Christmas Baskets

Christmas Baskets 2009 a Huge Success

Thanks to everyone’s generous contributions this project was an overwhelming success and we are able to prepare 40 large Christmas baskets for struggling families! This is Esly Aguilar from Vision Mondial (World Vision) helping to distribute the boxes.

The mother in this family works full time while her six year old daughter takes care of her younger siblings.

The baskets, which cost $20 to provide, included:

1 weeks groceries
1 piece of (gently used) clothing for each child
1 small toy for each child
50 lempiras, or the equivalent of $2.50, which is one day’s wages

Copan Family

Thanks so much to everyone for helping out and making this a memorable holiday for so many families in Honduras!

A Special Message from Ellen – Christmas 2009

    Guys… I’m completely awed and overwhelmed!!! I have photos but am too exhausted to download them so I’ll try to describe my morning.

    Today was the third and nearly final delivery of Christmas baskets.

    Cool sunny day going up to El Chilar with Adin, the teacher there who has a little moto taxi. His wife joined us and a woman who was visiting who I met yesterday came along.

    As always, when we pull up, all the dogs came running first, knowing that I always bring these starving skinny things pounds of concentrated dog food. Then come the kids, running down the hills, or running in from the cornfields, yelling “gringuita gringuita.” The kids offered to carry the baskets filled with food, toys, clothes. These boxes were bigger than some of the kids, but there we were, forming a caravan of little bodies and big boxes.

    We, all 30 of us, in parade form, climbed up the hills and down the muddy paths and through the bushes and delivered the boxes one by one, being thanked with hugs from moms, smiles and the delighted faces of little ones (the dogs came along for the event too.)

    We spent time talking with the families and enjoying the breathtaking views, played with the little ones and the big ones for that matter, all happy, all having a great time, even in spite of their enlarged parasite infested bellies, their fungicide hands and muddy feet and faces.

    There is something so universally truthful here with no pretenses … just beautiful land, good people, hard working campesinos and uncomplicated agendas.

    Next year I want to do 100 Christmas baskets, but hopefully with volunteers! Thank you all for your support on this project …. it was an enormous success!!!!!!!

    This clearly is heaven for me!
    Love, Ellen