We spent the morning at a local museum and the afternoon in a park where we played organized games and the kids performed in their own talent show. Here are some photos and a special story:
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| Meeting Santa |
The children's museum had a special Christmas exhibit just inside the entrance. I was eyeing it all week. It looked gorgeous from the outside, but it cost the equivalent of $2.50 to enter. With 350 kids, that was out of our budget.
However, on the last day we were suddenly whisked upstairs and ushered inside "Santa's Villa". It was even more beautiful than I imagined. There was a manger scene with tremendous detail just inside the doors. Then we entered Santa's house.
The museum staff quickly separated the tiniest kids from the group and before they knew what happened they were seated in front of a huge television. Santa and Mrs. Claus came and sat down behind them. The screen was showing The Grinch, but there was no sound.
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| Notice, one boy can't take his eyes off Santa... |
All of the kids kept wanting to turn around and see Santa and Mrs. Claus, but they were told sternly to watch the movie and not turn around. I felt bad for them. None of us really understood what was going on.
Then a man started filming them. My coworker and I were very uncomfortable. We called my boss. Turned out they are going to be on a commercial for the museum and the men had permission to film. But all the kids knew at that point was that they had to stare at that dumb tv screen without moving.
Just as suddenly they were taken out of Santa's house and asked to sit down at a table outside. They were given a piece of paper and told they had five minutes to write a letter to Santa. It was so rushed. I helped a few, but one boy didn't get to finish. He was busy decorating the borders of the page and hadn't written anything when the five minutes was up.
As the rest of the kids lined up to put their letters into Santa's mailbox I could see the panic in his eyes. They shuffled him into line and told him to fold his letter in half. He tried to tell them it was empty, but nobody listened. They made him fold the paper and stick it into the mail slot.
He turned around and looked at me. I could see he was close to tears. I assured him that words didn't matter. Santa knows every little boy and girl. (I was also very surprised because I haven't met any Honduran kids who really know about or believe in Santa Claus.)
He wouldn't move. An elf came along and lined everyone up but this little boy was frozen in place. The man who had been filming walked by. He stopped and told the boy to get in line. The boy explained his card to Santa was empty. The man said, "You didn't write anything, but you drew a picture for Santa, right?"
"No," the little boy explained. "I only colored the decorations!" He was so distraught.
I noticed we were waiting on the older kids who were still inside Santa's house so I asked if we could go back inside. The elf said no, the kids were already lined up to leave.
I explained they hadn't even had a chance to look around, they were just whisked in, filmed, and then taken out. They hadn't seen anything but the tv! The elf stood firm.
Normally I would never get the kids involved, but this called for desperate measures, so I asked the kids, "If we are allowed to go inside of Santa's house, will you all leave as soon as it is time to go?"
They all said "YES!" so I pushed through the door and told them to follow me. (Really this is not my normal personality!) The elf led them in and showed them Santa's kitchen and Santa's bedroom and Santa's reindeer. Finally, there was Santa himself.
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| Santa's Bedroom |
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| Santa's Living Room |
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| Santa's Kitchen |
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| Santa's Sleigh |
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| Santa and the little boy |
The little boy ran up to Santa. At first Santa didn't see him, so he reached up and yanked on Santa's belt. I got a photo of that.
He told Santa he hadn't finished his letter, but he would really like a ball for Christmas. My heart broke. Gifts aren't big in Honduras, even among wealthier folks. He didn't ask for anything extravagant. He asked for a ball. But judging from his appearance, even a ball is out of his family's reach.
On the way home that evening the little boy was still on my mind. The assistant director of Impacto Juvenil happened to be sitting next to me in the car. I told her the story. She asked if I have a photo of the boy. I told her I do. She said if I send her a photo of the boy she will find out which community he lives in and she will help me make sure he gets a ball for Christmas.
My heart stopped aching. I told her he will be the only boy in his neighborhood who believes in Santa. We both laughed.
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| Enjoying Santa's Sleigh |
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| This silly girl play police officer |
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| I can't believe this guy turned 10 years old today! |
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| Climbing the molecule |
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| Traditional Honduran clothes |
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| Teaching kids who don't have flushing toilets or running water about water conservation... |
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| Some of you may recognize some of these faces |
