Greetings from El Hogar. My dear sister Betsy has been working me over for the last five years about the powerful experience of El Hogar. She has talked about the love, the faces, the need and the passion you feel while here. She has talked about her trips here and the damaged young lives that are salvaged, loved, taught and made whole.

We are on day two, our first full day at El Hogar. After breakfast, our first stop was an episcopal service about 30 minutes away. We were warmly greeted and enjoyed the spirit of Honduras in song and music (as I speak "limited" Spanish, thank god the service was identical to the american service so I could kind of keep up!). The sermon remains a mystery to this gringo.

We then traveled to the high school girls' home in Santa Lucia about 45 minutes away. The van we traveled in is both a mystery and marvel of mountain passage engineering. There were several "no hands" roller coaster moments when we were detoured off the road more traveled!

The young women were kind, sweet and gracious having our crew tour through their world. Both the view and the facility were beyond expectation. As a minor participant in the Rotary grant, the Ellicott City Rotary members are proud of Burlington Rotary Global Grant and now clearly understand the need and what the grant will accomplish.

Betsy, you are right. There is unparalleled love at El Hogar. There are sweet smiling faces at El Hogar. There is great need at El Hogar. There is unwavering passion at El Hogar. My life is changed and I have you to thank.

 Gill