Sunday Snapshot (from Aguacatal)

Aguacatal, Honduras 2010

He’s home from Honduras

(At the family Poperia)Yes, Waffles is home. I’m waaaaaaaaaaay behind on blogging – I’ve been out of town at The Lost Planet (not kidding, it’s a lovely spot in Virginia…but more later on that) and I came home just in time to welcome Waffles home. I’ve got my biggie boy home. Let me tell you how happy I was to wrap my arms around his “all grown up and went out there and did it on my own” person. I had a little bit of trouble letting go of him because he felt like a perfect combination of boy and man to me. It is a magical experience to parent a child who grows into a young man and emerges from an experience in a way that nearly allows for the transformation to be tangible. It’s hard to explain. Perhaps you can see it in his amazing smile. Can you?

Magical, too, are these photos Waffles shared with me today. He identifies them as representative of his 7 weeks in Aguacatal, Honduras. I blogged a bit about the community in an earlier post – and now I present you with these images from Waffles himself.

(His family-a sampling of the playmates)  (His dance crew – includes brothers, sisters, cousins, etc…)(Performing at a local fiesta in the nearest city)(The school and the kids)

(One of many local waterfalls)(After the dance with his little brother Javier)

(This little man got a lot of attention from Waffles. Antony is his little cousin who is being sponsored by an American Hospital for necessary heart surgery this fall. Waffles was Antony’s main man while in Aguatacal. We hope we can send Waffles to TX this fall to stay with Antony for comfort and courage) 

There is a blog post waiting to be written by Waffles – and we’ll collaborate on some details. But, I couldn’t wait to put some of these images up on the blog because they make me smile too.  I love this kid like crazy. It is an honor to witness his amazing heart. I am humbled by his compassion, his kindness, and the smile that greets everyone who crosses his path. At 17, Waffles is all that I had ever dreamed my boy could be while on the journey of his “becoming.”

Ding-a-ling from La Paz!

I don’t like to be phoned when I’m on vacation. I don’t like when someone phones my husband when we’re on vacation. And when we were on vacation, my cell phone rang.  I wondered who in the world would be calling and I nearly walked away…good thing – the call was from WAFFLES! Yeah! He was calling during his mid-term break in La Paz, Honduras. I was so excited to hear his voice, I yelled his name and then fired a slew of questions at my boy. He interupted me to ask, “is my little brother there?” He had to talk to Blueberry first. Then, my biggie son, who has been gone over a month and is volunteering in a remote village in Honduras, gave me some details.  You want details?

• No electricity anywhere in the village
• 1 1/2 hike to the nearest bus station used to get anywhere
• Beautiful waterfalls in the area
• It’s hot
• Daily diet includes corn tortillas, beans, rice, and an occassional egg
• He’s a few hours from La Paz
• He started a soccer team – uniforms (shirts) were about to arrive
• His “team” has to hike 40 minutes “straight up” a mountain to the soccer field his team uses/made/improved
• They are painting the only community building this week
• He has a 13 yr old host brother with whom he enjoys making little boats and floating them at the waterfall
• He loves his host family – “father’s” name is Omar
• His Spanish is getting the job done
• He told me it has been the best and the worst time of his life BEST=community WORST=never has worked so hard in his life
• He has to write lesson plans – he likes to do this at the waterfall
• He has almost no alone time and very little idle time
• He asked me to PLEASE bring sugar to the airport when I pick him up. “What”, I asked? “Fruit Loops, bring Fruit Loops.”

Can you say transformative? He told me he’s taking a lot of pictures. He’s got a good eye – all my kids do when it comes to photographs. I promise I’ll post pictures when he gets home. This was a GREAT post to inaugurate our new blog site! *smile*

(stock picture of La Paz from a website)

Honduras Bound

This guy, my number one son,  left today for 7 weeks. He’ll be in Honduras. You can read about the program here and here.  And, if you are a regular reader, you’ve already seen an update from Songbird’s arrival in Ecuador with the same youth volunteer program (but in her case she’s doing the job of supervisor, while kids Waffle’s age are the volunteers).

I love this kid. He’s got the greatest smile, a sense of humor that brings the house alive, and an openness and kind-heartedness that is…well…it’s impressive. I’m excited to see this young man in 7 weeks; see him with THIS experience informing more of his “becoming.” Transformative is the word I’m thinking will describe this experience for him. I can’t wait for the stories and the pictures.

The sweetest parts of his departure were two-fold. First, Waffles and Blueberry had me in tears in the car as they made some iphone videos to watch during his absence. We learned this is a great trick for Blue’s ‘missings’ – sibs and ‘honorary sibs’ (Schwartz from Finland and now Flower from Hungary)  come and go a lot in this household, so we try to find ways for Blueberry to make sense of our revolving door, and to trust in the permanence of his siblings in his life. So, Waffles made the videos with Blueberry and they made me cry. I’m keeping them to ourselves – Blue gets them without outside eyes. 

Then there was this discussion as Blue and I left the airport:

Blue: Where’s Waffles Mommy?

Me: He went on the airplane to Honduras. Remember? We just kissed him bye-bye.

Blue: Noooooooooooo, I want to go too. I go on airplane to Honduras!

Me: I’m sorry Blue, you’re going to Washington with Mommy and Daddy the next time you get on an airplane. Waffles is going to Honduras to work, just like Songbird went to Ecuador too.

Blue: What Waffles doin’ in Honduras Mommy?

Me: He’s going to live in the mountains and spend time with some kids and speak Spanish and help them with hard working.

Blue: Nooooooooooooooooo, I want to go Honduras too and speak Spanish!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh nooooooooooo, my foot hurts! Ohhhhhhhhhh noooooooo, I need Waffles here right now to kiss my foot! Ohhhhhhhhh nooooooooooo, where my Waffles? I need my foot kissing NOW! Come back here Waffles!