Christ Church Cathedral Faith Partner Blog 2015: Friday, June 28th: Last Day at El Hogar

Hello family, friends, and faith partners,

I would first like to thank you for your support of our group this week. Your prayers and love have helped us immensely to get through this emotional roller coaster. We started our morning with the daily devotional, with all of the children on the cancha (concrete soccer field). We celebrated the birthdays of Michael, the future entrepreneur, and Jose, the future military officer. We then traveled to Monterrey, up the hill from El Hogar, to visit the home of Marvin. Marvin is a graduate of El Hogar and the Technical School and now works as a guard and handyman at El Hogar while putting himself through college.

To reach Marvin's house, there were a series of pathways and a set of stairs. These were not normal stairs, but a series of loose wooden planks. After climbing the stairs, there was a small one-room house made of wood. Marvin, his mother and his two sisters share a double-size bed which takes up most of the room. When his sisters come home from school (one is a 5^th grader at El Hogar, the other is in high school), the four of them share the one bed. Marvin's mother works in the kitchen at El Hogar in exchange for food for the family, sells tortillas and cleans houses to pay the $30 rent every month. Marvin plans on becoming a civil engineer so that, among his other goals, he can buy a nice house for his family to live in. The one-room house has an electric stove top, a small television, a mini fridge, and a few other small appliances. Their bathroom and kitchen are communal with six other families.

While traveling down the treacherous hill to arrive at the girls' school in Santa Lucia, “The Kathy Sackett” became a popular dance, see tutorial below. The girls live at the house in Santa Lucia and go to a private high school in Tegucigalpa.

We ate lunch at La Florida in Valle de Angeles. The pork chops were a big hit. Shopping in Valle de Angeles was fairly productive, considering the short amount of time we were given to go to the shops. When we arrived at El Hogar, we were greeted by a celebration and talent show from the children. The talent show featured skits, jokes, poems, singing, and lots of love. I saw God in their numerous hugs to every member of the group.

Sincerely,

Celeste Kearney

How to do “The Kathy Sackett” dance:

Clench your fists
Raise your arms so your hands are above your shoulders
Make a shrieking noise

For Saturday, June 29^th: Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, and finally, by your mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Posing in front of his mother's house. The four of them have lived here for 14 years.)

(The stairs up to the house. His mother has a herniated disc and requires surgery, which will be free thanks to the Honduran public health system, but the wait list is currently seven months long.)