Pepsi’s Día del Niño & a crackily old radio playing the Locomotion

Hi all

A couple of weeks ago was the Día del Niño in Honduras. unfortunately I missed it when I was in Lago Yahoa, but thanks to Pepsi, of all organisations, they organised a second Día del Niño with Casa Alianza yesterday. They received nice little gifts and small toys and all the Pepsi they wanted. Two hundred street kids high on free Pepsi. Like two hundred Irishmen pissed on free Guinness. Madness. They then got to smack the hell out of piñata.

This is a picture taken after all the sweets fell out after they pulverized the piñata. I am not allowed to show faces of the children (unless they are blurred) so I have to resort to showing you pictures like this. It was a riot. Great fun to see. When kids start kicking each other to get sweets it’s a bit frightening, but these kids are born fighters. Quite literally.

I have been taking a lot of photos for the children, recently. Most the pictures are for reports or website. I sometimes get the pictures printed for them. They get excited and I often feel like a piñata when they starting crowding around and demanding a photo. I don’t really like the children going to the shop with my memory card by themselves (in any case, they’re not allowed to by Casa Alianza), so I do it for them. They often don’t have money so they give me bracelets made out of wool (which I ironically paid for) instead. I don’t mind doing it. They love having their pictures taken. Many of them pose, sometimes they don’t. When they don’t, that’s when you can see the sadness in their eyes. I would love to do a photo exhibition of back in England on my return and raise money for the charity, something I’m going to ask Casa Alianza in England. I think, because of the red tape and bureaucracy in Casa Alianza in Honduras, it would be a straight “no”. I get frustrated by some of the managers in Casa Alianza. Some say they want me to take pictures with the kids faces, some say no. I can understand that they don’t want the pictures on Facebook, especially kids who have been victims to sex exploitation or had connections with Maras, but I don’t know how you can take pictures of kids without showing their faces while they’re doing activities. People can still identify them, if they really wanted to look for them. But for the purposes of reports and publishing material, they need the expressions of the kids, to see them happy, to see them enjoying themselves doing the activities, to sell the service. Strange rules: made by some, broken by others. It’s not the first time, communication, lack of clarificiation. I’m used to it. It’s just a shame that Casa Alianza sometimes holds itself back, as well as the volunteers who want to do so much.

Here are a couple of portraits of me that were drawn during an art class run by a fellow volunteer called Jorge (who is also a good friend) at Parque Leona. I posted a link to a blog about his art classes a couple of weeks ago on the blog. The kids are loving the class. and they’re coming out with some great work. I’m really proud of them. I love going on visits with them. Art therapy really does work. For me too.

Jorge con un niño

I am now going to include two bits of graffiti. They are of symbols that you can see in many different parts of the city. They belong to the Barras gangs (football thugs) which in turn have connections to the Maras. It’s a shame that they have to spray these signs in Leona. It’s a very peaceful park. UF is Ultra Fiel (Olimpia) and the smiley face is Revo (Motagua). It’s patch warfare all over the city. UF are in control here, as they’ve defaced the smiley face of the Revo.

On the way back to Casa Alianza, I heard an old version of Locomotion being played on a crackily radio on a street corner. I forgot how much of a lovely little song it was. It was a little moment I had to myself. It was romantic for some reason. Just listening, midday, near the park that sits in front of the Manuel Bonilla Theatre.

When we returned to Casa Alianza, the Día del Niño party was just taking off. With the party full of Latin street kids, one cannot go without dancing. Unfortunately a lot of it was regaton and kids thrusting out their crotches in an aggressive and vulgar fashion. There was also salsa. I enjoyed that part. A few of the kids tried to get me dancing but they reminded me that I dance like an old man, which consequently made me feel like I was from the time when the original version of Locomotion came out. They also said I danced like a “loco”. They can be cruel f–kers when they want to be! My esteem for dancing isn’t the greatest right at the mo. So I’m going to play us out with this little number. Maybe this will help me learn to swing my hips. The Locomotion! By Little Eve.

Enjoy!