August 12th - Los niños

Anita, Esti and I went to the young boys circle this morning. They are led by Robert and Max (Katja's husband). They sang quite a few songs and many were VERY different from what I have been hearing the girls sing. Robert led the Lord's Prayer in Spanish and then told the boys that they would have a unique opportunity today to listen to the Lord's Prayer in FOUR languages! He then went to recite the Lord's Prayer in English, and had Ingrid recite it in Danish, and Esti in Romanian. He used this as a prelude to asking "Who knows why there are so many different languages on the earth?", of course leading into the opportunity to tell the boys about the Tower of Babel. After the lesson, Robert told the boys that they had 3 minutes to give "hugs" before they were expected to be at the breakfast table, so they came running at us in herds! :-) Luis David and Eric both came over to me. I also introduced myself to a boy named Arnulfo.

Lindsey asked me to take some pills over to Cindy in the toddlers area, but when I got there, they told me she had left to go make cement blocks at the entrance to the orphanage. As Anita & I were headed down to get to Cindy, Lydia drove by and asked if we wanted to ride down to the front of her orphanage in the back of her pickup, so we hopped on. When we got down to the entrance, there were only boys working on the cement blocks, so Anita & I chatted as we waited. Finally I asked for Cindy and they said she was at the high school and wouldn't be coming down until later. The older boy offered to give the medication to her, so I left it with him.

Back up to the school Anita & I went to organize the storage room. She had taken a break today to come and help me. On the way, I saw Andrés (who's 13 years old, just like MY Andrés). He was tending to the cows. I told him that I had my camera on me and he came over. Anita took our picture together. Anita and I then continued our walk up the big hill to the school. We organized the storage room for about 2 hours. She really helped me get quite a bit done - although there is still plenty to do. It looks a little better each day. I can't wait to get all of the empty boxes out of the room tomorrow morning. That will open it up even more!

Anita & I took a short break down at the internet cafe. I updated my blog and had a chimichanga for lunch. It was $18 Lempiras (about $1 USD). Although it was okay, I will most likely stick to the "tacos de pollo" since the chimichangas had quite a few more beans than I expected. We spent an hour after lunch working back in the storage room before I had to get the young girls ready for bed.

Back at the young girls dorm, the group I'm helping with were assigned to pick up leaves in the yard before bathtime. They didn't really seem to be into doing that, and were more "goofing around", so I told them if they picked up LOTS of leaves, I'd take their picture. Children at Orphanage Emmanuel are ALWAYS asking you to take their picture! This was definitely a motivator for most of them.

It really amazes me how clean this orphanage is, especially for its size! But each group is responsible for their chores to keep it clean. Antonia (a girl I had met last week) is not in the same room as these 7 young girls, so she came up to me tonight to ask if I could help her room of girls tomorrow night. I let her know that I probably wouldn't be able to, since I was REALLY helping Carlita (who is the older girl in charge of the 5-6 year olds, who was the one that had broken her arm).

By the way...I met Corelia tonight (Robert's wife). She's the nurse that oversees the clinic. She told me she would make a "wish list" of supplies for the clinic - since the only current needs of the school are construction paper & uniforms. The children also need underwear & socks (especially the younger boys and girls)...and the older girls need feminine hygiene products.