I saw Jesus and went to an orphanage

Today I went with my 4th graders to a national park called "Picacho." It's up on one of the mountains overlooking Tegucigalpa and it was very fun. Believe it or not, I would say that field trips can be more exhausting for a teacher than teaching all day. Before we went the kids were so wired I couldn't teach them a thing. But, once we got on the bus the kids were great. Our first stop in Picacho was the zoo. We saw a tiger, some birds, crocodile, and lots of monkeys. When we were at the monkey cages a monkey came sneaking out of the cage and came up on the fence about 2 feet from our kids. This was a mama monkey and she had a baby monkey in her arms. The kids all started screaming and running around which caused that monkey and all the others to start jumping around and yelling. It was quite a scene and I was afraid the kids were going to get attacked by the monkeys. One monkey did grab a student’s lunch box and she had to fight back for it.

After the monkey business at the zoo, we took a break for lunch and the playground. This park actually has teeter totters and swings and slides which we don’t have at school so the kids were thrilled. We then walked to the big Jesus statue that you can see from all over the city. It was a huge Jesus that was made of cement on the edge of the mountain. It was an awesome view of the city, and although I don’t know the story behind the statue yet, the statue was very cool. They also have replica’s of Mayan Ruins which was neat to walk around. This was by far the nicest park I’ve been to here.

After school and tutoring, we were finally able to go to the government run orphanage that we’ve been trying to go to. We had heard that it was very run down and not in good condition, however we were surprised at what it was. The director and assistant director both took the time to show us around and take us to each of the houses. Each of the houses are separated by age and gender. There are currently 80 children under the age of 18. It’s a little neighborhood they have set up with a play ground in the middle and a bunch of buildings around it where the kids live. The baby house had 11 kids under 2 years old and many of them were special needs. One of the little girls was not able to move when they got her and now she was sitting up on her own and laughing and playing with me. It was great to hear how far she’s come, but she is still so far behind and really needs some one to coach her to develop more physically. It is definitely an orphanage in that the kids have a lot of sores, and probably diseases, but the place is clean and they had people caring for them. They were begging for attention and are short on supplies like toys and stuff, but at least they are no longer on the street. We now have clearance to basically go anytime that we want to and do whatever we want to. So we’re going to start going at least once a week to play and give some attention to the babies who need more one on one time. This is great because we were told it would be hard to get permission, however we had no problems. Too bad we didn’t find out about this sooner.

Tomorrow CEAD canceled school because the school needs money and instead we’re doing a fundraising carnival in the morning. Then we’re triple dating for El Dia De Amor. Happy Valentines!