Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos (Our Little Brothers and Sisters). That's the name of the organization my friend Tezra works for. NPH owns a 2,000 acre ranch where about 500 kids, ranging from newborns to those just leaving high school, live full time. There is even a school on site the kids attend and volunteers like Tezra teach at. They are here for different reasons. Some have come from the state-run orphanage. Others were born into families that had so many children already they just couldn't support another. And some have lost a parent, never known their parents, or been victims of abuse. The kids are sponsored, and the ranch is supported, by a whole host of international donors.
After a two days bus journey, with a night's rest in Nicaragua, I made it to the Honduran capitol city of Tegucigalpa (or, as the locals call it, "Tegus"). Having not seen my friend in what I believe is nearing two years, I was pretty overjoyed to see her when I stepped off the bus. It was her weekend off and she was in town with some of the other ranch volunteers to both enjoy the weekend and pick up some gifts for people back home. We had a good night in the city, eating pupusas and watching the Honduras/USA soccer game at a restaurant close to our hostel. Honduras won, which doesn't hurt me too badly. As both teams have secured their spots in the World Cup to take place in South Africa this year, there was much less tension in the air than I initially expected. We had a drunk neighbor at the table next to us who let us know quite bluntly that he did not like the U.S. though. I didn't feel for him when he was asked to leave.
We left for the NPH ranch the following afternoon, and I must admit I was anxious to see if the picture created in my mind from conversations with Tezra would be the reality of things or not. The physical landscape is definitely different than I was expecting. There are pines with moss hanging from a few of the branches, instead of the more tropical variety of tree that I had anticipated. However, the buildings and construction of the place is more or less what I was expecting. The school building, hogars (homes) where the kids live in family units, volunteer houses, and visitors rooms are made of brick or concrete and centered around a courtyard where community and life can play out. Meals are brought from the main kitchen to the various groups of hogars in coolers and distributed to the kids in the communal dining rooms. There are basketball courts, a field to play soccer, and a little store where the kids can buy things like soda. Before coming here I had envisioned a place that felt like camp. This image has largely been confirmed, but I have to remember that this is where these kids are living out their lives and not just coming for a week getaway.
I have to admit this is a pretty sweet place, and my time here has been a mix of relaxation and fun. I've fallen into what I find a quite enjoyable routine. The morning is mostly time for hanging out in the almost monastic visitor quarters, drinking coffee and reading. At lunch time I join Tezra and the hogar of girls she works with for lunch and some afternoon play. Around five I play a fairly unorganized basketball game with some of the other volunteers and many of the high school kids. In the evening I hang out either reading again where the visitors stay or go to where the volunteers live to chat a bit. But it hasn't all gone down just like this. Once a month, the kids whose birthdays fall within that month get to climb onto one of the NPH buses and head into the capitol for lunch at Pizza Hut and a couple of hours to venture around the square and buy some birthday gifts for themselves with money the ranch gives each of them. Wouldn't you know it, that day was last Tuesday. I don't even have a January birthday and I still got to go! Tezra informed me that most of the kids would use their money to buy food. She was right. I joked with her that the kids would be walking around with sugar highs for a couple of days. She told me that this actually would not be the case, as most of the kids would get back and share their purchases with the others they live with. I think that's pretty cool.
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