Sunday, March 7

We arrived at the airport at 4am yesterday to wait in lines that were incredibly long. Thomas Brown actually woke up and came to the airport after procurring a special pass to let him through security to give us a personalized send off. However, because of the crowds he was not allowed through and could only call us from the entrance to the terminal. We were so sorry to miss him but really appreciated his very sweet intention.

Easy travel, with no glitches, except that the computer room was locked and therefore no blog yesterday. Sorry for that.

We are settled and have just finished our first full day at El Hogar. After a church service completely given in Spanish, where we smiled alot and pretended to know the words to the hymns, we took several of the newest children to Pizza Hut for dinner. The girl beside me, Soyla, was excited because she had never had pizza. The children were so focused on practicing their manners that they all used knives and forks -- even to eat their garlic bread !!

Afterward, we learned some of the history of El Hogar and the stories of some of the newer children. Claudia, who is the principal of the school, told each story and it was very clear how much she loves these incredible children. It did not take long to understand why she said that a little piece of El Hogar will come home with each of us.

Each of the stories was uniquely poignant. Edes is a smart, twelve year old girl who was living alone with her two small brothers who had come to think of her as their mother. Claudia brought all three of the children here and all are doing well. Edes is allowed to be a little girl here but still she carried a maturity of someone years older. She taught me some Spanish in the van and was so excited to try on my sunglasses. Two brothers, Steven and Jason, were living with their mother prior to coming here. Both are healthy but still very small from years of malnutrition. Their mother forced them to leave the house each day and they were not allowed to return unless they had collected a certain amount of money. Claudia rescued them and they do not want to go back. You would never believe that these happy, smart and playful little boys could have lived that way. When they are middle school age they will go to the Agricultural and Technical School and may even go to University as previous students have.

Today was the day that the mothers of some of the children came to visit. Some have no parents and others leave on weekends to visit their families. Regardless it is very clear that they are safe and loved here. We are lucky to be with them.

-- Cory Little