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.