La Paz

Today was our first full day at El Hogar. After a restless night (unless you brought ear plugs) of snoring, fireworks, car horns, and roosters, we started the day off with breakfast in the volunteer house consisting of eggs, ham, tortillas, beans, and a local cheese.

Dressing in our best outfits, we headed off to the neighborhood Episcopalian Church for morning service with a group of children. Although the service was in Spanish, we all enjoyed singing and reading along. The entire church was enthusiastic and welcoming. During the service, the members of the church stopped for a moment to greet each other with, “peace be with you” or “la paz.” We were very surprised to see that the entire church took the time to individually greet each of us with a hug or handshake and “!La Paz¡” Their acceptance of all ethnicities and generosity was extremely touching.

Once the service ended, we headed off to treat the group of children to lunch at Pizza Hut. The boys and girls played in the indoor playground while we waited for lunch and met Raul’s family. While we ate lunch, we learned the children’s names and practiced our Spanish. A fourth grader named Jonathan was almost fluent in English. We noticed that the children were brought up to eat everything they put on their plate. They also enjoyed many United States cartoons such as the Fairly Odd Parents and Spongebob.

We returned to El Hogar and enjoyed an afternoon of bracelet making, Twister, wiffleball, and bubbles. As soon as a soccer game was put on the television, our games were left for their obsession.

We also noticed that many families brought their children back to El Hogar after the weekend. These families are not able to support their children, but they enjoy bringing their children home for the weekend to visit. It is amazing that they are willing to sacrifice the joy of raising their children to allow them to receive an education at El Hogar.

At night, we made personal drawings for the children and played Frisbee. Tomorrow we begin painting the new dorm rooms at eight a.m. We will also be painting a mural for the children on the walls.

Buenos noches y La Paz de El Hogar,
Claire and Emmy