Update on Maely

Pat and I spent the last two weeks in Honduras and just returned home a week ago Sunday.  The first week or our trip was spent in Maely's village and although we were overjoyed to see her again, we were deeply disturbed by her living conditions.  We had never seen her home before and although she had described it to us in great detail, we were not prepared for what we found.  In addition to no electricity and no running water, we discovered her home has no bathroom and is even smaller than we imagined.  18 children and adults share this two room house and there is no such thing as privacy.  In spite of these conditions, Maely was in good spirits and was moved to tears at our arrival....I cried too!  Maely and her family walked down the steep hill from her house to where we had parked the 4WD truck and although she tried real hard to hide her tears, it was clear she missed us almost as much as we missed her!  Over the next few days we had the chance to meet all of her family and spend some time with her beloved "mommy" (grandmother) and grandfather.  They are both such wonderful people, we were blessed to meet them.  Their love for Maely is clear and we shared with them our desire to prepare Maely for a postion of leadership in her village.

While there, we finalized plans with the local coffee farmers to establish an agricultural cooperative and discussed their childrens need for a good education.  The Honduran teachers union was on strike again (almost an annual event) and the children hadn't had a teacher show up for several weeks.  In light of this, The King's Storehouse contracted a local teacher to begin teaching the students and provide them with dependable teaching instruction independant of the teachers union.  We will be shipping school supplies to the village at every opportunity.  We hope this will allow Maely and the rest of her classmates a better opportunity for a good education in this remote location.  During the week we were in Maely's village, we helped the men of the village install a half mile of 2" buried water pipe from a stream up in the mountains to a water storage tank postioned at the edge of their village.  In addition, we were able to show movies in the community center almost every night which was a great thrill for the people since few had ever even watched television before.   It was great fun and we enjoyed it as much as anyone.

What a wonderful, hard working and gracious people these are.  The leader of the village insisted we stay in his house which meant him and his wife ended up sleeping on the kitchen floor.  We were humbled by their kindness and anxious to help them in any we can.  We will be returning to Honduras in June and hope to see Maely again if possible.

Maely and her "poppy"

We will keep you posted.
Bob and Pat Warren