Cindy

Above ~ Cindy and I almost 4 years ago!

Below ~ My girl Cindy turning 9 years old!

Cindy and I have been through quite a lot together. She is all around, for sure my girl!!! She is growing up and maturing quite well. She still has her moments, but when I look back and think of where she came from, it is a PRAISE GOD, moment!! She turned 9 last week. I just pray continue to praise God to see the change in her life. I pray that God continues to fill those holes in her life with healing from Him!

2 years

2 years difference!! Celebrating Sisi and Rosy living here with us 2 years!!!

This past week Sisi and Rosy two years ago came here to live at Casa de Esperanza. Look at the change in these two girls!!!

soccer field

Doris and Josue hard at work spreading the dirt

Last week the kids continued to help on the soccer field. After all fill dirt was spread out and the rebar placed on top the hard work began. This week there has been tons of people here mixing the concrete floor. I think to be exact 230 bags of cement! Soon we will have ourselves a soccer field. the kids are but besides themselves! They can hardly wait!!!!!
More pics from this week soon.

more and more eggs

Josue trying to catch a chicken

We are getting about 20 eggs a day. The kids love gathering the eggs and get excited every day to see how many eggs there are. Every week two different children are in charge of feeding and gathering the eggs.

Many times we find the food just thrown in the door or no water. The take sticks and such with them to scare off the chickens. Well one day last week Dorian was trying to show the kids the chickens will no do anything to you. So they all go in the coop with Dorian and just like he said they didn't do anything. Josue ran around trying to catch a chicken.
Josue is so use to seeing the others gather the eggs and he gets so excited and starts jumping and yelling EGGS , EGGS, EGGS. Well last week when we were picking and gathering beans, Jouse comes and says with excitement, look more eggs. I had to explain those were frijoles but he continued to smile and said look more eggs!!!

Some of the kids in the chicken coop with Dorian

We are getting so many eggs we are now able to start selling them to our employees. We are selling them a little cheaper than what they can get them for any where else. So they are more than happy to buy them. Anything they can save means a lot to them and it all adds up.

Anyone have any advice of what to do to keep the chickens from eating the eggs. They pick at them till they break open and then eat the insides.

Frijoles

Time to harvest the frijoles!! Yesterday morning some of the younger kids worked with Denis pulling up the plant, pulling off the frioles, and then opening the frijoles. There is lots and lots and lots to clean and sort. It will keep the kids busy for a while. There are still a bunch of plants to still pull up.

Soon to have corn!!!

Maryuri carrying her share of bean plants

The plants to sort and pick the beans off of

Even Josue helped out!!!

There are several things in our garden we hope to harvest soon!

Culture Fair

Rosy has a culture fair at school last week. Every grade had a different country they had to represent. Rosy represented Spain!

Wind Energy

This year, Honduras plans to have one of the largest wind energy farms in Latin America up and running, with an output of 100 megawatts of electricity.

Located in the municipality of Santa Ana, 24 kilometres from the Honduran capital, it cost 250 million dollars, according to owner Energía Eólica Honduras (Wind Energy Honduras), subsidiary of Mesoamerica Energy, made up of 15 business groups from the region.

In addition, Honduras will invest 2.1 billion dollars in 52 hydroelectric projects between 2010 and 2016, each with the capacity to generate five megawatts, announced the Honduran Association of Small Producers of Renewable Energy in early June.

“We based our efforts on three aspects: energy security by avoiding dependence on international petroleum prices, improving access to energy in rural zones, and sustainable development,” Association president Elsia Paz told IPS…continue Honduras Wind Energy article here.

According to Paz, promotion of renewable energy has been important for achieving a balanced diversification of the Honduran energy matrix, as 70 percent comes from fossil fuels, “a resource that is imported and leads to capital flight.”

mural

Thanks for the group who painted the mural in the new dorm!

more work

fill dirt for the floor

Continuing to work on the soccer field.

This here is the Tupelo, Mississippi group working on the soccer field.

Hopefully by the end of the summer it will be finished!

MUD

The rains here have caused one muddy mess.

Our road is very muddy at the moment and is passable but is a slip n mud slide.

Right now the community is working on getting the road fixed and working with the mayors office.

This week I was unable to take the kids to school in the van. The van is not 4x4 and we can not get it out of here. So we have all crunched into the cars when they are taken and picked up from school.That has been a whole other adventure in it's self.

Exam week

The kids all start exams tomorrow. They are closing out the second half of the school year. Already half way through the year. Hard to believe!!! Now it is all down hill from here so they say!
Please say a special prayer for the kids as they are in exams this week.

Soccer Field

Several groups are working on putting a soccer field in at Casa. The kids love getting to help the groups that come through and are excitedly waiting for the soccer field to be finished! Little by little groups are contributing to help build the soccer field. Hopefully before the end of the summer the kids will have themselves a soccer field.

Stubborn

Josue after eatting a plate full of spaghetti.

He is really starting to push his limits. He is getting quite a stubborn streak in him. I thought Rosy was pretty stubborn but he just might give Rosy a run for her money. We are still in the process of getting him potty trained. Just to be different and on purpose he does it in his pants. So praying this stubborn streak is broken and that he is soon potty trained!

Here are the kids up bright and early for the first Honduras world cup soccer game!

Tomorrow is their last game. So far no luck they have lost two.
Maybe tomorrow they will get a little lucky!

DENGUE

Honduras in state of emergency (again)

President Pepe Lobo interrupted the news tonight for a national cadena, in which he declared Honduras to be in a state of emergency because of a dengue epidemic (a very serious mosquito-borne flu-like illness). Ten people have died from dengue hemorrágico, which can be a fatal form of the disease if not treated. Police and military will be ensuring that all hospitals stay open 24-hours per day.

The Minister of Health has been authorized to contract for whatever supplies and with whatever personnel are necessary. The sad truth is that these states of emergency are usually just a license to steal. Will anyone audit the expenses or the personnel contracted? How many will be hired for their family ties rather than their medical abilities?

This was our first cadena national in about six months and I was scared waiting for it to start for two solid minutes! BTW, I don't care for the choice of music and video; it doesn't go with the nature of an emergency. Micheletti's was much better.

A few interesting facts not mentioned are:

More than 10,200 people have been affected by dengue classico, and 400 by dengue hemorrágico (DH) so far this year. In 2009, there were almost 13,000 classic dengue cases and more than 500 cases of DH. This year 70% of the cases have been in the Tegucigalpa area.

No government has declared a state of emergency for dengue since 2002, when there was 32,000 cases.

The hospital personnel union has been on strike since June 11 and have "taken" hospital buildings and health centers, which may have something to do with the police and military being involved.

An announcement was made yesterday that one or more of the large hospitals are out of IV fluids, something that is crucial to keep DH patients alive.

The Minister of Health yesterday also announced that hospitals would not treat dengue, only DH, and that dengue patients would have to go the health centers. (The initial symptoms are the same and by the time that the hemorrhagic symptoms arise, it is sometimes too late.)

The Minister de Trabajo (work) announced today that there are not economic conditions for an increase in the minimum wage which could have caused huge nationwide strikes....except that now the police and military will be out on the streets to prevent that.

Lobo arrived home to Honduras today from a 10-day trip to South Africa for the World Cup.

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Currently the teachers are on strike, public employees' retirement fund union, the National Registry of Persons, and Hondutel (telephone company) employees' unions are on strike, just to name the major ones. CUTH (confederation of workers unions) announced suspension of their measures to press for a minimum wage increase due to the health crisis. CUTH had previously announced "taking" of the roads in the entire Honduran territory.


Here is another interesting fact: In 2006, when Mel Zelaya took office, government salaries were L. 3.8 billion. In 2009, government salaries were around L. 32.0 billion.

EGGS

We are finally starting to get eggs.
After having chickens for about two months they are laying eggs! Marc said if they did not lay eggs soon we would just have to kill them and eat them.
The kids are so excited. They all go check countless times a day to see if there is any new eggs. Right now we are only seeing one or two at a time but I am sure with 29 chickens we will soon be seeing lots and lots of eggs.

happy 13th birthday

I can not believe my girl Pamela turned 13 today! She is growing up on me way to fast!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAMELA!!!

May 2010 Update

May 2010

May was an eventful month for Dorian and I. At the beginning of the month I was given a gift of a ticket home to see my brother graduate from Harding University. My sister Lisa was the only one of my family who knew I was coming. I love surprising people! I thought my mother was going to have a heart attack and my father thought Lisa brought a friend to meet him for lunch! And I was even able to surprise Brian. I flew home to Ohio and completed the road trip to Arkansas which was half the fun. I also got to see my mother and grandmother for Mother's day weekend.
I was missing Dorian and was happy to get back home to see him.

We have a fairly new employee here at Casa and her name is Pamela. She and her husband Roni were married about the same time as Dorian and me. They have a little boy who is Emanuel he is 2 years old. Dorian has been studying with Roni and he was recently baptized in March. We were woke up early May 1st Saturday morning by Pamela crying and screaming. We found out that Roni was walking home from a late work day the night before and never arrived home. His body was found on the side of the road and it appeared that he was hit by a car and killed.
Besides trying to comfort Pamela, we had to help prepare the body for burial, have an all night vigil/church service in their home and even help dig the grave. A lot of culture shock for this girl! Please pray for Pamela to have the courage to look to Him for comfort. Right now she is just so confused and looking for guidance and direction and trying to understand all of this.
We also welcomed a new intern here to Casa, Stacey Hooper has made a one year commitment to help us here. Looking foward to getting to know her and welcome her here in the Casa family.

Dorian has began classes again and doing well, but I miss him always being here to help at Casa. He has decided to ride the bus as to help save money. He drives maybe one or two times a week to class but other than that he is taking the public transportation. Oh how we would love to have a car of our own. Maybe someday!!!

Rain has been a huge obstacle to the people here. Torrential rains from tropical storms have washed away whole hillsides and electric has been off for days at a time. Having all the children stuck inside for a couple days with no electricity is problematic at times but then I remember those who have no roof other than cardboard and no clothes to hang on lines inside to dry before they sour.

We are blessed and continually humbled! Thank you for your prayers and support and just for being in our lives!

Blessings~
Dorian and Karen Guido

Soccer

For those of you up on the whole world cup, many of you know that Honduras played Chile yesterday! Everyone here in Honduras yesterday were wearing their Honduras jerseys and up bright and early because the game started at 5:30AM.
Lots of restaurants opened up early for everyone to come in and watch the game. Dorian classes were delayed til 10am and the kids classes were delayed til 9am.
Everything revolved around this game. Even some of the buses were running behind as they did not start their routes early.

I remember when Honduras found out they made it to the World Cup. There was partying all night long and the next day was a national holiday. Soccer is BIG stuff here!
All of us at Casa were up at 4:45am. Dorian and I got the kids up and had their morning devo first and then headed to our apartment to watch the game. The kids were all so excited and loved every minute of the game.
Dorian just likes to be different at times so he was rooting for Chile. The next thing I know Maryuri and Nohemy are jumping up and downing and yelling for Chile with Dorian!!!
Lets just say there was lots of excitement, yelling and jumping!
Although Honduras lost, but Maryuri and Nohemy were quite happy as they walked around the rest of the morning saying Chile, Chile, Chile!!!!
Now for next Wednesday when Honduras plays again. I can not even imagine how crazy things will be here if and when Honduras does win!

VAMOS HONDURAS