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.