I went to the baño after lunch and had to break up two kids fighting over a bouncy ball – I didn’t know what to say! Lezmón eased up to me though and showed me his toy car.
We got a tour from Israel Holliday today – the international director of Providence World Ministries. It’s really neat hearing the business side of everything along with the passion that started this whole thing. Here we go…
La Providencia was started by Alfredo Cerrato – a guy from CPC. He lived here for 8 years with his family. He moved to Houston recently and his family is living in Tegucigalpa for the time being. His son, Daniel, is with us for the entire week and flying home with us to stay and vacation with the Graves.
The new big wig is Israel Holliday – also from CPC. He explained to us the entire plan for La Providencia. When it’s finished, I definitely want to come back for whatever kind of celebration they’ll have. Right now, on the 84 acres, there is a medical clinic, the “comedor” (multi-purpose building) with a huge dining hall and lower level for the school. There are 2 homes built to house orphans parented by local Honduran couples. Israel went an dpicked up 3 new orphans from what he said were “indescribable conditions.” Lastly, there is a big warehouse for all the tools and stuff.
The school has a Pre-K and Kindergarten now. As these 35 kids get older, a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, grade and so on will be added to progress their education. As this happens, new students will move in to fill in the lower grades. With the completion of La Providencia will come a new K-12 school building. These kids are given the best – they get regular medical check-ups every 3 months along with constant care, meals, etc. Their whole mission here is to give the best (care, facilities, etc.) to those who have nothing.
There’s a sponsorship program available for $40/month, $480/year, or a one-time $1700 fee that supports one child. They really stress the advocate family to come down and meet their child. The cool thing is that PWM doesn’t want the kids to know who is supporting them financially, so when they come down, the kids just view them as close friends, or even godparents, who just happened to strike up a relationship with them at LP.
I kept thinking of things that could go wrong with a donor-funded NPO like this, but after listening to Israel more, PWM really knows what they’re doing and will keep going until LP is finished.
When LP is finished – I’m guessing in 10-15 years – they plan on only having buildings on 20 of the 84 acres. The new buildings would be 12 total orphan homes, a widow home, and the new school building. They plan to build a three acre lake with tilapia, a zipline, a professional size soccer field with stands that the national team could practice on (they like practicing at higher altitudes for some reason) to provide a little more income.
The rain and thunder came after the tour so we packed up early and headed home. We’ve all been laughing hysterically playing Egyptian Rat Screw (card game). Everyone’s been a little crazy. We had some kind of chicken stew for dinner that was better than it sounds. It was in some sort of spicy marinade.
We don’t have to get up until 8 tomorrow. I offered Mimi an allergy pill tonight for her coughing and of course, it got worse. Supposedly she’s had coughing attacks like this before so she should be alright.
Tomorrow we’re going to the waterfall!
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