Everyday we start off with breakfast at 6:20 in the cafeteria. The meals are simple - basically whatever they have - wholesome. Today bananas and a bread -a kind of a large heavy coffee cake.

We left in the van to the  El Hogar technical school. It's about a 45 minute ride out of town. The country side is unbelievably beautiful- tall sharp mountains-tropical foliage and mild weather always. We went through a valley and saw a couple of recent developments by habitat for humanity and by the Catholic Church -coffee factories- a modern water amusement park.  Then we arrived at a dirt road about one lane wide and followed it into the country side passing a few mom and pop farms and tiny makeshift haciendas and arrived at the gates of the technical school.

The technical school campus is perhaps 20 acres and has a series of fairly modern buildings including dorms, classrooms, the computer center, an impressive sanctuary, the administrative offices and of course the technical training building that has 4 sections for welding, carpentry, electrical and automotive - the automotive has not been set up yet but the others are outfitted with machinery tools and teachers- the kids seem to be concentrating and producing and learning busily and with really positive force. We had lunch with the director and listened to his very compelling story of his life with el Hogar. He started with el Hogar about 35 years ago from very meager beginnings of a small house and 6 kids in Tegucigalpa to what it is today. Lazaro is a man with a deep love for the kids, a intense dedication to mission of taking these at risk kids and giving them a successful future, and a man with a spiritual wholesomeness that is infectious. I can't imagine a better role model and leader for these kids and his work is making a huge difference by sending these kids back into the community where they are perfect examples of the benefits of education, skills, and good character.

We learned that they need to complete the wall around the compound to keep neighborhood girls from getting in to tempt the boys away from their otherwise very bright future. We also asked about what would be needed to set up the automotive training section - they need a teacher and more equipment. But mostly what el Hogar needs right now is operating capital to keep all the programs going. It has become really obvious to us how much good the 4 el Hogar locations - the elementary school in Tegucigalpa, the home for high school girls in Santa Lucia, the technical institute (west of Tegucigalpa), and the agricultural school (about an hour north) - are doing for kids bringing them solidly from some of the most abhorrent conditions on earth to a middle class future or better. And the fact that they are able to do so much on a modest budget is amazing to us. Nothing is wasted.

Anyway the lunch at the technical institute was great. In fact so good that I fell asleep on the trip back.

Back at the elementary school we split up again - half of us helping out in the classrooms and the other half working on the playground- the two towers of the playground we framed, the holes dug for the footings and the legs of the towers set in the holes. We hope to pour the concrete around the holes and start assembling the floors of the towers and the bridge between the two towers tomorrow.

The evening was spent with the kids playing games teaching them English and learning Spanish from them and just dwelling in their joy and wonder. It's incredible to us how excited and energetic they are even having come from such impossible circumstances.

After that we all sit in the screened in porch on the visitors cabin, eat the freshest sweetest mango and bananas, and recount the events of the day. I have had so much fun and laughs with this group and have bonded so closely that it will be hard to imagine leaving. Just being here seems to have given us an aura of goodness and life that is incomparable.

Bruno