We spent the most time with the NYC kids (I probably shouldn't say kids cause most of them were a few years older than me and significantly taller.. What do they put in the water over there?!) hanging out, doing activities with the kids, late night swimming in their hotel pool, talking in accents, arguing - the stupidity of them taking the letter 'u' out of words, that cookies are actually biscuits, that pants are actually the things that go under your trousers, that 'garbage' is in fact 'rubbish', that 'alu-min-um' is actually 'al-u-min-ium' and that rugby is definitely better than american football (a valid point argued by mali, 'Why is it football when they use their hands...?!'), and we spent time with them in Church, watching as they sang, danced and prayed with endless energy.
We also visited a state orphanage. Now that was an experience. There were maybe 80 children there. All from the ages of 1 month to 12 years. All abandoned, orphaned or taken away from their parents. The orphanage is over populated and understaffed. And although the nannies that work there do their best, they simply cannot look after the all children and do not have the healthcare support to keep these kids healthy. They children have open sores all over their bodies, head lice are endemic and some have other, more serious health problems that cannot be properly treated. Most of their meals are just rice and so a lot of the children have a bloated look about them at all times.
The orphanage is very sparse, with little furnishings and furniture. But over the past few years a group called Orphan Helpers has started to work in Honduras. Helping to improve life and the facilities in the state orphanages here. And according to Melody (our host here and one of the directors of Miqueas 6.8) they have been able to improve standards greatly, the kids have bed covers, the walls are painted, they get a few meals of variation, the options for healthcare have improved. This being the case, I would hate to see the orphanage the way it was before Orphan Helpers stepped in. They seem to really be working hard to improve the conditions of the orphans there and also to help the overworked nannies. It was an eye opener. And one I won't forget.
I also went to the fair. Under armed guard.. It's not often you can say that you were escorted under armed guard to Burger King, and then onwards to the fair. Well, it happened. The National Transport police have a connection with Miqueas and they like to do nice things with the kids from time to time. So this time, it was a trip to the annual San Pedro Sula fair. The bus arrived in the morning with a few police officers carrying deadly looking BIG guns and a few other pretty deadly small guns. After loading all the kids on the bus (every child from Miqueas minus the 15 toddlers) made a large group to keep an eye on. But with 6 adults and so far 2 armed police officers, I was sure we'd be fine. No one was gonna mess with us. We arrived at Burger King, and the kids went stright for the play area. The man (BIG boss police guy) who had organised this had been called into a meeting and unfortunately couldn't come, and he was the one bringing the food, so hence the reason we ended up at Burger King. After clogging up my arteries with some sort of burger king burger with fries and the biggest cup of soda I've ever seen, we left this wonderful fast food establishment and by this time I was blue from the air con inside and needed some serious time warming up outside (I'm going to miss being able to go outside to warm up...). We headed off, to the fair! With all our groups sorted out, and everyone knowing who's hand to hold at all times, we were ready to hit the fair. With one extra police officer added to our group, no one was ever, ever gonna approach us, let alone try to pickpocket us. And we wouldn't be losing any children. As the number of kids in my group was odd, I had paired up with one of the girls, and she wanted me to come on every ride with her. We went on ferris wheels,, spinny round things spinny round up and down things, spinny round side to side things and finally a spinny round up and down AND side to side thing. I was sufficiently dizzy by the end of the day, but I think I enjoyed it just as much as the kids. And they had a blast. We ate candyfloss, too much candyfloss. We ate milk cake and drank soda. Too much milk cake and soda. At the end of the day we were all feeling very full, a little bit sick , knackered and content. A brilliant family day out. With armed police guards.
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