48 hours of Christmas at the Hogar

Ahhh... Christmas has come and gone and all of the volunteers survived, and kids for that matter. We began the morning of the 24th. All of the kids were riled up wondering what exactly to expect. We had all of the gifts layed out in one of the private rooms all sorted out. The kids each received a stocking and were able to decorate them that morning with the volunteers. I had to run into town to try and buy some last minute groceries because the number of people we were expecting to feed had grown by 6. So I headed into town to pick up some more broccoli, ice cream, and shrimp. I only had enough money to buy more broccoli and ice cream but the hitch I received back home donated 200 lemps towards the Christmas meal for the kids. (Again the people I have met here hitching are SO nice). This donation we used to purchase 2 more pounds of shrimp. The cooks cooked 350 tamales outside over a fire to last us for 3-4 days and the kids ate the tamales for breakfast the morning of the 24th. For lunch the cooks made rice and beans and then cleaned their portion of the kitchen and left for their Holiday as did the rest of the employees. This left us volunteers to run the show. Each child received a new outfit that Bethany and I picked out amongst the new donated clothes. Each kid received a top and bottom, 3 pairs of underwear and 3 sets of socks. Supposedly it is tradition for each child to receive a new outfit on the 24th to wear for the Christmas celebration. All of the kids put on their clothes straight away and looked adorable. We did have a couple of kids upset because their clothes either didn´t fit or they didn´t like them, which I helped them dig up something that they did like in exchange. But the majority of the kids were overjoyed with what they received.

We gave the kids a tamale snack around 6 pm and some cake and ice cream as well to tide them over until our midnight dinner. The kids played games and as it got later we then turned on some music and let the kids dance for hours. These kids absolutely LOVE to dance. 3 of us volunteers headed to the kitchen to begin cooking our Christmas Eve supper. We made shrimp with garlic and butter, penne pasta with mushroom sauce, and avocado and tomato salad with chili and lime.

We were hoping to tell the kids it was midnight but begin eating around 11 pm but none of us had ever cooked for 35 people and didn´t have any idea how long it would take. By the time we got the tables set, all of the food dished up and our dresses on to serve, it was midnight. We had the kids sit and wait at the tables, while Bethany, Yessenia and I served all of the food in our matching Christmas dresses. Their reactions were hilarious. All of the kids were still awake except for the 2 youngest boys. This meal the kids enjoyed but not nearly as much as the volunteers. I think it had something to do with the fact that they were exhausted. This made us a bit nervous about how they would feel about the next 2 meals we would be preparing. The volunteers then did all of the cleaning up after the kids and we then all watched Disney´s Little Mermaid together in Spanish. Also, just before the meal we gave the kids a portion of their gifts. Each child received their own blanket with their name embroidered on it and a pair of pajamas. All of the kids cuddled around the tv in their new pjs with their new blankets. The movie wrapped up around 3 am and we told the kids it was time to go to bed. Some of the kids wanted to stay up longer so we just told them that Santa wouldn´t be coming if they were still awake and this sent the kids straight to bed.

We then grabbed all of the stockings and took them into the room where all of the gifts were and began wrapping. We wrapped all of the presents and stuffed all of the stockings and set everything out under the tree. The Christmas tree was in our dinning hall so we decided rather than us sleeping in their we would lock the door so that the kids would not be able to get into the gifts if they woke up before us. We headed to bed and around 4:30 am is when I finally got to lay down. I woke up to kids banging on a door and jumped out of bed and ran to our dinning hall to see 3 boys making a run for the tree, they had basically broken the lock on the door to get inside the dinning hall. I got into the room just in time to tell them that they couldn´t touch anything! I put on a movie and sat with them and told them that once everyone was up, showered, and had brushed their teeth we would then open gifts. I looked at my watch and it was only 6:15 am! So I had received about 1.5 hours of sleep. A couple more volunteers woke up but around 9 am all of the kids were anxious to open the gifts and some volunteers were still in bed. I went in and woke all of the volunteers up and we sat in a circle and began the gift opening process. We first let each kid dump out their stockings at the same time and they were ecstatic! It was adorable to see their reactions. Angelo received some marbles and his reaction was priceless. I wish I had a video on my camera, but I will never forget his reaction. We then one by one let the kids open their gifts. Each child had to grab a gift with a name on it from under the tree and hand it to the child who´s name was on the gift. Then that child would be next to pick the next gift. So each kid was handing a gift to another child and everyone was opening gifts one by one in front of everyone. The volunteers even had gifts under the tree to unwrap so the kids could see our reactions as well.

I was in tears for the entire process of the gift unwrapping. I have never felt so rewarded after Christmas shopping. Every kid loved their gifts. Every child was happy and smiling with what they received. Also, seeing who each child chose to hand a gift to made me want to cry. One of the older, tougher girls chose Ruth who is one of the younger, mentally behind kids, that is kind of treated as an outcast. This shocked and me and brought tears to my eyes. One of the younger boys that is 6 gave the youngest boy his gift and said, "here my brother" although they are not related. It was so much more emotional than I thought it would be seeing these kids open their gifts. The kids then were running around like crazy playing and showing off their new gifts. We put on Beauty and the Beast and a couple of volunteers headed back to the room for a nap while 3 of us began cooking breakfast. We made french toast, bacon and fruit salad with pineapple, grapes, bananas, and apples. We served the kids again while they sat and waited for everyone to be served. This meal the kids LOVED. They loved everything, the syrup, bacon, fruit and french toast. As did the volunteers. I hadn´t had french toast in over 6 months nor syrup for that matter and it was amazing.

After breakfast (which we ended up eating around 2pm) we let the kids play with their gifts while watching movies all day. around 5 pm we went into the kitchen to start thinking about cooking dinner and the power went out. We ended up being without power on Christmas day for about 5 hours with a limited number of candles. The kids were running around like crazy all hyped up from the food, lack of sleep, lack of light, etc. We decided not to cook our last meal and just served tamales, root beer floats and popcorn (cooked on the gas stove and amazing). The meal worked out perfectly but all of the excitement got to Wilmer and he had one of his episodes. I don´t know if I have mentioned him before but he is a 13 year old boy with fetal alcohol syndrome that is on medication. He sometimes has episodes where he loses it and becomes extremely violent towards the kids and volunteers and we have had to lock him outside before multiple times. This night without the power he was messing around with the candles and lit one of the volunteers hair on fire. Bethany and I had to pin him down and grab him by the arms and legs and haul him outside where we locked him out until he calmed down. I know this sounds terrible, but it is seriously the only way we can ensure he won´t harm any of the kids. All of the volunteers agree he shouldn´t be at the Hogar, that he is a hazard to the rest of the kids and volunteers but everyone within HHK assures us there is nowhere else for him to go. That in Honduras there are not homes like their are in the states for disabled kids and he would basically be in a prison if he were to leave the Hogar.

After about an hour he calmed down, as did the rest of the kids and we bathed them by flashlight and took turns shuttling the kids to the bathroom. We got all of the kids in bed and fell asleep ourselves around 10 pm. The next morning we told the cooks they could work a half day and we would cook dinner if they cooked rice. We met with the kids in the morning to read a story and discuss Christmas. All of the kids talked about how it was their best Christmas, how they loved their gifts and most of all how much they appreciated the food that we cooked. Bethany and I began cooking the last supper around 4 pm and finished up around 7pm. We made 2 huge casserole dished full of chicken devon with rice. The kids LOVED it! WE gave each child seconds and still had enough food to serve it for dinner again last night. It was hilarious! All of the kids sat around saying, "ahh, mi tia Mary y mi tia Bethany pueden cocinar" , "ahh, my aunt Mary and my aunt Bethany can really cook." They were adorable. We also cut up some limes to squeeze on top of the casserole which made it all the more enjoyable for us and the kids.

And that was that. The end of our exhausting yet amazing Christmas. It was by far my most memorable and most rewarding Christmas ever. Francisco came up to me and asked if I was going to be coming back for Christmas next year because he had such a wonderful one with me here this year. I wanted to just say yes and mean it but I just said that I would love to but I didn´t think I would be able to make it. I then tried to talk my two roommates into agreeing to come back next year for Christmas to celebrate it again at the Hogar with the kids. They said no to Christmas but sounded very optimistic about the prospect of us coming back for about a week right after Christmas to celebrate New Years with the kids. Hopefully we will all stick to this agreement and do it. After being her this long, I know feel that I would really love to come back and check up on the kids after about a year. I will miss them terribly and after seeing volunteers come and go and being present at their going away parties I am nervous for mine which is only about a month away. I will need to try and get a good cry out the day before or i will end up crying like a baby in front of all of the kids... ugh, I don´t want to think about that anymore.

I hope that everyone back home enjoyed their Christmas and made it around safely through all of the snow. I miss you all and I will be home soon.

Take care.

PS I cannot post pictures at this internet cafe but I have a ton of good ones that I will post this week.