Imagine your typical family vacation. Maybe you take a spring break trip to the beach in Florida or a mid summer adventure to a cabin up north on a lake. It is usually a relaxing getaway that breaks up the monotony of day to day life Maybe you swim, read, sleep, play cards, and hang out with family or friends. Now imagine taking a 4 day trip to the pacific ocean with 50 plus children under the age of 7. Relaxing....I think not.
Every year Casa Suyapa, the home for the youngest children at NPH, takes a trip to the beach in Southern Honduras. A generous donor, and friend of the Ranch, graciously lends his large beach house out to the tribe of Suyapans who make a yearly pilgrimage to the beach every spring. We set out early Monday morning and returned late last night. It was a wonderful experience and a lot of fun but needless to say, extremely tiring.
I arrived at Casa Suyapa early Monday morning ready for the beach! I walked in, and immediately a little girl named Karla threw up on my feet. Not a great start to our voyage. We had to leave the poor soul behind because of continued vomiting and high fever. Much kicking and screaming followed the decision to leave her in the clinic, but I eventually made it from the clinic back to Casa Suyapa. We soon all boarded the bus which was packed to the brim with Casa Suyapans, chaperons, food, water, and all the necessary items for a successful beach trip. The first thing we did was pass out Dramamine to most of the children. These kids are not used to riding in cars or buses and often become extremely car sick. Next, we passed out chips and cookies. An obvious choice for car sick children! Please note the sarcasm. Everything we passed was extremely exciting! We oohed and ahhhed over rivers and lakes, planes landing, cows, sheep, etc. It could not have been a more entertaining bus ride for 5 year olds. We arrived at our destination, La Playa de Las Gaviotas, approximately 5 hours later.
I was presently surprised when we arrived at the beach! It was a beautiful private beach on a little cove off of the pacific ocean. The house it self was perfect for Casa Suyapa! there were two large rooms with air conditioning. We took all the furniture out of the rooms and put down pads on the floor for the kids to sleep. Girls in one room, boys in the other. The tios, tias, other chaperons, and myself slept outside on a patio that overlooked the ocean.
Tuesday arrived and we headed down to the beach around 8 am. We inflated what seemed like a million floaty toys and the kids went absolutely nuts! The kids spent all day playing in the water and on the beach! We literally did not leave the beach until 6 in the evening. The Tias brought us lunch and water down to the beach and we ate in the shade of the palm trees. When the time finally to head back up tot he house everyone was exhausted! The first day a the beach was a success! At first I was extremely concerned because there was no life guard and I was by far the strongest swimmer! I immediately reverted back to my days a Camp Geneva of counting children and scanning the water! One tia did sustain a minor machete injury requiring stitches, while cooking, but the kids all made it out of the ocean safe and sound!
Around midnight on Tuesday night one of the Tias woke me up to tell me that one little boy was crying and crying in extreme stomach pain and had a fever. I was pretty worried about this particular little guy because he is one of our HIV positive kids. After a while the little boy confessed that he had been eating green mangoes off the tree outside the house, and that he hadn't pooped in 4 or more days! I was relieved that it was just a case of an upset stomach, but still could not calm his pain or fever. We tried everything from modern medicine to old Honduran remedies such as rubbing lemon water on the stomach to get our little friend to go to the bathroom. He screamed and cried for hours and finally fell asleep on the toilette around 5 am. I carried him to bed where he slept for two more hours. He awoke at 7:30 and we finally met success. He and I rested for a few hours before heading out for another long beach day.
The rest of Wednesday went smoothly. We spent all day Wednesday at the beach as well. At lunch time we had a special lunch of fresh fish, tajaditas ( fried plantains), and pico de gallo. Each kid received a whole fish, eyes and all. The kids were pretty funny. Some of them dug right in, enjoying every bite, and others were quite afraid of their meal. One little girl was talking to her fish and making it move its mouth and talk back. It was quite a scene.
On Wednesday afternoon we continued swimming. As the tide rolled in the kids splashed and played in the water. Suddenly someone started screening "Snake!" Sure enough we say a little head peeking out of the water, swimming frantically. All of the kids ran out of the ocean and on to the beach while two tios tried to catch it and take it out of the swimming area. In the chaos, the tios ended up chasing the "snake" towards the beach where in emerged from the water. To our surprise it was not a snake that came out of the water, but in iguana! The poor thing was immediately pounced upon by approximately 50 children who proceeded to chase it around the beach. It was probably one of the funniest things I have seen in quite some time.
Thursday we awoke with the unfortunate knowledge that it was our last day at the beach. We still made our way down to the beach and swam and played for the majority of the day. After lunch we packed up the bus again, passed out the Dramamine and headed back to the Ranch.
The voyage to the beach was quite the adventure! It was so much fun to spend time with my kids in such a relaxed environment. It was amazing to see the excitement in the children! For some of them it was their first time ever seeing the ocean or large body of water! It was so cute and fun to see them experiencing new things. Although it was not exactly a relaxing vacation, it was a fantastic time at the beach!
