Chilar and Chickens.........

This morning  (Friday, February 11th), after a breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit, I had time for some studying before Ellen and Marel arrived to pick me up. We were headed for a brief trip to the village of Chilar. PSS is in the process of building a granja for the school. As we were heading out on the road  we passed two little boys carrying a chicken. A couple of marbles later they were happy to pose for a picture;

There are chickens on the side of every road, even in Copan, but they are particularly more prevalent in the countryside. They seem to be everywhere...chickens, cockerals, baby chickens and birds that I'm not even sure what they are.

Approaching Chilar;

Arriving in Chilar, we were greeted by the children and then the dogs. The children were excited to see visitors I think, but especially happy to see Ellen and Marel. The dogs have figured out that when the truck arrives there is often a handful of dry dog kibble courtesy from Ellen’s bag. I have to mention that I think this bag must be bottomless.  In every village she has stickers, marbles, pony tail holders and dog food that she keeps pulling out. The kids were so excited and raced over to us. They were helping the teacher get the classroom ready for this semester. They were very willing to chat with me and more than happy to show me their classroom.  Marel also showed me their toilets and pilar (basically a sink) that PSS is trying to finish. They have the shells of the bathrooms constructed as well as the pilar but it will take another $300 or so to finish it completely. You'll notice in some of the pictures, the blue and green wigs. We've got a lot of mileage out of them so far and this kids just love them.

A warm hello;

The kids in front of their school. The kinder is just up the hill;

Lining up to get a sticker;

The nearly completed bathrooms...

I then visited the kinder class. All three of the teachers seemed really nice and Ellen spoke highly of them. The kinder at Chilar is one that benefits from the pediasure and vitamin program supplied by PSS. Unfortunately funds don’t permit for this program to be extended beyond the kinder program yet it painfully obvious with many of these children that it is desperately needed. This seemed to be one of the poorest communities I have visited with PSS. Even the teacher explained to me that he has a lot of trouble keeping the children’s attention. They are malnourished and hungry and trying to get them to pay attention in class under those circumstances is hard. I learnt about one little boy that has fainted in class from hunger. He was taken to the doctor and his tests paid for courtesy of PSS. They found 600 worms in his stomach. Even the clinic couldn’t believe this. The children were so adorable and my heart went out to them. Many of them had no shoes and live their life running around in bare feet. One little boy had green runny gunk coming from his eyes and nose…he was bare foot to boot. Yet all the kids, with typical childlike innocence seemed oblivious of their situation. They have absolutely nothing, but had the biggest smiles on their faces. They ran ahead of me and excitedly showed me their “granja para los pollos" (chicken farm). This is a project by PSS. The children will learn to care for the chickens, learn about having to pay for feed against the production of eggs etc and be able to gain some nutrition from the eggs the chickens at the same time. The granja is just about finished and all it will need then are the chickens;

It was hard again to leave Chilar. How can you leave these little faces;

This little girl from the kinder class loved one of the toys we had brought;

Like Boca del Monte, the children in Chilar were so much fun and less suspicious of me. I had taken again a few things but it wasn’t much. I left with a feeling that I wish I could have done more. I should put a word in for the dedication of the teachers in the campos. The teachers in Chilar live in Copan and have to take a tuk tuk as far as the road permits everyday…and that is often dependent on the weather. They then walk the rest of the way in to their respective villages. Once at the school their battles have just begun. They work with few supplies, non-existent assistance from the government and periods when they don’t even receive their pay. Yet they show up day in, day out and are an integral part of the community they serve.

After leaving Chilar we headed back to Copan. On the way back I saw  woman plucking a chicken. Hope for the chickens sake it was already dead! Then a man riding down the road towards us with a chicken tied upside down by the feet, one hanging from each side of his bicycles handle bars.

One of the mud houses typical in the campo;

Once back in Copan, after a quick look at the stands in the market I headed home. There wasn’t much time before lunch then it was time for class.

I arrived home after class to find the house a hub of activity. Sara and some ladies from her church were getting ready to cook tamales to sell tomorrow. This is a fund raiser for their church. The tamales are rolled in banana leaves and will be cooked in the morning for about three hours on the fire;

Banana leaves;

Meat for the tamales;

Sara had made me spaghetti for dinner as I had told her I liked when we had been having a conversation the day before about food.....how nice! I will have tamales for my dinner tomorrow....

Not much else. Tomorrow morning I am of the the Parques de Aves (bird park) and then Sunday morning will go horse riding...

Hasta mas tarde....