Dia de Independencia Absoluto de CentroAmerica

    This morning when I walked the toddlers back to their house from the Comedor, the toddlers saw the cream colored dog just outside the Comedor.  I am not sure if this dog belongs to a neighbor just outside the orphanage, but it's here pretty much on a daily basis.  Some of the toddlers wanted to pet it.  Eva told them to be careful because some dogs who come onto the orphanage grounds are so skittish that they might bite.  Plus, Papi (David) doesn't like dogs roaming the grounds at all.  They tend to get into the garbages, tipping them over and dumping all the garbage out...kind of like if you leave "good stuff" in your kitchen garbage back home and then leave your dog unattended.  

Eva with the toddlers

   When we got back to their house, I learned that the toddlers wouldn't have school today.  So I stayed in the sala with them while they watched some shows.  Around 8am, Dunia decided that the 2 girls who were in the house should take all 14 toddlers on a walk, so we walked to the front gate of Emmanuel, then over to the farm to the cows, then to the horse barn, then it began to drizzle so we headed fairly quickly back to the house.  I hit my 10,000 steps before 10am.

Walking towards the horse barn

   At 9:25am, I left the Toddler House to head to the school to see if I was needed in any teaching capacity this week.  Recess is at 9:40am, so I had time to stop at the Girls Volunteer House really quickly to gather my books and stuff (just in case they would have me start teaching already this morning), but when I got to the school, I could see that they were getting ready to have a celebration.  Students were dressing in costumes and rather than being at recess, everyone was still in their classroom waiting for the celebration.  Both on the elementary and the secondary side of the school, they were celebrating the 201st "Absolute" Independence Day for Central America.  Students presented on this day, talking about the Honduran heros of the independence, the historical facts and dates, the food, the culture, and ended with a traditional dance.  It was very informative.  When the presentation was done, they excused the children to lunch.

Josary presenting

Jeremias (yellow) and Noah's friends: Olvin (blue) and Maycol (black) 

Lunch

   In the afternoon, I worked with Graciela's son, Dominic, on long division.  He is in 6th grade and math is a real sore spot for many of the kids here, not too different from those in the States.  We worked through problems at the Tienda for about 1.5 hours, even while the team brought groups of kids to the Tienda for treats (which definitely didn't help us with focusing).  I sent Dominic 6 problems to work on at home and we said we would meet at the same time tomorrow for more practice.

   After working with long division, I dropped my backpack off at the Volunteer House and then headed down to the yard to sit with Elsa, who watches the small girls.  We chatted for a bit before heading to supper and once supper was over, that was pretty much the end of the night for me.  I headed back to the house, relaxed and soon after headed to bed.

Noah's "Family" Pictures

    This morning John did the sermon in church and talked about his struggles during the time he was here, and he referenced James 1:3-4 which says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  Either I did not know or I did not remember (because John was here over a decade ago) that his church had denied sponsoring his time here, and his parents were not Christians, so did not support him financially either.  He came down here all on his own accord (much like Noah) with his own money and that was it...when it ran out, it ran out and he was down here with no financials.  He talked about marrying his wife (who is from Emmanuel) and their trip to Costa Rica, which due to a misunderstanding with his visa, left him with NO MONEY as they traveled towards Costa Rica.  But through the power of prayer, which his wife encouraged, God can be faithful.  And not only did they do okay in Costa Rica, prior to coming back to Emmanuel, he got 3 sponsors through email all in one day!  John is now a youth pastor back in the States and his sermon was absolutely energetic and impactful.

   After church, Noah wanted me to take a bunch of pictures with 2 boys here that he grew up with ever since his first trip when he was 11 years old, Olvin and Maycol.  There were also 2 girls (sisters) that he wanted to bring along and get into the pictures as well (Lorena and Erika)...he now calls these 4 his family.  So we took a few pictures on the small bridge to the farm area, in front of the greenhouse, and out on the huge soccer field out in the campo.  There were many photos where Noah's eyes were almost closed, I have noticed this about him in the past few years and had to say something to him about it to see if we could get a picture with his eyes a little more open, but with the bright sun that was difficult.  I actually got sunburned while out in the campo taking pictures of them.  I am hoping through all of those pictures, he has some he really likes.

Lorena looking at Noah's closed eyes after I mentioned something

Noah trying to pick the boys up like he did the girls

This worked better

   On our walk back, Nora and I decided since it was so close to lunch time, we would just hang out at the store.  There were quite a few team members with kids at the store (it tends to be a busy place when teams are here), so we chose to head to the other side where there were 3 tables, but no one seated there for a little more peaceful setting.  And then we just chatted til lunch.  After lunch, I began a load of laundry and then put the lighter clothing in the dryer and hung my jeans and towel on the gate in the living room area to dry.  I took time in the afternoon to also upload the blog from yesterday and get the pictures.  My phone is still registering that the inside has moisture in it from yesterday's torrential rains, so it was down to 4% and unfortunately still wouldn't charge.  I really hope that it does dry out at some point.  In the meantime, I had moved the Honduran SIM card from that phone to the phone I use in the U.S. so that I could get internet and the blog taken care of.

   Around 3pm, Noah messaged me to let me know that the team was hosting a dinner for staff and volunteers at 6pm.  Since supper in the Comedor was at 3:50ish, I needed to head to the Comedor to chat with Oscar and let him know I wouldn't be eating supper this evening because that would just be too much, to eat supper twice.  From the Comedor, I headed over to the Tienda because Graciela and her big girls were over there.  Graciela let me know that the team was buying the girls each a soda and chips.  That Tienda is going to be sold out before they can get the truck here to replenish them!!!  It's all good though, definitely helps support the efforts of Emmanuel.

   When I saw the toddlers walk by towards the Comedor, I headed in with them and sat by them.  I fed Sara (she will eat extremely slow otherwise) and chatted with a few of the girls that live with the toddlers.  Clara came over by me and asked me when her mom (Evelin) would get her sucker and chips.  She was not there yesterday, so I had set them aside for her to give when I saw her.  I reassured Clara that I had her mom's treats and let her know I would bring it to breakfast for her tomorrow.

   At the team dinner, chicken, rice, refried beans, a tortilla, salad and a brownie were served.  Two team members sat with Nora, LaShawn and I, as well as Wade's 2 older daughters.  We had some good conversation about some of the kids here at Emmanuel and how long each of us has been coming here.  At some point, Wade came over to talk to his 2 daughters and we all had a really quick conversation with him before he turned in for the night.  Shortly after he left, we got up from the table and Nora and I walked back to our house with Elsa.  She asked if I wanted to walk her to her house, and I asked why...she said that she didn't care to walk in the dark, so I gave her my flashlight and told her to keep it for those walks home after team dinners.  I still have one more flashlight back in my room, so it was completely okay.  She was pretty excited about that, so we all said our goodbyes for the night and hugged before heading in and calling it an evening.

Cotton Candy and Popcorn and...a Tarantula!!!

    After getting myself ready for the day and heading to the Comedor, I walked with the Toddlers back to the Sala.  It had rained through the night and I found it was going to rain most of the morning, so being in the Chosa like on previous Saturdays just wasn't going to cut it as the Chosa has "windows" all the way around where water and mist will definitely get through.  So we watched quite a few movies.  Around 9am, when one of the big girls went to get snacks for the toddlers, I headed back to the house to grab some Mexican chili-coated suckers for the big girls and also stopped at the Tienda to grab them some "churros" (their word for chips) as well.  The small individual bags of churros down here cost 4 Lempiras (about 20 cents)...extremely affordable when buying in bulk.  What I didn't realize is that due to walking in the rain, my phone would get wet and send me a message that moisture had gotten INSIDE the phone, rendering it practically useless for the rest of the day and evening.

Brithany and I watching movies in the Sala

$4.00L churros

   At 9:30am we had to get the toddlers ready to head down to the gymnasium because both teams were putting on activities for each of the houses and rotating them through at certain time intervals.  When we got to the gym, the first activity was getting cotton candy.  I have never had cotton candy down here before so am kind of wondering if this team had the machine shipped down here on the container they sent earlier in the spring.  Brithany shared a little of her cotton candy with me, she got 2 of them!...a pink and a purple one.  Then another team member came around with a bag of popcorn for each toddler.  They must have also shipped a popcorn making machine because that is another thing I don't remember Emmanuel having down here either.  I hope that they either teach someone down here how to use those machines or let other teams know that they have those available in case they'd like to use them if they come down!  

Brithany getting cotton candy

All the toddlers nicely seated in their rain coats and boots with cotton candy

Brithany with her cotton candy

Brithany with popcorn

   When our time was up in the gym, we headed back to the Toddler House where I once again watched movies with the kids until it was time for me to head to lunch in the Comedor.  The food for the toddlers was brought to them so they wouldn't have to go out in the rain.  As the toddlers went outside to get their shoes on to come out of the Sala, they pointed out a tarantula to me against the wall by their shoes.  They began taking the shoes away from the wall one by one and slowly the tarantula moved until it decided to run...INTO a toddler's shoe.  One of the big girls had to come and coax it out, which took a while.  After she did that the toddlers ran as the tarantula (obviously scared) ran.  I have honestly never seen a tarantula move so fast!!!  Another big girl, Josary, got a container and coaxed the tarantula into the orange container, and then took it away from the Toddler House and released it.  But this is EXACTLY why I have told my own children through the years to check their tennis shoes each time before putting them on!

Toddlers found the tarantula by their shoes outside the Sala

Fernanda's mom trying to get the tarantula out

Scared tarantula, doesn't want to come out

Josary releasing the tarantula to live another day

   Because the toddlers nap after lunch, I stayed back at the Girls Volunteer House and worked on one of the 3 remaining units I need to prepare lessons for.  I decided to work on the geometry unit (inscribed polygons) as that seemed much easier to me than the vectors or statistics units.  I did get most of the way through it, but have a few pages yet to finish.  After the lessons, I headed to supper and then it was a super early night to bed for me since my phone still registered that it had moisture on the inside.  Tomorrow will be another day.

John and Wade have Arrived

   When I got dressed this morning, I went to pull up my jeans (always pull them up using the belt loops, probably bad practice), and a belt loop broke free.  This was the only pair of jeans that I was going to take back out of the 3 pairs I had brought down, but now it looks like there will be all 3 pairs staying down here.  In the high school there is a sewing room that is used to teach kids how to sew (and alter/repair clothing) and some team members who are proficient in sewing also use it to do repairs.  There are multiple sewing machines in the room and although I am not proficient in sewing, when I leave pants down here, they definitely take a little bit of length off and then pass them on to someone who they will fit.  So in addition to numerous shirts I will be leaving down here...there will now be 3 pairs of jeans as well.

   This morning I saw a part of the team walking to the clinic rather early and wondered to myself if they were heading to Big Circle.  Since I have been here this summer, "Circle" has been in the Comedor and not out on the grass with all of the insects and mosquitos.  Eventually I saw the kids from the various houses line up and head in that direction as well.  So, I got my tennis shoes on and sprayed from the knees down with the DEET, then put my fleece jacket on (it was cool this morning and I also wanted to protect against any bugs that might fly higher up), and headed towards the clinic out in front of the hotel.  I saw John Perez first.  Noah told me about who was headed this way yesterday, since he had went to the airport to pick up the teams...so I was pretty excited for a good day!

   John was here as a young, long term volunteer, for quite a few years, back when Andres was in high school and came down with me.  Andres really liked working with John and talking to him, and John really liked the Mexican chili-flavored mango suckers that we brought down!  Every year that Andres came down, he hoped John would be here so that he could work with John.  Because of John's efforts, the Grandecitos house was built...the first 2 story dorm here at Emmanuel.  Four more of these 2 story dorms followed after he left.  John recognized me and we chatted for a bit, I let him know that my son just had to go to the airport and help pick him up because he wanted to know who this guy was, that his older brother would rave about many years ago.  John laughed and said he probably didn't impress Noah that much but that they talked on the way back from the airport.

   I said "Hi" to my typical crew of kids and to Graciela.  And then Wade was introduced to the teams and to the new kids as the one who would lead the devotion for Big Circle.  Years ago, Wade seemed to be the "head honcho" (behind Papi, of course) that ran Emmanuel.  Everyone had a huge amount of respect for him and he was so kind.  He was married to Lourdes who had grown up here at Emmanuel, and they have 4 children.  A few years prior to COVID, they moved to the U.S. and I had not seen them since.  So it was nice to see him and hear his voice.  After Big Circle, I found Noah and we started walking to the Comedor together with his special needs boys.  When I turned to look back, Wade saw me and extended his arms for a hug to say "hi".  We chatted for a bit about our trips down here and how we hadn't seen each other since he had left.  It was a nice chat.  He will be down here about a week and his wife and kids will be staying for 5 weeks, so there should be plenty of time to catch up.

Wade leading Big Circle

The girls side of the circle

Wade

The boys side of Big Circle

Noah and his boys

Andi leading the praise songs

   After breakfast, I helped Dayana and Kevin all morning with the worksheet problems that Profe Jorge had given them, while the 10th grade and 11th grade were doing their retake test in math.  Dayana and Kevin only missed the first test by a point or two, so instead of retaking, Profe Jorge wanted them to work through probably around 50 problems from the first trimester.  They were NOT easy problems, and personally if I were these 2 students, I would have asked for the retake test because I feel this ended up being way more difficult than just retaking the test.  Today's task was taking them through solving quadratics through factoring, completing the square and the quadratic formula.  Quite a bit for the 3+ hours I was in the school with them!

   I headed to lunch in the Comedor and then back to the house.  Hector's boys were cutting grass using weed whackers up by my house this afternoon, so when I saw Hector taking a break, I went out to give him a chili-coated sucker for him and each boy that was with him working as a thank you for doing what they do.  They were all super appreciative, all of them saying thank you for the sucker.  Because of all the weed whacking around the house, I had to go through and sweep all the rooms inside because quite a bit of grass creeps inside through the crack underneath the doors and through the screen windows.  Just like Monday when I mopped...my Fitbit registered that I got a LOT of steps in with the sweeping motion, so I rather easily hit my 10K for the day.

   This year I brought a brand new small fan down here for my bedroom, in addition to the one I already had.  I had left the fan in the box when I put it in my suitcase and discovered that it had both a base and a clip.  I chose to attach the clip to the fan, so I could clip it to my bed and blow on me at night which meant I didn't need the base.  The base sat in the box for the past few weeks here, and after Anna and Olivia left, I noticed that there were 3 fans in their bedroom that were not attached to anything.  So at lunch today, I took my new base and one of the fans from their bedroom (now that they are gone) down to Noah to see if he could bolt them together.  Noe who is a young man that works in the special needs boys house, saw it and asked if he could have the base because he had a fan without a base.  So I told Noah to fix it up and give it to him.  He came over by me at supper to thank me...I continue to be amazed by how much children here appreciate small things like that and am thankful that each of my children have had the opportunity to serve here and realize this appreciation because that has also been engraved into their hearts due to their serving here.

Millipedes

   Just a few days prior to me coming to Emmanuel, Anna and Olivia told me they had a tarantula in the house.  And although I have not seen any tarantulas in the house yet (only a dead one outside the hotel), we have had at least a millipede pop out somewhere in the house on a daily basis.  I have had 2 in my room since being here, normally I see them in the kitchen, dining room, and living room areas.  And occasionally I see them in the bathroom.  This morning there were 2 in the bathroom that I saw.  One was in my shower (got to shower with a millipede this morning) and the other was in the middle sink in the bathroom (there are 3...I use the one on the right side and Nora uses the one on the left).  I must have cleaned them so well that it had no scum to hang on to in order to get itself out of the sink, because it spent all day there just trying and trying to climb out.  Perhaps I will help it outside at some point.

   After getting ready for the day, I headed to the Comedor to be with the toddlers and then walk them back to their house.  An 8th grade girl who works at the toddler house had asked me to give her a crash course in multiplying binomials before her retake test this morning, so we spent time at one of the tables in the dining area at the Toddler House going over as many examples as we could.  I sent the notes sheet along with her so that she could study along the way.  Time went fast and soon it was time to take the toddlers to school.  Because I had been helping the girl, I wasn't quite ready so I ended up lagging behind the group.  That was a good thing, because right around the Team House area (about 1/3 of the way to school), Anderson was all by himself in the middle of the road crying.  So I took his hand and said, "Come on, Let's go" and started talking to him about school, asking him what grade he was in, what his teacher's name was, if he had tests this week, etc.  Just anything to distract him into walking again.

Morning view from the front door of the Girls Volunteer House looking to the right

Morning view from the front door of the Girls Volunteer House looking to the left

Morning view from the back door of the Girls Volunteer House looking to the right

   When the toddlers were all situated in their classroom, I headed back to the house.  The 10th and 11th graders I was working with the past 2 afternoons had asked me to make a practice test for their big retake tomorrow.  So I spent the morning hand writing a test for each grade.  The 10th grade test ended up being 5 pages long (because it was hand written) and the 11th grade test was 3 pages long because they had 1 less topic.  My goal was to finish making these by 10am so that Nora could copy them in the elementary school.  I finished by 10:04.

   At the elementary school, Nora was in the 4th grade classroom because the 4th grade teacher is also the director of the school and pulls double duty.  So she told me that the printer was in the teachers lounge and I went there to make 3 copies of each test.  The printer they have is extremely slow, it is just a small ink jet printer that you hook up to a computer, not an industrial printer solely to make copies.  It took a minute for each page to print, so I was there for roughly a half an hour.  I hope that at some point perhaps a church or school might donate a larger working printer for the school to use.  Once I had the tests, I put them together and stapled them before heading back to the house to make the answer keys.  I finished the answer keys just in time for lunch.

  Before lunch, Noah called me from the airport.  He had ridden on the bus to go and get the teams that were coming in today.  He also had some more information on some potential surprise visitors that were flying in today as well...but more on that tomorrow if it materializes.

   On the way out of the Comedor after lunch, Graciela handed me a warm piece of bread (like a bun) that was just made and had hints of cheese in it.  I thanked her and walked with her towards the Girls Volunteer House to gather up all my things for math time.  At the school, all 6 students came in and took the test, or the bits and pieces of the test that they could figure out.  Dayana and another student also stopped by to get help on a worksheet they were given to make up 1-2 extra points on the original test they took...so it was a busy afternoon!  Before leaving the school, I gave Profe Jorge all of the practice tests along with the answer key since he said he would take that into consideration as he went through their big completed retake tomorrow.

   I have been here 15 days, and my SIM card had a plan that said it would last 15 days.  Although I wasn't cut off, I decided to order another 15 days.  After I placed the order, Noah told me that when my SIM card is about to run out I would receive a text saying I only had 20% left.  I never got that text.  So now I am wondering if I didn't need to put that extra money on it?  Perhaps I have way more data than I know what to do with?  So I decided to start using data and watch a movie each night, well at least until I get that 20% message.  I am using our Netflix account from back home, but the movies available are different here in Honduras than they are back home.  If I find a movie I enjoy along the way I will let you know!

Recuperacion - Remediation and Retakes

    This morning began pretty normal, with me waking, showering and dressing, making my proffee, taking my vitamins, writing yesterday's blog and publishing it so it would be visible to friends and family, and then heading to the Comedor to be with the toddlers...all in that order.  I begin the day wearing pants since it is a little cooler and the mosquitos are worst in the morning.  When I got to the Comedor, the toddlers weren't there, so I sat and interacted with some of the bigger girls and listened to the big boys recite their verses before heading to the Toddler House.  At the Toddler House, all of the littles were in one room (not the sala) just waiting for the bigger girls in charge to get done sweeping and mopping.  They were trying on different rain boots as it had rained throughout the night.  Brithany and Clara had outgrown their boots and were no longer able to squeeze into them, so they had to resort to wearing their tennis shoes and were told not to hop in puddles on the way to school.  

The forecast for today and through the week

Hector's big boys reciting their verses

   When it was time to go to school Brithany and Sara each grabbed one of my hands and we headed to school.  We saw a toad in the road that looked like it was run over by a gator.  The kids shouted "Guacala!" (which means yuck or gross) as they pointed to it.  Nobody seems to like toads down here.  When we got to school, the kids wanted to see pictures of Mindy (our new puppy back home), so I went through the phone to find a few pictures of her as well as a video of her playing fetch.  Then we watched a video together of Andrea Bocelli and his son Matteo singing a 30th Anniversary rendition of "Time to Say Goodbye".  I chose this because it is one of my favorites to listen to, and it is very soothing, hoping to settle the toddlers down just a little bit.  Then it was time for them to get in line and they behaved so well (for once) that they were the first to get excused into their classroom!

   I headed back to the Girls Volunteer House in order to prep for the tutoring I would be doing after lunch.  The three 11th graders requested a review of "Limits and Continuity" which I definitely needed to brush up on in order to make a review as this is not a topic I teach back in the States.  And being an upper level topic (generally pre-calculus), it is not something that comes naturally nor can I "wing it".  So I spent the morning going through the topic and working through 3 pages of problems.  The three 10th grade students requested a review of "Matrices" which I do know well and didn't need to review prior to the afternoon.  

   At lunch, I found out that a girl named Naomi found the flash drive that Noah had lost yesterday, and returned it to him.  I am sure he was relieved to have that returned since it contained all of the movies he had purchased for the Small Girls House to watch.  Oscar comes to greet me each meal in the Comedor and to ask me how I am doing.  He has such a good heart and I wish him all the best when he decides it is time to leave Emmanuel.  He has already graduated and I am sure just waiting on God's timing for his life.

Today's lunch: cole slaw, beans, chunks of hotdog(?) and a tortilla

   After lunch, I gathered my things from the house and headed to the school to tutor the 10th and 11th graders.  There was also a 9th grader there from the Toddler House today that has her test tomorrow and didn't understand "Systems of Equations" and solving the systems via the Elimination method.  So I worked with her has well, since I wasn't able to go to her house after supper.  The two older grades feel they have a better understanding now after 2 days of the topics that are on the test and requested a 3rd day of tutoring tomorrow where I would make a small practice exam for them to take without help, whether it be me, their notebooks or their textbooks.

   Supper in the Comedor was quick and then since it was Wednesday, we had church at 5pm.  Tammy Young spoke to the kids about the new horses and how they were chosen and the long process of getting these 2 colts to Emmanuel, which was crafted by God all along the way.  Tammy and her husband Chris run the Tennessee International Dude and Guest Ranch in the Sequatchie Valley.  She has a phenomenal southern cowboy accent and the story of the horses kept me captivated!  For those that don't know, a horse was the ONLY "pet" I ever wanted as I was a child, and my wish every year on my birthday until I reached adulthood (and didn't make wishes anymore was to have a horse of my own.

   After the service, Nora and I made our way back to the Girls Volunteer House and she used her keys to let us into the front of the house since my keys are for the back of the house.  When she opened the first screen door, she jumped a bit.  I looked down and saw a rather large toad that was facing the main door, ready to enter as soon as we opened it.  I think this may be the same toad that was calmly watching us from the side of the house last night too!  So we decided to head around back, use my keys and then I grabbed the broom to open the main front door and nudge the toad back into the yard.  I am not sure how a big toad like that got wedged between the 2 doors, but obviously he couldn't find his way back out.  One of God's creatures, gotta let him live.

Ready to enter the house!

   Before going to bed, I got probably one of the best texts ever...but I will wait until that materializes to share it with all of you...to be continued on that.