I'm back home now, but picking up the story where I left off. As Sunday school ended, we had a detail to figure out. The puffy paint on the T-shirts has to dry for 4 hours. We knew beforehand that we would leave the shirts at the school to dry and the kids would pick them up the next Sunday. We just hadn't figured out where we would leave them. The Sunday school teacher is Ada Pineda, a young lady whom we are helping through teacher's college. I was impressed with the way that she led us in an impromptu team decision making process. I've had a chance to watch her grow over the last six years, and it's great to know that we helped enable that. Here's what we ended up with. The normal routine is that the Sunday school kids go into church after the adults finish taking communion. The kids process up to the front of the church and receive communion placed on their tongue by the priest, then they go to sit with their parents. On this Sunday, they carried their painted T-shirts in front of them, took communion, then lined up across the front of the church showing them to the congregation. Ada made a quick announcement, then the kids lay their shirts on the floor around the pulpit. This was the first time that we had done a Sunday school program for this congregation. We plan on making a part of future trips. After church we took some of the clothing that we would normally distribute to a multi-purpose room in the school. The members of the vestry (board) of the church distributed the clothing to people to whom we have given directly in the past. We like that way much better. It's not as rewarding for us, but it is well organized and equitable, and the people receive from their church rather than from American visitors.
Lunch was at Charlie's Restaurant. Charlie is a local who serves typical Honduran food. That's where we traditionally eat after Sunday morning church. The rector's daughter, Hillary, ate with us. She and our two teens get along really well.
We went back to the Costa Bella hotel for a quick nap, then into the van to go to San Martin. San Martin is a rural village about 17 kilometers from Tela. When we arrive, we park outside the gate of the walled schoolyard. I'm frequently conflicted when we come here. The adult congregation worships in one room of the two room schoolhouse, the Sunday school meets in the other room. Regardless of which one I'm in, they usually sing a hymn that I want to sing in the other room. This time the room with the good song was the Sunday school room, and that's where I was. We had a craft project for the kids that involved making crosses with a stained glass look out of paper and glue. The younger kids needed some individual help again which creates an opportunity for one on one interaction. After the craft project, we gave each child a goody bag. Sara had put these together with pencils, toothbrushes, and some fun things. This brought one of the best moments of the trip for me personally. As the kids went through their bags and compared who had gotten what, I looked up and saw a girl at the gate. She was holding on to the iron bars and looking longingly at the other kids. My first inclination was to take one of those Save the Children type photographs, but I quickly realized what I had to do. As I headed back to the building, Scott started to motion to me, and I just nodded. I got one of the extra bags that we had and took it to the girl. She took it with a smile, then turned and went down the road. Then I could take the photo of a lone girl going up the road, but the effect isn't the same when you see that she's skipping. It's those special moments that make these trips.
After that we gave out clothing. We didn't have enough children's things, especially shoes. We did have enough rice and beans for each family to get a bag. We put it in some nice shopping bags with zipper tops that Sara had brought. After that we returned to town for dinner and a walk along the (concrete) boardwalk.
