TRAVEL OVERVIEW OF 2011
Each day in Honduras we witness a new miracle amidst our loving, grateful and totally amazing Honduran family. Some are small things that we see in the details…others are enormous. We feel very blessed by the bonds of support and friendship of our North American service teams who work so hard to help our many underserved children.
January 2011 - Twenty students from Elon University made up our first group of 2011. We officially opened the new Sewing Center and painted a colorful “under the sea” mural inside. Anival has agreed to provide sewing lessons each Saturday morning to the teenage girls and to the boys of Flor Azul each Saturday afternoon. Their first project will be to make tote bags of recycled rice sacks. We also taught the teenage girls how to crochet and they are frantically busy making scarves and hats to sell in the Corsaro store.
March 2011 - In March we had back to back groups – first a team of 42 from Cleveland’s Laurel & University Schools. We visited the humble mountain villages (Flor Azul, El Censo, and Melendez) bringing much needed school supplies, water filters, clothing and vitamins. And yes…we enjoyed the “hokey pokey” and other fun games. In addition, we built a security wall around the commercial corner of Nuevo Paraiso. And, most importantly, we celebrated the quincienra of every girl turning 15 in 2011… team members brought new dresses, shoes and jewelry for each birthday girl…it was truly a dazzling evening!
March 2011 - A most diverse and amazing team arrived moments after the other team departed! Without a moments hesitation this team of 26 (eight students from Strongsville High School, and a variety of others from all over the United States) picked up the torch and charged forward. There was an immediate bond of true friendship as we worked to make permanent and meaningful differences in the lives of so many children. Everyone came prepared with fantastic lesson plans and supplies. The Finch family of four shared their musical talents (guitar and singing) and truly exceptional craft projects. Tonya Barba was the Energizer Bunny with the supplies and projects from Strongsville School – She organized many fun activities and parties for the teenage girls (making embossed cards, paper beads, jewelry to sell), a piñata party for the young children of Nuevo Paraiso and classes, Olympic games and tie dying for the boys of Flor Azul. It was a beehive of activity and fun everywhere you looked.
May 2011 - In May we were thrilled to welcome a team from the Boler School of Business of John Carroll University. This was yet another AMAZING group whose imprint will be felt forever. The John Carroll students taught Business 101 classes to the teenage girls, boys and staff of Sociedad. Our hope is to continue providing the girls and boys with new skills and now the ability to transition those skills into small micro enterprises. We initiated several clubs: a sewing club with little Sonia as President, a jewelry club with Karla as President, Norlan as President of the weaving club and Elsa as President of the knitting club. On our visits to the rural villages and schools we discovered a desperate need for food and hope to begin a new campaign to help feed the villages. Brianne Ellis received a grant from her college, Hobart William Smith, to remain as an intern with H4HC for one month. She will be providing classes for the teenage girls. Her theme is “empowerment through self confidence”.
June 2011 – Indeed it was hot, humid and rainy each evening…but not a complaint nor a whine was ever heard! It just seems to get better and better with each trip! Brianne completed her empowerment classes and received kudos, gratitude, and platitudes from everyone in the entire country. Three new interns returned to give daily ESL and handcraft classes– Professor Patty Suppes from Virginia and Don Slovick and Tonya Barba (see March) from Strongsville, Ohio. The team assisted every afternoon with the ESL classes making it a very fun activity for everyone. One morning was spent on construction but usually we traveled to the mountain schools – Flor Azul village, El Campo, and El Censo. Unfortunately, the roads were impassable to Naguara due to all the evening storms. We managed to pull off a “movie night” at Flor Azul and also enjoy a campfire on our last evening with the boys.
July 2011 – An awesome group of 18 - students, teachers, professors, lawyers, engineers and simply wonderful people from Nashville, Boston, Chicago, New Hampshire and Cleveland. The success of Patty, Don and Tonia’s ESL (English) classes was very evident with the Flor Azul boys greeting us each day in English with questions about our lives back home. Their sense of pride was captivating. Tonia Barba spent a month unleashing profound creativity in the t
eenagers of Flor Azul and Nuevo Paraiso. The Corsaro store is filled with beautiful jewelry, cards, magnets, woven pens and bracelets, Christmas ornaments, scarves, votive lights, tote bags etc. Mark Krieger spent his time engaged one on one with many children as he drew their portraits in preparation for his upcoming not-to-be-missed exhibition in Cleveland. After Church on Sunday we enjoyed an art fair in the kiosko where the boys excitedly sold their handcrafts. Each morning we returned to the rural villages taking much needed food, school supplies and clothing. We shared a morning with the community of Flor Azul village and another in El Campo village, recording their amazing stories and assessing their needs. The children could not have been any more excited and their appreciation was overwhelming with many cards, drawings and beautiful singing for each of us. We found our visit to the Rocky Petel cigar factory fascinating and also enjoyed an overnight at Neptaly’s lovely hacienda in Valle de Angeles. Somehow we also managed to visit Pedro Atala, teach crafts at Montana de Luz, squeeze in two movie nights at Flor Azul, enjoy a hot dog party and two super fantastic soccer games at Flor Azul…indeed, regardless of a torrential downpour, the game continued and we won 4 to 0 and 13 to 3 ! It was a winner of a trip for everyone!
Travel 2012 - dates have not been confirmed but most likely we will have immersion trips in early February, March, April, May and June. We suggest you sign up now as these trips often fill up 4-6 months in advance.