The little boys have recently learned to play War and they can’t get enough of it!

“I want to kill those roosters!” is the phrase that inevitably escapes the mouth of every long-term visitor to Love & Hope.

Movies and cartoons depict roosters crowing in the morning, in sync with the dawning of the sun.

FALSE.

The truth is roosters crow whenever they darn well feel like it, but especially between the hours of 10:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m.-7:00 a.m.

The roosters we used to gripe about were a couple hundred yards up the road. While walking to La Puerta del Diablo we’d see them in our neighbor’s yard and think I wish I could get my hands on that rooster. I’d like to wring its neck!

In October we were given twenty-two chicks, meant to grow up into egg-producing hens and housed in a coop on the yard’s first terrace below the office windows. We were so excited. The chicks were cute, the kids loved them and all seemed right with the world.

Fast-forward to January: our used-to-be-adorable chicks grew up and half of them turned into loud, noisy, annoying roosters that crow and crow and crow and crow.

But as awful as the crowing is, it’s also rather humorous. Every morning, our roosters have a competition with the roosters up the road. The neighbor’s rooster “cock-a-doodle-doo!”, there’s a five second pause and then two of our roosters will simultaneously return the call “cock-a-doodle-doo!”, followed by another five second pause and the rooster up the road responds with another crow, starting the cycle all over again.

Our chickens and roosters are also professional escape artists. We built up the fencing around the chicken coop so they have room to wander outside, but don’t have access to the entire back yard. Despite these precautions, we wake up every morning to find chickens and roosters outside the fencing, prancing around the terraces and steps, creeping dangerously close to the missionary rooms. And then a missionary or a few kids will run around flailing their arms, yelling and chasing our fowl back into their pen.

Here comes the point where vegetarians and anyone with a weak stomach should stop reading.

Over the past two weeks, because of coop overcrowding and because we decided we had one (or ten) too many roosters, we’ve been living out the fantasies of every visitor, volunteer and missionary who has silently cursed the roosters for denying them precious hours of sleep. We woke up one morning to find the tias and cook doing this:

Goodbye sleepless mornings – hello dinner!

On the menu that day: sopa de pollo (chicken soup) and pollo a la plancha (grilled chicken).

It was delicious. 🙂

Robert Gray is a retired physical education teacher for special needs children. He resides in Maryland but spends one month every year in El Salvador. Robert met Tonio several years ago and this year he tracked down Tonio at our home for a visit! Robert has a heart for Tonio and for making exercise fun. He has many ideas about how to create the best exercise methods to help children with special needs improve their strength and balance and make it really fun at the same time! 

While Robert was only planning for an afternoon visit with Tonio, it turned into a whole week of surprises! All of the kids took to Robert immediately because of his unique ways to have fun and connect with the kids. He was able to get each child involved in some type of activity whether it was connecting pieces to a race-track or using a power tool to screw on wheels.

The first project was parallel cables for Tonio. Tonio will be able to walk in both directions, jump and do exercises such as squats to help build his core muscles. The unique part is that the cables are loose which will challenge Tonio’s balance and teach him much more than just walking.

The next project was fun for all! A simple bottle top on a string provided much entertainment and bicep exercises for the kids!

The third project led to the women handling the power tools! These pieces of wood with wheels underneath served as little “skateboards” for the kids to slide around on their stomachs. Robert assured us that having to push themselves around with their arms and playing tag at the same time would be an excellent workout. Check out the video Robert made during his visit.

The grand finale is a masterpiece. Robert took apart a bicycle so that Tonio could pedal it by sitting in a chair. The exciting part is that it is attached to a race track and the power generated from the pedaling makes the car go around the track. The even more exciting part is how it levels the playing field for a typical child and a child with special needs to compete with one another.  This decked out bicycle is a crowd favorite! Click here for a video of Tonio using his new exercise equipment.

A big “muchas gracias” to Robert for his heart, time, energy, education and generosity to the kids at Love & Hope Children’s Home! We look forward to his visit next year!

Jodi and Anne, our newest volunteers, started teaching karate lessons last week. To maintain momentum and capture the kids’ interest, they organized “Ninja Night” on Saturday.

After dressing like ninjas…

…and Little Red Riding Hood?…

We played the Ninja Game.

Then we watched the amazing classic: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.

Of course, the night wouldn’t have been complete without Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael’s favorite food: Pizza!

Thanks to Mark Zimmerman and his team for providing this fun treat.

The boys loved TMNT II so much that they watched it again on Sunday afternoon.

COWABUNGA!

While kids in the States are returning to school after their Christmas vacation, children in El Salvador are just getting ready to start a new school year. Classes here start in mid January and run through mid November. 

Preparing 25 kids for 9 different schools is quite an undertaking. Everything from uniforms to backpacks to notebooks must be purchased, wrapped, labeled, and organized. Lists of supplies vary from school to school, specifying not just the size, but also the type of notebook to be purchased and the color in which it must be wrapped. And that’s just for starters. 

Having been through this before, we planned ahead and got some help. Rotary District 6650 took advantage of back-to-school sales at home in the States this past August and donated backpacks with supplies (markers, crayons, dictionaries, rulers, pencils, pens, permanent and dry erase markers), water bottles, new school shoes, tennis shoes, and sweaters for each child at the home. We then sent the supplies down with teams and visitors in order have it all in time for the start of the school year. 

With the basics taken care of, we then needed to tackle each school’s specific requirements. Mandy created lists for each child to track our progress, and our volunteers got to work assembling each child’s bag of supplies. It took 5 trips to the store over 3 days to find and collect everything we needed. Including:

• 16 different types of notebooks (each kid needing an average of 5 different kinds)
• 40 rolls of colored craft paper
• 49 rolls of toilet paper
• 55 yards of plastic for covering books
• 30 yards of colored paper to cover notebooks
• 4000 sheets of white paper
• liquid hand soap
• hand towels
• placemats
• different kinds of tape
• toys for a piñata
• plastic construction items
• baby wipes
• clear bookbags
• and more!

There were also 180 textbooks and 300 notebooks to be wrapped. Many of the books and notebooks had to first be wrapped in a specific color paper before then be wrapped in plastic which had to be ironed onto the book. Altogether our team of volunteers put in over 100 man-hours just on wrapping books!

School started last week. All the sorting and wrapping is behind us.

Until next year. 

 

Every Thursday we hold a capacitación (in-service) to provide continual training for our Salvadoran staff. Over the past sixteen weeks an organization called the Children First Foundation (Fundación la Niñez Primero) has come to the Home and taught the tíos and tías the importance of structured play with our kids. The sessions include interactive games that have everyone up and moving! They are wonderful because they combine learning with play, so our Thursday mornings on the terrace are full of laughter, teamwork and encouragement.

December has been an exciting and busy month as we’ve had many donors and supporters generously provide us with Christmas parties, activities and gifts.

A few weeks ago, Alma and Romero, a Salvadoran couple who started supporting us over a year ago, threw us a party at a local McDonalds. This exciting celebration included lunch, games, piñatas, dancing elves, a beautiful Christmas cake, and a Santa who handed out presents to every child. After the party, the older girls received a special treat when Alma took them shopping at the mall. And, as an added bonus, a Cinemark employee who attended this party gave us free movie passes for a free movie the following week!

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About a week later, the employees at TACA airlines sponsored a pizza party at our Home. Before the party, they had asked each of our kids to write a letter to Santa asking for a specific Christmas gift. While this seemed a lot of work at the time (you’d understand if you’ve ever tried to get over twenty kids to complete a project), it was worth it because Santa also attended this party and gave each of the kids exactly what they asked for in their letters. It was unbelievable, in a very good way.

We have felt God’s love, peace and joy through our sponsors’ overwhelming generosity. We praise God for His incredible blessings and are grateful for our local sponsors and everyone who provides for us during the Christmas season and throughout the year. May God bless you this Christmas and in the coming year. ¡Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!

Today’s post comes from Executive Director Kelly Moore:

The Salvadoran school year starts in January and ends in November. The two months in between leaves much room for other learning experiences. During the break the tios and tias teamed up to create a series of workshops to teach the kids skilled trades such as cooking, sewing, car mechanics, knitting and more. Two of the girls even took an interest in cosmetology and are attending classes three days a week during the two month vacation.

Last week I had the opportunity to teach the kids how to sew drawstring t-shirt bags and jean purses on the sewing machine. Sewing is special to me because my grandmother taught me how when I was very young and I have been able to create my own clothing and quilts since then. The boys found an old t-shirts and the girls used old jeans to create their finished product. After millions of questions and crooked lines, there was a smile on everyone’s face for having experienced something new.

I am impressed by the teachable attitudes of these kids. Everyone wants to participate, learn and have fun at the same time!

Our friends at Operation Blessing gave us an early Christmas gift – tickets to the Rojo concert! Rojo is a Christian rock band from Mexico that the kids, especially the older girls, love. Their worship music is upbeat, energetic and inspiring. We had a blast dancing and singing along. Here’s what Brenda had to say about our Rojo experience (translated from Spanish):

“Attending the Rojo concert was a dream come true since I’ve always wanted to go. It was the best. I didn’t like it…I loved it! Even more because I was able to spend time with friends from the church, from outside the Home, the workers from the Home and the kids, too. But what I liked best was praising my Creator, Father, Savior, Provider, Friend…my Jesus. I really enjoyed sharing this experience with those that came with me. It was wonderful praising God and enjoying the beautiful moment. I am very happy we were able to go and am grateful to Tati and Tony for getting us the tickets. I enjoyed this beautiful experience.”

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:1

While the rest of El Salvador continued business as usual, we spent the day celebrating a traditional American Thanksgiving with our employees, neighbors and missionary friends. The kitchen was alive with joy, love and laughter as we ate mounds of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, caramelized carrots, buttered rolls, homemade cinnamon rolls and peanut butter fudge.

In order to educate the kids about the history behind and significance of this holiday, they were asked to complete an educational project to share with our guests. The boys re-enacted the pilgrims’ journey to the New World, their friendship with the Native Americans and the first Thanksgiving. The older girls each created a Power Point depicting what they are thankful for. Both the drama and presentations were wonderful and helped make our celebration more meaningful.

As we look back upon this year, we are humbled and grateful for God’s wonderous love and blessings on our Home and children. We also send a special thank you to our family, friends and supporters – we couldn’t do it without you. God Bless!