Tuesday

Today we started the day out with a visit to Hospital Escuela. It is the "free" hospital in the city. It is less than ideal and makes me very thankful for the health care that is available in the states. We took in toys, blankets, candy, and coloring sheets with us to hand out to the children. We visited HIV wards, cancer wards, and other pediatric wards. There were rooms packed with hospital beds and patients waiting for treatment. In the states we complain if we have to share a room with one other person. Here there can be 10 or more patients in one room....with not even a curtain to separate the beds. Our time there was spent trying to bring even the slightest bit of joy into a very bleak situation.

After the hospital we went to Casitas Kennedy. It is the state orphanage here in Tegucigalpa. It houses close to 150 kids. With so many kids and so few workers a lot of the kids go an entire day without being picked up or loved on. We took pizza with us as a special treat for the kiddos. And we spent time holding and playing with a few of the younger ones. When the team went to leave some of the kids began to cry. Just that little bit of time we were able to love on them impacted them in a way that we will never understand. It was heartbreaking to hear their cries and know that they wanted nothing more than for us to go back in and hold them for a little longer.

This evening we went to one of the local schools to paint a classroom. The school is well run but VERY poor. They are in need of a lot of help with projects and cleaning up of the school. We were only able to get one room painted but it felt good to know that we were able to brighten the school up even in the smallest way.