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!