From May 19th to June 3rd students from UMW, WM, VT, and GTown traveled to Honduras for the 2007 Students Helping Honduras May service trip. Although two large groups came down at different times of the week; overall, it was a well organized trip. There was a good balance between work and rest.
Time spent included: painting the new Sunshine Education Center, town meeting with Siete de Abril discussing future plans for their community, meeting with the mayor of El Progresso, visiting the nutrition center, and of course spending time with the kids at Copprome.
Construction of the Sunshine Education Center began last December and the construction just finished as volunteers arrived at Copprome. The SHH May team took advantage of this and agreed to paint the center to save labor costs. The project began right after the floors were buffered, and the volunteers along with some of the kids spent most of the week painting the outside of the center as well as the individual rooms, with a different color for each room to give them life.
The May team also had a formal town meeting with the community of Siete de Abril inside of the recently refurbished school. With Shin as the moderator of the meeting, SHH was able to improve communications between members and to ask for their input in the construction of the new 75 homes. With many people voicing their opinions, SHH got a better idea as to how to proceed with this housing project.
Back at Copprome, the team spent quality time with the children. Dinner was eaten in the dining room with all the kids. Many members of the team even woke up early to walk them to the bus stop. Other activities included: taking all the kids to play soccer on several occasions, chaperoning the girls to a dance, going to church with the kids, celebrating Luis’ birthday after his surgery, and making s’mores over a bonfire!
