One thing that I absolutely love is butterflies or ‘Mariposas’. They go through so much change or ‘cambios’ to become the majestic, petite, delicate characters they are. Seeing a butterfly never fails to make me smile. It brings me so much joy and hope – reminding me to be present where I am and what I am doing. In South Africa and Australia, butterflies only appear during certain months and are hard to come by. But here in Honduras with summer almost all year round there is an abundance of butterflies of varying colours and sizes that float around bringing people joy all day for months on end. These last 7 weeks have been full of lots of change, with new volunteers arriving, old volunteers leaving, going on holiday, a new roommate, big changes in my work as new therapists start and trying to avoid covid only to get it in the end.
The business of life has just become normal and life on the ranch is so fulfilling – there is always a community activity to participate in, more work for me as an OT to do or plan for as well as more children and people here on the ranch to get to know. I am so grateful and humbled by having the opportunity to live and work here at NPH. It is definitely not easy and requires flexibility and patience every day but so worth it. Trying to put into words or describe what I do and what life is like here is just so difficult, which is one of the many reasons I have not been writing blogs. So, for this blog I have selected a few photos from the past few weeks and will share a story about them to share a glimpse into my world.
This is a picture of my hogar - meaning home. It is home to 7 boys with disabilities and their caregivers with whom I spend almost every night and weekend with. They are my family in here in Honduras and I am so grateful for them. For my birthday, they cooked up a lovely dinner which we shared together. It was very special and so generous of them to do. The other picture is of me and one of the caregivers, who had a birthday a few days before me, cutting the cake.
These beautiful pictures are from an island called Roatan in the Caribbean Sea just off the coast of Honduras. Another volunteer and I took a long weekend to go and get to know the island – my first holiday here. As is customary when you work with children, we were gifted a small stuffed animal and instructed that it needed to accompany us everywhere. Naturally this meant it had to be in all the photos as well and so here are some photos of Roatan featuring the stuffed animal. The second largest reef of the world is off the coast of Roatan so we went snorkelling which was incredible – like entering another world when putting your head under the water.
One very special project that I have watched unfold over the last few months was the construction of an inclusive park on the property of the ranch. Here are some photos of the beautiful new park that was opened a few weeks ago that has wheelchair access, adaptive play equipment and so much potential for more in the future – this park is a very unique resource to have here in Honduras.
Here are a few pictures from various therapy activities I have been doing – learning to make tortillas in a cooking group. This young man in the left corner was in seriously poor health a few weeks ago so seeing him smiling and engaging in therapy again was such a blessing. This girl in the middle had not been engaging in therapy for weeks so slowly rebuilding the trust to get to a point where we finished a craft together was a big win.
This picture is of hitting a pinata donated to our hogar to celebrate all the kids’ birthday which was very entertaining… took over 30 minutes to break it. And finally pictures taking the kids from my hogar to the empty swimming pool we have and can fill with a hose from the dam for a Saturday activity is always so much fun and very special.
Through all these lovely memories and continuous changes though, I continue to grow and learn, embracing the small beautiful moments that are plentiful throughout the week… especially whenever I see a ‘mariposa’. Thank you for everyone's continuous prayers and messages of support.
God bless