Hey Gang, sorry we didn’t get to post yesterday.  We were very busy laying out the girls’ dormitory all day and we left early to go to Copan.  Matty, awesome post!  Uncle Tom, give the Muffin a big hug for me.  The best way to get the freeloaders to leave is to stop feeding them. Happy birthday Aunt Roe, and Annie I’ll bring back some sunshine.  Matt, I am very proud of you making Honors again.  Congratulations!  Just like in Honduras, hard work pays off.  Abby, I can’t wait to see the spring pictures.  I’m glad you have enjoyed the clues; I got a couple of goodies for you in Copan.  You will find them at the breakfast table on Sunday morning.  Thank you very much for your postings; I love them all. I’ve got some great stories to tell.  Parents, thank you for the opportunity to teach your children.  You should be very proud of them as they have fully embraced their week in Honduras.  I expect greatness from them all.  The seniors in the group wanted me to mention that cars make fantastic surprises for graduation! Again, just kidding.  I can’t wait to see you Shell. Love to the kids and the leprechaun.

-Dave

Well, the week is ending with a flurry of activity.  A great productive effort on Thursday has led to a layout of the front face of the new dormitorio.  Great job by a great crew.  Aside from that, the last two days have been jam packed: bingo, a fiesta, and a trip to Copan.  It was great to again see the beauty of this country as we headed into the mountains to see the Mayan ruins.  We even managed to hire the same tour guide as a few years ago, Mauricio, who told the same corny jokes (though he’s added a few more to his repertoire).  Bingo was crazy, though I am retired as a bingo caller.  Ramon did a great job.  The fiesta was also nuts, with a ton of dancing:  see the pics.   Dave and I also had the difficult conversation with Ubil on Thursday, telling him that we won’t be back next year.  Saturday morning is going to be incredibly difficult, after spending nearly 2 ½ months here in total over the last nine years.  Trip alumni, thanks to all of you for the posts this week…keep spreading the word about Amigos so that this place continues to provide hope.  Nicholas, I have a few special surprises for you when I get home tomorrow night.  I’ll start with a big hug and two more thumbs up.  Evan, I can’t wait to hold you and watch you crawl.  (Slow down, little buddy, you’re growing up so quickly!).  Jen, I can’t wait to give you a big hug and kiss.  I miss you guys a ton. See you Saturday night.

-Shawn

I GOT BINGO (troy brown shout out to mom) we played bingo with the boys tonight, and it was fun and hilarious.  At first, it would be really loud, then Ramón would be about to say the next number, then it would be silent, then he would say it in Spanish and the boys would yell and scream and show off by telling us what it was in English. What a sight to see.  Well, I never go bingo, but I still had fun.  Earlier in the day, we set up the site for the new dormitory.  We went around outside the perimeter of the building and leveled everything, which wasn’t easy.  For a field that looked super flat, from one corner to another was about 5 feet difference in elevation.  It only took us 2 hours or so to level the transit, but then we got straight to work and were super efficient.  I cant believe that tomorrow is my last full day here.  I feel like I have known some of these boys for a long time, and some of them have drawn me pictures and ask that I write to them when I get home.  This place is truly amazing and the best part is that almost all of these boys realize how lucky they are to be here at Amigos.  I love spending time with them because it makes me realize that there are so many things that don’t require knowing the same language to communicate.

Miss you all and much love!!

Mags

Ps. Soooooooooooooo glad I am missing the cold weather

Hey all!  So this is my last message before heading back to Nova tomorrow.  I cant believe it.  I did so much this week, yet it seems like we only just got here.  As I write this, we are all on a school bus winding its way through the mountains at high speeds and no guardrails.  Its pretty great.  We are on our way back from Copan-the Mayan ruins in Honduras.  The ruins were amazing.  The statues, hieroglyphics, huge temples and human sacrificing blocks were all so amazing, especially considering the technology that they had to make them.  Not only that, but our tour guide pointed out that the Mayan drainage system still works.  Some pretty sweet engineering I would say.  Anyways, then we walked through the touristy part of the town, saw some cool shops and tons of Hondurans trying to sell us stuff.  It was a really fun day as a group.  Right now we are on our way back to Amigos to have a fiesta tonight with the boys before we leave tomorrow.  It should be really fun and the boys are all very excited about it.  It has been a truly amazing and inspiring week, and I know that I will be sad to leave the new friends that I have made down here.

Cant wait to talk to you all when I get back,

Miss you and much love,

Mags

I only have one more full day in Honduras.  I’m glad that I’m coming home and that I’ll see you all soon, but I’m also sad that this will probably be the last time that I ever get to come to  Amigos.  Today was a great day.  This morning I got to sit in on a class taught by one of the volunteers.  It was a social studies class, but it didn’t seem like a whole lot got done.  It was a lot of fun, though.  First, all the boys (and the one girl) introduced themselves and told us how old they were.  Then the three of us observing the class gave our names, ages, and hometowns.  At first we just gave our first names, but the kids wanted us to say all of our names, because Honduras all have, like, eight names.  When I said that I was from Chicago, they all started cheering and saying something about Bugs Bunny, which I didn’t really understand.  We spent the rest of the day laying out the boundaries for the new building that is going up.  It was fun and we got a lot done.  Then we had Bingo night after dinner.  I had been hearing that a lot of times Dr. Gross will call

Bingo on one night during the week and that it is crazy.  He wasn’t up for it, so Ramon did it.  It was really fun and much less chaotic than I expected.  I helped Gerson David play, because he grew up speaking Miskito, so he is still learning Spanish.  Tomorrow, we’re taking a trip to Copan, which has all sorts of Mayan ruins.  Then, a fiesta at night!!!  I can’t wait.  This will be my last post of this trip.  Thanks to everyone who has been following these messages.  I can’t wait to see everyone. 

Love,

Andy

Hey everyone! Today was a busy day…We tried to work with Nahun by doing an alphabet puzzle—he ended up getting mad and stubbornly ignoring us—session over. Looks like its going to be quite an uphill battle with him once we leave :-/ After lunch, the boys made a banner with their handprints and names. It was sloppy and hilarious but turned out great! I played soccer and had a catch with a few of the boys.  After dinner, we all played bingo together—it reminded me a lot of Christmas Eve…in a less painful way. J The weather here has been rainy and chilly.  It’s supposed to be the dry season but it’s not really pulling through. The weather reminds me of Knoebels--just less miserable. J Tomorrow morning I’m waking up at 5:45 to milk cows…no joke. We are heading to Copan Ruinas to see mayan ruins.  Tomorrow night we’re having a fiesta with the boys, full of piñatas and dancing! Then heading home L  Can’t wait to see you soon! Love you, Mia

Hey everyone! Right now I’m on the bus coming back from the Copan Ruins. They were awwwwesome, and we had a fun tour guide named Mauricio. Our posts are a little delayed, but yesterday (Thursday) we finished the layout for the new girls’ dormitory. They will be able to start construction soon, and although this project wasn’t quite as labor intensive as last year’s 20 foundations, it is definitely an integral part of getting the new dormitory started. The other night some of the older boys came over to the volunteer house, and we sat outside for a while. Mags, Colin, and Fernando graced us with their lovely guitar skills. It was a peaceful setting with the music and the illuminated cross in the background. A few nights ago (can’t remember when), one of the volunteers set up their telescope, so we got to check out the moon. It was beautiful. Dr. Welker, I’ll be trying to post a video of Colin doing some soils testing with a boy here named Ariel. I hope it goes through, because it’s absolutely hilarious. Fernando helped us out by drying the soil in the tortilla shack all day. As expected, the week has gone by entirely too fast. I’ll be sad to leave Amigos, but I’ll look forward to sharing more stories/pictures/thoughts when I return.

Much love, kel

Despite the poverty you see when driving around Honduras, and the problems both economic and political that face the people of this country every day, this is a beautiful country.  And it is no more evident than in the city of Copan, the site of the Mayan Ruins.  We took a field trip today to see the ruins, and it is amazing to think about the difference between the world then, and the world now.  Had they never abandoned Honduras, what would this country be?  I was discussing with John whether or not the boys understood what Copan was in relation to the history of their country and the region at large.  He responded that when talking to the boys before we left they new the ruins were in Copan, and that they did understand what they were but maybe not their significance.  I hope they one day get the chance to stand before the statues and alters of the fallen kings in awe as we all did today.  Last night we got to play bingo with the boys, which was a lot of fun.  Oscar and I cheated a little, but candy was on the line and we weren’t about to loose to Fernando and Dave (even though ultimately everyone got candy).  After bingo the younger boys had to go to bed, but some of the older ones were able to stay up and came and hung outside the volunteer house with us for a couple hours.  Fernando and I played guitar together, people talked, Christian shared his sketch book and ambition of one day becoming an architect, and Dave helped us all a little with our Spanish.  What these boys have accomplished is nothing short of amazing.  Unfortunately, the honest truth of it is, this is an experience you may never get the chance to fully understand unless you too sit down with a boy with no parents who speaks a different language, and play guitar for an hour.  As always, I hope this finds you well.

Love,

Colin

Hi everyone! I enjoyed all of your messages so much thank you! Today was a good day, we woke up and a couple people, including me, went to school with the boys and sat in a couple classes. It was neat to see what their normal school day is like. After that we had lunch and then we did a lot of work in the field and got a lot done. Then we had dinner and played Bingo with the boys. It was great, also, because I have really been connecting with this one boy Jose Luis. He is awesome, mom you would love him! Tomorrow we are going into Copain to see the Myan ruins! Mom – the Myans(hehe its not yours, its myan!)!! Can you believe it?! Haha! So this will be my last post, and I will talk to you on Saturday! I can’t wait to catch you up on all the details! This are still great, I just don’t know how I am going to be able to leave these boys. But I will talk to you soon, and I love you all so much! Miss you!

 Kati

I milked cows this morning at 6 AM!!  Then we went to Copan today (Friday) around 7:30.  It was really awesome.  The Mayan ruins were really cool to see and we were lucky enough to get a tour guide who spoke English so I learned a lot about Copan.  We went to the city afterwards and got a yummy lunch which was great because my stomach wasn’t happy about the food at Amigos De Jesus anymore.  I got some souvenirs and took a lot of pictures that I’m sure you will all see.  We’re currently on the bus on the way back and go to the Fiesta that the boys are having for us, so I’m going to go but I’ll be going back home tomorrow so hopefully I will talk to you all then!

-Lauren

Hey everyone, thank you so much for the messages.  Mom, Dad, Jamie, Grace and Tracey I really appreciate it.  I know you guys are busy.  Today was another work day, but slightly less intense.  We ditched the idea of pulling up grass and just went on to setting up a sort of perimeter of the building.  I also helped one of the guys here take measurements around the boys dormitory, since that is what the girls dormitory is being designed around.  In the afternoon we finished up the field work and after dinner the boys played bingo.  I missed the beginning of it, but they were pretty cute.  They all seemed to scream “BINGO!” every time a number was announced.  I have to get to bed early tonight since I am waking up at 5:45 AM tomorrow to milk some cows!  Then we are off to Copan to see the ruins, then back to Amigos for a farewell fiesta.  The boys are famous for their dancing so I am excited to see that.  One of boys here made some piñatas that we are going to break tomorrow!  See you guys soon. 

                                -Catherine

I am currently braving the roads of Honduras in a school bus coming from the Copan Ruinas.  Today was a great day.  This morning I woke up early to milk some cows (or really milk one cow for about a minute then get in the way of the guys there for about another 30 minutes).  It was fun though, cows are pretty cool.  Copan reminded me a little of the Ruins we saw in Mexico, but we had a much better tour guide then Raul from Rockaway.  We learned all about the Mayans and the different rulers, I can’t wait to tell you about them.  Then we went shopping for some souvenirs, I picked up a couple of little things for you Honohan’s so get excited!  Tonight we are having our little fiesta and then it’s our last night.  I am so sad to be leaving.  I have gotten to know and love these boys and I hate to leave them.  They are so great, yet they have so little.  I am going to be a little heartbroken.  Anyways, I haven’t gotten to check the message board in a while, but if you posted, thanks!  Home in 24 hours.

                -Catherine

Hola, hoy por fin terminamos con la alineación del edificio. La verdad es que nos costo mucho trabajo, pero se siente bien saber que terminamos el trabajo. Los niños de Amigos de Jesus son especiales y cada uno de ellos tiene una personalidad particular que los hace inolvidables. Vieja a mi tambien me haces un monton de falta, ya mismo te llamaré para contarte de esta nueva experiencia. Ruth gracias por el mensaje la verdad es que ubiera querido estar en la boda de German y Jorge Esteban me hace una falta brutal, creo que cuando regrese no lo voy a reconocer de lo grande que va a estar.

Los quiero,

Ramon

Hola America! So right now I am writing this message on a real bumpy bus ride back from sunny Copan through the Honduran mountains with fun Spanish music in the background.  The ruins were amazing to say the least and I got some awesome pictures of the 1000+ year old stuff.  Tonight there will be a fiesta in honor of our departure early tomorrow morning.  There is going to be great food, dancing, and multiple piñatas.  I can’t wait for the boys to go into hyper-crazy mode.  My time down here has definitely been special.  I am so very proud of every member of the trip for having been so great with the boys and leaving an inspiring impact on me through this unique experience.  It’s weird not thinking about anything from my life back in the States for a week straight and being totally used to/comfortable with beans for every meal and the cold showers.  Being in Honduras has been a very powerful journey for me and I look forward to sharing the new Murph with all.  Lots of love to everyone – my family, for everything over the years and the awesome messages (special thanks and shout out to the Suts, Uncle Pat, Irene & Tom, the Carps- you all mean so much to me), and my friends – thank you for being yourself, including me into your amazing lives, and for more fun times in the future for all of us.  I hope this message reaches everyone with love and hope that all is well.  Murphy

Yo peeps, this will be my final update before we head out tomorrow.  We are a little behind on getting yesterday’s (Thursday) messages posted, but better late than never.  The new girl’s dormitory is all laid out and work can now begin.  Basically, when we got here, it was only an open field.  Now, the exact locations and elevations of the building are laid out with pin point accuracy and hopefully it will give the people at Amigos de Jesus a jump start like I mentioned before.  Today we visited some Mayan ruins and we spent the rest of the day with the boys.  Amigos de Jesus threw a big fiesta for us and the boys since we will be leaving tomorrow.  Dinner was a special fiesta dish in which they served fried tortillas stuffed with veggies.  After dinner, we had a piñata, we danced a lot, and had some cake (it was Nahun’s birthday).  In the morning, we’ll be on our way.  As with all of these trips, leaving will be bitter sweet.  Not knowing what is in store for these boys is difficult, but knowing they are in good hands gives you hope.  I’ll talk to you all tomorrow!

Love,

John (Babe)

Today we went to Copan and saw the Mayan Ruins. They were awesome and don’t worry Dad I got video. The drive to Copan was an adventure in itself which consisted of us traveling threw the mountains in a school bus doing about what I could estimate to be 65 to 70 mph. To add to the excitement in Honduras it is the normal driving practice to pass slow traffic by going over a double yellow line into the on coming lane. After the ruins we went to the town of Copan itself for lunch which was pretty delicious. Well tonight is my last night and I will be back in the good old USA tomorrow. We had an epic dance party with the boys and exchanged email addresses. It was kinda sad but I think tomorrow will be worse because the boys are starting to ask when I will be back.

-Matt