This morning we said goodbye to Jacki and Julie. After they were long-gone, we realized that Jacki left her camera behind. I will try to get her address from Katja, so that when I get back to the States I can mail it to her.
When we headed to church, I saw the Maryland group for the last time. They could’ve used my help with painting faces for the children today, and I was hoping to join them later.
The service today was on forgiveness. It’s amazing how each day that I’m here, God speaks to me in His own way – and His chats are just what I need…refreshment for my soul.
After church, I spoke briefly with Kari and God must’ve put checking
up on her later into my heart because as I was moving into my new
freshly-painted room, I found a phone with a charger (and she does not yet have
one). I quickly took it over to her
apartment with the intention of also inviting her to the tienda to each lunch
with us later – and I found her with bloodshot eyes. She missed home. Her husband was out working and she had the day
off and it hit her that she’d be here for 9 months. I was glad to be able to have the opportunity
to share with her that most volunteers go through a little homesickness the
first week or two that they’re here. It’s an adjustment since you don’t really understand what the needs are
yet or how to keep yourself busy. Gradually you realize that there’s more work to do than hours in the day
and that alone-time to reflect on those you’ve left behind lessens.
When I got back to the volunteer house, I decided to head to
the yard and have Karla check my head. Karla only found one, which was very tiny or just hatched, and she told
me that she was pretty confident that she had gotten all of them! Sometime over this past weekend, Julie, Jacki
and I googled the life cycle of lice (I know…gross). Anyway, I discovered that the best thing to
do is to give myself another treatment 9 days after the first treatment in
order to kill off any newly hatched lice (the treatment generally doesn’t take
care of killing what’s inside the eggs) – so I’ll have to look back and see
when I gave myself the first treatment. Between that and what Karla’s done for me, I should be good to go! Of course, I’ll still have her periodically
check me from now until my return home.
We headed to the tienda for hamburgers (no tacos
today). I showed Kari and her husband
how to manage their phone…simple things like putting Lemps ($$$, payment in
advance for usage) on the phone, texting a special code before calling the U.S.
to get a discount rate, how to check how many Lemps are left on the phone, etc. Daniel showed up to eat with us, which was
nice because Daysha and I realized we hadn’t extended the invitation to him
while in church…it completely slipped our minds. We chatted and ate for about 2 hours before
realizing that the time had flown by and we still had not yet painted today.
When we headed back, Daysha needed to catch up with a girl,
so I headed to the house to do some cleaning. I swept the bathroom and cleaning the bathroom sinks. Daysha & I have an agreement that I’ll
take care of the floor sweeping/mopping and the sinks/showers and she takes
care of the toilets. After having worked
at McDonald’s and cleaning those bathrooms on the night shift, I never care to
clean a toilet again. I also swept and
mopped the hallway, living room and kitchen since Daysha cleaned the kitchen
cupboards and did the dishes (there were a lot of dishes). Laundry was an all-day, ongoing thing – as
usual.
Sam (David & Lydia’s niece) came over to help us finish
painting. She’s going to be a junior in
high school out in California
& is such a sweetheart! She was here
for 5 hours this afternoon and although it only took us 2 hours to finish the
room, it was nice to chat with her for another three! When we were done, I cleaned up our brushes
and the painting jars. Cleaning the floor
and getting the furniture back in place will have to wait until tomorrow. I’m also planning on getting into the last 2
bedrooms and getting all furniture into the center of each room, so that we can
begin them sometime this week. I’d like
to have them all done before leaving Daysha here alone.
Today was cooler than normal. I’m actually closing the windows and turning
my bed-side fan off this evening to prevent it from getting too cool in
here. Generally around week 2, I begin
to adjust to the climate here – which is not much different than a typical Wisconsin August, there’s just no air conditioning…so no
escape from the heat/humidity. Good
night to all, I know I won’t be sweating tonight!