Jamaica 11/09

This was my most productive trip to Jamaica ever. My co-worker and I literally worked every day from about 7:00 to 10:00 or 11:00pm for six days straight through the weekend. We spent every day in the car driving to all 17 of the homes that we support in the country. It is times like these that I really appreciate the infrastructure of the United States. The roads in Jamaica's countryside are narrow, windy, twisty and full of suprise pot holes. For me, as a passenger, this was like a free amusement park ride, but eventually the hours catch up to you and your back starts aching from the bumps and jerks.

Boys receiving and reading their letters from their sponsors.

One of the tasks that we were undertaking was the complete picture retakes of the entire AOH program in Jamaica. Once a year we like to send the sponsors an "update" which includes an updated picture of the sponsored child and a letter from the home administrator. Retaking every child's picture is no small task. Even though we did take advantage of the weekend, many times the children are on different class schedules and are taking part in many extracurricular activities so it is not easy to accomplish the task 100%. I can now say that I am very familiar with many schools in the country as we did stop by and catch children at lunch or at reccess for their photo opportunity. The sponsors will be happy and appreciate all the effort we put in.

Beds recently received by AOH to equip a new dormitory in one of the homes.

As we made our rounds, I also visited to supervise the progress of some of the projects we have provided for the homes. The homes received their computer labs this year and I saw some in action already, while others were still in the process of installing the equipment.

This year we made a big push for animal husbandry in the children's homes. By providing the homes with their own sustainable chicken coops, goat farms, and pig farms, they are able to be more self-reliant for the provision of adequate nutrition for their children. We are able to distribute rice and beans, but the homes still have the financial responsibility of purchasing fresh meat and produce. These projects allow the homes to produce meat and eggs for general consumption and increase the nutritional value of their daily meals.

The chicken farms that were provided included layer Hens as well as broiler Chickens. They were already proving to be a great success. The children are already harvesting eggs on a daily basis.

Dominican Republic 10/09

The school year for most of the countries of the Caribbean is the same as the academic school year for the United States. So I generally like to travel to our Caribbean countries in October and November to update our rosters and collect materials for the sponsors. Oftentimes if there are any changes in the rosters they happen during the school vacation period. Many times the children are in the orphanage because their families cannot afford to adequately care for them. Sometimes the conditions change and/or a parent or family member may secure a new job and return to the home to take custody of the child. Usually they will not interrupt the school year for the child, and will wait until the break from classes to give themselves time to bring their child home and get them ready to attend school for the upcoming semester.

This trip was full of efficient work and also some treasured relaxed time sharing with the children. I chose to travel over a weekend to maximize on the time the children will be in the homes and not in class. This gave me more time to spend at the homes interacting with the kids rather than just business business business. I spent nearly all day on Sunday with our newest home. It is a smaller home of all teenage girls. We had a great time talking about Michigan (where I am from), winter, snow, bears, pine trees, coyotes, and all sorts of other things. The girls are very intelligent and I was surprised at how much they knew about this part of the world that was so far away and so different from their own. Two of the girls love the Discovery Channel and had recently seen a program about bears. They had a lot of questions about my day to day encounters with bears living in Michigan.. ha ha.

I took a collection of threads, beads, and other items to share with the girls. We spent a lot of time creating keychain, necklaces and bracelettes. It was a truly special time to get to know them and to share time together. Something that always amazes me about those who have so little is that they tend to be so generous. Out of all the beads and materials that I brought for them, each one of them had proudly made something that they wanted to give me as a gift. It was a wonderful and humbling day with the girls.

I was also able to see and evaluate some of the projects that we are developing in the homes. Some of those include scholarship funding for computacion classes as well as the installation of computer labs in each of the homes. We continued to develop a remodeling project for the kitchen space in one of the homes and revisited a previous project that was provided of a water filtration system for one of the homes. The filtration system is in need of some repairs and we were working to determine what they were and how best to address them.

Also during each home visit I was delivering letters to the children from their sponsors. You cannot understand what a great moment this is for the children. To receive a letter from someone who loves you in the best moment of their day. They all gather around to see if their sponsor wrote to them. They will read their letters and then show them to the other kids. All of the letters are safely stored under mattresses or between folded clothes in their dressers.

These letters are so important to the children. Please make sure to send letters and cards!!

Guatemala 09/09

This past month's trip to Guatemala was short but action packed. First of all, our flight had issues. I spend a lot of time in airports and on planes, so I have grown very accostomed to waiting and sitting. I have adapted such that I fall asleep almost immediately after getting on a plane, and generally I may only wake up once or twice. Usually the jolt of landing will bring me out of the sleep and I am ready to go. In this case I got on the plane and accomodated myself to my routine set up and sleeping position. I awoke an hour later to realize I am still in Miami and we are deboarding the plane. Very dissapointing to say the least.

Anyway, we arrived late so the day's itinerary was a little rushed. First stop was San Francisco Xavier's boys home. The road up to this home is incredible. It is very narrow and the "best" spots are little distances where they have filled in the road with stones and paved strips to drive on. We played chicken with a large truck, and realized that we, as the smaller vehicle would finally just have to take the whole road in reverse until we found a small area to pull off to let this large truck pass.

We have completed an agricultural project in the home to produce mushrooms (hongo ostra). The shady, damp, cool, high altitude conditions of the home are perfect for cultivating this product and the home can use its harvest for general consumption as well as sale for profit. The project was incredible and I was very impressed with the Brothers and the boys for how well they understood and explained the details to me. It was obvious that they had gained a lot of information from the technical training sessions and have already become experts themselves. The project is already producing mushrooms and the boys all agreed when I asked if they enjoyed the new addition to their diet. The experts who assisted us in developing this project actually forecast that this project may be the most successful in the country due to the exact conditions of the surrounding environment and this home has the potential in the future to grow and develop it to the point of making a substancial sustainable income for the home.

During each home visited we celebrated the month of September being Child's Month. Each celebration included piñatas, a special meal, gifts, goody bags, prizes, and brand new baseball hats.

The following day started with an Inauguration ceremony for a wonderful project that we just completed in Ponte de Pie y Camina girls home. This home had been temporarily displaced as they were in need of adequate dormitory housing. Food For The Poor, in collaboration with Caritas, built a new dormitory for the home that cares for approximately 20 girls. The dormitory is complete with four large bedrooms for the girls, two bedrooms for the Sisters and two large storage/closets. Food For The Poor had already compelted a project previously to provide adequate sanitation at the home and the dormitory was constructed with a hallway to lead to those restroom facilities. The dormitory was beautifully constructed and all of the furniture has already been moved in. The only thing missing was this ceremony and blessing so that the girls could start moving in. The home had prepared a ceremony complete with dance and song presentations. I was very pleased with the project and it is very clear to see what a huge difference it will make for the home. The girls are currently housed in the space that should function as the dining room/multipurpose room. The home administrators expressed their gratitude and included the fact that they will gain that space back to better accomodate the girls with their mealtimes and studying.

A big part of our program is to show these children that they are special and loved. Whenever possible we try to celebration special days or give them extra attention so that they can feel God's love in their lives. Through their direct contact with our sponsors they gain a special bond with someone who cares for them and is interested in them. By celebrating Child's Month in each of the homes, we also took advantage of this small holiday to continue in this mission to boost their self esteem and self worth. One of the items that each child received was a baseball hat. These are original team hats from the professional baseball league of the US. Its may sound silly, but as we passed them out you could hear "ooohhhs" and "ahhhhhhs" and inevitably someone would yell "SON ORIGINALES!" The fact that they were new hats and still had the official league tags on them was a very big deal to these children. Simple as it may sound, these children rarely receive something brand new with the tags still connected. The boys, being sports lovers, talked A LOT about them and asked me about the teams and where they were located in the country. It was fun to watch the kids get so overjoyed about these great items that we are able to acquire and distribute to them through the generosity of our donors.

Guyana 08/2009

I LOVE GUYANA!

While visiting Bright Horizons Children's Home we had the opportunity to play a little Cricket with the kids. Cricket is the most popular sport in Guyana, followed by soccer. The children use makeshift bats out of wooden boards with whittled handles. After enjoying our time here playing in the rain, we made sure to send a full set of Cricket equipment out to the home in their next distribution. I wish I could have been there when they received it!

I spent the week on the road, visiting the different homes participating in the program. Along with the Guyanese coordinators for the program we met with the different home directors and discussed everything from our support and potential future projects, to the current school year and the silly things the children do from time to time. The above picture is our FFP Driver Mr. Marks playing with the kids while we sitting with the house mothers and other children. Many of the children lack an appropriate father figure in their lives, and Mr. Marks gets lots of attention when he comes to the homes. The children know him very well and they all compete for his attention when he accompanies the AOH coordinators on their monthly visits.

One of our donors blesses us a couple times a year with a donation of beautiful hand-made outfits for the children.

The trip was wonderful and we were able to accomplish a full itinerary of visits and meetings. We also celebrated a Day of Celebration event with all the homes where the children went home loaded with gifts, candies and prizes. Each home had various children participating in the cultural presentations and it is always so incredible to watch children present to a large group of people. You can see the child gaining confidence and maturity when they complete the presentation and they are so happy that they had the courage to stand up and participate. One of the girls from Mahaica Children's Home ran up to me and gave me a big hug because she was so proud of herself for singing a solo to the group of 500 people. These children are extremely talented and it is wonderful to provide them with the opportunity to showcase themselves.

This is the exterior of a beautiful buildling addition that we completed at Joshua House. This large project gives the home the needed space to seperate the girls and boys dorms and provides a spacious breezy multi-purpose room/dining room on the bottom floor.

Here is a short video of the boys of St John Bosco's Boys Home's steel pan band.

They were practicing for a presentacion the following day to a gathering of all the homes of Angels of Hope.

The children of Guyana are so beautiful! Look at this beautiful face!

Nicaragua 07/09

"Thank you for your support"

When I visit Nicaragua, there is never enough time. We support 23 orphanages in the country and with our time and distance limitations, it seems I can never do as much as I would like.

July's trip included many computer lab inaugurations. One of our initiatives this year 2009 is to distribute computer labs to ALL of the 93 homes in the Angels of Hope program. These computers are distributed in sets of 6. With our Ncomputing technology that we have been fortunate to acquire, we are able to operate 6 independent systems off of only one CPU. This is perfect for the orphanages because they do not have the resources to maitain so many individual computers with the repairs that will inevitably be required in the future. With these systems the homes have only one CPU to maintain and they get the benefit of 6 computer stations with internet capabilities.

New Computer Lab in NPH, complete with Desks!

During this trip we were able to inaugurate 5 computer labs that were already installed and functioning. Some of the larger homes received larger labs that included more than one set (12 or 18 computers). It is incredible to be part of the process that provides these incredible benefits and opportunities to the homes and the children. It provides our children with the opportunity to compete academically at the same level or maybe even a higher level that other children in the education system, rather than be a step behind.

Here is a little example of the process that happens when an orphanage submits a "wish list" to me. When I travel I always request that the homes present me with a letter and a "wish list" of their biggest needs when I am visiting. I receive the list and I go through the home to see the different needs that they are describing. I ask a LOT of questions and I take pictures. Here for example, I visited Hogar de Ninos Siervas del Divino Rostro. They care for over 20 children under the age of 4. The labor required to maintain the facility is intensive given that they have so many babies under their care. They submitted a list that included a prioritized need for a new stove. This stove that you can see here is the only stove they have. Only two burners work and since the oven is broken they use it to store dishware.

Can you imagine preparing formula, baby food, and meals for 20 babies and toddlers three times a day with only 2 burners!

Also they requested a new Washing Machine. They have an old donated machine that no longer works. They wash all the babies and children's clothing, bedding, and DIAPERS every single day by HAND! Bedding is changed and washed every single day for the cribs and the nun estimated that they wash an average of 2.5 changes of clothes for each child every day.

When I returned to the office I reviewed the list again and prepared a request for our donations and purchasing departments. Within two weeks, we had approval and are now already in the process of shipping a new stove and a new washing machine down to this deserving children's home. What a blessing my job is!

One of the homes who had received a set of 12 computers for a new computer lab (complete with desks and chairs as well) had also received a complete dormitory make-over of new furniture.

Donated furniture from a generous University was supplied to them and all the boys (nearly 90) received a new bed and a personal dresser!

It has completely changed the face of the dormitories and you can see the pride the boys had to show me their rooms and the improved conditions. Previously the boys did not have any personal space to store their clothing and personal items and now they have the privacy and dignity they need and deserve.

The home also has an incredible music program in which nearly 50 boys voluntarily participate. I spoke with the music director regarding the instrucments and resources for the program and the home has already received a donation from us of a complete 40 piece Marching Band.

Once again, I get blessed with all sorts of beautiful presentations, dances, poetry, songs, speeches, etc by the children every time I visit. Here are a couple short videos to share that joy with you!

And, of course, we passed out stuffed animals and candy to all the homes we visited on the trip.

El Salvador 06/09

The fishing dock of La Libertad near one of our AOH homes in El Salvador

I left for El Salvador on Friday the 12th. In the airport I met a nice couple from Denmark who were embarking on a three month backpacking trip throughout Central America with plans to end in Colombia by the late months of the summer. I have to admit, I felt a moment of jealously which quickly passed when I was able to provide them with all sorts of helpful information regarding great spots to visit and certain areas that may not be all the Lonely Planet books makes them out to be. I felt pretty satisfied that I was able to comment, not only on El Salvador, but also Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Turns out that Food For The Poor works in some of the most beautiful and culturally rich countries of the world, and despite the incredible poverty, there are still many breathtaking sites and experiences to be had in these picturesque regions.

One of the places that I think is incredible. The scene of all the little fishing boats already docked for the day and all the vendors selling the freshest fish, shrimp, lobsters and other seafood. The sights and smells of a fish market are exciting and you can walk steps away from the market to sit at some outdoor picnic tables where local vendors will cook up the fish of your choice and serve it with fresh vegetables and rice. This is my favorite lunch spot when we are in this region of the country.

Friday consisted of lots of hard work and sweat. We were hosting a large event for all the children on Saturday, so the entire day was spent cleaning, setting up, organizing and making the finishing touches. We had the assistance of a local youth group in El Salvador that was a huge help. 23 youths came out and dedicated their entire Friday and Saturday to supporting the event for the children. As a treat, we packed them into the back of a truck and treated them to a delicious dinner of "Pupusas" and Coca-Cola. Pupusas are a traditional food in El Salvador made from Corn or Rice. The dough is hand-patted into thick tortilla form, but filled with delicious things like cheese, beans, and chicharon. They are then grilled on a big round skillet over hot coals and served with a tomato based salsa, hot sauce, and pickled cabbage/chile salad. It was really tasty and the entire meal, including staff and youth group, cost me a whopping $40.80.

Some of the youth spent the day doing face-painting for the children.

The boys of Hogar Ninos en Familia presented a dance for the crowd.

The following Saturday was a whirl wind of children, games, sports, competitions, traditional folkloric dance, song, treats, and Burger King Kid's Meals. Unfortunately due to the flu epidemic two of the homes had to cancel their attendance at the last minute. Despite that big set back, the event went on and the rest of the children had more than their fill of candy, cake, churros, pinatas, and fun! The weather was hot and humid but the rain held off for the entire day's activities. Once again the children had a great time and every single one went back to their home loaded with all sorts of goodies, gifts, medals, and trophies.

Some of youngest "Angels" are from Hogar Dr Magana. Each home was given color coded kerchiefs to keep track of their kids at the event. (light blue in this case)

To make up for the fact that two homes did not get to attend due to flus and colds, we visited those homes the following day to bring them some of the party that they missed. They really appreciated us showing up with their gifts and sweets, and they were excited to present their dances and talents that they were not able to present at the event. The children spent months preparing their traditional dances, songs, and poetry and it was dissapointing to not be able to attend the event and present them for the talent competition. As always the children were amazing and beautiful and its always a pleasure to get to spend time with them.

Girls from Hogar Cuidad de Ninos received some new clothes that were handmade by a FFP donor.

The girls of Hogar Natalia de Siman were overjoyed to have their own "special" party regardless of the fact that over half of the population was sick with the flu.

We are working with the homes in El Salvador to be able to provide them with computer labs, new beds and mattresses and also for next school year's uniforms and school supplies. We spent a lot of time meeting with directors and administrators to organize the details of both of these initiatives. I was also able to visit a current project in progress at one of our boys homes. FFP is providing the home with a beautiful Tilapia production project. The project is nearing completion and is being executed very very well. Not only will the home have plenty of healthy Tilapia to serve its own population, they will be providing for 11 other homes and still have a surplus of fish to sell to the local community for profit. This small profit will allow them to reinvest in the project and maintain it as a self-sustaining aguacultural project. I was very pleased to see the progress and how well the project has developed. In speaking to the home director and the boys, all were very excited to see the final product and also interested in learning the techniques of Tilapia farming in the upcoming training sessions that we are providing for the home.

Honduras 05/09

Last week's visit to Honduras went very well. The weather was hot and humid and I spent most of the week in a truck with no AC. You know its hot when the windows are down and it feels like someone is blowing hot air from a sauna in your face. Besides being hot, all this time in the truck with the windows down resulted in some interesting hair days. :)

Even little girls in orphanges in Honduras love Hannah Montana!!

The trip started with an AOH directors meeting with all of the directors of the 15 homes currently involved in the program and the 5 homes that are soon to be entering into the program officially. We discussed the children's letter writing, pictures, updating rosters, AOH drawing contest 2009, Computer Lab Installations, and a future project to assist them in their costs associated with the children's education. The homes were excited to hear about our project to provide and install computer labs. We answered a lot of questions and set a date for them to submit the necessary information.

Beds donated to the homes by the Angels of Hope Program

I also had the opportunity to go and visit some of the new homes that we are now entering in the program. As a rule, we try to "court" a home for a minimum of three months before involving them in the AOH program. This way we can ensure that our structure is set in place for providing goods and other support to the home before we start to formally involve them in the program. So far all five of the new homes have been receiving distributed goods and food items without any problems, so we are moving forward to enter their children into the sponsorship aspect of the program.

The homes that I visited were wonderful. They are very well managed homes full of happy, healthy children. As soon as you walk on to the property of a well-run home you can feel it in the environment. Dispite a lack in resources, the homes are clean and orderly while the children are warm, affectionate, and well-behaved. We evaluated some of the new homes for potential future projects in agriculture and animal husbandry as some of them are privledged to have large parcels of land to take advantage of. On this same note, our itinerary included a couple stops to visit project sites in a couple of the homes. We are currently completing two seperate chicken farms in the homes and starting on a vegetable garden in another. The chicken farms will have the capacity for 400 broiler chickens and 200 layer hens. Not only is the physical project provided, but the homes and children are given the technical training to maintain the husbandry projects.

Chicken Farm Project that is nearly finished. Once the training is completed the remainder of the chickens and hens will be purchased.

By the end of the week, we had collected lots of information and evaluations. I came home with a briefcase full of paperwork, a couple plaques of recognition that were presented to FFP, and a backache from bumping along the dirt roads all week.

We delivered a donation of funky sunglasses that we gifted to the girls at one of the homes.