Nea´s look back

To the cutest, craziest most adorable kids! For the Kids at the Home of Love - Hogar de Amor. A year into my studies in university I was facing resistance studying . My hand would not write what I had to learn and my mind didn’t want to suck in the knowledge my professors dropped on us. I was repelling information that I was supposed to suck in like a sponge. I was stuck. I felt like I had missed out on some things that I really wanted to do in my life because I had jumped into university straight after high school instead of exploring the world as I had dreamed of. So I started mind searching about what I really wanted to do and it all came to me pretty clearly. Volunteer work.

Somehow, I wanted to get my mind off myself and immerse myself into the caring of other people, my ego was just taking too much of my time. With all this in my mind, I went to the internet to see what my options were. I had my heart set on a few preferences: A Non-Governmental Organization working from a grass-root level. Helping Honduras Kids were just one orphanage of many thousands of orphanages in South- and Central America of this kind. I was just flicking through the profiles of all the orphanages when I was drawn to this organization. It was like the orphanage chose me and that was the end of it, I made up my mind to go there.

I was at the Hogar de Amor for 2 months and that period changed my life forever. There is so much love in those kids, its unbelievable. The first day I came to the Hogar, Santos immediately threw a ball at me to play with him and he quickly made me a part of their collective home. Soon my little Joel joined the game and he took my heart away the very first day. What a beautiful kid. He is extremely mischievous, we could all agree on that - but he is an adorable kid. We had so much fun my very first moments at the Hogar. What a successful start!

I was teaching the kindergarden including Loerdes, Joel and Maynor. It could be an uncontrollable playground, the kids running and screaming, hitting each other, fighting, laughing and all of them together singing their favoruite song “Ay, ay, ay, Como me duele”. But I would always sit back and look at them with affection. They were happy there. Their broken past didn’t keep them from enjoying and embracing life as it was at that very moment. See that’s how I will remember these precious kids: singing, dancing, laughing… As little beams of light.

It has now gone 1 month since I left them and I still feel the burning sensation in my stomach as when I left them. I wish that I could be with my kids again now. I love them so much and I always keep each and everyone of them in my prayers. I will do everything I can to continue to work with the children , in and outside Honduras. A promise to myself. I encourage others to take on this challenge: to go there and work as volunteers or to just support the Hogar by donating money or other supplies that are critical for the Hogar to run on a daily basis. Even little efforts can make a big change over there. And there is nothing more rewarding than giving.

Con Amor, Tia Nia (Neham ” Nea” Hassen)