The Fish Farm

Alina has been doing a lot of circles and meals with the medium girls this week.  She has acclimated well with them, after having a slight break-down the first week when they all swarmed her and spoke quickly in Spanish and had been avoiding them.  I have sent her with the medium girls from time to time (sometimes, at first, against her will)...but it's paid off!  Last night she spent the night in the medium girls' house...a sort of sleep-over!  I did make sure with the night lady that it'd be okay.

Today's my last day of classes!  The last class of the day was cancelled by the teacher, due to the 6th graders taking a quiz during that time.  I returned all of the books, notes and preparations I had done to Amy over at the high school.  We've been doing laundry all day, especially since Alina & I will be leaving most of our clothing here.  She's sending hers with Zue (the one in charge of the older medium girls), and I sent my clothes to Veronica & Julieth...who are 2 staff people here that work in the kitchens of the team house when there are teams.  If there is anything that doesn't fit them or that they do not want, they will make sure it gets to someone who does.  We also sent everything (food-wise) to them as well...they were very grateful to get it!  We spent quite a bit of today making sure all of the "extras" in the apartment went somewhere.  Kimberly had instructed us to get her coffee pot to Felipe - done.  I took my tennis shoes and sandals to Invisible (Pamela) as promised.  It's rare to find someone with the same size feet as me down here.

Bob spent the morning at the fish farm.  They rounded up quite a few tilapia and butchered them (they call it "harvesting them") so that there would be a bunch available for the kitchens.  The fish farm was started last year and has been going well!

Bob & the "Sassy Fish"

We headed to the school to get a few pictures.  I'm including 2 pictures with boys from the past.  First is Kevin.  Kevin is a special needs boy who got the chicken pox 3 years ago.  Because he didn't quite understand me explaining to the children that you cannot scratch the pox, he scratched so much and so often that many of his pox got infected severely.  He was in the clinic that year much longer than any other child with the chicken pox.

LoriAnn & Kevin

Then there's Tony...who's just a little sweetie!  Two years ago, I watched after him in the clinic when he had his ear ripped off on the trampoline.  (You'd have to go back to that blog to read about it).  Here's Tony today:

LoriAnn & Tony

After serving the little girls lunch, Alina, Bob & I went to the tienda for one last lunch at Emmanuel.  Then, at Doris' request, we headed to the toddler house to get pictures of her older sisters (Lourdes & Wendy) and their babies.  We came back to pack before I headed to the medium girls' house for their ensenanza (Bible study).  We had supper with the little girls, did bath time and then went to church.  I began Date #7 for Alina & my Secret Keeper girls group, but Doris knocked on the door and came in & started crying.  She felt horrible that I was leaving "so quickly".  I spent a bit of time with Doris before she was called in for the night.  I've been here 4 weeks & 2 days...longer than ever before, but yet it doesn't seem like it.

A Special Supper for the Big Girls

This morning began with devotions, circle and breakfast once again.  What was special about this morning was my chat with Karelia and how difficult it can sometimes be watching and caring for these little ones.  Some of them come from such broken homes and act out in ways that have always been acceptable from where they came.  The staff here want the children to be able to distinguish between good and bad behavior, between good & bad actions, between good and bad language, etc.  Your own children know you and know your expectations, but Emmanuel is constantly receiving new children...and it takes time for them to learn that some of the practices (i.e. abuses) that they experience with their parents and family at home are not acceptable.  It takes time, patience, and love...which makes it hard work, because it's a constant ongoing process with each new child that comes in...but it's worth it!  Karelia and I chatted a bit about our own children and how we handle problems with them in our own homes, and then how it's different when the child is not your own.

Once again when I took the little girls to school, Leslie was not able to teach.  I'll plan to teach today and tomorrow yet, right up until I leave.  I was glad to only have 3 classes today because I'm still pretty congested and was slightly feverish yet.  I did take an ibuprofen this morning.  After my 3 classes, I headed back to the apartment to rest for a bit, to try to get rid of the fever (it didn't work).  Alina used the remainder of the morning to catch up on 4 days of journaling. We had lunch with the little girls and then went to Emmanuel's gift shop to purchase the children's CD of songs for Jen, my cousin who asked Andres to "facebook me" and ask for a CD.

After buying the CD, Alina & I headed to the Casita to help Elizabeth with her special needs class and then we headed back to the house a bit to drop our purchases off before going to the little girls' house once again for supper and to give baths.  This afternoon Bob worked extremely hard to prepare a supper for the "en cargadas" (big girls in charge) of the little girls' house.  He made barbecue chicken, cole slaw, potatoes, and bread.  It was ALL a big hit!  Elizabeth & Karelia joined us, and Bob made enough for Karelia to take back to her husband (Robert) and her kids...she wouldn't have to make supper...she was so thankful!

Bob with the Big Girls, Elizabeth & Karelia

A Night with Doris

I woke up this morning feeling a cold coming on.  I was slightly feverish...it's been going around the little girls' house and even Elizabeth & Karelia  have gotten it prior to me.  I still woke to have my devotional time with God, and then Bob woke so we could do our morning devotions together.  I headed to the little girls' house once again at 6am and helped with circle and breakfast before walking the girls to school.  Leslie is a volunteer who was planning on taking over my reading classes at the school, but she met me there to let me know that the need was greater at the toddler house and was wondering if I would take the classes for the day.  Since I had originally planned to teach through Wednesday, it wasn't really a problem...but it would mean that I most likely wouldn't get through the Narnia book with all of the notes and preparations for whichever teacher would take over the classes.

During a break in the morning between classes, I headed back to the apartment to heat up some white rice that Bob had made the night before and put the last of the fruit salsa (from David & Lydia's supper last week) into the rice, hoping that the "extra Vitamin C" would kick this oncoming cold a little faster than the others in my small girls' house had been suffering through it. I headed back to school to finish up classes and then took the girls back to their house for lunch.  They didn't have classes in the afternoon, due to marching practice (the Honduras Independence Day is coming up in September) so Bob, Rebecca and I headed into Guaimaca to purchase some items.  Bob & I wanted to get food for tomorrow's dinner that we'd be cooking for my big girls who work/live in the little girls' house, and we'd also make extras for Karelia & her family.  Rebecca hadn't yet gotten the opportunity to get into town, so she needed to stock up on some personal foods.  We stopped by Glenda's place.  I've known her since my first year here (and since there had only been 1 supermarket in town).  I love to support individuals trying to make a living, so I try to buy various fruits & veggies from her on each trip in...she's also so welcoming and kind...more personalized service!

Glenda, Bob & LoriAnn

We headed to the older of the supermarkets first, then to the bus station just to check on times that the bus for Tegucigalpa leaves in the morning.  We'll be trying to catch the 7am bus to Teguc on Thursday so that we can get to the airport to head home on time.  After the bus station, we headed to the newer supermarket and then to the TIGO store.  TIGO is one of the 2 major phone/wireless/internet companies here in Honduras.  It's interesting how the first 2 years I was here, TIGO worked really well at Emmanuel...then the following 3 years, it was the CLARO company, and now it's back to TIGO again.  Rebecca needed to get a modem, which comes on a USB stick and then you just pay for a month's plan.  You do need to be careful though with how much GB you're using, because you are limited.  It's a pre-paid plan, kind of like a Tracfone, but with modem/internet service.  We headed to a couple of bakeries, but unfortunately they did not have the type of bread Bob was looking for, so he'd have to make his own for supper tomorrow.  Glenda had held on to our purchases, so we made one last stop at her place before walking back to Emmanuel to say our goodbyes and "until next year".

I got back just in time to help clean up for supper and to give baths.  After bathtime, Lorraine (from the CA group) came over to have Doris paint her toenails.  We had a very  nice conversation while she was getting her nails painted.  I'll be looking her up on facebook!  Doris insisted on painting my toenails afterwards.  I let her.  She had been taught by a sister of one of the staff her and has become quite good at it.  I'll post a picture of my nails below, but please if you look at the picture...focus on her talent and not my "dry, cracked missionary feet".

For an hour or so after she painted my nails, we headed to her room and just spent time chatting about her and how difficult life outside of Emmanuel will be (should she decide in the near future to leave...she is 21 years old and does have the option).  We talked about her sisters who are currently here at Emmanuel with their babies.  And we just spent some precious time together before I'd be leaving on Thursday.  I really do like these moments with her, when all the other little ones are sleeping and we can just chat about things that are important to her - as a young adult.  I came home around 7:30pm and since I had been slightly feverish and congested all day, headed to bed to rest.  Please keep my health in your prayers as I'd like to finish these last few days strong and as healthy as possible.

Doris' Gift to Me...Painting my Nails

That Rat!!!

This morning I decided to sleep in for an extra hour or two since my morning didn't "officially" start until 8:00am (rather than 6am every other day).  When I did wake up, around 5:00, I found that there was NO RAT caught in the trap.  Bob had put peanut butter and some granola on the trap (which looks like a super-sized mouse trap) to lure the rat.  When I looked around the apartment, I deduced that the rat knows about these traps somehow...and here's why:

1. the rat left a dropping on top of the container of peanut butter - as if to say, "I don't need just a little peanut butter on your rat trap when I know where the big jar of peanut butter is!"
2. the rat tore a hole in the bag of granola overnight (This bag was placed on top of the refrigerator by Kimberly before she left, thinking that the rat could not get up there) - well either the rat is a rope climber (climbing the water hose that goes from bottom to top in back of the refrig for making ice) or the rat is trying to remind us that he is a distant cousin to the flying squirrel.
3. the rat left a dropping in the doorway of our bedroom - as if to say, "I know where you sleep!"

I'm hoping to be able to catch this rat (and all of its relatives) soon!  After being disgusted by not having caught it yet, I made a pot of coffee and then sat down to have my devotional time with God.  It wasn't long before Bob came out for us to do our couple's devotion.  After that, it was time to get Alina up & get ready for church.

We had invited Michell to church with us and although she said she wanted to go, when Alina went up to get her, she had changed her mind.  Bob saved us a spot in church and we listened to the message given by the Ohio group pastor.  He asked us if the Spirit had our heart?  I'll let your mind dwell on that a while before moving on to the rest of my day...the question is NOT 'Will you give your heart to Jesus?' but 'Have you already given it, 100%, wholly & completely?'

Bob, Alina, Michell & LoriAnn

After church we changed clothes and then took Michell to the store where we bought her lunch.  Back in May, Alina & I had done a Secret Keeper Girl Mommy Daughter Date where Alina went on a shopping spree.  She had $20 to spend at the Fox River Mall and had to get 3 items with that money, each item coming from a different store and only 30 minutes in which to complete this shopping spree...and one more twist...her purchases were to go to a girl here at Orphanage Emmanuel - she chose Michell.  The purpose of the shopping spree was to teach her about mean girls, since eventually she'd be running from store to store and running out of patience as she looked to complete the task.  So today was all about giving Michell these items over lunch.  Michell is a very quiet, shy girl; but has been taking care of Alina (like a big sister would) while Alina's been down here this year.

Michell & Alina

After lunch, Alina spent the rest of the day with the medium girls out in the yards and playing soccer.  I joined them for a bit of the afternoon/evening, and Bob came out later in the evening to play some soccer as well.  He even scored TWO goals on Alina!!!

At the end of the night when we came back to the apartment, Bob and Alina went looking for critters outside and THAT is when it happened...I was sitting at the kitchen table doing a word search, and the rat decided to "play" with me.  First it came out from the ceiling and then headed back up through the hole...TWICE!  I thought it'd be gone for a while, but then the next thing I know it's walking along the brick wall from the microwave to the stove in plain view!  I was pretty freaked out.  I could hear Bob and Alina outside, so called for Bob to come inside.  He couldn't find the rat, but loaded the trap up with more peanut butter and granola and put it directly underneath that hole in the ceiling.  We're hoping to catch something by morning.  YUCK!!!

Kissing a Cucaracha

Today's breakfast was back to oatmeal and moon pies.  After breakfast, the little girls were sent into the sala (living room) so that the big girls could do a thorough cleaning of the house, like they do every Saturday.  Alina & I didn't want to cause too many problems (the girls get a little rowdy in that sala when Alina is in there), so we headed to the medium girls' yard to hopefully play with them.  They were actually all sitting up on the steps, checking each other for lice...which is also another "common thing" down here.  So Alina & I waited patiently to get checked too.  We're CLEAR!!!

After the girls were allowed to go play, I saw a girl with a pretty neat inverted french braid (for all you beauticians or hair fanatics out there, I'm not sure if that's the proper word).  Anyway, I asked the girl who did the braid and she was quick to point out Estefani.  The girls around me asked if I wanted her to do my hair, and I said only if she wanted to.  They called her over (she seemed REALLY shy) and told her to start putting a braid in my hair.  She just looked down & didn't move, I think perhaps because she didn't know if I actually wanted her to do it.  I asked her if she would want to put a braid in my hair, and she was very quick to say, "YES!" and she asked if she could make the braid into the letter 'S'.  I said that'd be okay, so she got to work...here's the finished product:

S-Braid, courtesy of Estefani

After getting my hair braided, I trimmed Alina's hair before returning my comb & scissors back to the apartment.  Alina played soccer with the medium girls until lunchtime.  Alina ate with the medium girls and then came over to the small girls house to help serve the ramen noodles & vegetables.  I didn't eat lunch since I had arranged to meet Bob at the tienda to have lunch with him.  After the little girls ate, they went into the sala with Alina to watch the movie Annie while I went to hunt down Bob.  We had some chicken sandwiches and a smoothie...my choice: blueberry & banana, Bob's choice: blueberry & papaya.

Wade had given Bob a rat trap (the thing is HUGE), so he set that up in the kitchen.  Now it'll be a waiting game to see how many rats he can get before we take off for home next Thursday.  I'm sure that trap will be going off in the middle of the night, and most likely each night!  Hopefully we get 'THE BIG ONE' soon!

When I got back to the little girls' house, Alina was gone; so I headed to the medium girls house to see if she had went over there.  She was there inside the medium girls house and they had a sheet up on the wall and a special projector and stereo system to watch the movie Oz - The Great & Powerful.  Neither of us had watched it before...so Alina saw all of it through, whereas I arrived during the last 1/3 of the movie or so.  I don't think I'd like Kaylyn watching it, but it was a pretty neat movie.  Alina said she didn't understand very much because the movie had been dubbed over in Spanish.

After the movie, we headed back to the little girls' house for supper.  Unfortunately Doris didn't keep the fire going strong all day and the beans weren't done, so the girls showered before supper and since the beans were STILL not done, the girls had rice & a small pecan pie for supper.  During supper, I saw Elizabeth freak out in the kitchen.  Water spewed out of her mouth and she was jumping up & down, wiping her mouth.  When she came out, she told us that she had grabbed a glass and filled it with water to drink...when she took a drink, she felt something move on her lips.  She brushed her lips and felt more movement and then IT fell to the ground...an enormous cockroach!  That was definitely the highlight of my day!!!

(This would be why I've checked all my glasses, even back home in Wisconsin, before filling them up...because of having found large bugs in them when I lived down in Mexico)

After supper, Alina & I headed back to the apartment for her to catch up on her journal and for me to get my blogs updated, before heading to bed.

Bread on a Stick

Unfortunately there was no BIG circle today, which marks the 2nd year that Bob has not seen a big circle...oh well, perhaps next year?

So this morning we decided Alina would go with Bob for the day & work like a "varon" (male).  While I was working on breakfast for my little girls and getting them ready for school, Alina & Bob headed to the front of the team house where the road is going in.  Unfortunately by the time I got over there to take a picture of Alina working, the work was just finishing up and the California team was about to head out.  So the only picture I got was of a very dusty/dirty Alina standing and watching the team get ready to head out.

Bob & Alina (after cement work) saying Goodbye to the California Group

There were 2 men from the California team that had some pretty bad burns around their ankles because they didn't bring work boots to wear while doing cement.  They would ooze each day after showering.  It looked so painful.

I headed to school and Leslie was there to start her first "en necesidad" class.  Robert (the director of the school) met me before class started and was asking about how the classes were going & if I had seen any improvement.  We chatted a bit before he had to tend to other things in the school.  Leslie did great with her first class, and after shadowing me the rest of the day, I turned the 4th & 5th grade folders over to her so she can do the classes next week beginning on Monday.  I kept the 6th grade folder & said I'd try to finish the Narnia book & get all the preparations/notes done for her before I left.

After doing cement, Alina & Bob headed to do a bunch of odds 'n ends with plumbing issues and to try to solve the big water leak problem that Wade had mentioned to Bob.  They also got some practice with the cows...in both herding them in and also milking them.

When classes were over, I headed with the little girls to lunch, and since there was no afternoon class we went to the yard out front to play afterwards.  Yolani took me to her costura (sewing) class where she showed me a skirt she had finished.  It's really nice to see the girls learning a trade here, and Yolani did an amazing job on the skirt!

As I was heading back to the little girls' house, I saw the medium girls in the yard and stopped since they were about to have ensenanza.  They asked the pastor from the Ohio group to do the ensenanza and he talked about running a race and keeping your eyes on the finish line...both in the literal sense (because he competes in marathons) and in the spiritual sense.  Then he asked the girls to race him...and said that if anyone beat him, he'd buy them a soda.  There was only 1 girl that beat him, and she ran barefoot!

After this ensenanza, I saw the little girls coming back to their house, so went to get them their supper and showered.  At 6:00pm, the volunteers had a bonfire and made bread on a stick.  Bob & Alina came with me and Alina & I enjoyed bread filled with peanut butter & chocolate chips, while Bob chose to fill his bread with honey.

Goodbye Kimberly & Pastor Jeff...Hello Rebecca

This morning before I headed out, I said goodbye to Kimberly who is going back to the States with Pastor Jeff.  She will have a couple of stops on the way up to Wisconsin to visit people she has met while down here at Emmanuel (Florida, Alabama & Tennessee), so I believe I'll actually get "home" first.  Unfortunately I didn't get to see Pastor Jeff, but I'm sure I'll see him next Sunday in church.

This morning there were chocolate moon pies instead of strawberry ones, so I figured I'd have one (I don't care for strawberry flavor in general, so I haven't had a moon pie yet).  Well, I think my stomach has shrunk quite a bit since being here because I didn't feel so well after having the granola cereal and a moon pie...I felt STUFFED.  I helped with cleaning the kitchen and then walked the girls to school.

Today Leslie shadowed me at school through my classes.  She will be here for the next 10 months, so will be taking over where I leave off in the reading classes.  I did hand the "en necesidad" folders over to her right away since I wasn't able to do anything with those classes over the past 3 weeks.  I counted up how many classes I was responsible for (without the en necesidad ones) and there were 20 classes!  It sounds like Leslie will begin the en necesidad classes tomorrow since I'll still take the ones I'm doing for this week yet and make sure they're all prepared well for her.  This way, she can spend all of her time getting the one class I wasn't able to prepare for ready to go!

LoriAnn with One of Her Reading Classes

I walked my little girls back to their dining hall for lunch and when I walked them back to school, I tracked down Luis David to give him a chili sucker since I hadn't yet gotten one to him.  This afternoon I headed home for about an hour just to have a break for a little bit.  When I got back to the little girls house for supper, I met a new volunteer Rebecca.  She's mostly blind, so carries around her stick.  She seems SO nice & caring though, and is planning on being here for 3 months.  She had supper with Samantha and I at the little girls' house since Katja will be assigning her to a house tomorrow.  Alina spent the afternoon on the slip 'n slide with the medium girls (an event put on by the California group) before coming to the little girls' house for supper.  After supper, it was shower time once again and then getting ready for bed.

Pinata Party

After devotions this morning, I once again headed to the little girls' house to help with getting them up and to help with circle & breakfast.  While cleaning was going on, I headed over to where the Ohio group was helping with cement.  The road between the big girls' yard and the team house has always been a combination of dirt, gravel, and rocks.  Over the past 6 years, various teams and the orphanage have been working to cement these roads.  Since Bob was working with the Ohio team and Papi this morning, I went to get some pictures of the work.

Smoothing out the Cement - Honduran Style

I walked the girls to school and then held the lectura (reading) classes.  Today since two of my students (Raul & Jorge) wouldn't read in class and got made fun of for not knowing how to read, I pulled them out after my 5 classes were finished to have them read with me in a small group...just me, Alina and them.  I had Alina read along with them so that they felt empowered in helping her pronounce some of the more difficult words.  I think that they walked away with a confidence partially built up from having had it crushed just an hour or two before.

During lunch, I went over to the girls' volunteer house where Kimberly was baking for her boys.  We chatted for a bit and then I talked with Leslie who is looking to take over the classes at the school, since she will be here for 10 months.  I let her know that she'd need to talk with Amy, and if all was okay, I would get her some of the materials either later in the evening or tomorrow.

When I got back to the little girls' house, I found out that their classes were cancelled for the afternoon.  Because the Honduras Independence Day is coming up in September, they will need to use a series of afternoons to get their band ready to have a marching parade around the orphanage.  The little girls don't participate in this and today was a practice day.  Because of this, members of the team came to do a bible study with our little girls, followed by coloring pictures and then a pinata party.

Pinata Party for the Pequenas

Because supper was not ready after the pinata party, we decided to bathe the girls first tonight since were were on a tight schedule with it being a Wednesday night and there was church at 4:30pm.  Supper consisted of a nice white rice with green beans and carrots mixed in.  I'm amazed at all of the girls down here who refuse to eat their vegetables...some may say, "well, kids in the States refuse to eat their vegetables", but to me it's just a little different when they refuse to eat EVERY veggie you offer them.  Although they DO eat fruits of all sorts...some that I don't care for and wouldn't choose to eat.

The church services down here last around 2 hours (not sure if I mentioned that before or not).  It was given by a pastor from the California group named Alex.  He gave us an abbreviated version of the book of James in the Bible, but the emphasis he provided on us showing our love of God and relationship with Him to others and encouraging them to do the same really was something!  After the church service, while Kimberly went to serve crepes to the female volunteers, Pastor Jeff came back to our place and Bob made a delicious chicken supper from the left-overs from last night.  Although I wasn't very hungry and didn't eat (since I had eaten at the little girls' house), I conversed as they ate.  After supper, it was completely dark out, so we said our good-nights and went to bed.

Dinner with Mami & Papi

Although my day generally begins between 3 & 4am with a shower to wake me up and getting dressed, and followed immediately by devotion time with God, I don't head out to "work" until 6am.  It is a short walk to the little girls' house from the apartment (about 1 city block's length).  This morning I took off with Alina once again at 6:00am.  Pastor Jeff went with Kimberly to her house (the power toddlers), and Bob went to the big boys' house.  When I got to the girls' house, some members from one of the teams was there that asked to do the morning's devotions.  They had bracelets to hand out which were made up of links of varying colors, each color having a special meaning (black = sin, white = Jesus' righteousness, red = Jesus' blood sacrifice, clear = forgiveness, blue = waters of baptism, green = life eternal, purple = royalty).  They needed someone to translate for them since this group had no Spanish speakers, so I took care of that.  After the girls had their circle devotions, we had granola for breakfast and then walked with them to school.  Bob had brought his camera, so I have taken a bunch of pictures.

My classes went well this morning.  Today I had 3 4th grade reading classes.  After class, as I was heading back to the little girls' house, I saw the 6th graders in the school storage room doing each other's hair.  As I approached them, I asked them what they were doing and they said "planchando pelo" which translates to "ironing hair".  I took a few more steps towards them & saw that they actually had an iron that you use for clothing!  They had a towel underneath and hair above the towel and used this clothes iron to straighten hair!  They were also doing each other's make-up since today Max was taking pictures of them.

I continued on to the little girls' house where Alina was learning how to make tortillas with the kitchen girls.  After making tortillas (which they would eat for supper), they began preparing the tilapia for supper.  Alina has been learning various tasks around Emmanuel (how to mop, how to check for lice, how to cook, etc).  She's been fitting right in!

Alina making tortillas with Doris

I headed back to the school to bring the girls home for lunch & get them served and then walked them back to school.  Because we would have a late supper tonight (at 6pm as opposed to the 3:30pm we generally eat at), Alina & I waited until AFTER the girls went back to school to go with Bob to the tienda to eat a later lunch, so that we wouldn't be starving by the time the late hour of supper rolled around.  After eating, Bob went on his way to see if Esau needed help.  He had been working with Esau (from the California group) all morning.  Alina & I stopped by the craft house to see if Elizabeth needed any help with her special needs class, but she was just wrapping up since she had to get back to the little girls' house early.  We let her know that we would not be with the little girls this evening due to having a special supper.

Pastor Jeff had been with Kimberly most of the day touring the orphanage and also getting to walk into town since we needed milk for this evening's dinner.

When I got back to the apartment, Bob was already there prepping the food for this evening.  Kimberly & I carried many of the supplies up to Tammy's house, where we would have our supper.  Bob was preparing a special meal for David & Lydia, Pastor Jeff, and then Kimberly, Bob, Alina & me.  Supper consisted of chicken with a creamy guava sauce, whipped potatoes, fried green beans, and a fruit salsa.  Kimberly made pan de pan for desert, which she had learned to make when she spent a day at the bakery in town just over a month ago.  David & Lydia were pleasantly pleased with the dinner and we had great conversation.

After David & Lydia left, we cleaned up all of the dishes and put Tammy's house back to the way it was before heading back to the apartment.  We were full and tired by that point, so decided to call it a night.

The Rain, Bob & Pastor Jeff Arrive

Wade had mentioned a few years back that there is only 2-3 weeks during the rainy season where it's actually "nice" outside and doesn't rain as often.  Those days have come & gone as of today.  It rained all day long and just when you thought there might be a break, it came down some more!  The down-side of this is that I didn't bring an umbrella or a rain jacket, so just like the kids...no matter where I walked, I got wet.  The upside is that it's not nearly as hot as it usually is which will make it a nice "cooler" day for Bob who doesn't do well in extreme heat.

Alina & I began our day as usual by heading to the little girls' house to help get them dressed, do their morning circle (in the sala, of course, since it was raining outside) and then get them breakfast before walking them to school.  There were 3 teenagers here this morning from one of the 2 groups that are serving this week.  Our little girls tend to flock around new team members or volunteers, so once I was able to get the teens to spread out, circle became a pleasant experience in which just about all of the little girls participated (many times they'll get distracted by "new people" and they don't participate, or begin to exhibit bad behaviors).

Classes went well this morning...it was all 5th grade classes.  There were moments when the children were reading out loud and it was very difficult to hear them due to the rain beating on the roof of the school.  Alina & I did have a couple of 20-minute breaks between classes.  During one of the breaks, we re-shelved books that had been taken down, and on the 2nd break we headed home to begin moving Alina to Kimberly's room since Bob would be coming today.

Alina & I walked the small girls back to the house for lunch and then helped clean up before bringing the girls back to school for their afternoon classes.  We briefly ran home for a 1/2 hour to finish cleaning up the house (did the few dishes that were in the sink, finished moving Alina's things, cleaned the bathroom and swept/mopped the house).  When the house was finished, we headed down to the craft house where Elizabeth was teaching the special needs children.  They read through a story, practiced colors, shapes, letters A-E and their numbers 1-5.  Then they traced their hands onto paper, decorated them, and cut them out.  Elizabeth hopes to use these hands down the road when she asks questions like, "Do you prefer..."  Then she can have a picture up on the board and the students can go over and move their hand to which one they prefer.  She finished class-time with another story.

We finished just as the school was letting out, so I headed over to where the small girls line up in the school.  Then I saw Norman come up the drive with Elizabeth's friend, Molly, and Pastor Jeff & Bob inside.  He dropped off Molly at the girls' volunteer house first, then drove around to the apartment to drop Pastor Jeff & Bob off.  By this time the little girls were headed back to their house, so I walked with them until I got to the apartment and greeted Bob & Pastor Jeff.  I quickly ran to see Katja about where PJ would be staying...which is in the "hotel"  He's in the one closest to our apartment, which is nice.  We unloaded the luggage and headed over to the little girls house.

Because the team didn't show up to do Bible study, and because the store wouldn't stay open too much longer, I mentioned to Bob that he should take Pastor Jeff over to get a bite to eat.  It's a good thing that I sent them when I did because I'm sure it started to downpour once again just as soon as they arrived to the store!  While our girls were having Bible study, then supper and then baths, Bob took Pastor Jeff around on a mini-tour...I think Kimberly is completely showing him around tomorrow.  We chatted a bit after the girls' bath-time and then I said my good-nights as I'm sure both Pastor Jeff & Bob were tired from their long travels.

Alina & I headed to the medium girls' house to watch a movie with them.  This would also give Bob a bit of time to stretch out on the bed and sleep comfortably for a couple of hours before I came to bed.  We had fun watching the movie with the girls (although I couldn't tell you the name of the movie).  When it was over, we said a bedtime prayer together before we headed home to bed ourselves.

House Dedication

This morning began with a church service led by Frank (Esau's pastor from the California group that is here).  I've heard him speak before and am just amazed by his ability to reach out to people.  Much of his sermon came from 1 John, which contains many verses that I had went through with Alina just a week ago...on how to be a child of God.

At 11:00, the new boys' house was dedicated.  The pastor here from the Ohio group (yep, there's 2 groups here this week, which is actually pretty unusual) did the dedication and prayed over the boys' house.  This house is for boys that are around 13-14 years of age and John will be in charge of the house.  John had told me this morning that when he was just a volunteer 4-5 years ago, he lived in the boys' volunteer house & had prayed/envisioned that some day God would lead him to be in charge of a boys' house in the very spot that this new house was built!  The verse that the Ohio pastor chose to use in the dedication of this house was:

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!  It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.  It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.  For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.  ~Psalm 133

What an appropriate passage to choose...brothers living together in unity.  We all know how boys are (SO energetic) and how they can get very physical in times of play, in times of work, and in times of anger.  May God bless this house and nudge these boys to get along well together as they go through life's challenges.  I would like to have these verses in a frame or engraved to send down here to John to put up in his house above the door.

After the dedication, Alina & I at lunch at the tienda.  It's amazing how our stomachs have "shrunk" to accommodate the smaller, healthier meals here.  I ordered a hamburger for Alina and myself...I didn't have to eat for the rest of the day (and this was LUNCH), and Alina had to wrap up about 1/3 of her hamburger left-overs to take home for later.

After we had eaten, we went over to the little girls' house to help with lunch.  On Sundays, volunteers "technically" are given the day to rest in the Sabbath, however we were missing our girls!  After lunch we headed home to call Bob with our last-minute list to bring then headed out to the medium girls' yard to chit-chat for about 1/2 hour before heading over to the little girls' yard to take Marisol and Yanira to the tienda for ice cream.  Yanira's sister, Maria, had special permission today to be over in the little girls' yard to spend time with her little sister (she is a big girl), so we took her as well.  Siblings in different houses don't get to see each other much unless they get this special permission...and if they are siblings of the opposite sex, they never get to see each other except in school (as Yanira & Maria told me about their brother who is 6 years old.  After the ice cream, we took the 3 back to the little girls' yard and sat there until supper time.

This evening we went out front of our apartment and the medium girls were playing a game of soccer.  Michell's team was losing 1-3, so I told Alina to join in on her team.  Alina played hard, and the girls really enjoyed Alina spending time with them.  After they were called in to go to bed, Alina & I also headed back to the house to call it a night.

Brandy's Goodbye

On Saturdays there isn't any circle, so we headed to the little girls' house to help them get dressed and have breakfast.  During breakfast Alina's stomach wasn't feeling so well (don't worry, it was very temporary this time) so the other volunteer, Samantha, went to get her some medicine and Alina went home to rest while we served breakfast.  I checked in with Alina after the dining hall was cleaned.  After about an hour or so, she was feeling better, so we headed out on a walk.  On our way we saw Esau, a member of the California group that had just arrived.  He has been here every year since the year of the chicken pox (he helped out a great deal with the plumbing issues at the clinic that year and also got me some extra help with caring for all of the children with chicken pox).  I introduced him to Alina and then we continued on our way.

While chatting with Alina at Emmanuel's snack shop, I got to meet Elizabeth's dad.  He suffers from vertigo, so had been in the house resting up until this point...but now was walking with his wife and their suitcases which were full of...peanut butter sandwiches!  They had made over 100 of them to take to the medium boys' house for lunch and were stopping by the snack shack to buy a bunch of 3-liter (yep, you heard that right...not 2L like we're used to) bottles of soda.  They also bought a bunch of additional snacks (chips?).  They asked if Alina & I would be willing to carry them to the medium boys house and we said, "Sure," but by the time all was packed up and ready to be carried, there were some bigger boys that were happy to help out, and there was nothing left for Alina & I to carry.

Alina & I went to the little girls' house to help serve lunch and clean up and then we met Samantha at the girls' volunteer house and headed over to the team house because Samantha had heard that the gift shop would be open.  We met Julieth and Veronica in the gazebo at the team house and they said that the shop would be opened until tomorrow.  Samantha headed back to her house to clean, but Alina & I stayed and chatted with Julieth and Veronica for about an hour.  When we were finished we headed back home and had a good chat with Kimberly about the book she was reading.  I decided to wash the bedding so that it would be clean for when Bob came (with Alina's illnesses while here and Bob's weak immune system, I didn't want to take a chance that he might get sick).  When I hung the wet bedding on the clothes line out back, I accidentally stepped on a mucky hole and a huge toad jumped out.  Good thing toads rarely scare me!

For supper at the little girls' house, they served toasted tortillas with a bean/beef mixture spread onto it and then a crumbled, salty cheese sprinkled over the top.  Each child got 2 of these and they were very good!  We made sure the girls got their showers and then headed home to make a call back to the States.  Andres was the only one home, but I really did enjoy talking to him for a while about what was all going on with him.

After the chat with Andres, I began to make guacamole for Zue.  Tonight is Brandy's last night before heading to the States for a few weeks.  Brandy wanted to have a birthday party for Zue & Zue wanted to throw a going away party for Brandy.  It's and awesome friendship between the two.  Brandy has been here for a couple of years and last year a baby came to the orphanage.  David & Lydia had told Brandy that this baby may be available for adoption due to her circumstances.  Brandy immediately took the baby (named Lydia) in as her own with hopes to adopt Lydia down the road.  Brandy has never been away from Lydia, so this trip back home was worrying her just a little bit.  Please keep Brandy in your prayers, for courage and strength while she is gone away from her daughter.  An amazing note to Brandy's trip though, is that her dad may be coming back to Honduras with her to visit Lydia!

We (Kimberly & I) had a great time with Zue & Brandy.  Alina was at with the big girls watching movies and I had left the apartment door unlocked, so when Kimberly & I came back from the party, Alina had already put herself to bed and was sleeping.  She did let me know later that she heard the rat scurrying around the kitchen while she was in bed and was a little afraid to come out of the bedroom!

A Big Surprise at the End of the Day

This morning there wasn't the usual big circle that happens on Fridays.  We headed in the direction that the big circle generally is and heard our little girls in their house yet, so stopped up to the house to see what was up.  Apparently they canceled big circle last night.  So after the little girls got up & dressed, they went to the sala to have a little circle and then watch some movies as they waited for breakfast.  This morning once again they had oatmeal, but there was a lot more grains than normal in the oatmeal, making it about 1/2 as thick as we eat it in the U.S.

The elementary school was closed today, so just the bigger girls needed to be walked to school.  Kimberly, Alina & I headed into town with 3 other female volunteers (Samantha, Anna & Leslie) so that the other volunteers could get some supplies/groceries for the next few weeks.  I had my own list (sent by Bob) as well as getting cards to add minutes to my phone so that I could call home.  It is most reasonable to buy a phone down here ($20-$35) and then get minutes than to bring your American cell phone & plan down this way to call back up to the States.  With the Honduran plan, it costs about 5 cents a minute to call back home!  Since I had such a big list of items to purchase for this coming Tuesday (I'll keep that a secret until we get to that day's blog), Samantha & Alina helped by carrying some of the bags back.

When we got back to Emmanuel, I put all of the purchases away before heading to the little girls' house once again.  The little girls were out in the yard, so I took the opportunity to chat with the bigger girls of the house.  Daniela was struggling with her English project.  She needed to choose which character of the Bible she would like to "become" and then answer a number of questions about this character of the Bible.  She told me that all of the people she wanted to be were taken by her classmates...so then she asked me if I could be anyone in the Bible, who would I be?  I told her I'd have to think about that and I'd let her know after supper.  We ate supper and then gave baths, and then I was ready to reply to Daniela.  Here's what I said:

If I could be anyone in the Bible, I would most likely choose to be Leah.  Daniela had never heard of Leah!  So we looked up her story in Genesis 29-30.  Leah was not anything special in terms of beauty, we could think of her as a plain-Jane...perhaps not even that good looking (Gen. 29:17).  Jacob fell in love with Rachel due to her physical beauty.  So Jacob asks for Rachel's hand, works 7 years for her father Laban and then on the wedding day, Laban gives him Leah as a wife saying that it is customary to give the older child first.  Imagine Leah & what's supposed to be one of the happiest days of her life, and when Jacob discovers that he has been deceived...how his expression changes from pure joy (having thought he was marrying Rachel) to...anger, disgust, repulsion, frustration, deception, etc when he realizes he didn't get the woman he had longed for.  Feel for a moment what Leah would have felt.  Then Jacob is so determined to get Rachel that he works another 7 years...so Leah is not "good enough" as a wife...and she knows that Jacob is putting in all that time to get the wife he really wants, which is NOT HER.

Okay, now after all of the earthly misery, here's what God did in Leah's life -

Leah was the first to bear children for Jacob, in fact she bore Jacob 4 sons before anything came through Rachel's line!  Due to the names of these sons, you know that Leah was suffering in an earthly way, feeling very unloved by her husband, for the bible says:

Leah because pregnant and gave birth to a son.  She named him Reuben, for she said, "It is because the Lord has seen my misery.  Surely my husband will love me now."  She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, He gave me this one too."  So she named him Simeon.  Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons."  So he was named Levi.  She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "This time I will praise the Lord,"  So she named him Judah.  (Gen.29:32-35)

Now, let's process that last sentence and how great our God is...the first chapter of Matthew gives the lineage of Jesus.  You only have to read Matthew 1:1-3 to discover that Jesus came from Judah, son of Jacob.  God richly blessed Leah, who was unloved by her husband, by sending His Son through her!!!  Leah never knew here on earth that she would be the ancestor of the Most High, she never knew how God would bless her & what an amazing blessing it was!

Daniela decided immediately that she wanted to work on Leah's story.  I let her know that if she needed any other help, just to let me know.  While we were discussing the story, Dulce moved into the little girls' house.  She is a big girl that was helping out over with the medium girls and I'm not sure yet why she came this way, but I do know her fairly well & her name (which means "sweet" in English) completely fits her personality and character!  She'll be a great addition to the home.

Alina & I called home briefly to talk with everyone and then watched a movie with the big girls.  When we came home and opened the door, I heard noise in the kitchen.  We went to the kitchen but didn't see anything.  I moved a few things around, certain that I had heard the mouse...but nothing happened.  I went to the bedroom to put my purse on the dresser (where I normally keep it) and when I walked back into the kitchen, Alina was frozen in place staring at the top corner of our kitchen (above the cupboards) and she said "There's the mouse."  I didn't see anything and she said it's tail is dangling from that hole in the corner, too afraid to point.  I looked up and saw a tail...it wasn't a mouse - it was a RAT and a BIG ONE!!!

Aaaaaaahhhhhhh....that's Honduras.

A Day at the Playground

Once again, today was a pretty "normal" day.  Woke up and had my devotional time with God, followed by heading the the little girls' house for circle devotions & breakfast, and then walking them to school.  The girls seemed to be ready for school earlier than normal this morning.  Alina came with me once again to my classes this morning.  She read another page in a book out loud along with the students.  One of my 6th grade classes was not able to come down for reading time because the teacher's schedule didn't allow for it this morning.  Our classes only meet once a week, so they'll have to wait for next week in order to participate once again.  I walked with the girls to their dining hall when the morning session of classes was over.  Here at the orphanage when you walk anywhere, your children should be in a nice, straight line.  This has really been a challenge with the little girls, but it's a work in progress.

After lunch, Alina & I walked back to school once again before heading to the apartment for just a little bit.  The girls are in school from about 1:00-2:30.  Before going to pick the girls up from school, I took Alina to the snack shack for an ice cream cone.  They had replaced their flavors since the power outage on Sunday, so both Alina & I decided on chocolate cones.  After eating them, we went to pick up the girls from school, passing the lines of boys walking to their homes.  I only know a few of them, but gave them high fives as we passed.

When we picked up the girls we headed to the playground at the school, since there wasn't the ensenanza devotional study this afternoon.  The girls played for about an hour while I chatted with Doris and interacted with a bunch of little girls.  Just like in our own families, there are fights that break out all the time.  Imagine how often your children argue in a day and then multiply that by about 15-20 (since there are around 35 girls in the house).  One girl came up to me at the playground crying very hard and showed me her back while she said that another girl bit her.  It was already very swollen and turning black & blue.  I brought the two girls over to Pamelita and asked if she could handle that, since it was a little more serious than the arguments I was used to handling.  After I turned them over to Pamelita, Elizabeth (one of the staff here) came biking down the trail to the playground and Pamelita sent them to her.

When playground time was up, we headed back to the house to have supper.  The tia (that's what they call the cook) made the girls tortillas filled with beans and butter that was home-made from the farm.  This is the first time we've had tortillas in the little girls house this year.  Last year it was practically a daily thing, but I guess they've been out of flour for a while.  The tortillas were delicious!

After supper comes bath time, and after the girls were all bathed, I spent an hour chatting with Elizabeth before heading home.  Her parents and brother arrived from Washington State yesterday, so prayers for a healthy stay here would be much appreciated.  Alina stayed with the big girls watching a movie while I went home for the evening.

Alina Begins 'God Time'

Alina & I are part of a Mommy-Daughter devotional group called Secret Keeper Girl (SKG).  This group began about a year ago and is a way for moms of 'tweens (8-12 year olds) to connect with their daughters while daughter still look to their moms for guidance...before they hit those potentially rebellious teen years!  For more information, feel free to visit Dannah Gresh's (founder) website for Secret Keeper Girls at http://secretkeepergirl.com/ .  We are going through Dannah's two books, each of which contain 8 great mommy-daughter dates.  We are currently on Date #7 of the friendship book which involves a date with God and shows girls how to have that quality time with Him.  Although I accidentally left the SKG guide and daughter diary at home (hoping Bob will bring it on Monday when he comes down here), I did show Alina how to spend time in God's Word.  There are a few good websites for devotions for kids that I had found (until the SKG devotions come down)...they are:

1.  Truth For Kids - This site has a daily devotion for kids, or you can search by topic.  http://www.truthforkids.com/kids-devotions-online/#.UgN8fNK1GE2

2.  Kids 4 Truth - This site has 2 daily devotions that kids can choose from.  http://kids4truth.com/Devos/Home.aspx

3.  Heaven's Inspirations - Also a devotion that changes daily with topics to choose from on their main page.  http://www.heavensinspirations.com/childrens-devotionals.html

After our devotions this morning, the day was a pretty normal day...going to circle and breakfast.  I brought Alina along with me to school today.  The classes are small pull-out classes of Spanish reading, I think I might have mentioned that before.  Alina helped me to set up the small rugs on the floor and get the books out prior to each class starting.  In one of the classes, she actually took a turn and read a page out loud in Spanish...the kids commended her for her bravery in trying!

After classes, we took the little girls back to the house to each lunch and then walked them back to school.  We chatted with Elizabeth about helping out in the afternoons with the special needs classes, and then went and chatted with Katja about Bob & Pastor Jeff coming on Monday...to ensure they'd have a ride with Norman from the airport to here.  Then it was time to get the girls from school, take them home for their ensenanza (Bible study), get them supper and showered up for the night.  Since tonight was Wednesday, there was church this evening where 2 female volunteers shared their testimony.  By the time we got home it was dark out.  We had heard about the big storms in New London and prayed for those who have been devastated by the storms.

Honduras Critters

Today is going to be my "critter day".  A lot of what I did today - devotions in the morning, circle & breakfast with the little girls, classes at school, lunch with the little girls, playing with them on the playground, supper and bath time with the little girls - didn't change...so I will take you through my day in terms of the critters around me, since today was an extra special day for that!

We have a mouse in the house!  As she was making coffee this morning, Kimberly found that a mouse had gotten into her oatmeal, and had traveled all along the cupboard of our kitchen.  I guess we'll have to be more careful about what's left out on the cupboards and what gets put away into the refrigerator.

I'm not too terribly worried about mice (since Alina & I normally eat with the kids, so we don't have much food here in the house), but ants just disgust me!  So I'm very thankful that nothing sweet has been left out for ants to find their way into the house.  We have all sizes of ants down here, tiny ones that I 'tweek' off of the kitchen table each morning...only about 3-5 of them each day); then we have the slightly larger ants that if I didn't know better, I'd say they have razor sharp teeth.  They make these enormous ant hills in the grass and if you're not careful and stand on one, they swarm up your leg and bit like crazy.  It hurts and it takes a while to get them all swatted off.  Then there are these super-sized black ants.  Think about our big black ants back in Wisconsin and then multiply that size by at least 5!  I don't think these ants are harmful, but they just look disgusting.  They are currently crawling all around the outside of our apartment.

So on the way to the little girls' house this morning, Alina was in front of me and jumped and let out a half-sigh, half-scream.  I asked her what was up and she asked if the "thing" in front of her was a tarantula.  It was!...but it was dead.  It was still all in tact, not sure why it died.  It was fun to see her reaction, although she got over it fairly quickly.  I let her know that now she won't be too terribly shocked when she sees a live one.

Bees - they're all over the place, trying furiously to build nest after nest which get taken down by the girls and boys of the houses.  Earlier this week, one of the big girls (Daniela) put some paper on the end of a stick and set it on fire to burn a bees nest down in the little girls' house.  We had quite a big nest going outside Kimberly's bedroom window, but I believe it was taken down by either Julieth or Veronica this past weekend because it's no longer there.  Yet there are still a few bees clinging to the spot on the patio ceiling where the nest once was.

Termites - Alina & I found a termite nest started between the slats of our bedroom window.  We're not too worried (for ourselves) since it's on the outside and termites go after wood, not humans.  But every once in a while some bug comes to the termite nest, looking for some delicious termites and gets pretty loud as its wings flap against the window.

Grasshoppers - These are also much bigger than what you'd see in the states.  Generally they're 6-8 inches long 3-4 inches tall (and keep in mind that I'm a mathematics teacher, so these measurements are fairly accurate!) and either green or a reddish color.  The first one we saw was out at the farm.  Alina jumped and just wanted to keep on walking.  We later saw a dead one outside our apartment - again, it grossed her out.  The neighbors across from us had a grasshopper get INTO their apartment, so they kept it as a pet until they moved out...then moved it outside into the hallway areas.  I think we've seen 2 since, and she's getting more & more desensitized to them.

The first night we moved into this apartment we saw a BIG cockroach hiding in the upper corner of our living room, close to the ceiling.  We haven't seen it since, but today a smaller sized cockroach crawled out from under the chair I was sitting in at school while we were reading through a Magic Tree-house book in Spanish.  One of the kids killed it right away, and we all laughed.

Last night Kimberly found a moth in her bedroom that was white with all of these colorful designs on it.  I have never seen a moth like it!  She took a picture and we're hoping that the camera was able to zoom in on it closely without too many problems.  Most moths here are huge, like the size of bats.  They just cling to walls like most moths do back at home...just much bigger and when they're flying they make you think of bats.

A few days ago, Alina found a praying mantis at the little girls' house.  Also there are these TINY snails that crawl around on the vegetation, very cute in a snail-sort of way.  One of them was just "booking it" and reminded me of the snail in the movie Monsters University that I had taken Max & Noah to see.

So, there's a glimpse into the critter life here in Honduras!  Hope you've enjoyed & will get back to a regular blog tomorrow.

Invisible

Each morning I wake up around 3:30am here in Honduras (which would be 4:30am Wisconsin time).  Just like back in the States, I reserve that time for me & God.  I sit down and go through my devotion for the day before writing this blog to update all of you on the previous day's events.  I will share the notes from yesterday's message that I entered into my daily journal with you here:

God's Word:

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. ~ Isaiah 30:21

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes His steps. ~ Proverbs 16:9

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worth of praise, think about these things. ~ Philippians 4:8

Notes I took from the devotion:

According to recent statistics, we make 5000 decisions each day...decisions like what time to get out of bed, whether to exercise, what kind of cereal to eat, which bills to pay, whether to water the plants today or wait until tomorrow, which vehicle to put gas into, whether to react in anger or respond with understanding, whether or not to create drama, whether to set time aside for God, how to speak to our child, etc.  In the 5000 decisions you make today, take a moment to pause before deciding.  Ask the Holy Spirit for His guidance & counsel.  And choose to FOLLOW as He leads the way.

Like David said on Sunday...everything we do is a choice!...We can choose to follow our own voice or the voice of our Lord.  Which path will you choose today?

So as we were getting ready to head out for the morning, Kimberly found a millipede in her room.  She freaked out quite a bit, which made me smile since she is a veterinary technician, and should love animals, right?  I had already taken 2 millipedes out of our house since our stay here, so I took this one outside as well.  Perhaps it's the same millipede, just wants to live in our house???

Anyway, Alina & I went to the little girls' house.  It was still very wet/damp outside (it had been raining practically all weekend), so the girls' circle was held in the sala (living room).  The girls behaved fairly well this morning.  After circle came breakfast and then heading to school.  It was nice to see the new doorknob on the elementary school library.  Since the first 1/2 hour of school I wasn't scheduled to have a class, I borrowed a broom from the main office to sweep out the library.  The dirt buildup on the ceramic tile floors had gotten to be a bit much since I hadn't swept last week (I had went looking for a broom multiple times, but never found one).  This morning I had 4 classes - all 5th graders.

I took the little girls back to their house for lunch.  Finally the sun had come out!  When the sun is out down here, it is HOT, so after taking the girls back to school, I headed to the apartment to quickly change out of my jeans to capris.  Alina & I headed to the store.  She had wanted ice cream but since the power was out all day yesterday, there wasn't any.  I'm guessing that all of the ice cream had melted and they will not get more until just before the next team comes this Thursday (to not risk losing it due to another power outage).  We bought some M&Ms instead and some juice.  When we finished, Alina bought 10 little jello cups (about the size of a sewing thimble) for 5 cents each to give to the girls in the yards playing as we passed by on our way to school.  We picked up the little girls from school and brought them back to the house.  I stayed with the little girls to do afternoon devotions while Alina went with the medium girls.

When Alina met me back at the little girls' house, she had a drawing for me from an older girl named Pamela.  Pamela is a rather special girl to me.  Here's the story:  I am TERRIBLE with names!  So the year I had first met her, I also met numerous other children.  The very next year that I came down, she asked me if I remembered her.  I do have a gift for remembering faces, however not names.  So I was honest with her & let her know that I remembered her face but not her name, so I asked her for her name.  She replied with "I guess I'm invisible then," to which I kindly laughed and replied, "Well it's nice to meet you Invisible!"...and that's how I've called her ever since.  We share a pretty special relationship now.  I've known her for most of the years I've been coming down here and she is a rare girl here at Emmanuel who has the same large size feet that I have, so I tend to leave her with some shoes every time I leave.  It's very common for children here to draw you pictures, color you pictures or write you notes before you leave to show their appreciation for you having come to serve them.  I am showered with them each time I come.  Alina is still waiting for her first drawing but I've reassured her that she will get them as the kids come to know her better.

After devotions was supper-time and then bath-time.  When I began combing the girls' hair, all of a sudden my stomach didn't feel so well.  I needed to have Alina finish up combing the girls' hair so that I could go home, just in case I needed to be sick.  The feeling subsided after an hour or two and I was able to head to bed without much problem.

A Day Without Electricity

I was excited for today...Sunday's finally here!  A day to go to church and possibly have the chance to hear David preach (since there isn't a group here right now...the Maryland team left yesterday morning).  As we were getting ready for the morning, POOF!...the power went out.  We were told later that they had shut the power down in town to work on some "fixes" and it would most likely be out until about 4pm.  Our bathroom has no windows, so gets pitch black when you need to use it and prefer to shut the door.  No power means the fridge went out, so you need to make sure that you're not opening the doors to just "look inside" to see if you're even hungry, like we do back in the States.  You see, in these 3rd world countries, sometimes the power can be out for days (even when they tell you it'll only be for a few hours).

We headed to church and although last night you could hear the music group practicing and rehearsing, today it sounded completely different since there was no electricity - acoustic only!  This also meant that there were no words to songs showing up on the big screen in front (like we have at New Hope), so you either knew the song by heart or you didn't.  David did preach today and it was powerful...about being careful not to choose the paths that lead to darkness, about being able to decipher God's voice and not go against it to follow your own.  I've heard David speak a handful of times through the years and he has a way to his approach that is so powerful!  I'm also in awe how he can speak what would probably be the equivalent of 2 typed pages in Spanish before reverting back to English to translate it verbatim...with none of his sermon written down!  I've heard this year that when he dedicated his life to God, he begged God not to make him preach.  More often than not, there are pastors here from groups or pastors from town that come in to preach so that David doesn't have to...but it's interesting how God can take what we see as our weakness and the things that we SO don't want to do and use them for His Glory.

After church, Alina & I asked permission to take Yency, Coco, and Michell to the tienda (store) to buy them some lunch.  Tuesday is Yency & Coco's birthday.  They're twins, although you'd NEVER guess it by looking at them.  They are the most non-look-alike fraternal twins I have ever seen!  Again, I wish I had a working camera to take a picture each day and post it with this blog so that you'd have a visual to the things I'm mentioning along the way.  Lunch for the day at the tienda consisted of rice, a tortilla, fried chicken and potato salad...yep, you heard that right - potato salad.  Alina & Coco didn't really care for the potato salad, so the rest of us finished it off for them.  The girls at the chicken right down to just the bone, which is something you don't typically see in the States.  I think the thing that struck Alina the most was that when they were done eating, they packed up ALL the scraps that were left into the saran wrap that had covered their plate, so that they could either save it for later to eat or take it back to their friends in the yard to share with them.  They threw NOTHING in terms of food away!  This is very typical for the people here (and I'm talking about in the entire country, not just this orphanage).  They do not waste food like many of us Americans tend to do.  They know SOMEBODY will eat it.  They KNOW what it is to FEEL HUNGER, rather than just be hungry at the moment and run to the fridge to grab a snack like we do.

After lunch we first walked Michell & Coco back to the medium girls' house (the girls were in the dining hall eating), then we walked Yency back to the big girls' house.  Along the way, Yency pointed out an enormous toad to Alina.  It was dead, but enormous nonetheless.  I had completely overeaten & my stomach wasn't feeling well.  I headed back to the house to rest a bit.  The power was still out and Julieth (one of the staff here who lives in one of the 4 apartments in this quadraplex) said something about music.  I got my computer and MP3 player and connected them so she could listen to Christian music as she passed the time without electricity.  She brought it back a couple of hours later saying she was SO SORRY that the battery went out.  I just smiled at her & reassured her that it was okay, because it really didn't matter to me that much when we don't have electricity anyway.

Kimberly & I had a really good chat about her post-Honduras plans.   She's preparing to head back to the States for a bit on August 15th - the same day Pastor Jeff will return to the States from his short visit here.  Please pray for her and for strength in her journey, both while she is travelling to the U.S. and also during her time here.

In the late afternoon or early evening, Alina & I went for a walk back past the toddler house.  We chatted quite a bit and on our return, stopped at the toddler and baby house to chat with Brandy.  I'm excited for her to get a chance to go back home this coming weekend.  It'll be the first time she's been back home in the States since May of 2012!  I've known Brandy for 3 years now and what a sweet person!  She always has a smile on her face and is always very intent on listening to what's going on.

Alina & I climbed up to the water tower, so that I could show her what it looks like to look at the entire orphanage at once.  It wasn't yet sun-down, which I hear is a really beautiful time to be up there...but it was pretty nonetheless.  On our way back to the apartment, we stopped at the medium girls' house to chat (Alina played a bunch of games inside).  When we finally got back to the apartment, the electricity STILL was not on.  Julieth said that with all of the rain we had today, a pole fell down in town and now the prediction was that it would be on by 8pm.  By 7:00, the apartment was completely dark.  I sent Alina to bed.  We had one of those crank flashlights that only work as you are cranking it.  I also discovered there was a miniature flashlight on the end of my Honduran cell phone...but that my battery was close to dying.  Julieth brought a candle and some matches over to us, and after quite a while of trying to figure out what exactly to put the candle in (and coming up with an "odd concoction" of a canning jar, the top of an air freshener and tissue paper) we finally made it work and had some light in the apartment.  Kimberly & I had a good chat at the kitchen table before turning in for the night.

The Shipment Arrives

On Saturdays there is no circle devotions, but we still go over to the little girls' house at 6am.  So after making sure all the girls were dressed and had their shoes on, Alina went with them into the sala (like a living room) to watch Toy Story 3 with them while I chatted with the 2 staff members: Karelia & Elizabeth as well as the 2 other volunteers assigned to this house:  Maggie & Samantha.  Maggie is actually leaving back for the States on Tuesday.  She's been here a month.  Samantha just got here this week and will be staying for 3 weeks.  We had a brief conversation about her beginning to worry about going to the airport herself (since no teams are going back on that day)...she asked a LOT of questions about the bus to get to Tegucigalpa and travelling there alone, or if she should just ask Norman to take her.  I advised her not to think about it until the week of departure, saying that there might be another volunteer leaving that same day or perhaps a staff member that realizes they need to use their day off to run in to Tegucigalpa for some much-needed items.  All would happen in due time.

We had breakfast (granola once again) and Alina tried her first strawberry moon pie.  She didn't really care for it so I suggested that when she saw the medium girls in their yard, she share it with them rather than throw it away.  We are so eager to throw away food in the States, but never truly realize how privileged we are to have food in excess until we actually see, with our own eyes, those who are not in that situation.  After breakfast we headed to the school playground so the girls could play.  It began raining and rained most of the day.  Today was actually the first day EVER in ALL of my times down here in Honduras that I wore pants all day!  They kept the girls at the park for about 2 hours, but since it just got more & more damp, giving the little girls more & more chills, the older girls finally decided to bring them back to the sala at their house to watch more movies inside or to color in the dining hall or do other activities.  Alina entertained the girls by doing some cartwheels, jumping rope, and using the hula hoop.  Because we were indoors, the volume was VERY loud, so at one point I had to take a break and run to the apartment because I felt a headache coming on.

The girls had spaghetti for lunch today.  Alina helped to serve up the plates and also helped with dishes after lunch!  In the afternoon, Alina & I headed down to the yard to visit with the medium girls.  Alina played a bit of soccer with Coco and Michell and I chatted with Doris' younger sister, Elena.  Two years ago Elena would barely talk to me.  She was SO shy!  Today she wouldn't settle down and kept talking & talking.  She had just gotten done with visiting her mom and was full of energy!  When things settled down a bit and Alina looked like she was getting a little tired of soccer, I invited her to go with me to the snack shop and get an ice cream cone.  She quickly said, "Yes!"

As we were walking to the ice cream shop, I saw the semi-truck!  They had received a container and I never heard it.  They were just beginning to unload it.  I kept my word and purchased cones for me & Alina and said, "Why don't we go over and watch them unload the truck while we're eating our cones?"  We did and they were still unloading when I had finished my cone, so I began to help.  Alina helped too when her cone was finished.  It's amazing at how fast a container can get unloaded, and how much Dr. Reynolds can actually PACK in a container!  Boxes and boxes of unending moon pies!!!  There were clothes and so many packages of diapers!  A team who's planning on coming in September had sent down some supplies for possible activities that they'll be doing with the kids.  A huge commercial kitchen sink was sent down (the kind there would be in restaurants or a cafeteria).  A walk-in freezer was sent down in pieces!  And everything went so smoothly, efficiently and quickly!  I'm thankful for the cool raining day, because we definitely could've gotten a LOT more sweaty than we did.  I had never gotten the chance to help unload a container on prior visits.  It was a very exciting experience for Alina & me both!

Right after unloading the container it was time to go back up to the little girls' house for supper and bath time.  Yanira gave me a bracelet and Doris gave Alina a shirt.  I still have a difficult time comprehending how gracious these children are with their things.  They remind me constantly of the widow who gave her last money to God, knowing and having true faith that he would provide for her.

Alina stayed with Doris and the big girls watching to watch movies for a while before coming home to bed.  While she was gone, I read a couple more chapters in my book:  The Language of Love & Respect  by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs.  For more information on this book, see http://www.amazon.com/The-Language-Love-Respect-Communication/dp/084994807X

Locked out of the Library

Because it's Friday, this morning began with Big Circle.  If I had not mentioned it last week, this is where ALL of the children of Emmanuel, staff and volunteers (and teams if there are any) come together in the special needs yard to sing praises to God, recite their memory passages that they had learned throughout the week, and then hear from His Word.  This morning our small girls got to recite their verse, actually verses...as the children generally memorize an entire chapter of the Bible to recite!  They did well.  One of the members of the Maryland team who had actually come 3 weeks early to teach the children how to play musical instruments led devotions this morning, talking about how vast the universe is...and how much MORE God is.

After circle, we headed to breakfast and then made a quick stop home so that Alina could change to shorts and get some water, before she headed off for her last day to spend volunteering with the Maryland group.  I headed back to the little girls' house to walk the girls to school and then begin classes.  When I got to the school, the library was locked.  I figured this wasn't much of a problem, since it had been locked on Monday as well; so I just waited a bit while interacting with a bunch of the medium girls who were waiting in the courtyard to be called into their classrooms.  As it got closer to class time, I asked Felipe where the key was to the library.  He hunted down Elvia and she tried to open the door with the key.  It wouldn't open.  She gave the key to Felipe, it still wouldn't open.  He gave it to a teacher who uses the library as a resource center most often, it wouldn't open.  They turned it over to Veronica (the elementary school principal), it wouldn't open.  She gave it to the boy who serves as custodian, it wouldn't open.  We were locked out!

If you know much about this orphanage, it's that it's constructed out of bricks.  There were only 2 ways into this library, through this door or through a window.  Windows are much different down here than they are in the States.  They consist of MANY small horizontal window panels, so it would require removing quite a few of them so that a small child could crawl through into the library and then hopefully be able to successfully unlock the door.  Veronica decided to call Wilson, one of the handymen from Emmanuel to come over to the school and work on getting it open.  Wilson took the entire doorknob off of the door so that we could get in and start class, and then while we were having classes, he proceeded to put a new doorknob on.

Also during our classes in the library, Mateo #2 (a volunteer from the Maryland group who calls himself this because his brother-in-law is also a Matthew and wanted to be #1) hung two paintings int he library that the group had done during the week.  One was a huge painting that just about went from floor to ceiling of a tree and all of the leaves of the tree were outlines of the students' hands who used the library most often.  As students came in today to our class, they took quite a bit of time to look at the tree to try to find their hand.

After morning classes, I walked with the little girls to their dining hall to eat lunch.  Each day the meal seems to be the same - vegetables in a ramen noodle soup.  Today as we were cleaning up after lunch, an older girl brought down a dish from the medium girls' house - spaghetti...all of our older girls just gobbled it up talking about how delicious it was!  They offered me a little bit, and I had a few noodles, but to me it was "just spaghetti"...but I guess after you eat the same thing for lunch day in & day out, it's amazing to them when they try something different.

On Fridays there are no afternoon classes, so the little girls went to the park (on the Emmanuel grounds) to play.  I took a walk around and just socialized with a bunch of the medium girls, like Yency, Coco, Leticia, etc.  It was a nice break from the regular routine.  When the little girls got back to the house, there were many Maryland volunteers waiting for them to say their goodbyes, since they leave tomorrow.  After the sweet goodbyes, it was time for supper and then baths.

When all of the girls were squeaky clean, I had a chance to sit down & have a nice, long chat with Doris.  She's been wanting this for the past week.  We sat together and she shared something that had been weighing on her heart over the past bunch of months.  We discussed the proper way to handle the situation and prayed over it.  When Karelia came to take the girls on a walk around the orphanage (to try to tire them out before bed), I headed back to the house since Alina wasn't feeling so well once again.  Thanks be to God that by the time I had gotten home, Alina's stomach ache had went away.  The talk with Doris had truly wiped me out, so I headed to bed very early tonight, but will be getting up at about 3am again tomorrow so a good night's rest will much be needed!

Hawaii in Honduras

Alina made it through the entire night without vomiting, which was encouraging.  When I woke this morning, I felt her forehead and it seemed to be a LOT less hot than it had been yesterday, however it still felt warm.  I let her know that she should still sleep during the morning, but that we'd check in and see how she was doing at lunch time...I did check on her a couple of times throughout the morning too.

I headed to the little girls' house once again to do breakfast.  Maggie and Samantha (a new volunteer from Pennsylvania) handled circle, so I went into the dining hall to get the tables set up and the granola out and ready to be eaten.  Between breakfast and school, Alina seemed to be doing better but was still pretty tired out.  Then came lunch (bringing the little girls home to eat, eating, cleaning up, and returning them to school), and after lunch I decided to get Alina out into the nice sun to help bring a little life back into her body.  She said her knees were really weak as we walked to the store to get something a little more nutritious.  She ate a little bit of plain white rice and a tortilla, and then drank a strawberry-banana smoothie.  She wasn't able to eat much more, but that was okay since she hadn't eaten the entire day yesterday nor breakfast this morning.

On the way back to the apartment, we stopped by the quadraplex where Katja lives.  She had left a propane tank out for me to carry back to our apartment (thank GOODNESS we live so close because they're HEAVY!).  The tank was probably just over 1/2-full, but still weighed quite a bit, and especially carrying it uphill to our apartment.

I noticed that the Maryland group was gathering in front of the medium girls' house.  Joanne was there, so I went over to say "hi".  She asked about Alina, and then we all gathered around holding hands while she prayed for Alina to completely recover, as well as strength on my part to get through this trying time.  We headed to the shelter in front of my apartment as the medium girls approached so that they could do an activity with making butterflies with them out of coffee filters and clothespins.  I am so amazed by and in awe of those who are good at art and the ideas they come up with, because that is so not a gift I have been blessed with.  When I saw my small girls approaching their house for their activity, I headed up that way.  They did a short devotion and each received a coloring book.  They were SO excited!

After the activity, it was once again shower time and bath time...but after bath time today would be an all-together new thing!

When I got to the house, Alina mentioned that Kimberly would not be coming home...that she would meet us up at the team house for the staff & volunteer dinner that the Maryland group was providing.  Since Alina was feeling quite a bit better (still not 100% yet though), I had her come along because I knew that the food would be good for her.  The Maryland team had chosen a Hawaiian theme this year for their dinner.  We were greeted with 3 girls in grass skirts doing a dance, a boy who was handing out leis, and finally another girl who was handing out a flowered hair clip to the women.  There were 5 tables of staff & volunteers (how AMAZING it is that this big of an orphanage can run so well with so few people leading...that can only be a "God thing"!!!).  Each table had its own waiter (or pair of waiters).  Before sitting down, we were offered a cheese appetizer on a stick and a small cup of fruit punch.  Children of the staff & volunteers were led to a separate room where they ate and participated in various kids activities so that the dinner could be for adults only.  Alina went with the kids, but did more helping out than being served.

Before eating, I saw Brandy and we hugged.  She asked me when I'd gotten here and I let her know that I'd been here for about a week so far.  She gave me a "look" and asked why I didn't head down to the toddler house to say "hi" to her all that time, to which I replied that I was put to work right away by Katja and have been super-busy ever since.  I heard through another family that volunteers here that she's looking for a certain bed/crib on ebay that's located in Wisconsin and is a "pick-up only".  If that's truly the case, perhaps I can help her out & arrange to get that item on the container which will get shipped down to Honduras!  We were told that every item on the menu had pineapple in it.  The meal started with iced tea and a salad, followed by a main plate of chicken and a rice that had pineapple and a few other things...not sure what...in it.  Then the cake was last and had a pineapple frosting, served with coffee if you liked.  It was ALL so delicious!  On top of that, there were 5 people chosen to participate in a limbo contest and a hula-dance contest.

One of my highlights of the night was when David & Lydia got up to leave.  He spotted me on the way out & came over to give me a hug.  He said he had thought he'd seen my face around this orphanage this past week, but wasn't really sure until now, and then asked where Andres was (EVERYONE has been asking me where Andres is!!!).  I let him know that Andres needed to stay at home this summer to work towards paying for college, but that I had brought my 10-year-old to start helping through the next bunch of years.  Since Alina was away with the children, he'll most likely meet her at church on Sunday.  :-)

On our walk home, the sky was so clear that Alina & I spent most of our time looking up.  What you can see in the night sky down here is completely different than what you'd see from Wisconsin.  We were in awe of how serene this place is.  As we walked back to the apartment, it was the perfect temperature, the clearest night, and with just the slightest bit of a refreshing breeze.  What a way to end the night!