#53H  Happy Father’s Day

                It is Father’s Day in Honduras.  That means the cipotes (kids) make gifts at school, unlike the USA where Mother’s Day falls during the school year but Father’s Day doesn’t.  To my friends who are fathers may you celebrate today and have your family take you out to dinner.

                With only one small restaurant in town and much of the population being poor, dinner out is not the norm but cakes are.  My landlady was baking late into the night with the help of her daughters and has already started again at 6 a.m.  Nolvia, my host “mom” when I first arrived in Yorito has also been baking, icing, and decorating cakes.  Both were involved years ago in a Peace Corps project in baking as a cooperative business.  Although they no longer function as a group the project taught skills that are still being used by women around town to generate income and make people happy.

                School lessons have been forgotten as efforts are underway for honoring fathers.  Yesterday much of the “school” day was spent cutting, painting, and gluing gifts (and I forgot the camera).  For days they have also been singing and practicing mini-dramas and dances.  One school has an assembly at 10 a.m. today.   The other has no school this morning as they are decorating and practicing some more.

                Obviously this e-mail was started this morning, and now evening is approaching.  The assembly for fathers lasted about two hours with presentations of various types by students at each of the grade levels and speeches by several teachers.  A sixth grade student did an excellent job as mistress of ceremonies, and other students were will prepared with their presentation.  One father had the winning lollipop which means he was named Father of the Year, and another father won a competition.  Both received gifts.  The fathers, and then the rest of us, were served jello during the presentations and then a rice dish with white bread after the program concluded.   I taught my English class this morning, but the rest of the day has been relaxing.  Happy Father’s Day to all who fit the title.

                On a completely separate note much is up in the air here, and I need your help.  In order to get my Peace Corps Partnership grant funded I will still need $700 after a Microsoft matching grant comes in.  How nice it would be to have twenty friends donate $35 (tax deductible) each, and it is very easy at www.peacecorps.gov.  Thank you to those who brought down the balance to half the original request.  I can’t see your names yet, but I will get a list once the grant is fully funded.  Thanks to everyone who has sent a box of materials or who has already given money.  All contributions are greatly appreciated by me and by my community.