June 13th, 2009
Ellen always brings something for the children
Wow! I feel like things have been accomplished!
Yesterday, Ellen and I hopped a taxi for another 30 minute trip to one of the aldeas (named El Chilar). Ellen has been supporting the school there with classroom materials and also trying to improve some of the esthetics with offering supplies like paint if they have willing labor to use it. So the two room school is sporting a fresh look of green and pink outside and bright yellow inside………clean and cheery. We arrived at recess time when the kids were having “merienda” (snack time). It looked like a pretty well run feeding program and I’ll have to ask Ellen who supports the costs of it. These are very poor people where a good number of kids don’t wear or own shoes (see the Kinder photograph) and the most common food is tortillas and salt……..yes, just tortillas and salt. I thought that the 2 teachers at this school were marvelous and was amazed at their use of materials like bottle caps to make abacus’s and such. This is where Ellen wants to pilot a vitamin program. Robert had access to a small supply of vitamins that the Salvation Army had left so gave them to her to get the ball rolling. I’d like to help her with an ongoing supply of vitamins for these kids and will investigate connecting with Cristo Salva and Vitamin Angels.
The handwashing activities came along to the aldea and were used with great response from teachers and kids. The kids especially liked the nice smelling soap and many of them were washing all the way up to their armpits.
Today we had an appointment with the Doctora in town and she helped answer the majority of questions that Amigos (the ophthamalogical group from Portland) had about doing clinics here in the Copan area. I typed up a report right afterwards and fired it off because the Doctora wanted me to express their enthusiasm and the need for this group to come. One of the things she asked for was training for the local Doctors. There are still some folks here in Copan that I hope to visit with that have sponsored brigades before and can help with the paperwork and such (I hope).
Carol and Ellen with the kids from school
Merienda at school
A typical rural scene