Happy Easter!

Semana Santa (Holy Week) means “spring break” in these parts.  All the regular teachers have the week off and many of the children have gone home to spend the week with their families.  The younger girls have gone to spend the week at the older girls’ residence in Santa Lucia and about a dozen boys from the Technical Institute and the Agricultural School have come to spend the week at El Hogar.  The campus is “quiet” at about half capacity.

The Celebration of Semana Santa started last Friday with a procession around the property to stations where a few children would read a part of the Easter story.  The priest from St. Mary's came to share and Profe Heyser led the procession with music. 

On Sunday, when most of the kids were getting picked up, a young boy came running up to me with his backpack bursting at the seams and told me excitedly “Profe Erika, voy a salir a mi casa!”  He was one of many who were looking forward to spending the week at his house.  Later that afternoon, I saw the same little boy walking over to the line up for dinner without his backpack.  At the same time, two other boys, one with tears in his eyes, came over and wrapped their arms around me and told me that they couldn’t go home.  I could only imagine the hurt and disappointment they must have felt and it made me more cognizant of the essential work that El Hogar does to provide a safe and loving home for these children.

The teachers on duty for the week made sure to fill the days with fun activities for everyone.  There was soccer, lego, bowling, colouring, swimming, movies and more soccer to keep everyone busy. We even had a pizza party (and the 15 pizzas arrived on the back of a motorcycle).

I took part in all of the activities, but also helped the administrator catch up on some paperwork (I do love data entry!)… which I was happy to help with as it meant I could take a break from the blazing sun…  Many rumor that this is the hottest week of the year and although I only have six weeks of experience, I agree with that already.

On Wednesday, I joined the older boys on a hike at La Tigra National Park; the first national park in Honduras.  It is just under an hour outside of Tegucigalpa and we drove along roads that made me happy I was wearing a sports bra...  We hiked for about four hours.  It was cool and humid, with beautiful views.

We stopped for a short break for lunch at the cascada (waterfall.)

I swear, the whole four hours was uphill…  And this isn’t one of those “we walked to school uphill both ways in the snow in our dad’s pyjamas” type exaggerations.  My legs today (yes, three days later) speak for themselves.  I thought the 10km Gran Maraton was hard!