Nolvia, we are now a family of six

We first met Nolvia shortly after we arrived in Honduras. From the start we saw in her a quiet desire for more than what seemed to be her likely future. She was about to turn seventeen and had only completed 3rd grade. But she, on her own initiative had entered a weekend program and was working to graduate 4th grade. She was someone Barbe and I both very much wanted to help, but just didn't know how to.

Nolvia 

When we decided to move to "la Casa Grande" one of the first things we thought of as we talked through the different scenarios, the pros and the cons of sharing our house with a language school, was that we would have room for Nolvia to live with us.

One of the most difficult things for me to work through was the idea of having a maid. I just couldn't make myself go there. After several long and honest conversations about this with our pastor and his wife, also Nolvia's pastor, we decided to just have her live with us as family. She would help with us the household chores, especially keeping the vast amount of tiled floors clean for the school, and in turn we would make sure that she continued her education, was provided for and given every opportunity to learn and grow.

Nolvia standing in front of the fountain in the Parque Central, Comayagua

Nolvia grew up here in Siguatepeque, and until last week when she went with us to Comayagua, had never been outside town except to go into the mountains to harvest coffee. Already, she loves to travel. Whenever I ask her if she wants to go somewhere, she is ready.


Since then she has traveled to the airport in San Pedro Sula with us and came to the decision that it was a very long ride.



Nolvia lived with her mother, three sisters and two brothers and one niece in one of the outlying "barrios" of Siguatepeque. Before we met them, they had been living in a house made from sticks with mud in between each one. When it rained water would run through the house turning the dirt floor to mud.

Hope Coffee had begun a pilot program building small, one room adobe houses for widows and her mother was one of the first to receive one of these houses. Although small, it is a far cry from what the family had before and they are very grateful for the house, with it's concrete floor, tin roof and covered porch.

Nolvia and her family

This morning I asked Nolvia to tell me about her father. Her story is all too common here in Honduras. When she was six months old her father left her and the family. She has only seen him once or twice in the past seventeen years. I think she has this hope that someday he will return. Her mother remarried and several years ago her husband either died or was murdered leaving her mother a widow and the children fatherless again.

I told Nolvia that although I could never replace her father, that I would like to introduce her to people as our daughter. We do not want to try to replace her family, but we do not want to introduce her as the maid, which she is not. We want her to live with us as family, sharing in the household responsibilities with the rest of us, just as a daughter would. In return, we will send her to school, provide clothes and necessities and help her family with food and clothing as well.

So far we have been so impressed with Nolvia. She has made every effort to be helpful, joins in with us as a family at mealtimes and in the upstairs living room watching TV. She catches on very quickly to what we need. She and I have gone to several different schools who have night school programs (her only option because of her age) and she is very excited to be enrolled. She reads very well and I am certain she will do well in school, probably graduating 5th and 6th grades in one year.

From there, she can go on high school, or my hope for her, enter into a nurse's training program. She has a very quiet, gentle spirit and I think she would make a wonderful nurse.