Archive
Six Boys Out On The Town
We do most of our work in the poor community of Armenia Bonito. This community is about seven miles outside of downtown La Ceiba (El Centro). The poverty and distance mean that most residents don’t get into El Centro very often.
On Saturday, Andy, Sean and Mike took six of the boys from Armenia Bonito into El Centro for an afternoon out. These boys seldom even have an opportunity to ride in a car, so this was a different experience for them.
We went to an inexpensive restaurant and had a sit-down lunch. All nine of us had rice, beans, chicken, tortillas, juice and a cookie for just under $30 total. For two of the boys this was their first time ever eating in a restaurant. They weren’t exactly sure what to do with the paper napkins. When the waitress suggested that she should replace the fork that one of the boys had dropped on the ground he declined and looked at her like she was crazy, “No, it’s not broken.”
After lunch we went to La Ceiba’s professional soccer stadium. All nine of us got in to see a game for less then $40 total. Even though all of the boys have spent their entire lives in La Ceiba, this was the first time that five of the six boys had ever been into the stadium. As we sat down one of the boys who watches all the games on his black and white TV said, “How beautiful. I never knew there were so many colors here.” Another boy was very concerned that there were so many people in the stadium (about 1000). He said very seriously, “Mike, what do we do if there is a fire?”
What a special day out for all of us.
