Vacation Care

The school year has ended in Honduras and what we in the states consider "summer break" is now what the kids at the Hogar are on. They have 3 months off of school from mid November to mid February. What this means for us volunteers is that we have to plan a lot more but also we get to interact with all of the kids on a daily basis as opposed to just the kids in our grade that we taught. Our current schedule is: wake up around 6:30, get the kids up and going and bathed, eat a quick breakfast (usually hot powdered milk and cornflakes), gather the kids together in our large dining hall and then teach, play games, do crafts, work on the computers, etc. from 8:30-12:30. We then eat lunch and the little kids rest, while the other kids do their chores. After about 2pm we either do a sport in the afternoon or work with the kids that are struggling or didn't pass their grade one on one. After that usually us volunteers go for a run with some of the kids and return just before dark and just in time for dinner around 5:30pm. After dinner again it is chores, bathing, and then a bit of reading just before bed. The kids are usually in bed hopefully by 8:30 and then us volunteers shower, plan for the next day, read and hopefully have the lights out by about 10pm.

I really enjoy the new schedule because I really like interacting with all of the kids. The only downside is you have to be prepared to teach and work with the kids on anything. The kids absolutely love coloring so the crafts table is usually the most enjoyable. I cannot believe how much these kids love to color in coloring books. Especially coloring books of Disney princesses. Both the boys and girls love coloring in pictures of Disney princesses. If we need to get all of the kids into one room in a hurry in case of any type of issue or emergency we are having, we just have one volunteers grab a couple of coloring books and the bag of colored pencils and head into our dining hall yelling, "ok kids, who wants to color" and all of the kids sprint in to the dining hall. It is hilarious. We really did have to use this strategy when we were having an emergency with one of the oldest boys. He was having a little episode and acting out violently and we needed to separate him from the rest of the kids so that we could corner him and get him to take his medication. And it worked like a charm. Also, the kids love to play card games. I haven't taught them 31 (my families traditional card game) yet, come to think of it. But they love to play war, go fish, memory, and many other card games that I think the kids have just made up themselves. And as always Candy land is a huge favorite amongst these kids. I found a Bingo game in our room that had not been opened as of last week and got that out to try with the kids this past Tuesday and they loved it! It took a while to explain the game to them and for them to get the hang of it but after a couple of rounds they got it and loved it. We have been playing that saying all of the letters and numbers in English first and then if the kids still don't get it we will help them and say the letters and numbers in Spanish. We are also working on teaching the kids English during vacation care, and throughout the year, so Bingo is a fun way to help with learning the numbers.

As Christmas is approaching we are working on putting together a program for the kids to do for the other projects. This has been a challenge, trying to get the kids to agree on something they want to do. We are trying to find some good Christmas music in Spanish to teach them a song and a dance to it but trying to get 20 kids to come together to rehearse when the kids' ages range from 3-16 is quite the struggle. But hopefully it will be a fun process and the end result will be good. I am really excited for Christmas and to spend it here with the kids. I have hundreds of pictures of the kids and for Christmas I am thinking about developing pictures for each kid and making little photo albums. In Honduras not many of the locals that I have met have cameras and hardly anyone has any photos printed. The kids at the Hogar that due have pictures that they were given when they were young, guard them with their life. It is sad to think that most kids get their pictures taken with their families often throughout their childhood and their parents keep the pictures so that they can all look back upon them. Here at the orphanage some of the kids have a couple of pictures that were given to them before they came and that is the only tangible memory they have of their life before the Hogar and of their childhood. It should be a really nice Christmas for the kids this year. And hopefully the program is a success. If it is I will post it on youtube:)