August 13th - The Gift

Esti & I went to the little boys circle again today. Two boys immediately grabbed my hands and held them just about the entire time. The boys practiced their scripture verses and sang worship songs. The boy on my left was named Joel and towards the end of circle-time, he looked at me with a BIG smile and put 4 beads from a necklace into my hand and said "Son para usted." This just melted my heart (as have quite a bit of other things that have happened in the last week and a half). These children don't have all that much, but are SO willing to give their only material possessions to others. Sometimes I think our children (in the U.S.) could learn SO much more from these children than they could ever learn from us (parents), in terms of giving away possessions.

I went to the school today around 8:20 to talk with Katja and Merethe about giving a dress to Doris and possibly giving her a CD player. Merethe said that Doris was taken out of school today, so I should strike a deal with her to get good grades on her exams the 1st week of September - and I will leave the CD player with Merethe. If she gets good grades, she will get the player...if not, it will go to another girl in her house.

I cleaned the storage room until about 9:10am when I left to go watch a high school math class. It was a 9th grade algebra class that was reviewing multiplication of binomials. After the review, they began their new lesson - multiplying polynomials. With the teacher's permission, I took a few pictures of the class and gave the class some Mexican "paletas". It must've rained pretty hard last night, because the high school yard was flooded. After sitting in that math class, I went back to work in the storage room for an hour and a half before taking off for the internet cafe and having lunch.

While I was down at the restaurant, I bought something for Andrés (my son), Noah, and of course - my favorite nephew (& godson), Max. It's a "guy thing" that Andrés may have to show the other two how to use properly...and NO, Andrés, it's NOT a machete.

I also bought 3 bottles of Pepsi. They only cost $11 Lempiras (65 cents) here. I gave them to Andrés and his two friends on the way back from the restaurant. They were out tending to the cows again.

I worked for another hour and a half in the storage room, putting items on shelves and labeling the shelves. Katja said she's going to try to find me some help for tomorrow and Friday, so that the room can get done. I am hoping that when I return next summer - all's still organized in there! :-)

On the way back to the volunteer house, I saw Doris...so I gave her one of my dresses that had shrunk in the wash. I mentioned what Merethe had said about getting good grades on her exams and that her reward would be the CD player. I went to the young girls dorm again to help them prepare for the evening, but I had to hurry because church began at 5:00pm.

We began with singing praises, and then some of the volunteers from the California team that arrived today went up front to lead a few songs. Since David's leg got infected on Monday, a pastor from town came to give the sermon and Robert translated. The sermon began with the question, "What's the best material gift you've ever given or received?" You were NOT allowed to mention gifts to or from your spouse, since once you are married, "you become one flesh." If you'd like to know more about what this pastor had to say, ask when I get back. :-)

So as I mentioned above, a group from California came today and will be staying for one week. I think Katja will be sending me a person or two to help get that storage room done before I go.