August 14th - La Clase de Matemáticas

This morning Lydia came to talk at the young girls circle. Since it was drizzling outside, the girls met in their eating hall. There were a few women from the California team that came. When I got to school, I tried to quickly get some tasks for the storage room lined up for the 4 California team members that Katja had assigned to me.

I went to the 8th grade math class at 9:15am and watched the "profe" teach 'Order of Operations'. He gave 3 examples and then some of the girls in the class (who knew me) asked him if he would let me teach. He asked me if I'd like to give some examples, and OF COURSE I said "yes"!!! That was probaly the highlight of the day!!! I gave 2 examples that had quite a bit more steps than the ones he gave, and the students who came up to the board to do them got them right! It was so fun. After the 2 examples that I gave, the students asked for more, even though it was time for recess. We sent them on to recess anyway. Before they left through the door, I took a few pictures of the class and gave them each a "paleta". They were wondering if I still had the "paletas picantes" that I had yesterday but I had run out, so I'll have to make a note to bring more of those chili pepper covered Mexican lollipops down next year. Believe it or not, some Latin American countries don't much care for hot foods...I wasn't sure about Hondurans, but I guess the children really liked them yesterday!

When I got back to the storage room, the volunteers were waiting for me. They knocked at the storage room door (even thought it was open) and said "¿Habla inglés?" With 4 extra people, we really got a LOT accomplished before leaving for lunch at noon! I came back around 1:00pm to work for another 1/2 hour, but the girls didn't come back until 1:30, so I had to let them know what I wanted them to do while I was gone, and that they should turn the light off and lock the door behind them when they were done. Anyone who knows me probably knows that leaving an organization task (that I've been working on) to someone else is not something I can easily do. Actually for the next few hours, I was a little bothered/worried about if they'd try to do MORE than what I had asked, lol.

Esti and I went into town (Guaimaca) so that I could change the remainder of USD that I had. I figure that if I come down here each year...it doesn't matter if I have extra Lempiras to take back home with me - since then I won't have to worry about changing them back in the States in order to get down here. On they way out of the bank, I asked the guards if I could take their picture. The guard said I could take it on Saturday, so I explained that I won't be here on Saturday. He said I couldn't right now because they were working. It was the same way with the guards when I was a college student in México for the first time. Another student tried to take a pictures of some guards outside a bank (they're REALLY interesting, especially with the BIG guns that they carry around)...but when he did, the guard came over and opened his 35mm camera and yanked out the film, yelling at him. I think they have to protect the bank at all costs, and if someone takes a picture of them outside the front door to the bank, that could "potentially" be someone trying to get the "layout" of the bank in order to rob it.

Esti & I also stopped at the "supermercado" to get a few items before heading back home. I needed more "paletas" for the math class that I would be visiting tomorrow, and I saw that they had WHOLE milk, so since I am generally a big milk drinker, I bought a box of it. Milk down here only comes in skim & whole, no 1% or 2%.

While in town, I took a picture of their town's cathedral...generally every town has one. I also took pictures of the dirt road and various houses from Orphanage Emmanuel to Guaimaca on the way to town and back. I also got some pictures of their enormous potholes, although I'm not sure that the pictures are going to do much justice to what I had actually seen in person.

After entering the entrance to the orphanage, I saw Andrés again, tending to the cows. It was about 3:00pm, so I asked him how long he had to be out with the cows. His friend said that they needed to stay out with them until 3:30 and checked his watch. Andrés didn't have a watch, so I gave him mine.

When we got back to the volunteer house, I had to quick snack and then run to the little girls eating area so that I'd get there before they went back to the house to bathe. The girls realized for the 1st time today that tomorrow would be my last time with them. I told Carlita (the older girl, with the broken arm, that's in charge of them) that I'd like to get a picture of me & her tomorrow, and then another picture of the 2 of us with the children "we're" in charge of. She got SO excited about getting her photo taken!

Doris stayed close to me the entire time I was at the girls' house. She kept asking me questions about the CD player, and also kept mentioning that she hoped I wouldn't forget about her. I reassured her that I was coming back in ONE year, and that she was the girl I knew the most...so if I forgot about her, that means I'd forget about everyone! She is 16 years old, and I can't even remember how many "big squeeze" (as my kids call them) hugs she gave me. This is SO different from teenagers in the United States.

When I got back to the volunteer house, Sheila gave me the "wish list" of medical supplies from Corelia...so I will be sure to send it Linda's way when I get back to the States. She also asked me if I could stay overnight in the clinic with the 2 children that were there, but when we got to the clinic for me to relieve Esti - Esti said that one of the boys (Cristian) wanted her to stay for the night, so she was planning to stay for the night. As soon as she said this, I remembered that Fridays are the "big circle" time, when ALL of the children gather around in a circle to recite Scripture and sing praises to God. I also realized that if Esti hadn't planned to stay overnight, I would've missed it (and I had only seen "big circle" once - last Friday). I gave Esti a huge hug and thanked her for being open to spending the night, so that I could have one last opportunity to go to "big circle".