Compassion Trip to Honduras - Part 1

I got back from Honduras just over a week ago and I'm still being blown away by the experience. I've been to Honduras five times from 2006 to 2010 with Heart to Honduras (hth.org). This time I traveled with Compassion International (compassion.com) on a group trip for sponsors to meet their sponsor children. And this was a COMPLETELY different trip than those I've taken before!

With previous trips we did constructions projects and medical clinics. With this type of work we were pushed for time to complete our projects. When children would come visit us, we would ask them to stay out of the way out of concern for their safety. We were also asked not to give them any sort of gifts  but we would sneak them candy sometimes.

However with this trip the focus was on children, and it was suggested that we bring gifts not only for our sponsor children, but for the many other kids we were visiting. So I packed two suitcases (one large, one small) full of gifts for my sponsor girl, Ana, her family, and also for the different projects we would visit. (And yes, I packed clothes and personal items also.)

The first day we got to play with the kids from our first project (HO-328) was a national holiday (Columbus Day for us) so the kids were out of school. Many children showed up to play, not just the children from the project, but many more.

They warned us to only give out stickers around small groups of children. I tried this, but the moment I got out stickers, the kids would start pushing forward trying to get to the stickers. Our trip leader, Brad, rescued me by taking the stickers out of my hand and putting them away. Other times we would try, and we would say "una fila por favor" (one line please) but they'd keep pushing. Roxana (most awesome roommate ever) separated them into boys (ninos) and girls (ninas) and they were a little better at getting into a line. There was still cutting and pushing going on.

The crowd around Roxana grew as the children realized she was giving out stickers.

I got frustrated and in my mind I kept thinking "this isn't what they really want." I put my stickers away and started to try a hand-clapping game (like See See My Playmate) but the girls didn't seem to understand what I was doing. However, they showed me a game they play (with the help of one of our translators).

I'm not sure how to describe it but everyone stands in a circle with their right hand on top of the next person's left hand. Then my left hand was under someone else's right hand. They would do a sing-song chant and clap the hand of the person to the left. This would go around the circle a couple of times, and then they would start counting in English. On "ten" they tried to slap the hand in their left hand. If they got the person, that person was out. If not, then they were out. Then the circle would get smaller. We played this until there were one child left. We had a great time. And it was much better than trying to hand out stickers. ;)

Helping two girls with their stickers. 

However, I started to notice something that surprised me. When we gave them stickers, they'd give them to the other children, and back to us - by sticking them on our cameras and name tags. I'm not sure if they were being generous or if they just liked sticking them on things (and people). Regardless, they didn't try to hold on to them, they wanted to share them.

Showing my name tag with stickers on it. 

I have to mention another story that I, unfortunately, didn't get to witness. Several times that week we split into four different groups and would do home visits of sponsor children (all of whom are living in poverty). We got to see what their houses looked like and could ask their family how Compassion has changed their lives. It was a great experience. One of the other sponsors handed a little boy a sheet of stickers. He looked at the stickers and then he started crying. It seems that he was that overwhelmed by the gift of a sheet of stickers.

One of the home visits I was part of.

The next project we visited was a little different. On our second day we had a VBS setting with face painting, balloons, crafts, and a Bible story (Noah and the ark) with stickers. Most of the children there were from the project and we didn't see quite as many kids. I did balloon sculpting and was ready for a rush of kids wanting dogs, swords, butterflies or hats. I taught a few of the other sponsors how to do balloon dogs and swords and at one point we had several on the table waiting for kids to come up and want one. (The rush for balloons never happened.)

I noticed something amazing. The children walked around to the different tables and took turns doing crafts, getting their faces painted and getting balloons. They didn't push, they didn't cut, and they didn't whine about having to wait. In fact, one boy came up and asked for a second sword. When I asked where his first one went, he pointed to a little girl who was playing with it. So I made him another sword. This actually happened a couple more times with other kids.

Making a sword for the boys. (Photo by Tom Baer.)

Time and again these children surprised me. My expectations of how they would react when we gave them stickers, or balloons, or candy, other little gifts were blown apart. I thought they would be greedy for something they didn't have. I thought they would want to hold onto the items and not let them go, because who knows when they would ever get another one.

Instead it was like they enjoyed the moment so much that they wanted to make sure their friends experienced it also. And maybe when we enjoyed giving them the item, they enjoyed it as much when giving it to someone else. Is this the mindset of children who have grown up with very little? Is it because these children have listened to their lessons about love, kindness, sharing, and giving? I'm not sure, but I hope to someday find out why these children are so different from my previous experiences.

Saying goodbye to the kids at HO-329.

I have so many other stories to blog about, but I'll take a break for now. I also need to share my meeting with Ana and her mom, about an impressive boy named Bayron, meeting Heart to Honduras people from Arizona with a ministry we might be interested in, and of course all the crazy awesome things God was doing behind the scenes. I need to do this quick though, before I start forgetting details.