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".

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.

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.

August 11th - La clínica

I had to be at the health clinic this morning from 6:30-8:00am. There was a little boy about 2 years old named Memo who had spent the night because he had diahrrea for a week. And there was also a 12 year old girl who had burnt her hand pretty severely about a week ago. Sheila (who works the clinic) told me that this girl's skin had all burnt off of her ring finger and the rest of her hand was pretty badly burnt as well.

I went to the school about 8:40am to work in the storage room some more. ***NOTE TO ALL: They will not need pencils for a very long time. I've been working on organizing pencils all day Friday and just about all day today. I'll bet they have well over 50,000 pencils. I was in the room organizing for 3 hours this morning and 1 hour this afternoon with a small break inbetween to update my blog from the weekend and to have lunch. The cue that it was time to go to lunch was Robert coming into the storage room to offer me some of his "yuca", I guess in the States it's called a Gasava root (did I spell that right, Bob would know). AFTER offering it to me and AFTER I bit into it, he said "you know it's poisonous". Then he paused for quite a while (I guess for effect) and continued by saying "until they boil it". It tasted like a home-made french fry to me. Robert even put ketchup on it.

The school had a TV news reporter there this afternoon, who was looking into every room to film a little bit of everything to put on the news. Robert asked that I work with the door closed and locked (since the room is SO messy right now). It got pretty warm in there which is another reason I was only in there about an hour. When the "coast was clear", I checked to see how everything went. The reporter's camera battery went dead while he was still over at the colegio (high school), so he'll be back Thursday morning to film the primary school. I'm just about finished with the pencils and got a little start on organizing the blue/black pens.

I went to put the young girls to bed again tonight. The normal routine for me with them is:

1. Put a dab of toothpaste on their toothbrushes & send them to the bathroom to brush their teeth and go to the toilet
2. After the bathroom, I send the girls to the showers (it's a communal shower) where I have to stand outside the shower door and squirt a dab of soap into their hands to wash their bodies, and then squirt a bit of shampoo on their heads to shampoo their hair. On some nights they get conditioner as well. I have to make sure they scrub good and get all of the soap/shampoo off...and fairly quickly as the older girls start heading into the showers - so the little ones need to get out.
3. I hand the girls a small towel as they come out to use for drying themselves off. They are to be dry by the time they get back to their rooms.
4. In their rooms, I hand out their "blumers" as they call them (underwear) and I comb their hair.
5. I send them to the living room next to get their clothes. They do not have jammies, but sleep in the clothes that they are going to be wearing the next day. They do not get to choose the clothes they wear, but instead are handed clothes by an older girl who is in charge of giving out clothes that she believes will fit them.
6. Depending on the night, they either watch a movie or get read a couple of bible stories. Tonight we read about Jonah and The Creation. They wanted to hear the story both in Spanish AND English. Before turning the pages, I'd ask them questions about what was about to happen. They know those stories VERY well.

The youngest girls in this room that I have been helping out with are 5-6 years old. Their names are: Nani, Blanca, Yenci, Carol, Evelyn, Cindy & Reina.

We had our volunteer meeting at 6:00pm and Kim came to lead it. She wanted to talk about missions work so she read Acts 1:8 which says "...You will be my witnesses - in Jerusalem (your town), in all of Judea (your state/country), in Samaria (your enemy's land), and in every part of the world." We need to be witnesses to Christ, from our next door neighbor to the ends of the earth. And you don't have to GO to do God's will. We also looked at Romans 12:4-8 which reads:

• Each one of us has a body, and that body has many parts. These parts all have different uses. In the same way, we are many, but in Christ we are all one body. Each one is a part of that body. And each part belongs to all the other parts. We all have different gifts. Each gift came because of the grace that God gave us. If one has the gift of prophecy, he should use that gift with the faith he has. If one has the gift of serving, he should serve. If one has the gift of teaching, he should teach. If one has the gift of encouraging others, he should encourage. If one has the gift of giving to others, he should give freely. If one has the gift of being a leader, he should try hard when he leads. If one has the gift of showing kindness to others, that person should do so with joy. (International Children's Bible)

Each of us has different gifts, some the ability to serve, others the ability to give, and so on. Use those gifts to let God's grace shine through you!

Oliver stopped in much later to say "goodbye". He'll be heading back to Berlin early tomorrow morning. I'm the next one to leave (this Saturday) and although I do miss my children more with each email I get from Bob, the time has flown by so quickly!

August 10th - All of God's Creatures

This morning when I woke up, Sheila was quick to point out the tarantula they had killed last night outside the volunteer house. The ants were already starting to carry it away. I asked if they were common, and she said they didn't see tarantulas all that often, but that a few months back...one the size of her hand crawled under the door into the house!

Church began at 9:00am. The boys sit in front and the girls sit in back. This is mostly so that there is no temptations between the two. There are flags that hang from the ceiling of all the countries and U.S. states that have been to Orphanage Emmanuel to help out. They are missing the Wisconsin flag...I guess I'm their 1st visitor from Wisconsin, so I have to make a note to bring one next year!

Anita, Esti and I were officially introduced to David and Lydia this morning. They both said they had felt so bad about not having met us sooner but that David had surgery on his leg a little over a week ago, so to us it was completely understandable that he had been spending a lot of time in their house recovering and she had been tending to him.

David had us stand in front of church at the beginning of the service to have us introduce ourselves to all who were there - into a microphone. Even though I am a teacher by profession, I am still a fairly shy person when it comes to strangers, so this was something a little out of my comfort zone. But again, in serving others, God frequently asks us to go outside of our comfort zone.

We sang prises both in Spanish and in English. David leads the worship service, and his sermon was also in both languages. It amazed me how he could talk for 5 minutes straight before he would switch to the other language and repeat everything he had just said. He had many points today, but the biggest one was to listen to God and follow what He tells you. Be ready to accept the challenges He gives you and serve others in His name. David has such a unique way of presenting God's Word. I see a lot of similarities in teaching and personal characteristics between my pastor (Pastor Jeff) and David, although David is about 10 years older, his service lasts 2 hours...something "us Lutherans" are not used to. But believe it or not, I actually had not checked my watch until the very end!!! What a great speaker!

When we got back to the volunteer house after church, Esti went straight to bed. She had been up all night in the clinic with some children that were sick. An older girl had burned her hand, a toddler had a fever of 101, and another toddler had diahhrea pretty bad.

I ate and then met up with Oliver (a college student volunteer from Berlin, Germany) to take the young boys to the soccer field. Oliver had organized a soccer tournament for the boys and it was their 1st time EVER to the soccer field (normally only the middle to older boys play there). There were 4 teams and each team had their own soccer jerseys (red, blue, grey & purple). I got some GREAT action shots of the soccer game. The older boys were their coaches and they were just as excited to be coaching them as the children themselves - although they told me that when they were that young, they played a lot better than these boys. My response was that they should take the younger boys out more often and practice with them! :-)

Half-way through the tournament, Lindsey had brought over the "charamuscas" that Oliver had bought for everyone to enjoy. The best way to descri be a "charamusca" is if you were to make a popsicle out of fresh fruit and put it in a sandwich bag rather than on a stick. They tear open a corner and suck it out of the bag. I had met 2 young boys: Eric and Luis David.

After the soccer game, I went back to the volunteer house and ate. Lindsey was really excited to show me a picture of a tarantula that she had taken on her way back from the soccer game. It was also dead, but you'd never be able to tell by looking at the picture. It must've just died. Pretty gross!

I headed to the girls' eating hall about 4:00pm to help them get ready for bed. I met Yenci, a girl who's 6 years old that I had seen before, but just now learned her name. My goal is to meet & learn the names of a couple of new children each day.

August 9th - To Guaimaca

Anita & I were going to go to the farm this morning to watch the boys milk the cows, but when I woke up, Anita had told me she wasn't going because she had been sick all night. I went with Lindsey over to the boys' area to look for Velma so she could take her medication. When I got back to the volunteer house, I worked on the puzzle a bit more until Lindsey, Oliver & I went in to town.

Lindsey needed groceries and I found out that the supermercado takes credit and debit cards AND will give you money back if you have a debit card and request money back. Oliver brought 2 girls from the orphanage who are sponsored by his parents. The girls had a little bit of cash to spend from their sponsorships. One girl got a pair of sandals and a nice skirt & the other girl got some tennis shoes and lotion. Oliver took the girls to "el parque central" for some ice cream after they were done shopping. All of the children here at Orphanage Emmanuel are currently sponsored and some children even have more than one sponsor, which is awesome...considering the number of children here.

I bought a special gift for Alina today which I think she's going to love! I have ideas for Andrés and Noah, but we'll see as time goes on. When we came back from town, I updated my blog and headed back to the volunteer house. Esti came out and said she was headed down to the restaurant for a taco de pollo (did I mention the BIG hill between the volunteer house & the restaurant???)...but I accompanied her anyway. We met up with Todd and ate together. Todd will be going back to Alabama Sunday morning and getting ready to go to Spain to study in Salamanca this fall semester.

I saw David & Lydia (the founders of Orphanage Emmanuel), but only in passing. When I got back to the volunteer house, Anita was still sleeping I woke her to check on her and she claimed to be very tired, dizzy and cold. This happened to me when I traveled with my college group to Cancun on my study abroad trip to México. My professor had told me that I was dehydrated and lacking the proper sugars in my body. He had me drink a carton of apple juice and after a few hours I started to do better. I suggested the same to Anita and she too started feeling better after a bit.

I went to the young girls dorm again tonight to help with bath time and brushing teeth. The girls were SO excited that I was helping them. After getting back to the volunteer house, I worked on the puzzle a bit more and then Todd came over to say his "goodbyes" to all of us, since he'll be leaving on the 6:00am bus to Teguc.