Amate and Buena Vista

I shall try to keep today’s blog fairly short and let the photos do the talking. Today was a great day thanks to Ellen of Buenos Vecinos (formerly Project School Supplies) and a group from the USA, Amigos of Honduras. I mentioned Ellen in an earlier blog. She hails originally from Seattle but moved here in 2007 after coming here originally to study Spanish. Her small organization helps those in need in the poor, rural communities, particularly with focus on the children. Amigos are a group from Utah who have worked with Ellen on several projects. Their main focus is on water projects around the Comayagua area of Honduras but they recently teamed up with Ellen and built a water system for the village of San Jose, Guatemala. They then teamed up with her again and built a medical clinic for the same village which we shall go see tomorrow.

For this trip, Amigos had sponsored two villages to receive some goodies and toys. Each year Buenos Vecinos delivers Christmas Baskets to about 150 of the most impoverished families that require help. A basket (or actually it's often a box or a bag) consists of food, clothing and toys for the children. Amigos had sent enough ahead of their trip that two villages, Amate and Buena Vista, could all be supplied with toys for the children, blankets and bags of food for the mothers as well as ball caps for the men. When you consider that most children in these areas don’t have a toy to call their own, you can imagine what it’s like when they receive a brand new toy all for themselves. Amigos also brought candy and colourful bracelets which the girls go crazy over. Footballs are another HUGE hit with both the boys and girls. Football (okay…soccer) is the number one sport here and everyone seems to be hooked on it.

We met up at the hotel in town at 8am, and after loading the two pick ups, were off, two trucks, 12 people and many boxes and bags of "stuff." It took about two hours to get to Amate, with the delays along mud covered roads that at times seemed impassible. We thought we all got dirty throughout the day, but many women and children were barefoot. I understand now why boots are so popular here.

To Karen, Sandy and Sarah…a huge thank you for your donations. While today was sponsored by Amigos, your donations will go towards baskets and supplies such as these for other families and villages.

I took so many photos it was hard to choose which ones to show you. But I hope you get an idea as to what an amazing day it was…….

Getting packed!

Muddy hills to get up;

They finally are fixing the road...of course it was the day we were trying to get to Amate, so we sat and waited for a half hour until we could get by;

Along the way;

Ellen making friends in the Amate village school;

The children line up to pick their toy;

The kindergarten;

With their toys;

One young girl loved my earrings, and asked me if she could have them. I hesitated for a second and then realised that to me they were just a pair of earrings so I gave them to her. To me they had no value so to speak, but to her, "priceless." It was worth the look of surprise and joy on her face.

Who needs toys when you have a box to bang on???

The girls run to get the football;

On top of the world;

On the way to Buena Vista we met the same truck again fixing another part of the road. This time we couldn't wait, so 100 lempiras later we were on our way;

Many rivers to cross thoughout the day;

Village of Buena Vista;

I keep posting photos of mountian views, but it is just so beautiful here......

As we were making our way home, a young boy was kicking an old, flat football. One of the guys in the back of our truck still had one and so it was this young boys lucky day;

I took these couple of shots, just because they looked interesting;

Hope you liked them. If nothing else, perhaps it makes us appreciate more what we all have. Anyway, tomorrow promises to be another busy day.

Hasta manana!