Monday - Alpha y Omega Orphanage

Today began with a visit to a local church to hear a speaker tell us about the history of Honduras, as well as the current condition of Honduras' economics and politics. He spoke of the difficulty of making a clean, honest living and told us of the pivotal role of the banana to Honduras society. He also mentioned how large banana companies such as Chiquita have made life in the banana industry very difficult for the average person.

We then went to Alpha y Omega, the orphanage that we will be spending the rest of the week at. We met with the 31 kids and teenagers, ages 1-18. We then split into groups, with some people working on renovating the bathrooms, some working on a porch outside the orphanage, and others painting  the boys' bedrooms, with more rooms queued up to be painted as well. We enjoyed a lunch of sandwiches and chips, then continued work. The majority of the painting group then helped the younger kids complete crafts, before heading outside and playing various games with the children. The whole group remarked afterwards of the impressive conditions of the orphanage. The children appeared well taken care of, they all helped out (such as doing their own laundry), and appeared to have a real togetherness. The older kids seemed to care for the younger ones, to the point where we thought they were siblings, but upon asking, discovered that they were not related. We returned to the hotel tired, hot, and sweaty, but pleased with what we had seen, and excited to return tomorrow.

Matt for the team