cruisinelves

Roatan is an island off the coast of Honduras, lush, hilly, and surrounded by clear blue-green waters. The lack of development that makes it so peaceful and inviting is a double-edged sword, though: the island is impoverished, and has more than its share of children rendered parentless by violence, abandonment, and removal from their homes due to abuse and neglect.

An American couple named Debbie and Brad Warren were moved to address this problem, and founded an orphanage on Roatan in 2000. We visited their facility to drop off some household supplies that they had requested on their website -- we figured it would be an easy thing for us to do, yet would make a real difference for the orphanage.

The place was much nicer than we had envisioned it: a well-built modern structure on a hillside with an impressive ocean view. The kids were doing schoolwork in various areas of the house, but all of them left what they were doing to come up to us, shake our hands, peer into our faces in that serious way that kids have, and introduce themselves politely. One child there, Ana, who has Down's Syndrome and autism, took an instant shine to Cliff, and attached herself to him with all four limbs.

While Sandy, Cliff, and Greta were being given a tour of the house, I sat in the large living room with my gimpy leg propped up and looked around. It reminded me of when all eight of the Blau/Soule kids lived together (except that these Roatan kids were much more polite and well-behaved, of course). There was a real feeling of home there -- the kids were helping one another with their schoolwork, the littler ones were playing with toy cars together, and the orphanage's directors, Debbie and Brad, kept a close eye on all of the activity.



Here's how well-behaved the kids are: an older gentleman poked his head in the door and asked for the key to "the clinic". A few minutes later, two of the teenage girls in the house *asked* Miss Debbie for permission to go get their teeth checked out. Yes, they were politely asking for *permission to go see the dentist*. Wanting to see this phenomenon in action, I got on my crutches and hobbled over to a nearby building ... and by god, there was one of the girls, sitting in a dentist's chair in what looked to be a fully-equipped dental office, getting her teeth checked by the older gentleman -- who, it turns out, is a retired American dentist who volunteers his services at this clinic, which serves the entire island (and is free, at least for the kids in the orphanage).



Back in the living room, Debbie and Greta opened the three suitcases we had brought, which pulled the kids in like moths to a bug zapper. It was like Christmas in January as Greta distributed hair ties, stuffed animals, nail polish, microwave popcorn, clothing, and all sorts of other fun stuff. One of the kids, a six-year-old named Nolan, kept asking, "I can have this? I can have this?" He ended up with a Nerf football, the wrapper from a pack of Spider-Man underwear, and a digital watch. Brad explained later that Nolan and his sister Shanis were new there; they'd only been in the house for six days. "You have to remember," he said, "Nolan's never had *anything*. I mean, he had *nothing*. It's not surprising that he'd want to keep some stuff for himself." In fact, Nolan took his swag into his room and hid it in his dresser drawer, putting a shirt on top of it. He tried to add a pack of modeling clay and a sketch pad to his hoard, which prompted another young boy to solemnly announce, "I would like to point out that you [Greta] said that those things were for all of us to share."

Brad told us some of the kids' horrific stories. One had witnessed his mother's murder at the hands of his father. Another was the child of a woman who had died of AIDS. Others had been taken away from their drug-addicted mothers. And Ana had spent the first six years of her life living in a chicken coop, because her guardians (with whom her mother had abandoned her) didn't know what else to do with her.

Surprisingly, though, we didn't cry the whole time we were there. The kids were just so damn happy, beautiful, and in such a nice place. If you read their website, you will find that Brad and Debbie are Christians of a sort that usually make me shake my head. But I was absolutely stunned and humbled by what they've accomplished -- by the hard work that they do every day, with grace, love, and good humor, under difficult circumstances.



If you're interested in helping the Warrens with the orphanage and their other charitable efforts on Roatan, check out their website!