had made to make beautiful designs out of coloured sawdust.  The people work late into the night and most of the next day in the beating hot sun to make the designs.  They see it as a sacrifice, hoping that God will be pleased with them because of the time they spent in the hot sun, making beautiful designs.  They really do look amazing.

Friday night, there was a parade were they carried a statue of Jesus lying down, and some others were carrying a few Mary’s.  It was beautiful to watch.  They stopped right in-front of my place and read from the Bible.  I have some photos and videos of the sawdust carpets and the parade.

A little earlier on the Thursday night, my neighbours made a smaller ‘carpet’ and put a big red heart in it, and the words ‘Casate conmigo’ which means ‘Marry me’.  Later that evening, the intended couple came up the street and the boyfriend got one one knee and proposed.  Most of the street was out watching, and cheered when she said yes.  (There are a couple of photos of that too, but the power lines in front of my apartment get in the way).

Photos and videos are here.

Last night was a very important football (soccer) game between Honduras and Mexico.  I didnt watch a minute of it, but i knew how it was going at every stage!

If anything good was happening, everyone in town would start shouting gleefully and making lots of noise.  Every time Honduras scored a goal the people would go crazy, fireworks would go off, people would run through the streets shouting ‘¡Gol! ¡Gol! ¡Gol!’.

After the match, when Honduras won, the whole town came out onto the streets.  Cars drove around in a loop with people hanging out windows, sunroofs, climbing all over the cars, shouting, singing, waving flags, waving at the people in the houses, dancing, horns tooting non-stop.  It was incredible. Incredible!

Why dont we celebrate without reservation in NZ like they do here?

I was talking with someone about the match this morning, she told me when things arent going well for Honduras, like there is a crisis, or petrol prices have just risen, or whatever to make people depressed, the government will often arrange a football match to take people’s minds off the sadness, so that even for just a day the people will be happy.  Last nights game wasn’t one of those though, it was a qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup.

Click through to see a video of the celebrations.

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The campesinos have taken over the Copán Ruins in protest against the government.  The government has given the campesinos land to live on, in a shared fashion.  There are about 30 people per block of land (a large piece of land).  The problem is that the ownership of the land is in the name of all 30 people, not individual blocks per family.  The campesinos would like to have the land in their own name so they can sell it if they want.  From the other side though, one of the reasons for putting the land in the name of all 30 people is so they cant sell it.  Unfortunately, what happens too often is if a family is given land under they own name, they sell it, use the money to buy some things (unfortunately, usually alcohol), then squat on someone else’s land.  They build a little home out of sticks and mud on the land they dont own.  The owners of the land cant do anything about it, and eventually the government buys the land from the owner and gives it to the squatters.

The reason for taking over the Ruins (they have blocked all entrances and are protecting them with machetes) is that its the main tourist attraction for this area, and a big deal for the government.  In the past, if the government doesnt take notice of them taking over the Ruins, the campesinos have bought in old tyres, piled them up in the middle of the road so cars cant pass and set fire to them.

Im told to expect a helicopter to arrive at some point today with either a representative of the president, or the president himself.  Probably to give them what they want.