Back to School in Honduras

Who needs 120 bottles of glue, 450 notebooks, 80 dictionaries, 560 pencils, 160 erasers and 120 sharpeners to start the school year?  School in these parts starts the beginning of February and the Schools of Hope (SOH) team here in Tegucigalpa are busy making sure their sponsored students will be fully equipped to resume their education after a 10-week break. Cheryl and I arrived in Honduras on January 9th and will be working with the team here for almost three months. This is our second time in Teguc, as we spent 7 weeks here back in November 2016.  

The Capital of Honduras -Tegucigalpa

One facet of this ministry is child sponsorship through ERDO, which is the development arm of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC).  More than 270 students are sponsored by Canadians through monthly donations that cover costs like school fees, uniforms and school supplies. 139 sponsored students attend grades 2-6 at three elementary schools in the area where SOH operates. Rick had the task this week of tallying the list of supplies for each student in each classroom as provided by the teachers. Some 70 different items, from textbooks to tracing paper, had to be rolled into a spreadsheet to determine how many of each item is required for each child. Sponsorship dollars are especially important as students get older because there is often pressure for them to leave school to earn supplemental income for the household. The week before school starts, we will be setting up a "store" for the kids to "shop" for their supplies. They tried this for the first time last year and the kids loved choosing the color or style of item they preferred. Seems like a small thing, but children here don't get the chance to exercise much choice in their lives.

Our accomodations - Combination office and team house

On this assignment, we hope to make ourselves useful in a number of areas. Rick will be providing the director with organizational and admin support. Cheryl is already signed up for Hope Camp next week, which is like summer camp for the sponsored kids. First up was creating sample stained glass windows for the craft project. Cheryl is also slated to lead a couple of training workshops for SOH tutors and, of course, take over after-school English classes.

Our living space. We spend  lot of time here in the evenings.

Cheryl's "corner office"

Our living arrangements here are pretty cushy as missions deployments go. We have the run of a typical middle class Honduran home in a secure neighborhood. There is a new grocery store within walking distance as well as Walmart just across the highway from there. It is nice that we don't need a vehicle to keep our pantry stocked, which makes us feel quite self-sufficient. The temperature ranges between 15 at night to 25 during the day, so we are enjoying power walks around the community or exercising at the track/trail system adjacent to the military base.

We appreciate all of you who follow our journey through these posts. We plan to communicate regularly during our time here, so you'll be hearing from us soon!