Arrival to Emmanuel

Our flight out of O'Hare was scheduled for 5:30am which meant that I needed to wake at 2:30am to get ready.  Alina got up at 2:45 (of course I had to get her up).  We left the house with Jim & Jeanne at 3:15am and headed for O'Hare.  They dropped us off at the doors and we headed in.  Alina was so excited!  She had spent a bit of time the night before asking questions about the airport and the flight.  This was going to be her first flight ever!

We checked in, which is now a really simple process...no waiting in lines since everything is automated.  Then we had to wait for security to open.  Alina's bag needed to get rechecked because she had forgotten that there was a bottle of Propel in her backpack.  Security was really nice with her since it's her first time learning the "rules".  On the way to our gate, we stopped at McDonald's and with perfect timing because a long line formed quickly after we got there!  We ate at the gate and boarded when they called us, arriving in Miami about 10:00am their time.  We hit a bit of turbulence on the way, but Alina handled it quite well.  When we arrived to Miami, we called Bob and chatted for a bit, then called Kaylyn (who was with Julie) to chat with her since Julie had sent me a text after I had fallen asleep the night before saying that Kaylyn had caught seven fish that day!  Kaylyn was SO excited about having caught so many fish.  I could tell she was having fun on her vacation with Julie, Kelly & Ashley.

When we boarded the flight in Miami (for Honduras), we sat on the plane for over an hour.  There were 2 problems: a potential storm in Tegucigalpa which would make for a slippery, short, more dangerous than it already is runway; and the plane had too much fuel in it to land on this short runway.  They emptied the plane of the excess fuel, but we still had to wait for clearance from the storm before taking off.  Due to the time differences between Miami and Tegucigalpa, we arrived in Teguc around 12:30pm.  When we came through our luggage needed to get checked, which didn't end up being a problem.  Kimberly was waiting for us as we came out.  She said she'd been there since 9am and was beginning to get a little worried since she had no idea that our plane was delayed so much - she was figuring we may have missed our plane.  She said she had seen the Maryland group come in that morning, but most importantly that all of her immigration/residency papers that she thought she'd need help with that afternoon were taken care of.  This definitely eased my mind since I had a hard time the past few days trying to secure a hotel for the evening in the event that we needed to spend the night in Teguc after an afternoon at Immigration.  We ate at the McDonald's in the airport and then headed to the bus station to catch a rapidito (quick-direct bus) to Guaimaca, where Orphanage Emmanuel is located.  From the bus station in Guaimaca, we walked to Emmanuel.

Each year when I walk to Emmanuel, it's the same: for the first few days, the hill behind the apartments and hotel that leads to the medium girls house, the little girls house and then the girls' volunteer house tends to get me winded, sweaty and is back-breaking (so you can imagine what hauling luggage while climbing the hill is like).  Within 3 weeks, I'm able to take this hill without breaking a sweat.  We could hear the singing start at church and since we didn't know which apartment we'd be in, we took our luggage to the girls' volunteer house.  Katja met us at the house since she had seen us from church climbing the hill.  She offered to take the luggage to the apartment in her gator, so I went along to help while Kimberly and Alina headed to church.  I met them back at the church.

What a service to arrive to!!!...the 2 sisters of Doris (Wendy & Lourdes) had babies that were getting baptized!  I was so excited to be there for that event!  It was nice to see Doris after the service and a bunch of other children that I haven't seen in a year.  My how time has passed!

When Alina & I got back to the apartment, I realized that my camera was broken.  Unless by some act of God along the way, I doubt I will be able to take any pictures this trip.  :-(

We turned in for the night since both of us were exhausted.