A Matter of Perspective

Saturday evening we all went to a nearby town called El Paraiso to have dinner and spend the night. We had a great time at Café D’Palo, listening to the owner Carlos sing and play his guitar. He has one of the most beautiful and passionate voices I’ve heard in my life.

Saturday morning we were feeling tired from a night out partying, but we all got up early and took the bus back to Danli at 7:30am to be on time for the Bazaar… a garage sale-type event we were hosting for the kids at the Estancia Santa Gertrudis. People in town had donated used clothes that we would sell for 10, 15 or 20 Lempiras ($0.50, $0.75 or $1.00) per item. The kids and their families prepared “comidas typicas” (typical foods) for sale at the event.

Max and I were the first volunteers to arrive, and we quickly started setting up the tables and clothes for sale. When the rest of the volunteers arrived we already had a plan and were able to get setup quickly to start selling. At 9:30am (30 minutes before the schedule hour) customers started arriving and buying. The selling never stopped all day, and we didn’t get a chance to sit all day either.

About mid morning, the kids from the Estancia arrived. They were all so excited to see us… some came straight to me and Max and gave us hugs. A few of them had been practicing the Pollito… Chicken song and sang it to me. I was, once more, amazed at how great these kids were, and what a great job Tara is doing with that school. The kids divided up into different selling groups (food or clothes), and practiced all the selling techniques we had taught them (smile at the customer, say thank you, etc). One of the kids, Eber (spelling?) spent the whole day selling with Max. He is about 12 and worked so hard. Another little girl (about 8) was with us all day too. She kept asking us to give her some of the clothes as gifts, and we would tell her to wait until the end of the day. We were impressed, because every time she asked for something, she would end up selling it instead of hiding it for herself. She was there with a goal… raise money for the school, and not even wanting an item got in the way of her doing her job.

At the end of the day Max and I were exhausted. We had been standing up all day… it had been hot… we’d had to deal with some annoying customers… and we felt great. The event had been a great success and we raised about 8,000 Lempiras ($400)… an amount much bigger than anyone had anticipated. We commented on kids like Eber and the other little girl, we talked about the 8 and 9 years old girls who had worked all day and cared for their baby siblings. We noticed how those dirty kids with lice and runny noses were also so hard working, and then it hit me. Those are the kind of kids that would throw rocks at us, the kids that would grow up to steal, lie, and disrespect women. But there we were, hopefully helping them grow up to be different, to better themselves, to get an education.

The Friday before, I was feeling depressed and unenthusiastic, and so quickly life taught me a huge lesson. It is all about what perspective youre´re looking at things with. I guess there might be hope for Hondurans…