Farm School Highlights: Part One

Hello Faith Partners!

Since we now have limited internet access, I'll be posting highlights from the week each night until we return home.  In this post, I'll cover our first three days in Honduras.

Friday, June 26th:
Upon arrival in Tegucigalpa and meeting up with an El Hogar staff member at the airport, we headed directly to the El Hogar Orphanage for our short visit/tour of the facility.  It was great to see all the familiar faces, especially since I (Slocomb) could tell them that I'll be back in August!  Arriving at the Farm School that afternoon and getting our bags put away, we were immediately ushered to the soccer field, where we were invited to watch a soccer game between two of the grades at the school.  Maddie actually played in the match, and when the boys figured out that she was better than most of them at soccer, well, I'll let Maddie explain how that's been for her this week.  Lastly, we had the opportunity to watch the second half of the USA-China match (Women's World Cup), which definitely qualifies as a highlight.

Saturday, June 27th:
One of our longer work days.  In the morning, some of us helped build a milk shed with bricks and concrete, while others helped in the kitchen with preparing the vegetables that we've been eating this week.  For the shed, we mixed the concrete/mortar, and helped the handyman lay bricks to finish the final wall of the shed.  This will be where they store and filter the milk that their cows produce, and eventually they will churn butter there as well.  In the afternoon, Maddie again played soccer with the boys while the rest of us took the opportunity to milk cows with the students whose turn it was to work during the weekend.  Everyone took at least two turns, so anyone in our group should now be able to explain to you how to milk a cow!  In the evening, among the other games we played with the kids, we got out the Uno cards and showed them what's up.  For the record, it is still a bad idea to sit next to Nia.

Sunday, June 28th:
With our trip to the local Episcopal Church scheduled for the afternoon, we spent the morning hanging out with the kids.  Early in the afternoon, a local soccer team came to the Farm School to play against the school's team in an exhibition match.  Since Maddie was invited to play with the team, we all went down to the field to support her and the boys.  Maddie played well, and the team came back from behind to win, but what made the game a highlight for me (still Slocomb) was that the fans who came to support the other team all ended up cheering for Maddie!  When I asked them why, they told me that it was because it was the first time they had ever seen a girl play organized soccer before.  And it didn't hurt that she was one of the best players on the field!  After the game, a few of the opposing team's fans asked for the opportunity to take pictures with Maddie.  Hopefully she will write about this experience when she gets the opportunity to later this week.
Our ride to the church never showed up, which is just as well, since Maddie ended up playing in a second soccer game and the rest of the team decided to go milk cows again.  In the evening, Celeste led the team in teaching the farm school boys how to play four square.  They loved it!  And at the end of the night, when the boys escorted our girls be to the volunteer house, they challenged Maddie and Celeste to milk cows again with them in the morning, but this time it would be at 4am.  I'll explain what actually happened at 4am when I post tomorrow about Monday's events.

I know this is only a brief synopsis of our activities, but it's the best we can do this week, and I hope you enjoy following along!  I hope to be able to write to you again tomorrow, and hopefully the rest of the team will be able to write to you on Thursday as well!

-Slocomb