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.