August 14th, 2011 - And Now There Were Two

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!