August 7th - Orphanage Emmanuel

After getting up early this morning, we took a taxi to the bust station. Unfortunately when we got there, we found out we were at the wrong station! One of the workers at that station was SUPER kind and offered to take us in his truck to the right bus station so that we could make the bus before it left. When we got there, I tried to give him some money for gas, but he said "No Cobro", meaning I don´t want any money. I begged him to take the L$20 because he had been so kind. Not only did he help us get the tickets & get on the right bus, but he also stopped a guy from stealing Jen´s suitcase from beneath the bus after we had already boarded the bus!!! He was truly a guardian angel sent by God today to help us out.

We got to Guaimaca without problems today...Andrés took his Dramamine that we had to purchase in Tegus. From the bus stop, we grabbed a taxi to get to Emmanuel. Once at Emmanuel, we caught up with Katja and Lydia and they gave us the keys to the farmhouse. Andrés went on ahead with Wade and the luggage. It is actually a 2 bedroom duplex. A Danish couple (Annette & Daniel) live on the other side. It was much too big for the 3 of us. One bedroom had 3 beds, and the other had 4.

When we got settled in with the luggage, we ran into town to get some groceries from their local supermarket (which, by the way, is not ANYTHING like our Walmart-Superstores). On the way into town, we ran into Tammi who is in charge of the medium girls house. After putting the groceries away, I gave Andrés & Jen a tour of the orphanage.

Towards the end of the tour, we got to the school and school was actually getting out, so I saw Merethe and she wanted to take me immediately to Doris...saying that Doris was just starting to slip in school & actually needed me to be there (in Emmanuel) at that moment. When I saw Doris, she was in complete shock. Although I told her last year that I would come back, I never got to give her exact dates. It was GREAT to see her!

We ate supper at 3:45pm. Andrés had to go eat with the boys since it´s expected that you eat with your own gender. Jen & I went to eat with the young girls (who I was with last year). After supper, we headed to the soccer field since a volunteer group was running games and drills for the girls. Jen had the soccer expertise and I translated how the drills were supposed to go. When the games were over for the night, Jen handed out some of the "paletas picantes" (Mexican chili-coated suckers I had purchased in the States).

When we got back to the farmhouse, I called Noah to say goodnight. We waited for Andrés to get back to hear about his afternoon...but I´ll let you read his blog to know about that!