MY DAY AT EL REFUGIO

by Karen Milena Guillén (16)

I get up at 5:00 AM, brush my teeth and take a shower. Then I brush my hair and wash my clothes. Since I go to school in the afternoon, I have more time in the morning. There are 8 girls in my dorms and all of them go to High School. We have a lot of fun together. Some students have breakfast at 6:00 AM, but we eat until 7:00 AM. I love baleadas which is flower tortillas with ground beans, eggs and cheese. Some days we have cornflakes or sweet bread and coffee for breakfast.

From 8 to 11 AM we attend classes at our sewing workshop. In the past months we learnt to make skirts, shirts and even pants. We also produce sheets, pillowcases and curtains for our dorms.

In my spare time I enjoy playing soccer and basketball with boys and girls. When it is too hot, I like reading in the library or chatting with my girlfriends. I think a lot about my future, too. After finishing 9th grade I want to study to become a teacher. This has always been my goal and I believe I can be a good teacher and maybe go to College later on.

Before lunch I quickly put on my uniform which is mandatory for students in Honduras. Lunch is our main meal: We eat meat or chicken with rice, beans and vegetables and drink water or fruit juice. I am thankful to have food because I know many children don´t even have rice and beans to eat.

When I was nine years old I ran away from my house because my aunt and grandmother punished me a lot for not behaving well. One day my aunt was going to hit me with a stick, that is why I chose to run away. After a week in the street I was all dirty, and when my uncle finally found me he decided to send me to a children´s home. I like it here because I have many friends who are in the same situation as I am.

I go to High School in the afternoon. There are 13 of us from the home riding our bus to Choloma, some 5 miles from El Refugio. My favorite classes are computers and Spanish. I work hard to achieve my goals.

When we get back from school, it is time to have dinner. Dinner is usually pretty light. We eat tortillas, eggs, beans, cheese and fried plantains. After everything is taken care of we can sometimes watch TV for an hour, usually a telenovela. I usually go to bed around 9:00 PM, read a little or write a letter and then say a prayer asking God to protect us all.