Christian In His Natural Habitat: Dia Del Ninos

Pinatas! Candy! Singing! Dancing! Food! What do all these things have in common? Children's Day in Honduras! Children's day (Or Dia Del Niños) is celebrated every year in Honduras on September 10 and internationally on the 20th. It is a day specifically set aside to honor the children and partake in joyful festivities. As a volunteer for ProTECTOR it is also the perfect time for turtle education. When else do you get throngs of swarming children listening to your every beck and call? As this was a party and thus necessitated a piñata, we decided to make our piñata turtle shaped and talk about turtle ecology before the kids started tearing the pinata apart (Still unsure if pulverizing a model turtle is the best way of promoting their conservation? Hoping the people won't view this as burning an effigy or something). For the icing on the cake I got the dubious pleasure of donning a giant turtle costume complete with fuzzy shell, feet, and head. Needless to say I looked utterly ridiculous in the costume but it was totally worth the discomfort and embarrassment to see the looks on the kids' faces. After they got over the shock factor of a giant tortuga, they started smiling, laughing, and pointing. When I took the turtle head off, all fear was soon gone and lots of little hands started pulling at the shell or holding my hand. Pretty soon Noemi started talking about turtle ecology had the kids illustrate how a turtle buries its nest. Figuring if I was going to wear this ridiculous costume I might as well make a fool of myself, I joined the kids on the ground, swiping my gigantic gloves through the dirt and making generally ridiculous turtle-like (Or what I thought were turtle-like) motions. After explaining to the kids how the turtles laid their eggs which were then brought to the hatchery for safekeeping, Noemi brought out the turtle pinata. For the last several days Noemi and I (But primarily Noemi as I have not a single artistic bone in my body) had been working on the pinata and it looked beautiful. We created the frame from wire, used flour and water to make the body, and glued paper máché along the outside to give it the proper color. A pair of googly eyes and a drawn on smile completed our turtle, and what a turtle it was! We attached the pinata to a rope, tossed the rope over a tree branch, found a stick, and began the piñating (Which is totally a word I just made up, but I don't really care). The kids went absolutely nuts over the pinata, and when I say nuts I don't simply mean mildly excited or slightly enthused I mean raving crazy. Kids were literally diving on top of each other to get the candy that gushed from the poor battered tortuga. It was in one sense rather hard to watch. These kids who rarely got enough to eat and often suffered from malnourishment and mistreatment were practically ravenous for the candy. The parents too eagerly eyed the candy that spilled from the pinata and urged their children onward to be the first to the prize. I was somewhat surprised that no one was injured from the experience. Despite the bitterness and violence so evident around me there was also much joy. I saw children's faces light up like I had never seen before, little feet dancing to the rhythm of life, little eyes gazing in wonder at my turtle suit. Needless to say it was a very good day.

(Pictures courtesy of Noemi and Taji)