School supplies and lollipops By Pam Harrison Pam Harrison in the village of Barbasco March 2010 How do you nurture plants out of the earth? You use care and patience. You show them the sun, and if you don't come back time and again to water them, they lose hope, they wilt and return to the ground once again. All of these things, we here at Paramedics For Children carry in our saddlebags. We help to plant the seeds of hope in children in the high mountains of Honduras. Many of the schools we support in the mountains surrounding the Copan Valley can only be reached by horseback. Some of the villages are 7-8 miles or more straight up the side of a mountain...one way. We take narrow trails, not even trails really, more like goat paths. My personal motto is, "never look down, but be ready to part company with your horse if the need arises". As you can guess, we have to carry in all of the supplies we bring because roads simply don't exist. We pack our saddlebags with 2 types of things we have found to be invaluable. The most important items we bring to these schools are the school supply packets we give to them. They contain simple school supplies; notebooks, pens, pencils, rulers, etc. We return to each school 4 times per year to replenish their dwindling supply and to monitor the progress and health of these kids. We found that this program works for several reasons. These schools are so incredibly remote that they are sometimes ignored by other relief agencies and when they do it into the mountains this far, it's usually a one time shot and then they're gone again. This leaves the locals and especially the children, skeptical of the "kindness and caring of Gringos". At last count, we are providing for about 2000 children in 25 different schools year after year proving that these Gringos are here to stay! The children know us by name, and we know them. Mind you, I said that we nurture these children. This means adhering to the PFC philosophy that we never, ever give anything away for nothing. The children earn what they receive.....usually by singing us several songs, or putting on a little skit. The second item that we carry in our saddlebags are lollipops. (the children's personal favorite, and the thing they deem most important) I realize that these seem like unusual teaching tools but just bear with me.....let me explain to you why we give the children the things we do. The school supplies are essential for attendance. Many, many of these children's families earn, on the average, less than $3.00 per day. They simply can't afford to take their children out of the fields, and buy the supplies. So unless we supply the kids with the things they need, they'll stay in the tobacco fields, sugar cane fields or simply spend their days chopping firewood for cook stoves. So realistically, these children and their families do pay heavily for their educational opportunities. Okay, now the lollipops. I'm sure you're thinking, how can a lollipop be a teaching tool? I'll be more than happy to tell you. Children learn incredibly quickly, and when they're highly motivated, they can do just about anything. We've found very little that will motivate these kids faster than a lollipop. Why? Remember, the families only make $3.00 per day. With that amount of disposable income how many lollipops can these children actually go buy? Sometimes we gather the kids and give them each a plastic bag. We then tell them, that when they bring the bag back to us full of trash and place it in the trash can, then they receive their lollipop. Lesson...littering is bad. Keeping your town clean is good. We have also purchased about million pieces of Obsidian over the course of the last few years. (okay, I might be exaggerating just a little) Obsidian is a black volcanic glass that the Mayans once used for razor blades, knives and so on. The chips that we buy from the children are lying on the ground almost every where. Why do we buy this? The kids try to sell it to tourists to make a few Centavos. But they want the lollipops... If we just give them the lollipops because they asked for them (I know you see where I'm going with this..) We are teaching them to become beggers. If we barter with them for the obsidian, or beads, or whatever is being sold, they learn that no one gets something for nothing, and that if they negotiate, and work for what they want they can usually achieve their goals. When we are out of sight of the children we throw the pieces of obsidian back into the fields where the children found them, and the process starts over. Now, I imagine that some of you are thinking, why don't we give them apples or bananas, or pineapples or an orange? I have a very simple explanation for this too. Have you ever tried to pack 60 pineapples into 4 saddlebags and drag them 10 miles into the mountains? Our horses would put in their resignations.. The other reason is that this is the tropics. All of these things grow in abundance here, it's not a special treat for the children. Besides, a few lollipops a year never rotted any child's teeth. My apologies to the ADA (American Dental Association) for our lollipop logic. I believe that with just a few lollipops, and lots of love there is a definite possibility that one of these children might become the next President of Honduras. To go to our home page click here!