Visiting Eduardo

This morning we headed down to the continental breakfast that was included with our stay rate.  Since we've been to Staybridge Suites in St. Louis, we have not found a better continental breakfast...until now.  This was just exquisite, and delicious!  Fresh fruits of all types (I even tried the "eyeball fruit", don't really know the name of it, but it does look like an eyeball), and hot foods spannish both Latino and American cuisine.

After breakfast, we weren't up in our room very long and we got a call from Grazia who is the interpreter/guide for our Compassion International visit with Eduardo (Andres' sponsored child) today.  We were supposed to be down in the lobby at 9am, but she arrived around 8:30 and just wanted us to know she was waiting downstairs.  We headed down right away since we were so excited to go see Eduardo!

We stopped at the project first and the Compassion project director, Emis, brought us to the office and talked a little bit about the project which services over 200 children.  They have a few classes and activities during the week in the afternoons/evenings, but most of their activity takes place on Saturdays from 8am-2pm.  They serve both breakfast and lunch to these children that come, who most are coming from extreme poverty...living in houses made out of wood that is barely thinner than cardboard.  Emis told us that the parents are happy that their children can at least get 2 good meals a week at the Compassion project because many of these children go hungry.

Eduardo and his mom showed up about 20 minutes later, and then Emis led us through the project on a tour, showing us various classrooms that they use and area also used for government-provided classes for parents of the Compassion children.  He told us that they had quite a few parents who learned how to read in just 5 short months on instruction!  Grazia let us know that this is definitely one of the bigger projects in Tegucigalpa (she said there were numerous projects located around the city, but not any other facilities this large).  They also have a room for vocational workshops, where they are teaching the girls cosmetology and the boys music, computers and a few other careers that will better prepare them for when they graduate from the project.  Eduardo told us that he has a job installing glass railings in the new mall that's being built out by the airport.

Next we went to Eduardo's house.  We found out that they've moved out of Comayaguela (a very dangerous city that is only separated from Tegucigalpa by a river) and into a safer neighborhood in Tegucigalpa.  The house is nice and has a terrace which has a good view of the large statue of Jesus that is up on a mountain & overlooks the city of Tegucigalpa.  We met his older sister and younger brother once again, AND we met his baby Tatiana Elisabet.  His daughter was born almost 6 weeks ago.  We all took turns holding her (of course me the most!)...she is SO precious!!!  We also met his fiance, Katina.

After visiting for a little over an hour, Andres asked Eduardo where he'd like to go for lunch.  Eduardo didn't hesitate to say that he'd like to go to the same spot we went to 3 years ago when we had met him...the cafe court at the MultiPlaza mall right across from our hotel!  When we got there, Andres & Eduardo ordered a large pizza to share from Pizza Hut.  Grazia, Emis and Eduardo's mom ordered from Subway, and Bob & I ordered from a Latino fast food place (interesting how the Hondurans ordered from American places and the Americans ordered from Latino places.  Eduardo's mom saved 1/2 of her sub sandwich to take home to her kids and Eduardo & Andres boxed up the pizza that they didn't eat for him to take home as well. 

While at the mall, the most exciting thing happened to Eduardo...we saw Luciano Emilio (a famous professional soccer player on the Olimpia team that Eduardo loves)!  The next thing we know, Emis and Bob are taking a picture with Luciano Emilio in the middle of Andres & Eduardo.  Think of seeing a famous Packer player (and being a HUGE Packer fan), running into him in the mall and actually getting a picture with him!  I'm sure this is how Eduardo felt.

After the mall experience, we headed bowling.  It was the very first time bowling for each of the Hondurans.  I really wanted Eduardo's mom to bowl, but no matter how much I asked her, she turned us down & said she'd just prefer to watch.  It was really fun.  Since we lived closest to the bowling alley, we were dropped off first at the end of this visit.  Since Eduardo is graduated from the program, Andres gave him our address, phone number & email and told him that if he needed anything he just had to contact us.  Unfortunately no one in Eduardo's family has a phone (had I known this I would've kept the phone I had purchased for this trip for him, versus giving it to Danny...but I had no clue).  We'll be keeping him and his family in our prayers!

When we got back to the hotel, we headed to the mall.  Bob needed swim trunks for possibly swimming in the pool later (which we never actually ended up doing).  I got a few more shirts, courtesy of Bob, and then we saw it...CINNABON!  We had a yummy cinnamon roll and Bob mentioned that today very closely resembled our first date: Cinnabon, bowling, latino eating and a movie (we planned to go watch Total Recall later in the evening).

After the mall, we headed to the Steak & Lobster restaurant at the hotel.  All 4 of us got very dressed up since it was a more formal restaurant, and we sat at a table alongside the pool.  It was just a gorgeous end to a great day!  We were sure to get a bunch of pictures too.  :-)

Leaving Emmanuel

This morning I wrote a letter to Michell & Yulissa (letting writing is BIG down here) and spent a bit of time packing.  It's the day we leave Emmanuel for Tegucigalpa (the capitol of Honduras).  I headed to little girls circle, but saw Michell along the way - so gave her the note I had written her.  During little girls circle, Verenice brought me to the center of the circle and her, Mauda & Yolany came forward & prayed for me...thanking God for the good role model I was for them and also for safe travels home.  I took a ton of pictures with the little girls and one of the older girls - even Yojaira!

After walking the girls to school, I came back to the apartment to do my morning devotions, upload my blog, finish my letter to Doris, write a letter to Yolany and also translate the letter Bob had written to Jasmine (Danny's daughter).  All of this took me right up to the time for recreo (recess), so Bob & I headed to the school so I could give Doris the letter I had written her.  Bob also wrote her a letter in English, so he gave that to her as well.  We spent the entire recess with Doris and then headed back to the apartment to gather up all we had packed to take to the various locations (mentioned in next paragraph).

First we started by stopping at the little girls house.  I had to give Yolany's letter to Ana Yanci since I had forgotten to give it to her in the school.  Bob took the garbage out of the apartment to the can in front of the little girls house.  Then we headed to the volunteer house.  We had borrowed a bunch of board games and wanted to return them as well as drop off a pan, 2 big spoons, some medicines that we had that were extra, and our extra food.  They were very thankful for what we had dropped off (especially the food!).  Our next stop was the souveniour shop.  We each got a black Orphanage Emmanuel polo shirt.  They look pretty sharp!  Then we headed to the toddler house for 2 reasons...the first was to introduce Bob to Brandy, and the second was to give Brandy the 2 pairs of jeans and a few capris that I was leaving behind.  Besides me, she's the next tallest at the orphanage and perhaps might be able to make use of them (or at least can find another tall volunteer down the road who can).  After the toddler house, we headed one last time to the tienda to have some lunch before heading out.  We had a ham sandwich & nachos with jalepenos (well, Andres didn't have the jalapenos, believe it or not).  We met Kelsey in front of the Emmanuel office, and then walked into Guaimaca with all of our luggage.

We ended up taking the chicken bus into Tegucigalpa, and then had to take 2 taxis (since 1 wouldn't fit all 4 of us and our luggage).  Bob & I went in the first taxi and Andres & Kelsey went in the 2nd, so that there would be a fluent speaker in each car.  We arrived to the hotel, and I have to say that it is by far the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at in my entire life (Andres & Kelsey agreed that it was for them too!).  It was a really nice hotel!...and for just the right price.  We had reservations, but because their hotel was booked solid, they upgraded us to the Ambassador Suite on the 7th floor with a wonderful view of Teguc and the pool.  If you'd like to google it because you're going to be heading to Tegucigalpa any time soon, the name of the hotel is Hotel Real Intercontinental.  I highly recommend it!

After taking our luggage up to our room (I would've had no clue how much we'd have to tip a bellhop to take it up for us), we headed right across the street (and I do mean just right across the street!) to the Multiplaza Mall, one of the nicer malls in Tegucigalpa.  It's HUGE!  Bob bought me 3 shirts at the Charly store.  I absolutely love latina clothing!...if only I wasn't so tall, I'd be able to get pants as well.  We finished the night by eating at TGIFridays and watching a few episodes of Criminal Minds and Castle (in English with Spanish subtitles) before turning out the lights and going to bed.

The Craft House

This morning, Bob & I began devotions again together; and although I went to the little girls house earlier, he met up with me there to participate in the little girls circle.  The girls enjoyed having him there.  He asked Yency and Elena to sign his hat (which he had already written Orphanage Emmanuel 2012 on).  I served breakfast afterward, did the dishes, and walked the girls to school.  While I was doing dishes, Bob came back and asked for the keys.  I had completely forgotten to grab them since they weren't sitting out on the kitchen table where they normally sit...and since I had been feeling really sick this morning.  We were locked out!!!

Bob & Andres had to wait for Bent to come and pick the lock open, but that was well over an hour.  I had come and had to leave because I was meeting up with Loren and a lady from the California team to take a few children to the craft house.  Good thing that between the 4 doors of the quadraplex, there is a futon and it is a covered/shaded area for them to rest.

At the craft house, the kids strung beads onto pipe cleaners and made bracelets out of them.  It only took about 1/2 hour to do, so we brought the children back and grabbed 6 more to work with.  Loren is taking over the job of taking kids to the craft house, so she needed to get a few ideas.  She worked with this lady from California and also agreed to meet with her again tomorrow afternoon to try another craft.

We finished around 10:30am, so I headed back to the apartment to check on the laundry (needed to get a ton done before heading to the capitol tomorrow).  The lint trap in the dryer was just atrocious...like it had never been emptied...ever!  I got the laundry going and then headed to the little girls house for lunch and to do dishes.  Danny had the day off, and something else happened that they were short-staffed, so Esperanza asked of I could do dishes "solo" and if Loren could clean the dining hall.  Doris helped me to finish dishes early and Loren was still cleaning, so I asked a few of the girls who weren't going to afternoon classes if they could help Loren out.

I headed to the tienda to have lunch with Bob & Andres...ham & cheese sandwiches.  Then we headed to the office to ask Leigh about the bus.  Originally we were thinking of going with Max, who was heading into Tegucigalpa early, but then decided that we wouldn't be able to check into the hotel that early and that it would be better to take the bus.  We'll be heading out for town tomorrow about noon.

I folded more laundry and made some guacamole for the little girls for supper.  While I was making guacamole, Doris came over and played a card game with Bob & Andres.  I could hear them laughing in the living room...it was fun to listen to.

The little girls had already bathed before supper, so when I got there I helped to set up tables and set out the silverware.  I served each girl just a small tablespoon of guacamole on top of their rice.  They were ALL very appreciative and all said "gracias".

After church, I had to head back to the apartment to get changed for church.  This evening's message was about the prodical son and was given by the pastor of the California group.  It was really good.  At the end, David recognized the team with a plaque.  I didn't expect him to have us stand as well & let the kids know that we've come down as a family & were leaving tomorrow, and that he was very grateful for this because he knows our culture and that many families would much rather choose to spend their money on vacations for themselves than doing something like this.  (What he doesn't know is that coming here gives me MORE REST than any vacation I've been on...there's nothing as good as rest for the soul!)

After church, I took all of my extra clothes to the little girls house and had the teen girls choose what they wanted.  Each year I bring clothes down that I plan to leave behind.  I leave them with the older girls, but ask that they are not greedy, but divide them up equally.  When I got back to the apartment, Doris stopped over and stayed for about an hour.  She ate some scrambled eggs & toast with us and then we just chatted out in the living room for a while.  I walked her back to her house about 7:45pm and we chatted for about 15 minutes there before I had to retreat back to the apartment to get some sleep.

Una Culebra

This morning Bob & I began our day by doing devotions together again.  I like this time with him, because it helps us put our focus first on God and then on each other and what needs we have for the day or what tasks we have to accomplish.  I uploaded my blog before heading to the little girls house to serve breakfast, do dishes & walk the girls to school. 

After getting the girls to school, I walked Loren (the new volunteer that arrived last Saturday that is now assigned to the little girls house since I'll be leaving soon) to the craft house.  She'll be taking over that job as well.  Basically, each day (whether in the morning or afternoon), we get to take a few of the younger children or the special needs children that are in the yards to the craft house to make a craft.  I wanted Loren to see the place and to turn the keys over to her.  A volunteer from the California group came into the house while we were looking around and we agreed meet together at the house tomorrow to pull some kids to do a from 9:00-10:30am.

After turning the keys over to Loren, I walked to the yard and sat with Danny, Kathy & Abel and chatted while we watched the kids play.  I was there for about an hour before Abel noticed Bob & Andres coming up the road and heading towards home.  They had been working on cement...extending the road to the power toddlers house, but said that David ran out of cement so that meant that work was done for the day.  Bob was soaked with sweat!  At home, Andres & Bob explained that they were now out of Mexican suckers.  The medium boys were demanding suckers every time they saw Andres and then proceeded to tell Andres that that's the only reason they "talk to him"...is because he has suckers.  They wanted to look for a Bible verse on greed, so after searching...we found James 4:3 which says, "or if you ask, you do not receive because your reasons for asking are wrong.  You want these things only to please yourselves."  They agreed that was a good verse, but after a while decided it best not to use it & just simply tell the boys that they were out of suckers - since that was the truth.

When Bob & Andres went in search of Wade to see what other work there was to do for the day, I swept the apartment (these ceramic tile floors need to be swept daily and sometimes multiple times per day), made 2 eggs with the leftover tomato soup & guacamole and spread it over 2 slices of bread ends, and did my daily devotion (Proverbs31.org).  By then it was time to head to the little girls house to serve lunch and do dishes.  Then I headed back to the apartment to write Doris a letter.

Letter writing is pretty popular here.  I can't even really count how many I've received from girls from the little girls house, since many from the first two weeks are already packed away...but just from when Bob got her last Friday, I've gotten 6 letters.  The little girls draw pictures if they don't yet know how to write and the older girls write letters.  Then there's the letters of encouragement and thank-yous from the volunteers when they leave Emmanuel.  It's a lot.  I feel like I need to respond to all, but time works its way against me since I seem to be busy from morning until I fall into bed at night.  I do think writing Doris is important though, because she's been having a lot of troubles fall onto her lap lately.

While at the little girls house for supper, Juliet & Veronica called me to come back to my apartment.  We live in a quadraplex, one apartment is empty now...but Juliet & Veronica live in the other two.  When I got back to the apartment, they told me that they saw a culebra (venomous snake) go into our apartment by slithering under the door.  They already called David to send some boys to kill it, but they couldn't stop talking about it.  I hung around for the boys to get there.  When the boys arrived the snake was already on its way out.  Its head and about and inch or two were sticking out from underneath the door.  The girls jumped and got back.  The boys kicked it out & stomped on it with their boots a number of times until you couldn't even see a body anymore!  They agreed it was poisonous but said at just about 2 feet long, it wouldn't done much more damage than give us a bad bite and make us a little sick.  Veronica & Juliet told them this is the 3rd snake they've seen recently around these apartments, all around the same spot, so then the boys said that the "mommy snake" is probably living in the roof!  The girls wanted to the boys to check and take care of it, but they laughed and said there was no way they were going to onto the roof.  So I guess that means we have to shove a towel under the door from now on to close the gap and hope that there are no gaps big enough in our ceiling for a snake to come through from the roof. 

Side note:  Bob & Andres got home late tonight...if they'd have been on time, they could've gotten in on the action!

So after the snake was taken care of, I headed back to do baths and comb for lice.  This will be my last evening of lice combing since tomorrow there will be a church service.  When I got home, Bob was working on the meal for the female volunteers.  It started raining/downpouring at about 6:30 and didn't let up until 7:10pm, but as soon as it let up I took it over to their house and got the feedback.  After just one bite, they all said it was extremely delicious!!!  When I got back home, Bob was already in bed, so I turned in as well.  Tomorrow will be my last full-day here at Emmanuel.

Caribbean Supper for Katja

Bob & I woke up this morning and did devotions together, like we had been doing  back in the States.  While we were doing devotions, I saw movement behind him (his back was to the sink area in the kitchen).  I focused a little bit more & saw a giant cockroach crawling around on a few dishes in the dish-rack.  It was probably between an inch & 1/2 to two inches long!  Bob wanted to get a picture of it because it was the first non-caged cockroach of this size he had ever seen, but when he pressed the button on the camera, as always happens the flash came before the shutter, so the cockroach took off and Bob just had a picture of the dish-rack.  The cockroach was hiding underneath the dish-rack, so Bob offered to kill it...or take it outside, I don't really remember.  He went to get some toilet paper to grab it with, but it was a little too fast for Bob!  Perhaps we'll see it get the courage to come out tomorrow.

Bob & Andres headed off to the guys circle and I headed to the girls circle, and then to serve breakfast & do dishes.  While I was doing dishes, Bob & Andres stopped by for the keys.  Yolani made a comment about Bob being a good husband...that Honduras husbands aren't as nice (of course, while dating they are...but after marriage they're not).  I just smiled & said we have quite a few men like that in the United States as well.  Yolani checked my head for lice before I headed back to the apartment to update my blog.

Between breakfast and lunch, I stopped by to talk with Katja about running into town this afternoon.  She was meeting with the 3 female volunteers that arrived over the weekend, letting them know what their responsibilities would be.  She introduced me to Loren, who would be working at the little girls house and said she was to meet me there for lunch.  After chatting for a few seconds, I ran to grab Danny & Katy a soda from the tienda.  I had promised Katy a soda yesterday when we took all of the children to the tienda, but since we were there for so long & getting so distracted, I had completely forgotten.  They were very thankful and asked me to stay and chat, but I really wanted to get some pictures of Bob & Andres working with the cement, so said my goodbyes and headed in the direction of the boys area.  Unfortunately Andres & Bob were walking my way at the same time.  They were done with work for the morning.

There was only about 1/2 hour to rest before lunch began, so we sat back at the house & rested up a little bit.  I headed to lunch and met Loren there.  I introduced her to Danny, Esperanza, Dunia & Maria and let them know she'd be helping out.  I showed her how to lower the tables and that it was necessary to get the spoons & water set out before the kids got back from school, if possible.  After lunch, we did as many dishes as we could before Kelsey came by to let us know it was time to get running into town.

I headed back to the apartment to get Andres & Bob (his first time in town).  We stopped by Glenda's so that I could introduce her to Bob.  She's been asking about him for the past 5 years.  We got a picture together and then headed to the little bakery where we bought another loaf of banana bread and some marble bread for Andres,  before heading to the two supermarkets.  The supermarkets down here are much, much smaller than anything you've seen in the States.  Think of the old general stores and then cut that size in 1/2.  That's the size of the supermarkets down here.  They don't always have what you want (as Bob found out), but they are interesting!  We loaded up on some guava juice for Andres and pear & peach juices for us (since there were only 4 guava juices left & I knew Andres would drink them all).  Bob got a bunch of ingredients for 2 special dinners he would make this evening and tomorrow...will chat more about that later.  We took taxis back to Emmanuel from town.  These taxis (if I hadn't mentioned this in a prior post) are like covered-wagon mopeds with 3 wheels & when I see them I think I'm somewhere in Asia.

When I got back to the house, I called the hotel we'd be staying in on Thursday and Friday night to confirm our reservation and also to change our King-Sized Bed to a 2-double bed room (since they were at the same price).  More on that later...then I called the Compassion International location in Tegucigalpa to make the final arrangements on meeting Eduardo (Andres' sponsored child) on Friday.  Although Andres & I had met him 4 years ago, it'll be Bob's first time meeting Eduardo.  I'm so excited for Bob being able to meet him, especially since Eduardo graduated from the program last month, so we'll most likely lose contact with him after this.

While I headed to do supper and baths with the little girls, Bob stayed back making a wonderful carribbean supper for Katja and her family.  It consisted of mashed potatoes, lime-flavored chicken, a butter sauce over green beans, and a fruit salsa.  It looked REALLY good.  I wanted to thank Katja for having me these past 5 years (and of course she said that I was more than welcome for another 5!). 

As Bob was waiting to finish up supper, him Andres & I played a game of Clue & Scattergories.  While we were playing Scattergories, Doris came over to chat with us and to drop off a note she had written for us.  It was really a good time!  After Doris left, Bob got back to finishing up the supper and at 7pm, we delivered it to Katja.  Her & Max (her husband) were SO excited!  I'm hoping to hear tomorrow that they liked it.

When we got back, Bob & I decided it was time to head to bed.  Although it was only 7:30pm here (8:30 WI time), when you put in a day of hard work outside in the sun with no air conditioning, you tend to get tired very quickly.  Andres wanted to read a bit more in his book, Hunger Games, which came from the volunteer house.  I think he started it yesterday or today and he's over 1/2 way through the book!  It looks like he'll finish before we head out on Thursday.

La Tienda

This morning started out fantastic!  It's a new start to the week for all of us & a new look at life for us as well.  Bob said he's having a great time here so far & is even hinting at coming back again!  Andres, Bob & I headed to church this morning and a man from the California group (that Bob came in to Emmanuel from Tegucigalpa with) gave the sermon on faith & obedience.  It was a really good talk.  He gave examples of lack of faith from the Israelites and explained how lack of faith results in complaining and affects relationships with others.  Then when he talked about obedience, he mentioned Samuel and because of Samuel's obedience to God while he was still a young boy, God called out to Samuel directly and was persistent (3 times) one night.  You can find the rest in 1 Samuel 3.

After church we came back to the apartment so that I could change my shoes and Bob could change into shorts.  We had big plans today to take a bunch of kids to the tienda.  We told Andres to go & grab Abel & Luis David and then a child or two that he'd like to bring.  Bob & I stopped by the clinic to see if Elena would eat some tomato soup if Bob made some for her.  She smiled & said, "yes".  Then we headed to Danny's house where Doris was watching Jayme & Jasmine...we invited all 3 to eat with us in the tienda!

Then we headed to the yard in front of the church to pick up Yensi & Michel...2 girls I have known well for the past 5 years.  We met up with Andres at the tienda.  Unfortunately Abel was "locked in his house" along with the other older guys, it's just something they do each Sunday after church and watch movies for a little bit.  Luis Davis was MIA, so Andres didn't have him either...but he brought 2 boys that he knew pretty well, Rudy & Rigoberto.  On today's menu at the tienda was tamales & chimichangas.  We ended up ordering 9 chimichangas and 2 tamales, a 3-liter of orange soda and a 2-liter of Sprite.  The kids that finished their food (which is also a rule in our own house back home) got to have a churro.  Now...here's where I was confused.  In Mexico, a churro is a type of bready cinnamon & sugar stick that's warm, so that's really what I was expecting.  Here, it's just a word that they use for potato chips & fritos.  I was a little disappointed, but the conversation & visiting was still good and the kids were really happy to spend time with us!  Abel showed up later, so I had Bob get him something to eat.

As we were about to leave the tienda, we saw that Wade was getting ready to give a tour to the California group.  Andres & I told Bob that he absolutely needed to go on this tour so that he could see all of Emmanuel and learn about its history, and some other interesting stories.  When Andres & I had went on this tour 2 weeks ago, it was my first tour of the place ever...and was really well-done (by Wade, of course).  Bob headed out, but I noticed he didn't have his hat & the sun was coming out strong.  I said goodbye to Andres & for him to make sure that he got the 2 boys back to where they belonged and the girls & I headed back to the apartment.

Back at the apartment, I gave Doris the shirts I had bought for her and I gave Yensi the outfit I had purchased for Blanca (since Blanca is no longer here) as well as 2 dresses of Alina's.  I gave the other 3 dresses of Alina to Michel.  The girls wanted to try them on and get pictures in some of them, so we did that and then they wanted to call Alina to say Thank-You, but unfortunately no one answered the first time we called.  They did call later & got to chat with Alina and just giggled and told her Thank-You for the dresses (in the best English they could...because they don't speak much English), and that they loved Alina and that they can't wait for Alina to come down to Honduras in 2 years!  Doris wanted to talk to both Alina and Kaylyn, so she chatted for quite a bit too!

Then we packed everything up and decided that it was time to hunt down Bob on his tour so that we could give him his hat (so he wouldn't get that much of a sunburn).  Yensi wore his hat as we made a complete circle around Emmanuel.  We never saw him & he was pretty burned when he got back, but said he really enjoyed the tour!

When Bob got back he went to work right away on making the tomato soup for Elena.  We took it to the clinic, but they had already let Elena go back to the little girls house.  Since the girls were showering for the evening, I took the soup up to her (while Bob headed home) and she sat down to eat some bread with soup.

Doris, Jasmine & Jayme stayed most of the evening...until about 6:30pm.  They played, chatted, and joked around while I made guacamole with chips for everyone (yep we need to get to town to get more groceries).  Then they headed home.  Andres & Bob said they were still pretty awake, so I offered to walk up to the girls volunteer house to get a few games.  While up there, ANOTHER TARANTULA tried to enter the house & actually got about 2 feet into the house before Kelsey shoed him out with a broom.  I met the 2 new volunteers that arrived today: Krista & Heidi...friends of Caroline (& did I mention Lauren, the volunteer who arrived yesterday?).  I came back with The Disney Cars version of Go Fish, Uno, Scattegories, & Clue...but when I got back, Bob was already asleep on the bed.  I had only been gone about 10-15 minutes!  So I decided that since it was about 7pm (8pm WI time), that it'd probably be best to just head to sleep myself.  I said goodnight to Andres & mentioned that he shouldn't be staying up too late, so that he can wake up early in the morning to take Bob to circle.

Overnight in the Clinic

What a rough night in the clinic.  Between Josecito and Elena, I needed to give meds every hour on the hour.  Sometimes it seemed to take forever to wake them (especially Josecito) out of their sleep.  On one occasion it took me 22 minutes to get medicine into his system.  I don't know if he was having bad dreams or what, but no matter what I tried the boy would just not wake up enough to realize he had to take his meds!  After I was relieved from the clinic at 6am, I headed straight to the little girls house for breakfast & dishes.  When this was done, I went back to the apartment to take a shower and upload the blog and then had to head back to the little girls house by 10am to begin making tortillas. 

At some point during lunch (I think I had just started doing dishes), Bob and Andres stopped by to get the keys to the apartment so they could change, get some $, etc.  They said they had been painting all morning & were going to the tienda.  I said I'd be there when dishes were done.  When I walked over to the tienda, they weren't there, so I headed back to the apartment to find it locked up.  I thought I'd take a walk around Emmanuel (it's a long, hilly walk) to see if I could find them...& didn't see them.  By now I was pooped and the tiredness from not sleeping the night before had set in, AND I was very thirsty because it was a super hot, sunny day.  A neighbor gave me a glass of juice to drink, but I had clinic duty from 2-4:30 & I was exhausted!  Around 3:15, I saw Andres & Bob coming back up to the apartment (the clinic is only 3 buildings away from the apartment), so I called for Andres to finish my shift in the clinic.  I was asleep by 4pm.

Bitter-Sweet Day

This morning I showered and then finished packing.  Kimberly is heading back to the States this morning (the "bitter), but Bob is coming down to Emmanuel this afternoon (the "sweet").  Katja is moving Bob, Andres & I into an apartment here at Emmanuel.  It's a very "cozy" (yep, I'm referring to how a realtor back in the States would call it) apartment with 2 bedrooms, 1 with a double bed and the other with a set of bunks, a "cozy" kitchen, a "cozy" bathroom, and a nice living room area.  It is a quaint place, part of what we'd call a quadraplex, the apartment is much smaller than the duplex that they put Jenny, Andres & I in 4 years ago...but I really like it!

This morning Kimberly invited me to do a morning Bible reading with her while sharing some coffee.  We decided to just "open up the Bible" and read, and then discuss what we've read.  Of course when she did that, she came to Isaiah 53 which is about The Suffering and Glory of the Servant...they're talking about Jesus of course.  What was really neat was that many of the verses we read through, I had memorized throughout my childhood...but the one that stands out as the most memorable was Isaiah 53:5, which says, "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are heald."  I recommend that you read the entire chapter like we did, and just absorb all that Jesus did for us!  He was the ULTIMATE servant!

Kimberly & I headed our separate ways as we left the house...she went to the little girls house to do circle with them and say her goodbyes, I headed for my 4-hour shift at the clinic to watch over Elena, who is still sick.  Josecito was brought in due to a fever while I was there.  He's a bit younger and has a LOT of energy!  (Please keep them both in your prayers as I type this 24-hours later, they're still in the clinic and still pretty sick, but I'll chat more about that tomorrow.)  Clinic duty entails showering the kids for the morning and making sure they get dressed & brush their teeth, changing all of the bedding that they've used and washing it along with their clothes and putting it away, sweeping and mopping the clinic and washing the dishes if it happens to be mealtime.  When there's only 1-3 children here, it's not too terribly over-bearing, but when I had the chicken pox outbreak 2 years ago and there were 12-15+ kids in there...it was an ALL DAY affair!

When I came back from the clinic to the volunteer house, I had a good chat with Zue.  She wanted to hold a volunteers meeting this evening, to ask everyone to be a little more responsible in the care of the house.  Sometimes keeping it clean can get out of hand, and between Zue & I, we've done a lot of dishes that weren't ours.  For the time being, it's out of love and caring for one another, but you know how that can end up...and she just wanted to make sure that during her year here that everyone's pitching in so she doesn't begin to feel like she's being taken advantage of.

I went to lunch & did dishes once again at the little girls house and came home to do devotions & upload my blog.  When I was finished with that, Andres stopped by to check in on when we would be moving into the apartment, so I told him to meet me there at 3:15ish.  I walked part-way back with him and stopped at the tienda to buy a bunch of juices for our family (especially for Bob), and I bought Andres an 1.25 liter of orange soda.  Here that costs L$20 (20 Lempiras, or the equivalent of 1 U.S. dollar). 

Around 3pm, I began moving my stuff over to the apartment.  As I was unpacking, Andres showed up.  It wasn't long before we heard the bus coming up the road to Emmanuel.  I peeked out the window and saw that we needed to hurry to get over to the team house.  I quickly changed clothes, to pants since the weather was cooling down, and Andres & I headed over to the team house.  Andres saw Bob quite a bit before I did...but when I got there, he gave me a big hug (not as sweaty of a hug as he had promised, lol) and I introduced him to David.  We got his luggage over to the apartment, and as he unpacked I made some pasta and guacamole.  I served Bob & Andres first, since I have my sore throat and really wasn't very hungry.  I did eat what was left over later in the evening, when I gained a little bit of appetite back.

Bob wanted to walk a little bit, so we walked down to the fountain in front of the church.  He was looking for tarantulas!...didn't find any.  When we came back to the road, Doris came up the road with Yasmine (Danny's daughter).  She hugged Bob first (which made Bob really happy), and over the next 1/2 hour to an hour, Yasmine became Bob's good friend!  Bob said that he wasn't sure why I wasn't bringing 2-3 kids home each year just like her...well, the answer is obvious...if I did, Bob wouldn't let me come down so often because we'd run out of room at home!

When we came back to the apartment, we chatted for a bit before Bob fell asleep.  I knew he's be super-tired when he arrived, so I arranged to spend the night in the clinic with Josecito and Elena...so that Bob would have the double bed all to himself, to get a better night's sleep. 

Zue had her meeting at 7pm, and Andres went to the clinic so that the volunteer there could be part of the meeting.  There's actually a new volunteer there as of this afternoon when I moved out - her name is Lauren.  She took Kimberly's & my room, so she'll have a room all to herself.  Zue talked about the importance of keeping the girls volunteer house clean and Emilie mentioned the details of the community fund money, so that all knew how that worked.  It seemed to go really well.

After the meeting, I headed to the clinic so Andres could go back to the apartment and get some sleep.  I closed the windows, washed the supper dishes and I had to make sure that every hour through the night I was waking either Elena or Josecito up to take their medicine.  Some hours were more "trying" than others to get them to take their medicine.  It was an all-nighter for me!  I will have to be sure to find some time to rest tomorrow!

Sick!

So last night didn't go so well for me...I woke up every 1.5 to 2 hours completely stuffed up.  I realized that I forgot to write that it rained through the night the night before last and most of the day yesterday...I'm wondering if that didn't stir up some pollen?  I had not had many issues with allergies since my college days, but this spring they came with a vengeance.  Kimberly gave me her bottle of antihistamines (Benadryl), for which I was very grateful.  I took them all day, with little relief. 

I started my morning with devotions, breakfast and then doing dishes alone since Kimberly had committed to working in the clinic this morning.  As the number of volunteers dwindles down, the hours at the clinic get longer.  I'm still thankful that the hours for me are not nearly what they were the 2 past years, but if that's what is needed, I'm okay with putting in quite a few hours too.

After breakfast I headed to the office with Bob's flight information written down, and gave it to Katja.  I asked Katja if perhaps Kimberly could head into town one last time and she said that should be okay, so we headed in to town from about 10:30-noon.  Kimberly bought coffee and solid dish soap, as well as a few other items to take back to the States.  I focused on getting a few groceries for when Bob comes tomorrow, so that he has something immediately available if he doesn't get over to a house with Andres to eat.  This is Kimberly's last big bit of exercise while here, so we walked back to Emmanuel (now that they have the taxis in town, many just take them, but I'll still prefer to walk).

We put our purchases away when we got back to the house and then made our way over to the little girls house for lunch.  They were already seated, but we took care of the dishes and then I had to head to the clinic for the next 3 hours.  By this time, I was very congested.  I could feel the congestion going to my head and a lack of ability to focus when people were talking to me.  I read in the clinic, but at points I felt myself drifting off.  I knew that Emilie was looking for someone to spend the night in here, but just knew that I would not be able to take tonight. 

After clinic, I headed back to the house and set my alarm to rest for about an hour & 15 minutes.  I knew that Kimberly wanted to celebrate her last night here with a good dinner, and I had bought groceries to make guacamole, so I woke up to do that.  She made tortillas to eat with some refried beans and crema.  She also fried a vegetable (I didn't catch the name of it from Zue) which when fried with salt & pepper, sort of has a green bean taste.  The kids don't much care for this vegetable in their lunch soups, but fried up it wasn't so bad.  As Kimberly cooked, Emilie & Christina shared their testimonies, which were really amazing!

Nazhita decided to take the overnight shift, so Zue & Kimberly took her a plate of food (so that she wouldn't feel left out).  We chatted for a while over the kitchen table before Kimberly and I headed back to the room to pack...her for her journey home tomorrow and me to head to an apartment that Katja is setting aside for when Bob comes tomorrow.

Wednesday

I know...probably a boring title.  This day was a simple day, waking up so that I could make it to the clinic by 6am to be with Joche & Elena.  I got them up & showered, bed sheets changed, swept & mopped the clinic and all was good by 7:30, when I had to go to the little girls house to wash up the dishes.

When I got back to the volunteer house, I took some time to do my devotion for the morning and then had a really long, good chat with Zue & Kimberly that lasted quite a bit more than an hour.  Kimberly & I headed back to the little girls house to prepare for lunch and get dishes done, then I headed back to the house to upload my Blog from yesterday.

On my way to ensenanza, I stopped in to see Katja (who had told Danny that she wanted to see me today).  There were a few small things that needed to get cleared up: Bob's arrival information, Kimberly's flight information, etc.  From the office, I went back to the little girls house to translate for Jodi and Norm for the ensenanza that they had prepared.  Their activity today was much simpler than Monday's activity...just coloring some teddy bears, although the girls are still in the process of learning how to share.

After ensenanza, Kimberly & I helped with supper and then with baths and finally sat out in the courtyard of the girls dorm combing for lice.  This has been a daily routine for us for a while now.  I went to chat with Andres about my meeting with Katja and then headed to the big girls house for their ensenanza in the evening, since there was no church tonight.  Zue gave her testimony and it was very powerful.  I'm glad that I was able to make it there!

Andres' BIG Misunderstanding

Today started out with clinic duty once again.  I got Joche showered, dressed, fed, the clinic swept & mopped, and the sheets changed & washed.  Once again I got to the little girls house to wash the dishes and walk the girls to school.  While I was finishing washing up dishes, Verenice asked me if I could chat with Doris today, so I let her know I'd come to school during "recreo" (recess) to chat with her.

Recreo happens from 10-10:15am, so I headed over to the school and "walked around the halls" with Doris as she chatted with me.  She asked me to stop by after supper so we could walk & talk (she's had a lot going on lately).  I agreed and let her get back to class.

I headed back to the volunteer house for a bit, did some spot cleaning and then headed back to the little girls house for serving lunch and doing dishes (with Maria because Kimberly had her shift at the clinic during this time).  Lunch & supper also came quickly.  After supper I headed back to Danny's house with her and we chatted with Doris for a bit before Doris, Jasmine (Danny's daughter) and I went on a walk.  Jasmine wanted to go into the boys' area to see her dad, but I was unsure of doing that, being that it was after supper and the boys & girls areas are separated for a reason.  So while Doris took her in that direction, I guessed Andres was up at the team house and I decided to go share with him some information I had discovered during the day.

Apparently the rumor is right now that Andres has been telling a girl he's falling in love with her!  As the incidents were told to me, I realized that Andres used a Spanish phrase that to most Americans simply (and literally translated to English) means "I like you", however when you use it with Latinos...in their language and culture, it is more of a "I am falling in love with you" kind of thing...a VERY STRONG "I like you".  So I had the chat with Andres, who then understood what was happening and hopefully he doesn't use that phrase again, unless he REALLY means it!

I spent a few hours back at the little girls house just chatting the night away with Doris before heading back to the volunteer house.  I was very dark on my way back.  When I got back, I pretty much changed & headed to bed, but not before I saw a little gecko crawling down the wall in our room, heading towards our clothing shelves!  With that...good-night!  :-)

The Wish List

This morning I started the day with devotions and doing laundry.  Caroline left today (along with the Maryland team), so I said a quick "goodbye" as I ran out to the clinic.  Joche will be in the clinic all week.  There's something going on with his eye, although I didn't understand what exactly.  Our job is just to make sure he's not touching his eye until his stitches come out later on in the week.  When I got to the clinic, the night lady had already made sure he got a shower and his eye patch was changed, so I quickly got to work with changing the bedding and washing it, and sweeping & mopping the clinic floor.  With just one child in the clinic, the duty seems to be much more manageable than in years past when there were many more children in with me there.

At 7:30, Emilie came to relieve me at the clinic, so I headed to the little girls house to help with dishes again.  I saw Kimberly holding little Elena (Doris' sister) who had a 102-degree temp.  She didn't look like her normal self, so I didn't even need to see the temp to see that she was sick.  Elena generally gives this cute, sweet little smile to me every time I see her, and she definitely didn't do that this morning as she lay pretty limp in Kimberly's lap.  I got to dishes, Maria helped me so I could walk the girls to school.

Back at the house, I wrote up my blog, swept, did dishes and then read for a bit.  I was tired, but didn't want to nap because when I do, I find that I can't go to sleep as early in the evenings.  I headed to the school to ask Robert if he had a list prepared for Bob of technological items he was hoping for, whether tangible items or needs that Bob could repair, update, etc when down here.  Robert wrote everything down for me, including a "special wish item" and I took it back to the volunteer house to immediately email to Bob.  I got a fairly quick response that most everything would be coming down with Bob on Friday.

By that time it was lunch, so back to the little girls house to help with lunch & dishes.  When I got back to the volunteer house, I decided I really needed to rest.  Must have been the little sleep I had gotten the day  before or the hot sun, or a combination of the two.  I made it back to the little girls house for ensenanza (Bible study), and I had been asked to translate for Jodi who is part of the remaining team.  She wanted to help the girls make some prayer books.  All-in-all it turned out pretty good (you have to imagine almost 70 girls asking for help at the same time).  We got them fed, showered, combed for lice and taken care of after that before they headed for bed.

The evening ended back at the volunteer house with a really good chat with Emilie!

Farewell to Caroline

This morning I decided to wake up an hour later, so didn't get up until 5:30am.  Normally I have to be out the door by 6am to head to the little girls house, but church doesn't begin until around 8:30, so I had plenty of time to get up and get ready.  I actually had to be at the clinic to watch Joche from 7:30am until 9am, so I read my devotion for the morning, showered, got dressed, ate a little bit and made sure I was completely ready to head straight to church from the clinic (without stopping back at the volunteer house).

When I got to the clinic, Joche was already up, showered, dressed, and fed.  That meant it was my job to sweep & mop the clinic, and to change the bedding and get it in the washer and the washer started.  When I was caught up with the morning clinic chores, I sat down and read the Bible to Joche.  My Bible is in Spanish, so he sat very quietly and listened intently.  After about a 1/2 hour of reading, we colored pictures together before Kelsey came to relieve me.

Like I mentioned above, I was all ready to head to church, so hurried there and they were just finishing up singing praises.  The power had gone out before I had went to the clinic, and was still out...so all instruments were being played "naturally".  They were using the piano rather than the keyboards, the guitars were all acoustic rather than electric.  The did not have the projection system to help those of us who might not know all of the words to the Spanish songs (or help the children who can read, but may not know the words to the English songs).  But it was all good and sounded well nonetheless!  Andres gave me a hard time for arriving late, but I let him know that I KNEW I'd be late because I wasn't scheduled to get relieved from the clinic until 9am (when church starts between 8:30 and 8:45).  So I had a valid reason for "sneaking in" after the start of church.

After church, I returned to the house and we discussed the needs for groceries for throwing a farewell dinner for Caroline this evening.  It's been pretty common over the years I've been here for the girls to get together and have a big dinner when a volunteer who has been here a while leaves, especially if they've had a big impact on the other girls in the house.  I don't know exactly how long Caroline's been here (most of the summer?), but she's just an AWESOME girl with a heart completely for Jesus!  I am glad that I had the chance to meet her & get to know her.  I'll get back to the dinner in a bit.

When my "grocery list" for this evening was written down, I headed out to watch the Maryland volunteers play soccer with the big girls in the yard just beneath us.  Andres was the goalie (he's been playing a lot of soccer this weekend, and I've been praying for the strength of his knee because he left his brace back at home).  I don't know how the score ended, but the teams were fairly evenly distributed.  One of the big milestones of today was that Nicole remembered my name!  Nicole is a special needs child who tends to only say her name to others with not much other conversation.  I was excited that she said my name out loud without prompting.  :-)

I headed to the yard on the other side of the volunteer house where the little girls were playing and asked Danny if I could treat Rosalinda, Yensi and Coco to a soda at the store because it was their birthday.  She agreed, so I took them on a walk to the store.  For the most part they behaved pretty well.  Rosalinda turned 12 on Friday and Yensi & Coco will be 11 on Monday.

After the store, I headed home and worked on Saturday's blog.  The electricity was STILL out, so I checked the power on the laptop to see if it was sufficient to use the laptop without the cord.  It said there was about 27% power to the battery.  I quickly typed up the blog and posted the link to Facebook.  Within 30 seconds of posting to Facebook, the computer died.  WHEW!  About 10 minutes after that point, the power came back on.  This electricity problem is pretty common here, but is the first time it's happened since I've been here this year, so we've been pretty lucky.  I can still remember back to one of the first years I was here when it was out the morning I had to pack & leave.  It's not fun packing in complete darkness & HOPING you've got everything!

I noticed that the Christian fiction book series that I started last year was on the shelf...not the books that I had actually read last year (they were gone), but what was on the shelf were the books where I had left off.  When I went back home last year, I continued reading through the series (by Karen Kingsbury) and then life got pretty busy with working as a full-time teacher, a part-time adjunct instructor and all of the other events that popped up along the way (Andres tearing his ACL, etc).  But like I said, the books that I still haven't read...IN ORDER are sitting on the shelf right now!...and just at a time when my the last book I bought is finishing up.

After reading a chapter or two, I began making the guacamole for supper.  When that was ready to go, I set it aside and began the huevos rancheros.  Kimberly made the tortillas that she worked so hard to learn to make last week.  Zue made an awesome rice.  About 7pm, Brandy came over with little Lydia and we sat down to eat.  I got so many comments on the guacamole (Caroline LOVED it!) and on the huevos rancheros (it was probably the crema that Kimberly had bought to put over it).  We all had a great time and we all overate tremendously.  We ended up staying up until around 10pm or slightly later chatting and saying our goodbyes to Caroline.  We'll miss her!

Cleaning Day

This morning I woke up to doing devotions and coffee.  I headed to the little girls house and saw that they were eating chocolate granola.  Kimberly got quite excited by chocolate granola last week, and I'm guessing that they only have that on the weekends (?) because on all of the weekdays so far, oatmeal has been served.  Although I really do like granola, I'm not the biggest fan of the chocolate flavor.  We helped with dishes once again and then headed back to the volunteer house.

Saturdays are CLEANING DAY.  Anyone who knows me well knows that I absolutely detest cleaning toilets, so I really did not want to be on "bathroom duty".  When we got back to the house, Kimberly and I immediately began cleaning the kitchen, dining and living room areas (it's really one big common area).  I washed the dishes and cleaned the cupboards while Kimberly wiped down all of the furniture, cleaned the stove and swept the floor.  Then I followed her up by mopping the floor.  We worked well together, quickly and efficiently!  When the work was done, we felt pretty good about the fresh-smelling areas!

I spent the next chunk of time googling crafts to do with the special needs children this week at the craft house.  I do have a website bookmarked on this computer, but if anyone has ideas...feel free to post them to my facebook page.  I'm just at a loss when I walk into that craft house...I am not an "artsy" type of person.

After doing my research, I headed to the small boys area, where the Maryland group was putting on the carnival for that age group.  I got to translate for a man who was teaching the boys how to make a one-armed rescue knot.  Yes, the knot had a special name...but I just couldn't remember what it was called.  Andres was busy with helping translate too.

It rained and rained and rained during the boys carnival.  I guess the rains are coming back (perhaps Bob will be grateful for that), but when the sun it out, it is still very strong.  When there was a slight break in the rain, I headed back to the volunteer house to pick up Kimberly so that we could head to the little girls house for lunch.  By the time we got there, they were already done eating (guess they eat lunch early on Saturdays); so we helped with dishes and headed back to the volunteer house where we cooled down for just a little bit before I went back to the little girls house to help with the carnival and to visit with Doris.

My clinic hours were from 4:30-6pm this evening.  I took Joche outside to watch the events going on, and then got him settled in for the night lady that comes to monitor him.  I headed up to the little girls house to say good night to them and found Kimberly going through the little girl's head that she had been cleaning the night before.  She has a talent and a patience for that that I really admire.

When we got home, Kimberly mentioned that the Maryland group had left us some hotdogs from the carnival.  When the female volunteers heard this, they all dug in!  Not often that you get hotdogs around here!!!

The Clinic

Fridays here at Emmanuel begin with BIG CIRCLE.  Big circle is where all the children at Emmanuel come together to sing praises to God and to have their morning devotion.  Max led today's devotion and the boys were called to read their scripture that they had memorized.  Rather than memorizing just a verse or two, these children memorize an entire chapter of the Bible and then recite it at circle.  It's just AMAZING!...and the boys have such rhythm to what they're reciting, it's very neat!  I didn't realize that my camera battery was dead until I actually got to circle, which was kind of a "bummer".

We headed to the little girls house next to serve breakfast and do dishes.  After doing dishes, Ana Yanci and Maria asked us if we'd help them go out into the woods in search of wood for cooking the rest of the day.  Maria grabbed the machete and we headed out.  Kimberly was in her sandals and found out (for the first time here) what it's like for ants to bite you, since she stepped on an ant hill as she was piling the wood into her arms and her shoe fell off.  On our way back, we saw that Zue was with the girls in her kitchen looking for wood too!

When I got back to the volunteer house, it was pretty much time to head to the clinic.  This is my first time at the clinic this year, so it wasn't too terribly bad (as opposed to the last 2 years).  Anothing nice thing this year is that the shifts are split up into 1.5 hours shifts, instead of the typical 3+ hour shifts in past years.  It really does make time go fast.  Little Joche is in the clinic with stitches in his eye, so we just have to make sure that he doesn't touch his eye.  I finished up watching the video with him that the previous volunteer had put in, then we headed out to the yard out front to get on the swings.  After swinging for a bit, we headed back to the clinic where we colored some pictures of trees & alligators - and then that was pretty much it for my shift!

I came back to the house and saw that Andres had returned the computer (which he borrowed overnight to update his blog), so I did my morning devotion and updated my blog.  When I was finished with that, it was lunch time; so we did the typical serving lunch & washing dishes and then Kimberly & I headed back to the house to cool down for just a bit before heading to the craft house.  Katja would like us to start taking the special needs kids to the craft house to do a craft with them.  Here's the thing: I'm NOT very creative, so coming up with art projects is close to impossible for me.  I just wanted to take inventory of what's in there, and I'll be busy all weekend googling different art projects for the kids.  This will definitely be a challenge for me this year.

We headed back to the little girls house for the ensenanza (afternoon Bible study) and a team came to do that with the girls.  They weren't the most organized, so unfortunately the girls were WIRED for the rest of the evning, stretching Esperanza, Danis, Kimberly, my and all the older girls who were in charge of them to the limit.  It was a rough evening then of baths and supper, after the bible study.

I needed to just relax with "no one" around, but there were a bunch of girls in the volunteer house when we had finished with the little girls, so I headed down to the carnival that the Maryland team was putting on (I know, doesn't sound really relaxing, right?).  Actually the soccer field just cleared out and Andres was sitting on one end "vegging" too...so I sat next to him and we chatted for 30-45 minutes while just relaxing from the masses of children over the past week.  We could hear their voices from inside the gymnasium, so they weren't too far off.  When the medium girls came out, I spent the rest of the evening sitting next to Michele.  She's one of the girls I cared for my first year here (5 years ago).  Those girls are still precious to me today!

When the carnival ended and the girls were whisked away back to their house, I headed back to the volunteer house.  The male volunteers had a bonfire, so the younger females went over to chat...I decided to stay back in the house with Zue and Brandy and just chat about "girl things".  We were up pretty late, 10pm here (11pm WI time)...that's pretty late for me when I usually get up at 4:30am, so it wasn't to difficult to fall asleep at the end of the night.

A Great Ending to My Day

This morning the computer just decided not to run the internet.  Really though, I shouldn't blame the computer since it could've been the "internet stick", which I've been calling it around here.  I'm not sure what it's truly called.  I've heard that some people have them in the U.S., but I've never seen them there before.  They look like little flash drives, but are portable USB modems or something.  Because Bob's not here, I can't give you a technical name, which is why I just call them internet sticks.

Anyway, I use the internet to do my daily devotions (Proverbs31.org on the weekdays), and I like to do devotions while the house is still peaceful and quiet (AKA when everyone's still asleep)...so that didn't get accomplished.  Generally when I don't get to do devotions at this hour, my day doesn't not run as smoothly.  On top of this small problem, there was no coffee to drink prior to going to the little girls house for breakfast.  Kimberly woke up late (she wasn't so excited about that either), and Johaira was upset with the little girls when she took them out to clean up the lawn before breakfast.  So it was not the greatest start to the day.  Although breakfast and dishes seemed to go pretty smoothly, when I was walking back (mind you, I'm in the mountains, so the terrain is not flat like Wisconsin) I stepped incorrectly, my body twisted and I pulled a muscle in my back.  What a GREAT start to my morning!

When I arrived back to the house, I noticed that the internet stick now decided to work and I was able to do my devotions & upload my blog.  Kimberly made some coffee and offered some to me.  Things were starting to look up.  I also had found a miniature (VERY miniature) chess set in the girls volunteer house.  Since we are not "cool" like Andres, I decided to take it to him since he had forgotten his at home and is hoping Bob will bring it with him when he comes down next week.  Andres was over on the farm working with cement around the fish-growing facility (not sure what the technical word for that is either).  Next to this big structure is a greenhouse which is being built.  Joanne was there and asked if I could help out a little bit.  I didn't have a baseball cap to protect my head from the sun, nor did I put on sunscreen today...but I agreed to work for an hour or so anyway, at least until Keisha came.  I got to use (and show Keisha how to use) a power drill!!!

When I got back to the volunteer house, Zue was waiting for me so we could discuss possible ideas for her first teaching lesson on Monday.  One of her responsibilities is to teach Spanish to the students in Bachillerato (high school) once a week for the next 3 months.  She needs to focus on reading, writing and expressing oneself, and had been asking for my help this week since she is not a teacher and figured I'd have good input.  Frankly, I've never taught Spanish to Spanish-speaking people!  So we brainstormed possible ideas together and I think she'll have a good start for her class on Monday.

At lunch, Ana Yanci was in the kitchen instead of Dunia.  She said that she's there on Thursdays & Fridays because she doesn't have classes those 2 days.  She's in Bachillerato and they only attend Monday - Wednesday.  Since I was going to head into town with the Maryland group immediately after they had lunch, Ana Yanci helped with dishes.  It was at this time that I realized that my back was not bothering me at all!

So the PALETAS (Mexican lollipops/suckers that have a mango or watermelong core, but are coated in chili pepper - that I bring down here every year)...all of the kids know I have them now & are asking for them all the time - to the point where it's disrupting my day.  Finally I resorted to telling them that Thursdays are "Paleta Days".  So in keeping my promise, I brought about 7-8 paletas out to the special needs yard and gave them away this afternoon.  Now although I'll have to field a few questions here & there throughout this next week, I can simply respond with "Is it Thursday?" when they ask for a paleta.

We headed back to the little girls house & helped with supper and baths and then used the 2 metal combs that Katja had given me to comb the smallest girls hair for lice.  There is only one girl from this side of the house that we'll have to "redo" tomorrow night because she has super curly, long hair which dried before we got to her...Raquel.

Finally to end the night, we were invited to an ice cream social by the 2 teams that are here.  Okay, at least I THOUGHT it was an ice cream social.  When we arrived to the team house, all of the tables had tablecloths on them with candles and really nice place settings!  The lighting was awesome!  They served a 3-course meal and then dessert (or does that make it a 4-course meal?).  We started with a type of jellow that had fruit in it and an interesting cream on top, followed by a simple salad, but in the middle was a roma tomato stuffed with tuna that had sort of a cucumber slice for a "lid" to this tomato "bowl".  The main meal was refried beans, black beans, 2 tortillas, cream, fried plantains and a rice mixture of corn, chicken and different color peppers.  It was all so wonderful.  They DID serve ice cream for dessert with chocolate or strawberry topping.  I think my ice cream was a butter pecan, but they also had oreo and neopolitan flavored ice cream that they were serving. 

At the beginning when we came in, they took pictures of all of the families as they entered.  Then one of the team members escorted (yep, formal) us to our table, while another man was playing the saxophone...really neat!  At the end of the night, after ice cream, they served coffee and a girl (about 12 years old or so) sang to us.  It was such a neat experience.  Andres helped the group serve and got sent to Elvia's table.  Zue said that he handled it well (Elvia is quite the character).  Kimberly and I sat at a table with Esperanza and her husband, another couple and a Mom & daughter who are here until this weekend.  It was a really good time and a great ending to a day that started out a bit rocky!  Thank you so much to the teams that put this on.  I'm sure all of the staff & long-term volunteers here at Emmanuel were very appreciative of what these teams did.

My First True Danish Crepes this Year

I woke up this morning at 3:30am (4:30 WI time), caught up on devotions and updated my blog before heading to the little girls house for breakfast.  Oatmeal seems to be "the thing" this year, as opposed to the granola cereal I became so familiar with over the past 4 years.  We did dishes, came back to the volunteer house briefly (for a  bathroom break) and then headed back to the little girls house so that Maria could teach Kimberly how to make tortillas.  Kimberly took video snippets here & there in order to remember the process, and I took pictures of her while she jumped in and participated in making them - from start to finish.

After the tortillas were finished, we had about 1/2 hour to cool down back at the volunteer house before we needed to head back for lunch.  Dunia helped us with dishes today, which I very much appreciated.  I have been the one washing dishes so far and I feel my back is just about to give out (with me being so tall & leaning over so much).  The little girls didn't have school this afternoon, but the big girls had to return.  Doris was at lunch today (normally she's babysitting at Danis' house so that Danis can come and manage the little girls house), so I walked her to school.  I found out that this week is the week of their national exams.  They had their Spanish exam today and math is tomorrow, so the teachers will be reviewing math all afternoon.  These exams are pretty high stakes.  The students MUST get a 70% in order to continue their studies!  The educational system in many other countries should make our students much more appreciative of ours...I do not waste chances to tell my students about the educational system here or in Mexico, countries in which I've been and I am familiar with.

While at the school, I chatted with Robert about any technological needs that Emmanuel might have.  Although he said that most has been taken care of, Robert did rattle off a couple of things.  I had to ask him to just write a list for me, since I'm still using the "Technology for Dummies" book (just kidding, but I'm not well versus in technological jargon).  I'll email that list to my husband, Bob; and we'll see what happens from there!  Bob will be coming down here on Friday, August 10th.  I'm so excited for that...and so are the children & staff who know me well!!!

When I came outside the school, the medium boys who were in the yard across from the school told me that Andres was blowing up balloons for them in the yard.  I headed over to the shelter there and saw him & Joanne, and her husband Dan all blowing up balloons and making swords with them for the boys.  They were SO excited.  There were a couple of these super-sized long balloons that the sole purpose was to blow them up & let them go.  They made a silly noise as the air came out and the boys ran (almost in a stampede) after the balloon to try to catch it when it got close enough to the ground.

Joanne asked me to come with her, because her group was doing Bible studies with the kids this evening.  She thought I might be needed to translate.  I ended up  translating for Marc (the Maryland volunteer who led the church service on Sunday) about wearing the Armor of God at the little boys house, while Andres translated for the pastor who led devotions at the big boys house. 

While I was out & about this afternoon, Kimberly had headed to the medium girls house with our newest long-term volunteer, Zue, to practice her new skill of making tortillas.  She said thant the kitchen in the medium girls house was MUCH hotter than our kitchen at the little girls house.  I let her know that since last year, the 2 groups of girls had switched houses, so where she was this afternoon was actually where I was for the past 4 years, doing dishes, etc.

We had to hurry after supper to get the little girls their baths because the church service on Wednesday night is scheduled to start sometime between 4:30 and 4:45.  It was a great service about needing God's forgiveness for ourselves FIRST & FOREMOST before any other needs.  David & Lydia brought a group member named Sofia up to the front of the church.  Sofia has brain cancer and the prognosis doesn't look good according to the doctors up in the United States.  Please, as you read this, pray for her and continue to keep her in your prayers.  She is part of the Maryland group, so if I hear anything over the next bunch of months from Joanne, I will definitely let you know.

After church, I walked Doris back to the little girls house.  When I came home, I found Christina making crepes for all of us.  Now there's a story behind this...so I'll tell it here:

Earlier in the day, Christina & Amelia (our 2 Danish long-term volunteers) had a craving for bread but they didn't have any.  They asked those of us who were sitting in the living room area if any of us had some.  I seemed to be the only one who had bread.  I let them know I had bread, but that it was wheat bread...but they were more than welcome to it.  I showed them where it was and Christina wanted to pay me for it.  I refused payment, but since she insisted I joked that perhaps down the road when she made crepes for herself, she could make an extra one for me.  Well, rather than just doing this...she decided to make crepes for the entire house this evening!  YAY!  It was especially nice, because we had not really eaten a meal together with all of the female volunteers in the house.  We began in prayer (which Caroline led since she'll be leaving us on Monday), then we each named a few things that we were thankful for.  What a special time shared by all!

The Tarantula!

I woke up this morning at 3:30am (4:30 WI time).  I'm hoping to stay on Wisconsin time for the most part so that I don't get excessively tired when I get back home.  Actually my days have been going very well & I have not yet had an instance where after a night's sleep, I wake up the next morning still tuckered out.  God is good!

Caroline left her computer out on the kitchen table for me, so I quickly sat down to catch up on my Bible studies and 2 days of blogs.  Although I didn't get all the way caught up because of not being able to do an online study since last Thursday and then generally take 15+ minutes a piece, I believe that by the end of the day tomorrow I'll be completely caught up in my online Bible studies as well as caught up in blogging about my experience down here.

This morning Kimberly video recorded (Is that how you still say it now-days?) the little girls circle.  They always start out with alabanzas (praise singing), followed by a short devotion.  The girl who led the devotion talked about how Jesus died for ALL people without thinking twice...and would we be able to do the same?  I immediately thought of the 3 men on the news who had died protecting the women they were with in that theater out in Colorado a couple of weeks back.  Not all of the women were "techically girlfriends" from the news report.  I believe one of the 3 couples were just friends.  Think about it...would you be willing to die for another?  What if you didn't even know the person?...would you be willing to die to protect them?

We then headed to breakfast where they were serving oatmeal.  I generally can't pass up oatmeal, but I needed to settle my stomach earlier by eating some peanut butter toast before heading to the little girls house, so I actually wasn't very hungry.

After dishes, Kimberly headed with Caroline into town to buy some Zuko (kind of like Kool-aid or Tang, but in tropical flavors) for the kids for lunch, and then a few things in terms of groceries.  While she was away, I used a little bit more time to get caught up in my devotions and blogging.  I'm just about caught up and very excited about it.  Caroline had an extra internet stick for me, so I gave her some money to activate it while in town.  This way I'll no longer have to borrow computers, I can use the one Bob had sent with me and now with this internet stick!

For lunch, they were eating ramen noodles with veggies at the little girls house.  It was pretty good!  The kids generally don't care for the veggies and that tends to get thrown out, but David & Lydia do not waste anything - all uneaten food is food for the pigs that they are raising here at Emmanuel.  Kimberly & I had arrived quite a bit early before lunch to prepare the Zuko for the children and she also bought soda for all of the older girls, the kitchen help and Danis, who is in charge of the entire house.  All of he kids and young women were SO excited and thankful!

So lunch dishes - I didn't think I could ever sweat that much!  The kitchen was extremely hot for 2 reasons: 1) the fire for cooking was hotter than I've ever experience before, and 2) the sun was out in full force.  For those of you who don't know much about the travels of the sun, it's pretty much DIRECTLY over Honduras this time of year, which literally means "right on top of your head".  There wasn't much cloud cover out at this particular hour of the day today, making the kitchen all the more hot to be in.  I was sweating so much that as I was leaning over the sink washing the dishes, the sweat was just dripping (like a leaky faucet) off of the end of my nose!

Both Kimberly & I had to retire to the volunteer house after dishes for some cold water & just to cool down for about 1/2 hour.

Because I ate so many ramen noodles for lunch, I chose to skip supper at the little girls house again.  After supper, we working on bathing the girls once again and I had to find out some more about the treatment the girls are receiving for "something going around the house".  No it's not lice, but I will talk more on that in a later post when I am able to do a little bit more research on the internet.

Zue made homemade spaghetti sauce & spaghetti, and invited Kimberly, Brandy and I to eat supper with her.  By this time it was later in the evening and my stomach was actually beginning to get hungry once again.  I didn't have much spaghetti, but the sauce was really good!

Not long after Kimberly said good night & went in the house, I caught some movement by the back door of the house (we were sitting on the patio out back).  That's when the "blob" spread it's legs and crawled onto the door frame, looking to enter the house.  I got SO excited!!!  It's the first live tarantula I've ever seen down here in my 5 years of ever being here!  I just had to wake Kimberly so she could take a picture (which she did, and will most likely share at church in her presentation)!  Although some of the other girls who have been here longer and have now seen many of them were not as impressed, me, Kimberly, & Zue were just watching it and excited as could be!  We probably looked like a few young boys who were examining an insect or something.  Zue tried to get Kimberly to kill it, saying that we could take video of Kimberly killing it...but Kimberly just wanted to keep her distance.  In the end, Zue killed it! 

Note for the end of the evening:  I did mention to Kimberly that the crack underneath our bedroom door is large enough that a tarantula could crawl under it into our room in the middle of the night.  And with that, BUENAS NOCHES!

Feed My Starving Children

This morning we headed to the girls house in the morning to help get them ready for morning circle.  Kimberly told me yesterday that she thought the little girls house was going to be a better fit for her than the toddlers.  I'm glad she found a place to fit in, that makes her feel more comfortable about being here.  She's still super-excited and I can see that written all over her face and in how she interacts with the children.  I'm extremely excited for her!  After circle, the girls line up to eat.  This morning's breakfast was chocolate granola cereal, which Kimberly really liked but I don't plan on buying any time soon back in the States.  That's not to say I couldn't stand it...just to say that I'm not really one to mix granola with chocolate for breakfast. 

After doing the dishes, we went to the team house to meet up with Joanne for our gardening work for the morning.  She had to go and check on each group to make sure they made it to the proper spot, so when we all headed over to the baby house, I quickly stopped by the toddler house to pick up the lice combs and rinse to use in the little girls hair when we were to bathe them later in the evening.

When we got to the greenhouse, Andres and William (another volunteer living in the house with Andres) were already there weeding.  Andres told me about the 2 super-sized wood spiders that they had found.  Much of the ground in the greenhouse was either wet or underwater, so there was lots of mud.  Yuck for the shoes, but awesome for weed-pulling, which is what we were there to do.  Kimberly found lots of toads, but the grand-daddy of them all was just over the size of a HUMONGOUS grapefruit!  I'm pretty sure she got a picture of it.

Kimberly & I had to head back to the volunteer house early due to being drenched with sweat and mud and wanting to clean up before heading over to the little girls house for lunch.  We had lunch with the girls and did dishes.  The noodles that we had for lunch were "interesting"...ask me about them when I get back.  But being a type of pasta and the amount that I had, I just wasn't hungry come suppertime.  We headed back to the volunteer house because Kimberly was going to catch up with Caroline to head to town for some groceries.  There was a big mix-up in communication.  Caroline was in her room with the door shut, which we never knew.  We just assume that when a bedroom door is shut, that either means the person is out and about or that they are sleeping.  So they never knew each other was in the house!

We headed back to the little girls house for supper and that's where Kimberly noted the Manna Packs from the Feed My Starving Children program in the garbage.  Those were a portion of what was used to make the supper here!  I only focus on that because it was only a week or two ago that our church, New Hope, actually hosted a gathering of volunteers to fill those packets!  Now those of you friends who have done that know that they are being used.  Perhaps the ones that you filled didn't go here...but it's a great program!

After supper, Kimberly & I helped with bathing the children.  I had left the lice combs back at the volunteer house and tried to run back to get them, but the house was locked up.  I didn't know the combination to the box to get the key, so that'll have to wait for tomorrow night.  We finally retired to the house where we had a nice long conversation with our newest long-term volunteer, Zue, who arrived with the Maryland team but will be here for over a year.  She is from Peru and it seems we'll get along nice!

A Tour of Emmanuel

This morning was a nice relaxing morning for me.  The tiredness from travel has worn off and I was ready to go!  I woke up without the alarm clock, and very early.  Must be the time difference between here and Wisconsin.  I have to be careful to stay on Wisconsin time so that when I get back and get to work, I'm still getting up on time.  We are on the mountain time zone (I believe?) down here...so Wisconsin's 9am is really Honduras' 8am.

They say church normally begins at 9am, however it started at 8:45 this morning (good thing we got there on time).  A pastor from one of the teams spoke as one of the staff members translated into Spanish.  Kimberly thought that there were a nice array of songs (both in English and Spanish), and just like at New Hope - the words flashed across the screen so that all could sing and participate.  Part way through the service, Doris came to sit next to me.

After the service, I chatted a bit with Lydia and saw Elvia (who was excited to see me too) and then headed to the yard out front of the church to chat with the medium and small girls.  Doris came over and I offered to walk her over to the staff house where she had to babysit the rest of the day.  She shared some difficult information with me (about something that had happened to her indirectly that was weighing heavily on her that morning), and we talked quite a bit.  I let her talk it out, and tried encouraging her and also let her know that I'd be praying for God to give her strength.

After lunch, Wade led a tour of Emmanuel.  Because there are 2 teams down here, there were so many people who went on this tour.  They rigged up a trailer to a tractor and put a bunch of chairs on the trailer.  A pick-up truck followed behind with the bed of the truck filled with teenagers.  I was told that they generally do a tour like this on Sundays when there is a group here.  I had never been on this tour before, and since it was Kimberly's first time at the orphanage and she had not seen the entire thing yet...we toured with the groups.  I heard some history about Emmanuel that I had never heard before, so was very grateful that I decided to hop up onto the trailer.

After suppertime, Kimberly & I went for a walk (to burn calories...she's an avid exerciser back in the States).  We walked around by the farm and stopped by the fish farm that was just built one of the last groups that was here.  That was amazing.  We stopped by the greenhouse and saw the cherry tomatoes as well.  Later I headed over to the team house to see what Joanne was up to the rest of the week and to see how much I'd be able to help them with.  Looks like we're doing gardening tomorrow!

My First Full Day at Emmanuel

This morning although I planned to wake up at 5am, I didn't actually get out of bed until 5:30 due to snoozing the alarm multiple times.  I was still extremely tired from all of the travel.  I'm hoping that my husband doesn't have the same "travel issues" that I had, but am assuming that everyone goes through it - so I'll try to be patient with him that first day as all today were patient with me.  :-)

I quickly showered and chatted with the other volunteers.  There are now 8 of us:  Nazhita, Christina, Emilie, Caroline, Kelsey, Fia, Kimberly and myself.  Katja told us that I would be at the little girls house, so I headed down that way to eat with them and do dishes.  Esperanza is still here and in charge of the little girls house, but Mariela (Gerson's wife) has left with her family to continue to do missions in Costa Rica.  After doing the dishes, I headed to the new baby house to say "hi" to Brandy.  I'm so excited that she may have the opportunity to adopt a little baby named Lidia who came to Emmanuel.  Lidia's mom died when she was just 8 days old and it's not known who her father is.

After the baby house, I waited at the toddler house to talk with Katja about going into town for some groceries.  After getting the "okay" from Katja, I headed to town with Kimberly, Andres and Kelsey.  Guaimaca has changed so much from last year.  First of all it's LOUD.  There are DJs playing at the grocery story and just blasting music out into the streets.  The streets are crowded with these little 3-wheeled taxis that, when I saw them, I immediately thought of people in Asia.  We stopped at 2 different grocery stores and then headed to the "My Little Bakery" store.  They have some awesome banana bread, which although it's still not nearly as good as my mom's - it's pretty good for Honduran food.

The Maryland team arrived in the afternoon, so I got a chance to see Joanne (YAY!).  We also spoke to Katja again about Kimberly (who had originally been assigned to the toddlers and just felt it wasn't for her).  Katja said perhaps Kimberly should go with me and work at the little girls house, so we headed there for supper to help out with dishes.  After suppertime, we headed back to the volunteer house & relaxed and had good conversations before heading to bed.

Arriving at Emmanuel

After driving through the night to Chicago, we stopped at a gas station to fill up the rental car before returning it.  I'm not so sure I care to pay $7.50/gallon (which was the quoted rate that AVIS gave me if it came back needing to be filled).  The gas station was right next to a McDonald's so Andres, Kimberly & I figured that would be food at a much more reasonable price that what we'd be able to find at the airport.  It took us a while to figure out all of the logistics of returning the car at the airport...since I have never rented car, but after we had that all figured out we were actually in the airport about 2:00am.  Kimberly & Andres slept in the terminal prior to checking in.  I waited until we were in the plane and the plane was in motion.  I didn't even stay awake for take-off (guessing that's how tired I was).

We arrived in Miami a bit late, so only had about 1/2 hour before needing to board the next plane.  We had to get to a terminal on the other side of the airport & found out this airport is pretty large.  After a bathroom break and grabbing a snack "to go", we boarded the plane.  Upon arriving in Tegucigalpa, we found Lydia and Lourdes waiting for us.  They walked us to the bus so that we could drop off our large suitcases while we were waiting for the team to come in.  Kimberly asked if she could do a little dance, and Lydia told her to go right ahead...she dance and sang "I'm finally here!!!  I'm in Honduras!!!"  Lydia laughed & smiled.  (Afterward Kimberly said that if she knew that was LYDIA, she probably wouldn't have danced like that, lol).

We had a bit to eat while in the airport and also changed money to Lempiras.  When the team arrived, we rode the Emmanuel bus back to the orphanage.  This was the first time ever that I've ridden on this bus!  I slept about 1/2 of the way back, but during my awake moments, I enjoyed listening to Lydia talk.  Her faith in the Lord is just amazing!  We stopped at a gas station (last minute bathroom stop for anyone that was on the bus), and I bought the Enjoy-brand juice for Andres & myself.  They have the guava flavor that he likes so much.  I got the pear juice because my stomach wasn't feeling so well at the time.

When Kimberly & I arrived to the girls volunteer house, we left our bags out in the kitchen since no other volunteers were around & we had no idea which bedroom we'd get...all of the doors were closed & I didn't feel comfortable barging into various bedrooms looking for a room to stay in.  We headed to find Doris and visited with her for a bit.  That was pretty exciting - seeing her face as she walked towards me & recognized who I was!  I found out that Blanca is no longer here.  Her mother came for her some months ago.  Although I was a bit sad about not getting to see her again, I'm praying that she is in a healthy situation with her family and that she continues to grow in Jesus.

Andres was playing with the medium boys in the gymnasium.  He did not take the Dramamine this year, which had made him very sick the past 2 times he had come down here.  Instead a pharmacist recommended these pressure point bands that are specifically for nausea and motion sickness.  I couldn't believe how active he was as opposed to the 2 years in the past!  I got to see and visit with Luis David very briefly while we were down at the gymnasium.  Andres told me that there were 4 male volunteers total (including him), so it seems like he'll be okay up in the house this year.

After we got back to the volunteer house, we introduced ourselves to the volunteers who were there and then chose the front bedroom, which also doubles as an office.  After unpacking and showering, I needed to turn in for the night - I was exhausted from all of the travels!

We're leaving tonight for Emmanuel!

Hello & Welcome to my Orphanage Emmanuel experience for 2012!

If you'd like to read how this trip came about, feel free to go through the archives and check out how it all happened.

First I'd like to thank all of my generous summer school students and their parents at Ferber Elementary School in Appleton, Wisconsin for all of their donations.  Earlier this week I got all of the donations, including toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, socks, clothing, games, baby bath, etc) packed up into TWO VERY LARGE boxes and sent them to Dr. Don Reynolds in Hixson, TN.  Dr. Reynolds is on the Board of Trustees for Orphanage Emmanuel and is in charge of sending a semi-truck full of donations down to Honduras approximately every 6-8 weeks.  They get very excited when the semi arrives.

I just got off of the phone with Kimberly, a girl from church who is going with me & Andrés.  She's super-excited, having had 2 prior planned missions trips fall through.  I'm very excited for her because I remember all too well what my first year was like in terms of sheer excitement!  I still get excited each year, but that first year of not even knowing what I was walking into and the thrill of being able to serve in this type of capacity was just different, fresh & new.  Now that I know what Emmanuel all entails, I no longer have the excitement of the "unexpected", but rather the excitement to be able to go and see all of the children and staff with whom I've made good, strong connections!

So, what's there yet to do today?  Well, I need to finish packing and to make sure that my suitcase is under 50 pounds.  Thankfully Andrés is currently only sitting at 40 pounds with his suitcase right now; so if I go over, I can just shuffle some things his way!  Andrés will take me to the Appleton airport to pick up our car rental, since we'll be leaving around 9:30pm to head to Chicago O'Hare.  We need to be at the airport approximately 3 hours prior to our flight, so arriving at O'Hare around 2:30am (after dropping off the rental) and then our flight for Miami takes off at 5:30am.

Between renting the car and leaving Neenah, I will be going out to supper with my husband one last time before he joins me in Honduras on August 10th.  I'm even more excited for Bob to go down there, because I've been hoping he'd go with me one year ever since I had started going!

As with each year prior, I'll try to keep you posted on a daily basis, but keep in mind that sometimes the internet is not as reliable in these 3rd world countries.  Thanks for your patience and prayers!  See you soon!