La Pintada visit

Two of my students, Kensy and Milton, live outside of Copan in a small village called La Pintada. They walk over an hour to catch a bus to bring them to school in the morning and then walk home, up hill, another hour in the afternoons. I just cannot imagine. They are brilliant students and just precious children.

(this is Kensy and her Brother, Jeremias. You can see their house in the background. Milton is in the picture with me below.)

    

Allan and I decided to go up to La Pintada one weekend for a visit. It was so much fun. We found Kensy first, playing outside her “house” with her brother. We invited her to come with us to find Milton. She took us to where Milton lives. It was quite a sight. Upon arriving, two of Milton’s younger siblings (who were naked and shoeless) began crying at the sight of us. Milton’s house is mud. He’s roof is sticks. That is where he sleeps. That is where he eats. That is where he lives. Him and his 10 siblings. Kensy is also very poor, but is from one of the richer families in La Pintada, meaning her house is made of mud, with a tin roof. Wow.

Milton was also eager to play, so we all walked to the “campo” (field), to start a game of soccer. We knew many more kids would join if they saw a glimpse of a soccer game or anything that looked similar.

Milton played the whole game in soccer shoes that were just ridiculous. But at least he had shoes. Many kids were playing barefoot.

(You may be able to see Milton’s toes sticking out of his shoes in this picture of him hanging onto the goal but we also tried to take a picture of just his feet below!)

I was just reminded how amazingly blessed I am and how much I have. How I have way too many shoes. I stop wearing shoes because I don’t like the way they look, but Milton wears ones that should have been thrown away about 3 years ago. They still have soles though, so he will wear them.  I had so much toys and balls growing up. and good ones. We played soccer with a dented plastic soccer ball.

It was so fun to be with those kids. They are just so joyful and content, but at the same time, I see something deeper in their eyes. I love it when I get the precious gift of seeing them smile. It is such a great thing to get to teach Milton and Kensy and get to go and visit them at  home.

We were talking about what we wanted to be when we grow up in class 2 weeks ago and Kensy told  me she wants to be a teacher so she can teach all the children that don’t know how to read, how to read. Wow.