Honduras 2011

Well what an amazing trip it was! We had high expectations after a year of planning, fundraising, training and a whole lot of emails, but we were massively blown away by all that we saw and experienced. It was an amazingly fun trip, full of laughter, hard work and joining in with the incredible transforming work that God is doing through His people in Honduras and Street Kids Direct: It was a complete privilege to serve alongside them. Here is a taste of some of the things we got up to, some of the stories we heard and some of the laughter we had….

After a very long trip we eventually arrived at our home for the next 10 days or so, The Manuelito Project, about an hour outside the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa. People were a little nervous about how we would be accepted, not speaking the language or knowing the culture – but this was our first lesson – the welcome we received was amazing – as Theo said “they welcomed us with open arms”. It seems that when kids get together the common language of play supersedes all others, and within a few minutes kids were playing football, arm wrestling, being shown around the home, playing basketball, herding cows and laughter and smiling was all around and would continue for the duration of our stay with the Manuelito kids.

The pattern of our day in the home was similar on most days. Early to rise around 5.30-6.00, and heading out into the beautiful day to help milk the cows, do our washing by hand (very badly judging by the Manuelito kids laughing at us!) and then on to breakfast around 7.30 (the food was always great by the way!)We then would meet as a team to go through the day, and Duncan and Matt led us in some bible reflection and thoughts to get us thinking and motivated for the day – the theme being how we don’t need to try and impress God, but just to know He loves us, an important message for the ex-street kids to hear when they’ve never known free and unconditional love before.

After this we set about doing the construction work on the clinic we together with Street Kids Direct had helped fund. We bent metal, hand mixed cement, moved and laid bricks. It was hard graft, and really a learning process for us, but we really had too big a group for us all to be involved everyday, so although we helped a bit, we made little visible progress, knowing that the money we sent will be the biggest contribution.

After cleaning up for lunch, we then spent the afternoon hanging out with the kids at Manuelito – it was great fun! Rosalie had prepared some amazing crafts which both the boys and girls loved doing. We created boxes, Hama bead coasters, aeroplanes, dragonflies and butterflies, face painting, balloons, bubbles and loads more. We played connect four, snakes and ladders and other board games. We had wrestling matches and all sorts of sports. There was a large paddling pool there also which was great fun as the children took turns to pick one another up and throw each other in! We did on one occasion manage (between a large team of us!) to get Matt in too, to the kids great delight! One evening Mauricio, the director of Manuelito, told us that one of the kids at the home had a nickname meaning he was the grumpy and moody one. He never smiled and was never happy. Maurico told us how on our first day the lad came running up to him showing off his box he had made with a huge grin on his face. Mauricio told us how we had brought joy to the kids there – this for me is the thing that will stay in my memory, spending time at a distance just watching our team of young people laughing and playing with the Manuelito kids and the joy that was present – no X-box, mountain bike, mobile phone, i-pod, TV or gadget in sight.

In the evenings after dinner we took the time each night to listen to the testimonies and stories of the kids from the home. How they had come into the home and what their lives were like previously. It is not possible here to convey the sense of emotion that came out on these evenings. The brutal reality and incredible pain of rejection that these kids had gone through. Abandoned and rejected, sent away and forced to live desperate lives. It brought it back to us – you would not believe the same kids you were happily playing with in the afternoon were now sat before you telling you how they had seen their dad shot to death, their mum drunk and beating them everyday, or how they had been put on a bus and sent away from their homes with nowhere to go. This is where the work of Manuelito is truly amazing, and the transforming hope that comes when Christians put their faith into action.

We finished each evening with our own time of prayer, reflections and worship from the day – led by different young people from our team, it really helped us bond and be honest about the things we had seen and heard and how they made us feel.

Then it was back to the dorms – which were also places of great fun! Telling stories and jokes, choosing a dorm leader and someone to go on “scorpion watch”. Of course it was time for the girls to talk about the boys and the boys to talk about fighting. Not to mention the shoe wars, bb guns and the daily wisdom from Ben, Matt and Duncan on how to get on in life!

Beyond these days in the Manuelito Home we also had a number of different trips out and other projects to see that Street Kids Direct are supporting. This often involved the hour long bus trip to the capital along the half made road on the old American Blue Bird ex-school bus. This hour was mainly passed by Matt reeling off his encyclopaedic knowledge of Marvel and DC superheroes!

On the first Sunday in Honduras we made our way to the capital to attend the church of Pastor “Papi” Pinto, the guy with the vision behind Manuelito, and an incredible heart for the children of the streets. It was a joy to be able to speak to them about what we had been doing in the UK, and Miles and Mark both shared about the Big Sleep Maidenehad, and the God of transformation they believed in, and who was at work here and now with the street kids projects. Mark said how “I think I realise how fortunate I am to live in the UK and I’ve also learnt not to underestimate God.  He can do anything.” That afternoon after a pretty hairy ride for some of the lads in the back of Pastor’s pick up truck followed a little too closely for comfort by the Manuelito bus drive “Loco Laro”, we visited the new transitional home where kids come direct into from the streets before being moved on to Manuelito. It was great to hear from Matt and Duncan the change they saw in the shell they visited some months before, to what was now a welcoming home for up to 5 children coming of the streets at a time.

Tuesday 12^th April will go down in history – not just because we were in Honduras, but because it was the first ever International Day of the Street Child. After some really hard work from Duncan, Pastor Pinto and his team, there was a real buzz growing about the day. The day before what had been scheduled as a short 15 mins or so of radio time turned into an hour long interview with Harry Tanner and Duncan on Honduras radio, talking about our trip and the Big Sleep UK, and promoting the next days event. 5 of the lads were up early the next day to head to the capital to help set up – this mainly involved making around 450 lunches to hand out to people on the streets. The rest of the team joined them around midday as we marched through the capital with banners and an amazing drumming band and guys on stilts – we wanted to be a voice for the voiceless and certainly made a real noise as we handed out flyers! This was followed by rapping, testimonies and a drama from ex-street kids who had seen their lives turned around. The day was hard though – for many it was the first time they had actually seen children from the streets, sniffing glue and “completely out of it” as Sarah said. Some of them were injured and required medical care which we were able to give a little of, or point people towards the makeshift clinic we set up with Carlos, the new doctor who will be based in Talanga at the Manuelito Home. Having some food left, we drove up to where the Pastor knew of more street children by the national football stadium and gave what we had left to the people we met there. It was a long day, but one that will stick in the memory for many reasons, not least seeing the dramatic difference between those kids still on the streets and the transformation to those who were now in the home with a real hope for the future.

Friday was also a full on day for the team as we visited the much spoken of AFE Project, working with children who live and work on the city dump. We were shown around the school by Rey, an American guy who lived there with his wife and kid. His enthusiasm for the project was contagious, and it was amazing to hear the story, and sit under the tree that used to be the classroom for first grade. Visiting the new nursery was also amazing as we could see toddlers here who would otherwise be sat on the dump as their parents worked all day to feed themselves and their families. Just before lunch we were challenged to a Honduras vs. England football match. After vibrant choruses of the national anthems, we won, naturally, but had a whole load of fun in the two hours play. The AFE kids wanted to play on as we wilted in the midday sun, so stuck to the old adage of “quit while you’re ahead” before their greater fitness and ability to cope in the heat meant we lost our lead!

After lunch we headed up to the dump and again it is hard to put into words what we saw there. People of all ages searching through the rubbish for bottles to recycle or stuff to sell. The heat, the air, the smell, the vultures were all invasive. It felt hard to not be rude by covering your face or turn your nose up, knowing that these people lived and worked here. The excitement around each new garbage truck that arrived was also hard to get your head around, as they chased it wanting to be the first to grab what came off. Matt told us about how recently a 3 year old girl had been crushed by the rubbish in her eagerness to get to the front of the queue. Again this brought reality to the trip. Miles said it suddenly dawned on him how we only had to be there 15-20 minutes and then could go, we had a choice; these people didn’t. We headed home from the dump with a lot to think about.

Earlier in the week at the Home we were shown how the grass is cut by the staff and kids there. They usually spend 4-5 hours in a day every 3-4 weeks wielding around machetes by hand! Of course our guys wanted a go too, and so started to great machete debate! Were they going to be allowed to by some to take home? Should they get the sharp ones or the more expensive commemorative ones? On the final Saturday of our visit we headed to the Valley of Angels for some touristy shopping, hammocks, clothes, coffee, hot sauce, stuffed toads and….. machetes! In all we had 39 of them coming back – it’ll be interesting to see how much grass cutting goes on. It was a fun day out shopping, and a bit of a break from the work at the home and the emotive project visits. That evening the fun continued with a huge bonfire “fogata” over which we toasted (or more likely burnt) marshmallows, and then played pass the parcel. It was again a night full of laughter.

On our final Sunday we went to church in Talanga, a short bus ride from the home. It was great to be able to be at church on this last Sunday with the children from Manuelito, and I had the privilege of speaking to them on the story of David. We put on a dramatical retelling of the David and Goliath story as we reminisced about the day we threw Matt into the pool. We challenged people to know that even though we may seem like a David before the Goliath of the problem of children living on the streets “The Battle belongs to the Lord” and He is on our side; the children sitting there having been changed we testament to the fact. As Chris said of the work: “It opened my eyes to the amazing work of the faith of God and Christianity as a religion”. He also said how he believed it was impossible to do this sort of work, and give up what people had given up without a faith in God.

That afternoon we wanted to serve the home that had served us so well during our stay, so we spent the whole time peeling potatoes, carrots and apples, chopping onions and making custard as we put on cottage pie and apple crumble. We decorated the dining room, and made party favours for each guest with sweets inside. We waited on the staff and the kids. It was our privilege, and it was fed back to us that this was really special for them, and that we were the first group to serve them in this way: I was a proud youth leader that evening as I watched our young people washing up, sweeping floors, playing with the kids, and being there awesome selves.

We had a final meeting that evening with Helga and Mauricio to talk a little about the finances, and again, we were blessed ourselves to be able to give some leftover money to projects at the home, and notably give the last of our food and transport budget to them in order that the children could go on an Easter celebration outing – something they had not got the funds to do, but were praying that God would provide, the leftover from our budget covered the exact amount they needed!

Back home now there are a number of questions that the trip has thrown up. Will we go out there again? There is a huge appetite to do so amongst our young people. How can we continue to support Street Kids Direct now, in the UK? How do I explain to my friends and family all that I saw, and how will they ever understand? How much impact will the trip have on the way I spend the rest of my life? And so it is with much prayer that we look at all of these what next questions, and with much excitement that we approach the future – Our God is Greater, now let’s see what He can do though us!

More information about StreetKids Direct, and a further report on the trip, can be found here.

For quotes from some of the young people who went,
go to the Recent Youth Events page.