St. Michael the Archangel Honduras Mission Project

Last year when I came for my first mission trip, I talked about how emotional I was for the entire week.  This year I haven’t been as emotional, so I must’ve come with a different attitude, or I’ve matured in the last year…OK, let’s go with the first option…but I find myself reflecting more this year—about the girls, the elderly and the sors (sisters)—and how much they and their hogars (houses) have improved over the last almost fifteen years of St Michael’s relationship with them—or maybe I’m reflecting to try and block out how emotional I know it will be to say goodbye again…:)

We started this morning by walking the high schoolers to school at 7am—and for the newbies (Sharon, Julie and Emily) it was their first experience on the streets of Santa Rosa—pretty narrow cobblestone street with really narrow sidewalks, and lots of traffic—so the five-minute walk took about ten—but the girls appreciated it and we all enjoyed doing it.  When we got to school, we saw a group of our girls who were already there, doing their senior class project, which was running their own business for two months.  They invited us in and gave us a tour of their project, and we were all so proud to see their confidence and maturity as they presented to us.
After breakfast at the elderly home, we spent the rest of the morning with the elderly, playing games and holding hands and talking to them—and they give us so much love in return, because they simply want people to come spend time with them—which is both gratifying and sad, because we know we won’t be back for at least six more months…

Because our Unbound trip for the day was canceled, we had the rare opportunity to treat the sors from both hogars to lunch, and we had such a good time with them.  The sors do such a great job taking care of us during the week—waiting on us hand and foot (is that an idiom—sorry, inside joke) for all our meals and afternoon coffee breaks—that we were so happy to let them relax and enjoy their lunch without any work involved…

After lunch, we all got caught in a pretty big thunderstorm on our way back to the hogar—so after we dried out a little we headed over to the orphanage for more activities.  Some of us worked on Pen Pal letters with the girls, some played more games with them, and some video’d the girls reflecting on their life at the hogar.  Between the Pen Pal letters and the videos, it was clearly apparent how much improvement the girls have shown in English since St Michael’s started with them.  For the videos, the girls were given the opportunity to film in English or Spanish, and every single one chose English and performed so well—we were so proud of them and what they accomplished.  The we went to the Pen Pall room and saw even more examples of improvements in English, and the girls really participating in the program.

All in all, not a bad way to spend a day in service to others, on the memorial of Saint Dominic, a truly great saint who spent his life in self-sacrifice and service to others…
Looking forward to another great day tomorrow…

Robin (otherwise know as Alberto)