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.