Thursday, May 14, 2009

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.

Trinidad 04/09


Without realizing it I had scheduled this trip to begin on the Monday following the 5th annual Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain Trinidad. What are the chances? But, by the time I arrived on Monday all the excitement was over and even the International Airport was pretty calm. You could see the aftermath of the large international event as there were flags, banners, billboards, event structures and other things that were testimony to high profile gathering. It was interesting to see how widely loved our President Obama is. There were some billboards just praising him or welcoming him, with images of his smiling face on them. I visited the buildling complex where the summit was hosted. A very impressive structure, complete with larger-than-life prints of some of Trinidad's famous paintings and artwork. I was told that to order to be able to accomodate all the persons in attendance, Trinidad rented some cruise ships and had them docked in the port due to a lack of available hotel space. What a good idea!

Aside from the lingering excitement of the summit, I had a productive visit to Trinidad. In April letters from the sponsored children in Trinidad were due to the office. So a portion of the trip was spent collecting, reviewing and organizing letters written by the children to their sponsors. This can be quite a task as the children are kept very busy and involved in many different activities. Therefore, if we are missing some letters it can be tricky to visit the home and find all the children present. As they should be, the children participate in many different sports, dance, tutoring, and many other extracurricular activities. Many times when we are taking updated pictures of the children you will notice they are still perspiring from the soccer field, or dressed in their school uniform on their way to class.

Playing with some children's books and keychains that I had brought for them.

We met with the home administrators and discussed the support being provided by the Angels of Hope program. We informed the homes of a new project that we are working on that will install computer labs in each of the homes. We are still collecting information from some of the other countries, but I was actually adivsed today that the computer sets for Trinidad were to be shipped next week. We worked with the homes to determine an appropriate location for the installation and ensured that the space was adquate and secure.

This is Sharaza. We spent a lot of time talking. She was telling me about her past and how grateful she is to be at the home because she is a lot "safer" now. She dreams of becoming a famous Indian actress and starring in Baliwood movies. This was her Baliwood pose!

As you can imagine, I spend a lot of my time in a vehicle, driving between homes in different parts of the country. But even this time is very enjoyable as I get to see the countryside and stop at different places to eat. I LOVE the food in Trinidad. It is an incredible blend of Asian, Indian, Caribbean and Latin food. For breakfast I had Shark and Bake, Peas Pie, or Doubles. I love Indian food, and I especially love to eat Indian food purchased from a vendor on the street. That is where the good stuff is! For lunch and dinner I had Jerk Pork, Curry Roti, Chinese Food, Rice and Peas, and some great Mexican Food. And even after all my travels, I am still trying new drinks. I had some peanut punch that was delicious.