School Supplies in Mirador Oriente

A truckload of school supplies

Presenting school supplies

The children receiving supplies

Rayner and Kale unloading boxes of supplies

Some of the children unloading supplies

Yesterday the AIMers and I organized the warehouse, packed 83 backpacks, packed boxes and boxes of school supplies for Mirador Oriente, and got approximately 5000 pounds of clothing separated by size. It was, by anyone's standard, a productive day. The plan was to be in Mirador Oriente at 12:30 today to hand the school supplies to the school that was robbed.

Marc left early, as usual, to get the crew started at Oriente. There was a major accident on the highway and it took him an hour and a half just to get down the mountain. The AIMers and I were leaving around 10:00 so we could check our email since the rain yesterday knocked out our internet.

Traveling in Honduras, we regularly see policemen at the police posts. They randomly ask people to pullover and, normally ask to see a licence and a registration, and if you are nice, they usually check your documents and wave you on. I have never had a problem, but have heard some horror stories. Besides myself, all six of the AIMers were in the trooper. Near the bottom of the mountain, I was asked to stop. I immediately begin pulling out my license and registration. He then asked for id for everyone in the car. He was walking around the car looking in the windows, perhaps thinking he had found a whole carload of stupid gringos. He was talking about writing me a ticket for a infraction. I was not sure what infraction. Marc told the AIMers the other night if they ever get stopped, to play dumb. Trust me, I was dumb, but there was no playing. Every word of spanish I ever knew left me.

One day at the hospital we accidentally met the police commissioner. After explaining what we did, he took Marc's phone and entered his number and said if you ever need anything, just give me a call. The commissioner's number was not in my phone. I called Marc and told him what was happening and then he talked to the policeman, telling him about knowing the commissioner. Marc then told me if I had many more problems to call him back and he would call the commissioner. The policeman again told me he was writing a ticket. As I picked up the phone and began to dial Marc again, as rapidly as he could, he handed my license back to me and waved me on. My only thought was that he thought I was calling the commissioner. He picked the wrong car of stupid gringos to harass.

Without further incident, we checked our email and arrived at Oriente in plenty of time. The patronanado was there as were many other people. It was very moving to watch the reaction of the people in the community as they received school supplies to replace the ones that had been stolen. Many of the students helped carry the boxes into the school. Every single time we do any kind of distribution, we see grateful people.

Terri