The heat is upon us. After church Sister Edith packed up a lunch and we headed for the water in her new busito and my Chevy Step-sider, which of course the kids loved. The days will be super warm until the rainy season begins in May. One caveat is that last year the rainy season did not begin until September, climate change and all. Semana Santa, or Easter Week, begins next Sunday at which time the whole country takes a week-long holiday and saturates every available pool, lake, river and ocean beach. My new home has kept me busy and for the first time I have been able to work on my own garden. Love it.

Seven years ago today I arrived in Honduras as a Peace Corps Trainee. After a three-month training period I was accepted as a Peace Corps Volunteer along with 14 other Health Care Project Volunteers; of whom only 6 of us would complete the two-year term of service. I encourage anyone interested in this web page to scroll back to my introduction to Sister Edith and the children in her care that day so long ago when I met her and the kids. The situation today is quite different. When I returned from my vacation to the States last month Sor Edith told me she had received the keys to a 2011 micro-bus a supporter had donated to the Foundation the day I arrived home to La Paz. I look back with a sense of reverence to those days when there was barely enough to eat and we were worried about putting a roof on an abandoned, dilapidated adobe building, being previously used as a garbage dump, where the children were housed in their then-new home, sleeping on discarded bedding, after having been evicted from a municipal building initially provided by the alcaldía.

My new home. A new home with an internet connection and a large space for a garden. I’m also in the market for some new furniture. In Honduras, life is good. I am grateful.

I moved into my new home on February 1st after a week of moving STUFF in my old pickup truck. A couple of days later when I went to the cable company to reestablish my internet connection I learned that there was no service where I live. It is a new home. It is not clear if or when my connection will be reestablished so yesterday I threatened to leave the cable company for a new provider. This morning there were two cable service trucks in front of my house with guys climbing the nearby telephone posts. Meanwhile I am reduced to frequenting fast-food providers to use their wifi service. If I have internet service next week in my home I will post pictures of my new digs.

The children loved the used but still good clothing my family and friends provided the Hogar San José. The kids are very grateful. You will always be in their prayers.

The thirty days I spent with family over the holidays seems like a dream. I hadn’ t returned to the States for a year and a half. My elder daughter’s family is selling their home looking over Puget Sound and has bought a new home on the banks of the Skagit River west of Washington’s  Cascades Mountains. My vacation was very, very nice. It was also nice to return home to La Paz, La Paz, Honduras Thursday. I sent by US Postage 6 small boxes of donated clothing for the children at the Home (many thanks to my granddaughter Sofia) and another couple of boxes filled with shoes will be arriving soon.

These are the gifts I am leaving the children this year. Books. I always gave my own children books for the holidays and I follow suit with the children of the Hogar San José. The authors I have chosen for the older kids are Isabel Allende, Laura Esquivel, Jules Verne, Ernest Hemingway, Alexander Dumas and other lesser known authors who write well. The elementary set get color books and crayons. When I return from Seattle next year I plan to begin a Literature and Lenca History class and continue Astronomy, English and sign language classes. The children will be busy: they will also resume their marching band activities. Tomorrow I fly to Seattle for a  month. Happy Solstice and a Merry New Year everyone!

Sister Edith and the children of the Fundación Señor San José pray that you are thankful for your good health, that you have plenty to eat, a place to call home surrounded by love, good will, family and friends and that you have a wonderful future shimmering on your horizon.

Our children are growing up. Nancy, Celia and Magda completed their First Communion Sunday with a huge group of their peers. More than thirty children entered into the sacrament Sunday blessed by four priests. Thursday we’re celebrating our seventh Annual Thanksgiving Day at the Hogar with three turkeys for family and friends. The children of the Fundación Señor San José are truly something special. Next month I will be traveling to Seattle to spend the cold, snowy winter holidays with my own children and grandchildren.

The children at the Hogar have developed an interest in Astronomy since I pointed out the alignment of the planets Venus, Mars and Jupiter in the early morning sky a few days ago. They thought they were stars. After my first lecture a few would roll out of bed before 5 AM to see the planets change their positions in the night sky as the days progressed until they finally disappeared. Today I gave a class on the planets and their relationship to the solar system. Most asked good intelligent questions. They were in awe at a flyby over the terrain of the planet Mars I accessed on YouTube.com and at the land rovers Spirit and Opportunity traveling across the Martian surface exploring. With the computer I showed them a panorama of the universe recorded by the Hubble telescope of the hundreds of thousands of galaxies and their billions of stars. One young lady asked: “Where’s Jesus?”