August 23rd, 2011 - My Last Day at Emmanuel

At 6:30am this morning, a RN (from the team) came to the clinic to relieve me again.  It gave me a
chance to get back to the house quickly to drop off my overnight things before heading to the little girls’ circle.  On my way to the volunteer house, Blanca came running down the hill from the
lavenderia to give me a hug.  She knows it’s my last day here.  I got a few pictures and recorded a few videos during the circle.  Doris and Blanca held each other the entire time, so I got a great picture of them together.  After circle, we headed to breakfast…arroz con leche, YUM!

After washing dishes, I headed back to the volunteer house to find the same bunch of women from yesterday ready to paint the hallway.  They helped me to clean up the floor in the 5^th bedroom and to get the furniture back into place and then they had the hallway done by lunchtime.  I used the morning to wash all of the dirty laundry from the clinic – there were 2 & ½ loads!

Around 10am, I headed to the school to find Luis David & Arnulfo.  These two boys hold a special
place in my heart as well, but I haven’t been able to spend more than a couple of minutes here & there just saying “hi” and “how are you”, etc., because we only seem to see each other in passing.  I made sure they each got a paleta and asked their instructor to take a picture of us.  I had noticed that the
store had their white T-shirts in size Medium (my size) on Sunday, so I headed there to chat with Elvia and buy a T-shirt.  I’m thinking I’d like one of the red long-sleeved ones, but I may have to pass on that this year and save up for next year – since my money is just about out.

After the tienda, I took the clean clinic laundry back and said “goodbye” to Tony.  I got a picture of
him & I together and he gave me a super-big hug.  I’m not sure who’s spending the night in the clinic this evening yet, but he will get to go back to his little boys’ house in the next couple of days when the stitches come out.  I’m thinking he’s heading back to the doctor tomorrow to get them out.

I headed to lunch and ate with Doris and did the dishes, then came back to the house to cool down – it’s been a super-hot day today!  After cooling down with a mango juice, I headed to the yards for find Karla.  She’s going to do a final check on me for head lice before heading home tomorrow morning. I’ll still do one last lice treatment tomorrow morning, but I want her to get out all she can prior to that.

After visiting with Karla, it was back to work…sweeping the entire volunteer house.  I don’t want
Daysha overwhelmed with too much of a mess when I leave – although there’s plenty to do with getting paint off of the floor in the living room, kitchen and hallway; but it should come off easily enough with a mop and water (at least it did in the other rooms).  I headed to supper and took care of baths afterwards.  I gave Esperanza the bag of chili-coated suckers to give to the girls afterwards and headed back to the girls house when most were sleeping, so that I could give Doris and Blanca the small gifts I had for them.  I spent an hour & a half with them, mostly chatting in the dark since the lights went out.  They wanted me to stay the night, but I couldn’t…I have too much to do yet before leaving tomorrow morning at 6:30am.  When the lights came back on, we said our goodbyes (and “until next year”) and I headed back to the volunteer house.  I’ll take care of a few odds ‘n ends before heading to bed.  Good night!

August 22nd, 2011 - Pasado Manana

So the realization that I’m going home the day after tomorrow (pasado manana) finally hit this morning and has been prevalent throughout the day.  One of the RNs came to the clinic at about 6:15am (earlier than I’m usually relieved), so I was excited to get back to the volunteer house to shower.  Tomorrow when I’m relieved, I’m heading straight to the little girls’ circle for my last time this year.

I helped serve breakfast again this morning and did dishes afterwards, then headed back to the volunteer house where there were 3 ladies waiting to paint that 5^th bedroom!  I had planned on doing all of the detailing around the edges today in my spare time, but God provides!!!  I showed them where all of the supplies were and answered their questions and they had it done by lunch.  In the meantime, I headed to the office to talk with Katja since she had mentioned the possibility of me taking some children into town to spend money that their sponsors had sent down for them.  She was pretty  swamped with work (being a Monday), so I let her know I’d be back in the early afternoon.

 

I headed to the high school next to ask Doris’ teacher if she could take some photos of her class and what goes on.  She took the camera and I assured her that she could give the camera to Doris and I’d get it later.  Doris gave it to me at lunch.  I once again helped serve lunch and did dishes – my nails have finally gotten cut short due to “water damage”.

 

After lunch, I headed right back to the office and Daniel was waiting to discuss his ride home tomorrow with Katja.  He looked quite sick.  We were told (by Kellin) that Daniel hasn’t really been eating properly.  He’s a little worried to eat with the boys, so all he’s had in the 3 weeks here has been a big pot of macaroni and cheese which he scoops little bites out of when he’s hungry.  Daniel said he had a head cold and waiting about ½ hour before heading back to the male volunteer house to rest.  He said that he’d contact Katja later via phone.

 

Some of the team members came into the office to look for children to sponsor.  When Katja came in, she worked with everyone else first since they had more immediate needs, and then let me know she didn’t have time to get everything in place for me to take the children in to town today or tomorrow. I reminded her that I’d still like to get a picture with her, since I haven’t gotten one of her in the 4 years down here – so I’ll stop by tomorrow again to do it.

 

When I got back to the volunteer house, I scraped paint off of the ceramic tile in bedroom #4 and swept and got all furniture put back into place.  As soon as the mop is put back together (the long handle is currently attached to the paint roller brush), that room will be mopped.  I did a load of laundry for the house (towels & such) and I began to pack the things I will no longer use between now and my trip home.  I cannot believe how much I’m leaving behind.  My suitcase is going to feel virtually empty!!!

 

I headed to the little girls’ house for supper, but since their baths were scheduled later for this evening and I had to take sponsored children (along with Brandy) to the team volunteer house at 5:30 for a celebration, I didn’t give baths tonight. I’m sure the girls were wondering WHERE I was!  I will be there tomorrow to do baths one last time.

 

When the celebration (food, games, etc) at the team house was winding down, Brandy escorted the boys back to their dorms and I escorted the girls.  It was interesting how we both got back to the girls volunteer house at the same time.  Although Brandy has her own apartment now, she had left her bike back at our place…so needed to get that way to retrieve it.

 

I put on my only pair of jeans before heading to the clinic for the night (which I had originally packed in the suitcase earlier today), and I realized that the right knee is beginning to come apart.  Although there’s lots of wear left, I don’t feel they’re appropriate jeans to wear to work anymore on Fridays – so I’m going to leave them here for Brandy since we’re about the same height and size.  I let Daysha know when I got to the clinic that my plan was to get up really early on Wednesday so that I could do a last load of laundry before heading home, and I would leave the jeans sitting out if Brandy wanted them.

 

Daysha took off from the clinic, and once again it’s only Tony…so should be a good night – my last one in the clinic.  Goodnight!

August 21st, 2001 - My Last Sunday Church at Emmanuel for 2011

Terri came to relieve me at the clinic at 7am and I rushed home to shower & get ready for the last church service I’ll be attending this year at Emmanuel.  I head out early Wednesday morning, so will miss Wednesday evening’s service.

 

Today’s service was given by a pastor from Florida.  He talked about 3 things: figuring out your identity in Christ, forgiving others when they commit sins against you, and then reconciling – or going through the process of making everything right.  What a service!!!  I was on the edge of my seat listening to every word.

 

After church, Daysha and I went to the volunteer house.  We needed to change out of our clothes before heading to eat with Daniel, Kari and Kellin. When we got to the tienda out front, we discovered quite a few members of the new group there with the children they sponsor, giving them soda & cans of Pringles and taking pictures.  We had to wait a while for our food, but the conversations we had while waiting made the time fly by.  Daniel leaves on Tuesday for Tegucigalpa and I leave on Wednesday.  At that point, the male volunteer house will be empty and the female volunteer house will only have Daysha (for about 2 weeks when some Danes come in).  We had some great conversations with Elvia and Angelica (who were working in the tienda today) as well.

 

When I got back to the house, I folded the laundry that I had washed that morning from the clinic and stuck a load of my own clothing in the washer.  This should minimize what I’ll need to wash early Wednesday morning when I prepare to leave.  I uploaded 3 days worth of blogging and swept the entire house – minus everyone’s bedroom aside from mine. 

 

I did supper and baths with the girls again and around 5:30pm I brought the clean laundry back to the clinic and introduced myself to the 4 RNs that are from this most recent group that will be helping me out over the next few days.  I plan to spend this evening at the clinic and most likely Monday night, but will need Tuesday night to be back at the volunteer house so that I can wake up extremely early on Wednesday to prepare my stuff to leave.

 

Before heading back to the clinic to spend the night, Brandy came over and made some Chai Tea for Daysha and me.  It was DELICIOUS!!!  She let me know that little Sindi (with the seizures) is in the hospital in Tegucigalpa and not doing so well, so I’d like to ask for your prayers in her healing.

 

When I got to the clinic, there were 2 boys; Tony and then one named Jorge who had an allergic reaction on his skin to something he had touched.  Although Tony was a little wound up when I got here, both are now sleeping, so I will be going to bed soon as well.  Good night!

August 20th, 2011 - My Day with Doris

So at the clinic, I stayed awake reading until 4am and then laid down on the top bunk where I normally sleep, but since I was so worried about the girl, I just watched her for 2 hours.  I had been praying all night that she wouldn’t seize while I was there and God answered my prayers.  Brandy
walked in at just after 6am to bring me a coffee, and the instant she walked in the door, little Sindi had a seizure. 

Brandy has been working with the babies at the toddler house, so having been exposed to these seizures before; she handled the situation much better than I ever would have.  I have said many thanks to God for all the graces He provided me through the night.  Karelia soon came to the clinic and along with Brandy, they took little Sindi to town to see the doctor.  I learned later that she
would have to spend a few days there.

I headed up to the little girls’ dining hall to confirm with Mariela that I still wanted to take Doris to
town this morning.  I had made Doris a promise to take her out…just me & her, and with having not gotten much sleep – I still felt the gentle nudging to follow through on this promise.   I then back to
the volunteer house to shower and get dressed for the day, and went to get Doris afterward.

 

Generally when I’m down here in Honduras, I like to get a shirt/blouse or two for myself.  Something I can wear to work that’s just a slightly different style than what I can buy in the United States. I asked Doris to help me go “shopping”, because in reality, I don’t like to go shopping for myself.  I found out later that she doesn’t like to shop for herself either.  We had a great time…she suggested a few shirts and I tried them on.  Although I bought 3 shirts, it was really the first one that I bought…the one that she had picked out completely on her own while I was trying on another that is my favorite. 

After that, we headed to the ice cream shop to get a double scoop cone.  I asked her if she wanted to
sit down and eat in the ice cream shop, but she said she’d rather walk and chat and eat.  As we were walking around the square some little children came up to us and quietly said something to Doris.  She gave them her cone, which had barely been touched and they ran off.  She said that they were hungry and were asking her for her cone.  I was so touched by her willingness to “just give”.  If I would’ve known what was going on, I would have given them my cone as well.

We stopped in one store and Doris was looking at a guy’s shirt.  She said she had a friend at Emmanuel who recently arrived and didn’t have a sponsor yet.  She’d like to buy him a shirt rather than get something for herself.  How could I say “no” her kindness?  This is something I’m seeing in lots of the children here.  Even Tony (the boy in the clinic) who has received a bunch of gifts from the lady from the volunteer team this week that has been helping me out at the clinic (since Kari’s been pulled away)…gave more than ½ of what he received to his brothers when he saw them today for
lunch.  God’s love is definitely here at Emmanuel – all around!

On the way back to the orphanage, Doris and I stopped at Glenda’s one last time so that I could buy her some fruit (which I’m sure she shared as well).  Glenda took a few pictures of us and they turned out really nice.  I can’t wait to share them with everyone back home.  I walked Doris straight to the luncheon that was provided by the volunteer team – hot dogs and a mixture of black beans and ground beef.  I chatted with the small girls until they had gotten their food.  Blanca clung to me the entire time and when I asked if anything was wrong, she remained silent.  I realized that I’d be leaving soon and felt she was thinking about it too, and it made me sad.  Some of her friends tried to cheer her up by talking to her and when one friend asked how many children I had, she immediately (without hesitation) said SIX…4 in the states and 2 here at Emmanuel.  My heart broke a little bit because of how special she & Doris are to me.  When the girls were settled down with their plates of food, my need for sleep from lacking it the night before struck.  I headed back to the volunteer house and set
my alarm to give me 3 hours of sleep before supper, because I had no clue what tonight at the clinic would entail.

Supper and bath time went as they normally did.  Girls running every which way in the house, whereas to a stranger it would seem like mass chaos – but over time, one comes to see that they have a “system”.  They go to the bathroom first, then brush their teeth, then come into the shower to get their hair wet, get shampoo scrubbed well into their hair – by me & Angelica, and then get scrubbed down with soap by some older girls before heading to Elvia who rinses them clean.  After the shower, they head down the hall to Doris who dries them off and gets them some clean clothing to sleep in, then they head to their living room area to get their hair brushed by 2 other older girls and then to sit in
rows waiting for all to finish this process.  I’ve loved the chats that I have with Angelica and Elvia as we are washing the girls, they are my nightly blessings from God and we have conversations that really touch my heart.  Elvia is SO good for those girls, and I’ve mentioned that to her on more than one occasion.

After I finished my responsibilities, I knew I was needed back at the clinic, so said my quick good-nights and headed to the volunteer houses to prepare what I needed to stay overnight.  When I got to the clinic, I found that I would just be staying with Tony – which was a relief to me in knowing that I would most likely get a better night’s sleep this evening.  I finished up the book that Daysha had lent me and up until my trip down here, had never really thought that Christian fiction books (ASIDE from The Shack) would really interest me.  I was wrong, and can’t wait to dive into a new series that I started down here.  The last thing I’m doing for this evening is finishing typing up this blog.  With
that, I’ll head to bed and am looking forward to a wonderful time of worship in church tomorrow and a relaxing time to spend with Daysha, Kari (and her husband), Daniel and Brandy – the other volunteers – for lunch!