Part of the importance of a trip like this to La Ceiba, Honduras is the community outreach. Students are exposed to the people and get a chance to interact with the Hondurans. We were able to visit a couple of churches this year and a very large feeding centre. The churches are a great opportunity for our students to interact with the children of the community. It is without fail that several Honduran children will be sitting with our students playing and laughing and communicating using two very different languages but one common level of excitement.Feeding centres are where children of Honduras will get up to 3 meals per week. This may be the only food these children will receive in the week. It is really an eye opener for the students of College Heights to see kids that have so little.
The last part of the outreach this year took us to the very people we came to help. All of the students went out in small groups to visit some of the poorest families in the area. One family we visited was a grandmother taking care of about 12 of her grandchildren whose parents had been killed. The children in this family had little clothing, food and lived in very poor conditions. We were able to give them some basic food ( rice, beans and flour) plus some cloths and bedding.
This experience of true giving is one of the things the students at College Heights will remember for a long time.
We do get to spend a bit of fun in the sun and this year we had the opportunity to go zip lining in the rainforest. All the students and staff had a great time in such a beautiful location.
