We have a little saying with the house moms, "we'll start the diet next month". With so many people living in the property, we seem to have a party every month for someone's birthday, special occasions or national holidays, and there's no way we are going to miss out on all the amazing Honduran celebration food. Although it seems like a good idea now that this party month has gone by and we all have gained a few pounds. Without a doubt, the month of September will be now know as the party month.
First on the calendar was the siega, or harvest party; where people brought the best of their crops to God. The same week, on September 10th, was children's day. Not only it is a major celebration in all of Honduras, but it is also very fitting to celebrate all of our kids here at the children's home. School age children got to celebrate at their school with various children's games, food and piñatas. And after that, we got to celebrate with everyone else at the property. Since we were unaware of the date, we weren't able to buy candy and a piñata in town, but Monica and Doris made one from scratch and filled it with home-wrapped marshmallows (left over from our last bonfire) mints, pencils and stickers. With that we had games and a nice meal as well.
A couple days later, Tanya (one of the house parent's children) turned 13. For her birthday and as a continuation of children's day we had a little party with a bonfire and roasted hot dogs.
Just a few days later, on September 15th, it was Honduras's independence day. It was so great to see the patriotism that rose that whole week, in preparation for the festivities and in the day of. All schools, primary and secondary, public and private, all students and teachers, went out on the streets and marched on a parade. Our little village's school joined with the smaller village of San Luis to march through out Urraco. After the parade, there was a program at school where the students showed their patriotism with songs, poems, dances and dramas. And of course, there were a couple piñatas too.
In between the national holidays and the last days of the month, we hosted the last short term mission group of the year. Thank you Destiny Church! we had a blast with all of you.
Just as the group left, on September 28th we hosted a united youth service with five different churches from three villages, Urraco, Japon and Toncontin. At this service, we focused and celebrated the youth of the three villages.
And lastly, on September 29th, we had our 5th wedding anniversary. Because it was already a super busy month, we decided to take it easy. Little did we know, our Honduran family planned a surprise party for us. From our housemates to the house parents to the oldest girls, put up a whole production for our anniversary. They made an amazing romantic candle lit dinner with desert, a power point presentation, songs and gifts.
We are truly blessed to have all these people that care about us. Sometimes its hard to measure the success of our input in people lives, but when all these amazing people truly care for us and get together and plan a surprise party for us, it lets us know that we are really making an impact in their lives, and we are becoming a family.
P.S: We do apologize for the bad quality of the pictures, our camera is reaching its final days.
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