Heading Home

This morning Alina and I woke up very early to finalize packing.  What was 2 suitcases and over 100 pounds of items coming down to Honduras has turned into 1 suitcase weighing less than 50 pounds going home.  When we were finished packing, I grabbed Alina's Secret Keeper Girl book and we headed to the water fountain to do Date #3, which is all about having a quiet encounter with God.  Alina had been telling me most of this trip how she'd like to just sit around the water fountain in front of the church because it seemed so relaxing, so I figured this should be the most appropriate spot for us to do this mommy-daughter date.  The focus of this date was to show our daughter where the source of real beauty lies.  It's based off of the following Bible verses -

Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and clothes.  Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. 

1 Peter 3:3-4

Alina holding her SKG Mommy-Daughter Date book after Date #3

We began the mommy-daughter date together, but then I gave her time to have her first quiet encounter (date) with God alone.  The book has a guide on how to do this and she had her journal to write the verse for the morning down along with writing a prayer.

When she finished, we headed to a few different houses to say our goodbyes (to those who we didn't get to last night) before grabbing our carry-ons and suitcase and walking in to town to the bus station.  We met up with Catherine (a volunteer from Denmark who I've known for the past few years) who was also heading to Tegucigalpa to complete some paperwork.  When we arrived in Teguc, we grabbed a taxi to the airport, had breakfast and checked in.  With our suitcase now in the hands of the airport, we grabbed our carry-ons and ventured across the street to the mall to just walk around for the next few hours while we were waiting to board our plane.  We left Tegucigalpa on time, arrived in Atlanta on time and were fortunate that there was a slight delay to our connecting plane to Green Bay, so that we had time to have supper.

Going home flight from Atlanta to Green Bay

Alina did get sick on the landing into Green Bay, but all-in-all, it was another great year!  Next summer can't come quick enough!

Our Last Day at Emmanuel

It rained all night last night and although it was a steady rain (and I don't really remember waking up much if at all through  the night), I woke up this morning feeling like I really hadn't slept.  I've avoided coffee since the team has left and for the most part it's been okay.  Perhaps this morning was a combination of the rain and getting a serious lack of sleep the night before.

When we headed to the Toddler House, I took just about all of my clothes there, the shirts should fit almost all of the girls...but I wanted to leave pants and capris for Zelenes since she's so much taller than the others.  I did let her know that if the 2 pairs of jeans I had brought down were too long on her, she should pass them on to Krista (who's a long-term volunteer in the Baby House).  Krista had let me know that she only had 1 pair of jeans down here, and she's even taller than me!

LoriAnn and her Latina Laurel (Saidy)

We did our normal morning chores: cutting veggies (haven't had pataste for 2 weeks, so sorry I couldn't get a photo for all of you back home), serving breakfast, washing dishes and taking the kiddos over to the pavilion.  While we were in the pavilion it rained a bit, so that cancelled our plans to either go to the park or out on a walk.  After serving lunch, doing dishes and getting the kiddos settled down for their naps, Alina and I headed back to our room to pack up some more.  We headed out to get a few more handprints on my Team T-Shirt (I'll most likely take a picture of it tomorrow when it's complete) and then headed to the school.  I gave Karen (elementary remedial Spanish teacher I've been working with) a Team T-Shirt and then felt prompted to ask her if she had an MP3.  She said, "No."  I asked if she would like to have one and she shook her head 'yes'...so I took mine out of my purse (along with the charging cord) and gave it to her, letting her know that there were 85 Christian songs already loaded on it.  I found out later that evening from Vero Castro that Karen was VERY excited to have received the MP3.  She told me that a few weeks ago, the two of them had had a conversation about what they "wanted" and the only thing Karen said she wished to have was something to listen to music that praised God.  Vero Castro told her not to ask anybody for one, and that most likely if God wanted her to have one, He would provide in His time.  Vero Castro told me that she believes God put me there at that time for her and thanked me so much!  :-)

Ant Hills...I zoomed in only because I didn't want to get too close and get eaten alive.

Alina and I stopped at the store to get some chicken tostadas and ice cream before heading to the Toddler House for the last time in 2014.  They were delicious...$4 for the entire meal!  At the Toddler House, we played and served supper, washed the dishes and got the kids showered.  I took a few pictures before saying my final goodbyes.

A bush of flowers that I've never seen before...perhaps Jim and Jeanne know what this is?

Church was cancelled this evening, so Alina and I headed back to our room once again to pack up.  We saw Invisible on the way, so I had a small bag of clothes for her.  I gave her a hug and we said our Goodbyes.  Back in our room, the time couldn't come quickly enough for us to do our first-ever Skype chat with Bob and the kids back home.  Noah had requested to see part of the orphanage "Live" before we left, so Bob put Skype on my laptop.  I prayed that it would work.  Right before we began, Doris walked in to our room which was AWESOME because she could see our smaller kids "Live" as well!  I gave Noah a small tour of the orphanage by showing him our room and then taking the laptop outside where we're staying to show him the church, the clinic, the Medium Girls House, the apartment we had stayed in last year, and just an overall panoramic view from where we are.  Bob explained to Noah that what he was seeing was just a SMALL portion of Emmanuel and that there was so much more!  Then Bob gave Doris a "Live" tour of our house.

When we finished with our Skype session (I was truly thankful that it worked and there was enough space on the modem to do it), Alina and I headed with Doris back to the Big Girls yard.  It was after 6pm and she needed to get back in her house for the evening.  I looked around for Michell to say Goodbye to her, but they said she had taken off for a little bit (to which I replied, "I hope she didn't head for our room because we're here."), so I headed back to Doris' house to chat with her a bit longer.  Sofia came out and gave me a hug and began crying (it gets more and more difficult to leave every year), so I held her for about 15-20 minutes as she cried.  While I was holding her, Michell came back to the yard and I found out she had been waiting up at our room all that time!  Her friend, Suyapa, told me that Michell left a note underneath my door.  I gave a hug to Michell and she too started crying.  I held her for a bit and then walked her back to her house, where Alina gave her a hug.  The two girls cried for about 10 minutes in each others arms before Michell went into her house.  Alina, who had been telling me for the past few days that she was ready to head back to the States, now cried and complained all the way to Wade's house (he was having dinner for all staff and volunteers) that she was ABSOLUTELY NOT READY to go home!

Wade and Lourdes' supper was awesome.  We had some huge hotdogs (which he made on his big grill) and soda.  There was more food, but because of how we were feeling about leaving at the moment, we couldn't eat much more than the hot dog.  We said our goodbyes to Vero Castro, David and Lydia, and Wade before walking back to our room with Laurie and her family.  When we approached their house, we said goodbye to them and then headed up to our room to gather Alina's clothes and the remaining food we had to give to Zue who is in charge of the Medium Girls.  Zue and I have not had the chance to chat this trip, so I will look forward to next year, but she is such a dear friend who has a heart for these kids!  She called around to find out when the bus would leave Guaimaca, and I got to talk to Juliet (via Zue's phone) and say goodbye as well.  We chatted a bit before saying Good Night, and I promised to go up to her house in the morning to say goodbye to her one last time and to her girls.  At that point, Alina and I decided to call it a night.  Alina fell asleep almost immediately, but it took me a bit before I fell asleep.

I have truly cherished my time here at Emmanuel and will only have one more post tomorrow with our morning goodbyes and the travel home.

 

LoriAnn and Zelenes (who was quick to remind me that she didn't like her photo taken)

God's Not Dead - Movie Night

This morning I woke up at 1am.  It had been raining almost all night and I had so much on my mind with the events of today (having only 2 full days left here at Emmanuel and much to do), that I just could not sleep.  I rested for about 2 hours, before finally deciding that I just had to get up and get work done.  I showered at 3am (which is 4am Wisconsin time, so not much different than when I wake up up there) and then threw a big load of laundry into the wash machine.  We'll be giving most of our clothing away before coming home, so I wanted it to be clean.  We'll also only be bringing 1 suitcase home, rather than the 1 suitcase each that we brought down.  In all, I can say that we came home with over 100 pounds of "things" and will be going home with quite a bit less than 50 pounds.

There were a couple of exciting things that we had happen today, so I'll start at the beginning.  When we were getting ready to leave our room, Alina had opened her backpack and then she left it open as we started to head out the door.  Remembering what Bob had said about airport security finding a tarantula in Travis' backpack, I reminded Alina that MAYBE she'd like to close her backpack, so she went back to close it.  I told her that she should've read the book "There's a Tarantula in My Purse" that I had bought for her last year from a garage sale.  Her reply was, "STOP!!!"  Well, it was interesting that we had that conversation just as we were leaving, because as we stopped by our kitchen to get water before heading to the Toddler House, this was the sight to the entrance of the kitchen...

Do you see the black spot almost as big as the doorknob off to the right of the picture?

Here's a close-up of that black spot

It was so exciting!  We had JUST been talking about tarantulas prior to leaving our room for the kitchen.  And Alina's reply was precious, "It's a good thing they don't jump," she said casually.  It's like after seeing 2 (although I've seen 3) live ones this year, she's used to them now.

Our morning at the Toddler House was the same routine in terms of cutting veggies, feeding the kiddos and breakfast.  When we got to the pavilion, Glinda checked Alina for lice and found about 20 knits, which means she recently had (most likely just 1) lice on her head.  We'll have Glinda check again tomorrow, just in case.  I was lice-free!  When Glinda was finished checking me, she put my hair up into a really nice french braid.

LoriAnn and Nikoll

I headed to the school during recess to get more handprints onto the team shirt that we had received when we came down here with the Maryland team.  I hope to get the shirt completely filled up by tomorrow, there's many more girls that still need to get their hands on it.

During our break between 12:00 and 2pm, we took items that we no longer needed to the Volunteer House, we took my bigger suitcase to Laurie since they had a suitcase whose wheel broke in transit here, gave out suckers and stickers to groups of children and out at school and folded the remaining laundry that we were going to give away.  We also got Alina's suitcase started.  Tomorrow we should have minimal work in terms of packing up.

I left the Toddler House a bit early after supper because I wanted to catch up with Trey.  On Sunday I had mentioned to Lydia that I was going to show the 'God's not Dead' movie to the teen moms in the Toddler House.  She quickly grabbed Wade and asked him if we could do a movie night at the church to show the movie, and he said we could do it Tuesday (today).  I've been doing a lot of worrying because with the teen moms I had just streamed the movie from Netflix, so we had to wait a few times for the movie to buffer.  Internet is so sketchy here that by night time, it barely if at all works.  Trey headed into town today for a few items and found the movie in town at the movie store.  I had given him money to purchase it.  The movie made a BIG impression on the kids...so much so that the Big Girls wanted me to walk them back to their houses so they could share which part(s) of the movie made the most impression on them.  After I got back to my room and changed into my pajamas, I heard my name being called from outside the door.  I opened the door and saw Vero Castro (asst. principal of the school) on her bike.  She was not able to attend the movie because she had to stay back with the smaller girls in her house...but she heard from the big girls in her house how good the movie was and she wanted to know if she could borrow it from me for the night since I'd be leaving on Thursday.  I told her that the movie would be staying down here with Trey, so she could get it from him any time.  I am so excited that the kids had this opportunity to watch the movie together and that they liked it so much that the word spread.

When I called home last night to chat with Bob about contacting him tomorrow (the night before I leave), I discovered he watched the movie too...that was the ultimate ending to an already great day!!!

Math in Spanish

This morning we followed the normal routine of heading to the Toddler House and cutting up veggies before breakfast, but this morning the only veggies to cut up were potatoes...and LOTS of them!  It was interesting that Mirna (the cook) didn't know you could eat the skin of the potatoes.  She thought the skin was a layer of dirt.  Even though I mentioned that it could be eaten to her and that we eat potato skins back in the States, Laurie and I still peeled all of the potatoes anyway while Alina, and Laurie's children (Rachel, Rebekah and Nathaniel) chopped up the potatoes.

After chopping the veggies we had breakfast and as usual, Rachel and I washed the dishes.  When I came out of the kitchen, I saw Carla with a plate of what looked like restaurant food.  She told me that sometimes the Tienda sells breakfast and that was where she got it.  On the plate were 2 tortillas, a fried egg, refried beans, bacon, butter, a slice of avocado, and 2 slices of fried plantains.  It looked AMAZING!  She asked if I would like her to call down to the Tienda and ask them to set a plate aside for me.  I didn't even have to think twice...it only cost $1.25 in American money.  When the plate came up to the Toddler House, I shared with Alina (since we both had eaten breakfast already).  It was delicious.

After eating that plate of food, I walked with the big girls to the school.  The elementary school did not have classes today due to a teacher inservice.  Suany, who graduated last year and is studying for her upcoming exam in September to go to the university (kind of like an ACT test), asked for some help on the 2 math sections of the practice exam.  I told her that I'd run back to our room for a notebook and some pencils and that I'd be right back after dropping the big girls off at school.  We spent the entire morning going over the 50 practice math problems.  My master's degree in bilingual education (being able to teach math in Spanish) has really paid off here, since the problems incorporated Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2.  We finished up right around lunch time.

After getting the kids settled for taking a nap, I headed out to the farm to take a picture of the cement job that the WI/AL teams did.  When our WI/MD crew was down here, they did the left side of the greenhouse (hydroponics) floor, and the week after the AL team came in and did the right side.  I've made a few mental notes about the work done...although the AL team's side seems more smooth on the surface, there were many more cracks on that side.  Also there was a large ripple where you could see they left off on the first day and began on the second day.  In the picture the left side may look rougher, but that is all loose stone/gravel that can be swept away.  GREAT JOB WI/MD!

Left Side: WI/WVA/MD Team and Right Side: AL Team

I walked around the boys area and found Emilio who I needed to chat with about technology.  After we chatted, I headed back to the Tienda and chatted with Doris' sister, Lourdes, for a little bit before heading back to the Toddler House to play with the kiddos for an hour, then go through the supper and night time routine.  After all the kiddos were showered and dishes were done, Alina and I headed back to our room.  We brought up a movie on Netflix, called Summer Eleven.  The movie is geared to Alina's age, with 4 girls as characters who spend the summer together after their 5th grade year and all having different backgrounds.  Alina really liked it.  Although the power went out during the movie, my laptop was fully charged, so we were able to continue watching it.  The power came back on before the movie was over.  We headed to bed shortly after.

Our Last Sunday

As the days wind down here in Honduras, Alina and I are trying to treasure each day.  Today was our last Sunday, meaning it would be the last Sunday church service that we would be attending for 2014.  We asked permission to take Michell to church with us today and were blessed to see that David was preaching.  When teams come in, generally the pastor from the team does the sermon, so it's getting more and more rare while I'm here (from late July to late August) to see David preach, as there are many teams that still go through during this time.

Michell sat next to Alina in her black and gold shirt and black skirt.  She had flat-ironed her hair the night before, which had given it the appearance of being a lot longer than when it's in her naturally curly state.  When church was over, we took Michell to the store and Alina treated her to pizza, a soda, and ice cream with some of the money she had received from her Honduran bracelet fundraiser before coming on this trip.

Towards the end of the time at the store, I headed back to our room to grab our internet modem stick and the computer.  I noticed last night that the 'God's Not Dead' movie is on Netflix and you can choose the dubbed over version in Spanish...so I wanted to show it to the teen moms over at the Toddler House.  Although we had to wait about 4-5 times during the first half-hour of the movie for it to "buffer", the rest of the movie went smoothly.  The girls absolutely were glued to the screen and didn't want to take their 10 minute shift watching the toddlers sleep during the movie.  They were very grateful in the end after seeing it.  If you have not yet seen the movie, check out the website and trailers here...since the movie is now out on DVD and for rental.

God's Not Dead Movie Website - to Preview

When I chatted with Lydia this morning in church, she thought we should find a way to show it to all of the teenagers in the church on Tuesday evening.  There's many obstacles we'll have to go through to get this done such as: Will the internet stick work when internet is so sketchy here?  What do we do if we lose power (no longer can project onto big screen with that many teens)?  Is there a better way to go about showing this movie...other alternatives like downloading a Spanish version to my computer so as not to have to run off of the internet or perhaps someone has an iPad or iPhone via Tigo (a better internet provider than the one I have) where we can download the Netflix app and run it from there?  So there will be lots of things to work out between now and Tuesday if this movie is to be shown.  All-in-all, it'll be in God's hands which I've noticed already.  When I asked for my husband, Bob's help back in the States, he looked the movie up on Netflix and it's not even available up there - so I already count this as a miracle and something that's His will to happen since it's available on Netflix down here.

After watching the movie with the girls, Alina and I headed to the Small Boys house to hand out the remaining Sheriff stickers (left over from the HoeDown) to them, then we headed up to the Power Toddlers house to hand out the barn animal cartoon character stickers (again, left over from the HoeDown) to them and then headed to the Small Girls house to also give them the barn animal stickers.  I think there may be some left yet for the toddlers tomorrow.  We chatted with people along the way, but for the most part the day was winding down so we headed back to our kitchen where we made soup and munched on a cucumber with salt and water.  We did lots of laundry today and folded it, putting it into piles for the people (houses) we were going to take it to.  Alina's suitcase fits inside of mine, so we're plan to give so much away that we really only need to have one visible suitcase going back.  I told Alina that we came down with over 100 pounds of "stuff", and we'll be going back with less than 50 pounds of "stuff"...most of it will get left down here with someone who can use it.

No More Teams

This morning the California and Ohio teams left.  I wrote a long letter to my friend from CA, Lorraine, who I've known for the past few years.  We've had some great Christian women conversations over the past few years and I was supposed to go over to the Team House last night after they got back from the restaurant in town.  The problem was that I work so hard during the day (and get up so early) that by 7pm I am usually in bed.  I tried to stay awake so that I could meet up with her at 7:30 when she got back, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open.  I felt so bad that I made sure to write her a letter this morning after doing my devotions and writing my blog.  I said that I did value our friendship, but that I've noticed that she works just as hard in her relationships down here with the children as I do and sometimes that means we need to sacrifice our time together for the kids.  I reminded her that we have social media (like Facebook) where we can keep up with each other and continue our chats...the children down here don't have that.  So in encouragement, I shared Genesis 31:49 with her, which reads "May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other."

There were also 3 volunteers that headed out on the team bus this morning, as well as a family of 6 (where the dad was a doctor and active in the clinic all week, a mom, and 4 children all ages 6 and younger), and then John & Jenny (along with their boss who's been working with the horses and therapy training).  That has cleared us out quite a bit, especially since there will not be a team coming for a couple of weeks now.  Andi (the volunteer/team coordinator) has also taken off for the States, probably because we do have a break of no teams in here.

This morning was the same routine in terms of cutting veggies (there was a lot of Yucca and carrots, but still no patastes), serving breakfast and heading over to the pavilion.  We took the children to the park to play a little bit later, but all headed in when Jefferson got stung by a wasp because the boys were throwing stones at their nest.  Hmmm...sounds like something my Noah would do.

After lunch I headed back to our room to do some research and Alina went to Laurie's house to play with Rebekah.  We met back up at the Toddler House and Nikoll was waiting for me at the gate.  We played until supper time.  Alina got to get the toddlers ready for supper today.  There's a routine to it...making sure the kids are lined up nicely by room, ready to say their prayer (they do some "getting ready exercises"...uno, dos, tres...you'll have to ask her about it), she created the supper prayer line-by-line and the toddlers repeated it, she called them by row to enter the dining hall, she prepped them to eat, and then said "buen provecho" (which means Enjoy!  Eat up!).  This is something that the teen moms normally do, but they asked her to do it this evening.  She did a really good job!

After supper, showering the kiddos, and washing dishes (Saidy helped me to wash dishes again), I headed to the Big Girls yard to chat with Michell and Doris before calling it a night.  When Alina and I went back to our room, she ate the rest of our banana bread before reading a chapter in her Left Behind series book and then headed to bed.

Our Last Big Circle of 2014

Since there were no veggies to cut once again at the Toddler House, Alina and I were able to go to all of Big Circle this morning.  This would be our last Big Circle of 2014.  The youth pastor from OH spoke once again and let the children of Emmanuel know how his team came down thinking that they would show love to the children and show Jesus to the children, but they have received so much MORE love and so much MORE of Jesus from the children than they could ever show to them.  He let them know that he hopes they take what they have and share it with others, whether it be in Honduras or if some children have the chance to come up to the States because WE do not have what they have...a community completely dedicated and devoted to God.

Alina and Michell at Big Circle

The Grandecito House reciting the 10 Commandments during Big Circle

Big Circle Worship and Praise Team

When we got to the toddler House, we served breakfast and stayed for a little bit in the pavilion.  Around 9:30am, the big girls decided to take the toddlers to the farm.  Nikoll still looks for me and runs to me every time she sees me, so I carried her on the walk since her legs wouldn't take her all of the way.  We stopped at the school to buy an order of tacos...the upcoming graduates are once again selling them to raise funds for graduation.  I was glad that I purchased them, because Nikoll ended up eating a few bites.  I gave my "soda in a bag" to Zelenes who made sure that each child got a sip (since I'm not a big fan of orange soda).

Nikoll playing with blocks in the pavilion

We spent some time watching the horse trainer work with the boy who currently cares for the horses, showing him how to walk alongside the horse while a rider is on.  The horses are meant to be used as therapy horses for special needs training.  The toddlers were fascinated by the horses.  There was an enormous toad as well that caught their eye over at the farm!  On our walk home, Zelenes shared her story with me on how she came to the orphanage.  She is by far the tallest female orphan I've seen here, only about an inch shorter than me.  I let her know that I would leave my 2 pairs of jeans with her, since she requires longer legged jeans than all of the other girls (and I've never seen her wearing female jeans).

I chatted with Karen after lunch about classes to see if I could skip today since David and Lydia would be up at the team house giving their testimony.  I've only heard the testimony second hand from Andres when he had the chance to hear it about 5 years ago...but never first-hand.  Karen was surprised because she said she was just about to find me to let me know she couldn't hold class because she had to substitute for another teacher.

This evening was a pretty normal evening in terms of getting the toddlers supper, showered, dishes done, settled in and then getting settled in ourselves.  Jenny (John's wife) offered spaghetti and meatballs to Alina, who I swear is on a growth spurt right now because she's always hungry.  Karen brought over a baby turtle for us to play with that she was holding for Vero Castro.  All-in-all, it was a good night.

The Chick Magnet

We woke up this morning around 2am to some very hard rains...so the 2-3 weeks of "nice weather" (AKA non-rain) are now behind us.  I fell back asleep and woke up at my usual 4am time, showered, dressed, had my devotions and caught up with my blog.  When I opened the door to outside, I saw a turtle scooting across the front of our yard.  The turtles are usually down by the water pond resting on a cement slab, so I thought I'd better get my camera out because I had never seen them up this far away from the water.  The rain must've got it confused.

Our guest this morning

We didn't need to get to the Toddler House until a little bit later because they were out of vegetables, so instead of arriving at 6am, we got there about 6:30am.  It generally takes the 5 of us about an hour to peel and cut veggies.  The knives aren't all that sharp.  Alina and I were greeted by RosaLinda and Yessi, who were wearing the Green Bay Packer shirts we had given them (given to me to take down this way by a coworker).  I've never seen Packer shirts down here, which would probably make sense since I believe I'm the only volunteer yet from Wisconsin who's been at Emmanuel.  Hopefully that will change now in the future.  But if any of you have Packer clothing you'd like to equip these children with, please feel free to either send it to me or to send it down to Dr. Reynolds in TN (donation information is on the Orphanage Emmanuel website).

Left to Right: RosaLinda (China), Alina, and Yessi with probably the 1st two Packer shirts ever at Emmanuel

After playtime in both the pavilion and the park, we decided to take the kiddos on a walk to the park in front of the orphanage.  Alina played freeze tag with the teen moms while I chatted with the girl in charge.  Glinda, the lady from town who is hired to watch over the toddlers during the day, was in Tegucigalpa getting an ultrasound.  She's 5 and 1/2 months pregnant and hadn't felt the baby move in a couple of days and had been having some rare back pains.  The teen moms are still home from school due to Glinda's phone still being missing.  Little Jesus was wearing the cutest shirt today, so I just had to get a picture...which sums up his personality SO much!

Jesus in his "Chick Magnet" shirt

After lunch Alina and I headed to the school to work with Karen in her Spanish classes.  She brought in six 3rd graders to read from the same book as the 4th graders read from yesterday - Alto Secreto.  Two of the students struggled a little bit through the reading, but the other 4 were not able to read at all (one of the boys was 14 years old).  Alina was very hesitant to read with them out loud since she really doesn't understand what she's reading, however when Karen and I noticed that the other 4 students couldn't even read, I explained to Alina that they were going to need a LOT of work one-on-one, so I really needed her to work with the first two who could read a little...and for each one of them read a paragraph at a time, correcting each other as needed.  By the end of the class, her group had gotten through the entire chapter and she felt a little more confident about it.

Alina reading aloud with the 3rd graders in Spanish

 When we got to the Toddler House it was time to serve supper and prepare for the night-time routine.  A little 7-year-old (who I think is a Latina Laurel look-alike) named Saidy helped me wash the dishes.  She said it was the first time ever that she washed dishes.  I let the cook, Mirna, know that now that Saidy has experience, whenever she feels short-handed she should just grab Saidy to do the work and help her out!

Juliet and Veronica Diaz opened the souvenir gift shop this evening, so Alina and I headed that way to check out what they had.  I got a few things to take back to the States and Alina got a couple of gifts for some girls here.  We got back to our room quite a bit later than normal, so headed to bed right away.

Top Secret - Alto Secreto

As usual, the morning began with cutting veggies.  I'm still waiting to get a photo of pataste for you, but once again there was none.  Breakfast consisted of oatmeal, granola and soda crackers in warm chocolate milk.  When resources are limited, you need to be creative down here.  We've had this breakfast before, but thought I'd go into detail for you who are reading and have never been exposed to an orphanage in a 3rd world country.  After breakfast I washed the dishes and then went into the pavilion with the kiddos.  A group of people arrived to sing songs for the children and to give them hand-made coloring story books about the Creation.  At the end of their visit, they gave the children each a toy.

The toddlers sitting nicely listening to the group sings worship songs

There's a teenage mom at this house, named Zelenes, who has caught my attention.  She keeps to herself and the other day Laurie's two daughters (Rachel and Rebekah) mentioned that she was the only one they were "afraid" to approach.  When I asked why, they said that she was so tall, so big and walked around like she had a chip on her shoulder.  I decided to watch her from a distance for a while.  She's very quiet and doesn't engage much in conversation.  I talked to her a bit and let her know what Rachel and Rebekah had said.  She said that she only had 3 close friends and didn't really like to be around big crowds and engaged in a lot of conversations.  That just wasn't her personality.  Her son, Jefferson, seems to cling to her and cries when he can see her working in the yard but can't be by her.  She is tall for a Honduran, probably around 5'8".  I'll be keeping my eyes on her during her last week here. 

Zelenes with her son Jefferson on left and Carla's son, Isai on right

Zelenes working with 4 toddlers on their Creation coloring books.

This afternoon I went to the school and Karen was actually able to hold Spanish class.  We began the class by doing a dictation (we'd probably call it a spelling pre-quiz).  Karen asked me to come up with 15 words from the book they were reading out of to write down as their pre-quiz.  The words should have the letters 'b or v', and 's or c', which are letters that the children often confuse with each other since many times they can sound the same.  The book they're reading from is called 'Alto Secreto' (entitled Top Secret in English).  I was excited when I saw this because I read this book with my students last year, so I was already familiar with the story.  After the dictation, the students had to write 10 words each that began with the letters b, v, d, s, and c.  It was amazing how many words they got incorrect.  Karen has a lot of work ahead of her!

When I headed back to the Toddler House, Nicole was back from her doctor appointment.  She had a scope done today, I'm guessing in Tegucigalpa to see why she's losing so much weight.  She came running to me right away as soon as she saw me come up the walkway to the park.  I hope and pray that they find how to treat her fast moving weight loss.  Since I had class with Karen in the afternoon, I gathered the kiddos from the park and brought them back for supper and then to get showered (dishes done) and put to bed.

We had church last night and Pastor Francisco (from the California group) taught the sermon.  He is originally from Mexico but came to the States in his teen years.  He's been coming to Honduras for the past 3-4 years and I always enjoy listening to him because since he has a Mexican accent...he is SO much easier for me to understand - and I almost feel like I am "home" (as far as Spanish goes), having lived in Mexico and being more accustomed to their accent and entonation.  

After church, Alina and I headed back to our room because we were very exhausted.  I completed one word search while she read a chapter in her Left Behind series book, then we headed to bed.

Surprise Visit

After cutting veggies this morning (still no pataste to take a picture of for you), we got the kiddos breakfast and then into the pavilion to play.  The big girls stayed home from school today due to a missing cell phone that needs to be found.  Glinda's phone went missing on Saturday and the girls had 2 days to find it, but now there consequence for not turning it in is not being allowed to go to school, so they spent the entire day raking leaves and burning them.

After lunch I gave a tour of the elementary and secondary school to Laurie and her daughters.  Rachel wanted to check in with the elementary school librarian (who is a volunteer) if she could borrow a few books to read to the toddlers.  The librarian told her that there were already books locked up in the pavilion and she would just have to ask for the key.

After working in the toddler house this afternoon (playtime, supper, showers and dishes), I stopped at the Big Girls yard and Doris told me that she wanted to straighten my hair.  She advised me as she was doing it that I was supposed to wear it straight and not wash it for a week, which is what many girls down here do once it's straightened (even a volunteer said that she did that).  The problem is that I have fine hair and it tends to get very oily after just 24-36 hours.  Since I had washed it that morning, it was already starting to produce oil near the scalp (which she could feel).  I let her know that I'd go as long as I could, but I couldn't make any promises.

Jeremias, Alejandra (in back), LoriAnn, and Nicole

When we came back to our room, there was a big van in front of the hotel.  As I came closer, I saw that John and Jenny had come back for a visit!  John was in charge of the Grandecitos house last year when it was opened.  The pastor who read Psalm 133 for the ribbon cutting ceremony is also down here (part of the OH group).  I was so touched by his choosing of scripture that I had a plaque made for John's house with the verses engraved (I might have mentioned this in an earlier post)...however John was no longer here.  I was told that he left in February to go to the States to try to raise funds to begin an orphanage in Thailand.  What a surprised to see him back on a visit!  He let me know that the Thailand goals didn't work out, but that he was living in Tennessee and working on a horse therapy ranch that spent much time working with ADD and ADHD children.  He came down with the owner to work with Emmanuel's horses (and the boys that work with the horses) to make sure their program that was started a couple of years ago was still running strong.  I gave John a small bag of the chili suckers - his favorite!  

Plaque for the Grandecitos house is hanging above entryway

After chatting with him, I went into the kitchen to say "hi" to his wife, Jenny.  She was surprised to see me too and we chatted for a while.  She said she was glad that she was back home for a visit (she was an orphan here since very young).

Relief at the Toddler House

Today there was no pataste to cut, however there was a ton of yucca.  Yucca is a root and is pretty hard to cut as you have to cut the bark off of it before you chop it up.  Laurie generally took care of the yucca last week while I cut the pataste, however since there was no pataste and extra yucca this morning, we both cut the yucca after I had peeled the carrots.  After serving breakfast and heading to the pavilion, we were excited to see members from both the Ohio and California teams come to help out with the toddlers.  It's nice when the kids can get more one-on-one attention.  The Ohio team also brought in hot dogs, chips and soda for the toddlers to eat during lunch.

Morning vegetables to chop: Yucca, Green Beans, Carrots, Broccoli

Yucca

During our 2 hour break Laurie took her daughters, Rachel and Rebekah, into town to go grocery shopping and for her daughters to check out Guaimaca since she didn't take them last week (and since she now needed some oil to replace what Mirna had used).  When they got back we headed back to the Toddler House and Lorraine (a good friend of mine from California) was there to help out with the toddlers and to chat with the teen moms.

At the end of the day, Carla (the staff member who is in charge of the Toddler House) let the girls know that since Glinda's phone was still missing and they had 2 days already to produce the phone, Papi had decided that the girls would not go to school tomorrow and they would have some difficult chores around the house and yard until someone admitted to taking the phone and produced the phone.  Glinda is sure that her phone went missing while she was caring for the kids here at Emmanuel on Saturday.  Some girls walked away crying because they truly like going to school.

Honduran Slip 'n Slide

Yesterday the Alabama team left and two other teams came in, one from California (the group I was anticipating) and the other from Ohio (some members I'm also familiar with)...there were over 40 people in total!

This morning Alina and I ate some Corn Pops for breakfast.  These had been left over from the HoeDown and since volunteers have off from their responsibilities on Sundays, we didn't eat over at the Toddler House.  The problem was that in our kitchen, the only 2 bowls were extremely small (you might use them to mix baby cereal?).  So I thought that it would be okay to have TWO bowls full of cereal, while Alina filled her bowl 4 times.

We then prepared to head to church, and listened to an awesome sermon (probably the best since I've been here this year) from the youth pastor from Ohio.  It was evident from the beginning that he was a youth pastor because he immediately captured the attention of ALL of the teens in the church.  He began the sermon talking about how early on in life he would choose HIS way rather than listening to his parents and gave an example of throwing sticks and stones at a big pile of rocks in the yard, underneath which was a huge hornets (or wasps) nest.  Although his parents said leave it alone, he figured that he could stand at a safe distance since he was in baseball and threw the sticks and rocks at it day after day until the insects decided to organize and chase him after many days of being tortured.  It was a hard lesson because he was stung numerous times.  He talked about how he should have listened to his parents who were concerned about his safety and well-being, and equated that to learning to listen better to God rather than taking your own path and doing your own thing.

After church we dropped off the 2 double-dutch jump ropes from the MD team to Zue's house for the girls to play with and then walked the 3 remaining frisbees to the grandecitos house.  When we returned we noticed that the Ohio group had set up a Slip and Slide for the medium girls.  They were wet and dirty!...but having tons of fun.  The youth pastor that had spoken this morning was also there and was running hand in hand with many kids down the slip and slide.  It was a blast to watch.

Honduran Slip 'n Slide

Getting the mud rinsed off

At the end of the day we were introduced to a family who had come in from Atlanta.  They have 4 children and the father just got done with his residency...he's a doctor.  He'll be working all week with Karelia in the clinic here at the orphanage.  I'm hoping that he has some insight to Nicole in the Toddler House as she's going to the hospital on Wednesday to have yet another procedure done.

My First Nap Here

This morning was the same routine...cutting veggies at the Toddler House, feeding them breakfast, playing in the pavilion/play house, then feeding them lunch before their afternoon nap.  The difference between today and all of the others days I've been here though is that I was exhausted, so when I went back to our room at about 12:30, I decided to set my alarm and nap for an hour.  A lot of times I'll head to another yard or do something during this 2 hour downtime, but today I was just too tired.

MacKenzie handing out snacks to the toddlers in the pavilion

Chris (Laurie's husband) spent the afternoon with us in the Toddler House to get a feel for what our daily job is.  He's been fixing washing machines and changing light bulbs around the orphanage.  Before that he was working on wiring and the electrical for the medium boys house which got a new roof put on.  Here in Honduras, putting on a new roof means completely taking off the old roof until there are only 4 walls to the house and replacing all of the wood roof frame and then the roof itself...it's not simply re-shingling.

There was a buzz this morning about supper this evening.  Katja let all of the houses know she'd be bringing cream and cheese around to all of the houses so they needed to plan accordingly.  Mirna (the cook for the Toddler House) wanted to make eggs, but didn't have enough oil, so she asked us if we had some.  I didn't, however Laurie did and had Rachel give it to her and tell her that she'd like the left-overs.  I'm guessing there was something lost in the translation, because Mirna used an ENTIRE BOTTLE of oil on the supper.  She felt terrible when Laurie came back looking for the left-over oil.  Supper consisted of eggs with onions and cheese sprinkled over a tortilla and then cream on top...YUM.

After the kiddos were showered and put to bed and dishes were washed, Alina and I headed to the school playground where the small girls were playing.  I chatted with Reina and Yolani (2 big girls who help out and live with the small girls that I've gotten to know over the years) while Alina played with the small girls.  There was a little boy they were chatting with, although I didn't catch his name, whose hands and body were badly burnt.  They told me that he was at Emmanuel because his mom purposely pushed him into a fire which was burning garbage because she didn't want him.  As they were telling me this, the little boy agreed that was what truly happened and added to the story.  Many of his fingers are bent because his scared tissue underneath the knuckles will not allow for his fingers to straighten.  This boy is living in the power toddler house, so is most likely only 5 or 6 years old.  My heart just broke for him.

Alina and I ended the night sitting next to the water fountain in front of the church and just admiring God's creation of nature around us.  What a way to end the evening!

Use #1374 for Duct Tape

Alina with Michell at Big Circle

We were told last night that there wouldn't be any veggies to cut this morning, so we could come a little later.  That was exciting news since today is Friday...meaning it's Big Circle once again.  Big Circle begins at 6am right outside our room, but the boys start coming at 5:30, so it's hard to miss it.  Today is also Katja's birthday.  We listened to the message/devotion/sermon this morning from a member of the AL team.  When the singing began after the message, we headed to the Toddler House only to find out that we could've stayed for all of Big Circle...oh well, perhaps next week (as it will be our last).

This morning the lady in charge of monitoring the kids at the Pavilion, Glinda, had a doctor's appointment for her pregnancy check-up...she's 5 months along.  Carla asked if I was okay with taking Glinda's place for the morning and being in charge (so to speak).  That was okay.  I now have a 2nd kiddo who's "stuck" to me...Jeremias.  He's generally a happy little boy whose mom is not here (so not one of the teen moms kiddos).  Whenever I sit down, he runs over to sit on my lap.  It went well in the pavilion with the kids.  Glinda came around lunch time and took over putting the kiddos down for a nap.

LoriAnn with Jeremias

This evening I had a chat with Doris (one of the big girls that I've known for the past 7 years).  She has a good friend, Beth, who just came in today with her husband.  Beth is from the U.S. and has been working to get Doris' papers fixed so that she can come up to the States from November to February on a visit.  Doris is pretty excited about that, but also nervous in a way.

This evening when we got back to our room, there were 2 places in the bathroom where ants were coming and going.  I knew there was a reason why I had kept the duct tape from our team...it's to patch up those holes to keep the ants in the ground and not in the rooms!!!  Ugh, yuck.

Teen Moms Get Attention

This morning began as the others did this week...but now first doing devotions and trying to madly post many of the blogs that I was not able to post over the past week of my internet modem stick not working.  We headed to the Toddler House once again to cut veggies and serve breakfast and then took the kiddos to the enclosed pavilion to play.  LaDonna (a lady from FL that is working towards the adoption of one of the toddlers) came by to say goodbye to her Wilson.  She left a purse with sunglasses for another toddler, Nicole.  Nicole has been to the doctor in Tegucigalpa 3 times in the last 2 weeks because she is rapidly losing weight and they are not sure why.  She says she's 4 years old (although her charts say she's 5) and she weighs less now than she did 2 years ago.  Nicole is a spunky little girl who has taken a preference to hanging out with me any time I'm around.  When others extend their hands out to her to hold her, she refuses and snuggles in to me even closer.  We're hoping that whatever is going on gets figured out quickly.  Please keep her in your prayers.

Nicole

Around 9:45 we decided to take all of the kids for a walk.  Sometimes they walk to the farm, but today we walked to the front of the orphanage so that they could all look out the gates at the world outside Emmanuel.  As many from the Alabama team were watching the toddlers at the gates, MacKenzie spent time working with the teen moms in team-building activities like doing the human knot, trust falls, and then the circular sit.  Okay, I made up the name for the last one because I'm not sure exactly what it's called, but I can describe it...everyone stands in a tight circle, your toes to the heels in front of you and on the count of 3 you all sit down.  If it's done correctly, you're all sitting on the lap of the person behind you...if it's not done correctly, you fall down.

When it got close to lunch, we headed back with the kids to the Toddler House to serve lunch and put them down for naps.  This afternoon there were no classes, so the teen moms got to stay back at their houses.  When I headed back to the Toddler House to wake the kiddos up from the naps, I brought the "famous" chili suckers back to the houses for the teen moms and all of the other workers there.  They were so excited.  You see, many people come to the Baby House and the Toddler House to give attention to the babies and toddlers (of course)...but it's rare for the teen moms to get attention.  I was glad that this was a day where they were recognized and worked with!

La Cucaracha

I generally get up around 4am here so that I can have my devotional time with God and journal.  Then with the time left over, I try to get online to blog a bit if the internet is working.  If it's not working, I have a word search book that my mom had given me a couple of year ago or I have a book to read.  This morning, since the internet was not working...it hasn't been working for the past week...I was doing the word search.  When Alina's alarm went off and she sat up in bed, she said (1/2 tired yet), "There's a cockroach next to my bed!"  Sure enough, I'm guessing one had fell in through the cracks in the ceiling from the roof and it was lying on its back.  The cockroaches down here are huge, about 1.5-2 inches long (and that's just the BODY).  I went over to check it out and the legs were still moving, so giggling I said to Alina that she should get the broom and sweep it out.  She didn't want to at first.  I let her know that if it had been a tarantula or a scorpion, I would've swept it out.  But it's a cockroach!...they don't bite, they just run really fast and look gross.  So she went to get the broom and "slowly" tried to sweep it out.  If you know anything about cockroaches, then you can probably guess what happened next.  Because Alina didn't sweep it out using quick strokes, the cockroach grabbed the bristles of the broom and flipped itself over, and then sprinted underneath her suitcase.  She freaked out!  At that point there was no calming her down, so I told her to lift the suitcase while I held the broom (she didn't even want to lift the suitcase)...and when she did I quickly swept it out of the room onto the grass.

On the way to the toddler house I let Alina know that today way our 1/2-way point in this trip.  She took a few more steps and said, "It only feels like I've been here a couple of days."  I laughed and replied that it HAD to have been more because we had a whole team down here at the beginning for 11 days!

After cutting vegetables and serving breakfast, I headed with Melinda and Heather (two ladies from the AL team) to the school to remeasure the medium girls from Vero Castro's house.  Elizabeth was pretty sure that many of these measurements were off too.  I believe that we got all but about 2 measured.

I stopped at the tienda to check in with Carmen who knows about the Claro internet modem sticks and she said that most likely the problem was that the 7 free days that came with the stick were put on it but that the internet stick was never activated, even though the month was purchased.  This did not really sit well with me.  She let me know that she'd look more into it after church this evening because her phone didn't have enough minutes on it to check at that time.  While I was at the store, Alina noticed a Coca-Cola bottle with Andres' name on it.  I guess Coke is putting names on bottles now?  Anyway, I had to purchase it and hope that it makes it back to the States without exploding on the plane.

Anyone recognized this name?...and it even has the accent too!

We headed back to the Toddler House at 2:15pm to wake the kiddos from their naps and play with them for an hour before suppertime.  After supper, they got their normal showers as I washed the dishes and they were sent to bed.  Everybody was rushing because there was church this evening and it starts at 4:30.  Alina and I barely made it back to our room to change clothes and get to church on time.

After church I took the internet stick to Carmen and she was able to fix it.  I was SO appreciative for what she did, but now I'll be super busy for the next bunch of mornings trying to catch up on devotions!

Supper with Elizabeth's Parents

Alina and I headed back to the toddler house this morning to cut veggies and serve breakfast.  After breakfast, some toddlers go to Kindergarten while the others hang back and play either at their playground/park or in the enclosed play Pavilion.  Alina stayed back with the toddlers, but my assistance was needed in measuring some children that were not measured last week while the Maryland team was here.  Here at Emmanuel there are actually 2 medium girls houses, but the team had only gotten to 1 house.  So I headed to the school (where most of the girls were) and began measuring there.  Andi sent 2 of the Alabama team members over to help me out with the measuring and that made the process go even more smoothly.  We got all of the girls from Zue's medium house measured by lunch time and then I met up with Alina at the Tienda (Emmanuel's snack shop).

The Tienda was serving tostadas.  Elizabeth is a staff member here who is in charge of the Little Girls House.  I believe she's been here for about 2 years now.  I worked with her last summer for the first time and while I was down here last summer, her parents came down for a visit, so I got to know them a little bit.  They were at the Tienda today during lunch, so Alina and I sat with them.  We had a great chat and found out that we have quite a bit in common.  At the end of lunch, they invited us for supper where they are staying, which is attached to the Dental Clinic.

We headed back to the Toddler House at 2:15 for the normal afternoon routine of waking them up, playing for an hour, feeding them supper, and then showering them and doing the supper dishes.  On the way back to our room, we stopped by the Little Girls House to check in with Elizabeth about supper.  She let us know that she'd pick us up when she was finished, around 6pm to head up to where her parents were staying.

Supper was wonderful!  Elizabeth's younger brother, Joey, made the salad with cucumbers and tomatoes (and I commented on nice it looked because all the pieces were laid out on top of the salad in a symmetrical manner...the math nerd in me!).  Her mom, Kim, made spaghetti with alfredo sauce and garlic bread.  For dessert they purchased a gallon bucket of ice cream from the Tienda and had toppings to put on it as well.  We had a great time chatting with them and Kim reminded me to head to the office this week to reserve a spot for next year as the housing here is getting slim for volunteers since the orphanage is growing.  She let me know the dates they'd be back and I wanted to get as close of a time frame to that as possible so that we could catch up again next year.  We were at their house eating and chatting for about 2 hours when we realized that it was coming up on curfew time...Emmanuel has a curfew of 8:30 due to town people trying to break in after dark and Emmanuel's night security guards would not be able to tell from a distance if we were volunteers or unauthorized people on the premises.  Elizabeth gave us a ride home and we quickly went to bed.

Alina and Invisible (Pamela)

The Toddler House

So now rather than team members, Alina and I are volunteers.  The roles are very different, although it may be too much to get in to here.  Our assignment this year is at the Toddler House since they had so many volunteers from there leave this weekend.  For the past 6 years I've been at the Little Girls House, and in all honesty the 2 houses I least cared to be at were the Baby House and the Toddler House (closely followed by the Power Toddlers)...I'm just not a baby person.  But God does have a sense of humor.

Alina and I arrived to the Toddler House this morning at 6:15 (Andi's recommended time) to find a mother and her 2 daughters cutting vegetables in the kitchen.  They arrived as a family of 5 on Thursday evening and were also assigned to the toddler house.  The mom's name is Laurie and the daughters are Rachel and Rebekah.  It took about an hour to cut all the veggies for the house and then we served breakfast.  When breakfast was finished, I walked with the teen moms to the school to talk to Vero Castro and Karen about assisting in Karen's teaching of the Spanish classes to 3rd-5th grade.  These are pull-out remedial classes for children who may not yet know how to read, write, or even keep their letters straight (like switching a b for a d, or a p for a q).  Karen let me know that she has classes on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 1:00-2:30, so we decided that I'd meet up with her on Wednesday for her class.

Since we are now in the hotel, we need to either eat with the children or provide our own meals.  In the past, there have been times when food ran out at the children's houses, so we didn't eat.  Here at Emmanuel, Mondays and Thursdays are now the designated days for volunteers to go in to town if they are in need of groceries.  Since I wanted to get a few items to have on hand "just in case", Alina and I headed in to town with Laurie for some groceries.  We purchased bread, juice, milk, 3 meals of pasta with sauce, an instant ramen meal, green beans, potatoes, avocadoes, onions, tomatoes, banana bread, margarine (since butter is extremely rare down here), and snacks like chips and crackers and cookies.  We stopped on the way back to visit Glenda who has her own veggie stand.  I've gotten to know her more and more over the past 7 years and she always has a smile on her face.  We bought some veggies from her and also 2 charamuscas, which are basically homemade fruit popsicles in a bag.

We returned to Emmanuel about 2pm, put the groceries away and then headed right back to the Toddler House since they would be just waking up from their nap.  We let them play for an hour, fed them supper and then Alina, Laurie, and her daughters worked to shower them while I washed the supper dishes.  After showers and dishes are done, we are free to go as they settle down for the night, about 5pm.  Keep in mind that it gets pretty dark by 6pm here.  Alina and I usually head to bed about 7pm so that we can be up early.

Goodbye Wisconsin

This morning Alina & I said goodbye to our Wisconsin team members: Bob, Nate, Kelsey, Mark, Bekah, Erin, and Lane.  I found out later that they met up with the Maryland team at the airport since the Maryland team's plane was cancelled yesterday.  I also found out that the son of the Maryland team's leader had a tarantula in his carry on!  Oh the fun of being in a 3rd world country.  Alina and I decided that it's rougher on us for Bob to come at the beginning of the trip and leave without us.  We let him know later that we'd prefer in future trips that we come down first and Bob join us for the last leg of the trip, so that we can all go home together.

After church, we spent the afternoon socializing with the Alabama group and then headed to the big girls yard to chat with Doris and Michell.  Around supper time we moved from the Team House into the Hotel.  The room has a couch, love seat, chair, double bed and twin bed...as well as a private bath.  There is a kitchen that is shared between the 3 rooms here.

LoriAnn with Doris

Doris, LoriAnn, and Michell

Goodbye Maryland

Due to a "goof-up" on my part, the Wisconsin team is headed out one day later than the Maryland team...who left this morning about 7:30am.  The BONUS for us is that we have one more day here and it should be more of a "down-time" day where the team members can spend more time with the kids or take them to the store, etc.  We saw the Maryland team off on the bus, then went to do KP (kitchen patrol)...washing dishes and cleaning up the dining area.  We made sure that the courtyard was back to normal and all decorations were taken down.

After all cleaning was done, we took a walk down to the farm to check out the cement that the men had been working on yesterday.  They got 1/2 of the greenhouse done and asked me to take a picture of it now and then after the Alabama team (who was coming in later this afternoon) finished their half to see which one ended up better.

The MD/WVA/WI half of cement work for the greenhouse.

From Left to right: Bekah, Kelsey, Alina, Bob, Nate, Lane, and Mark examining the cement job

 Since the hydroponics area is right next to the greenhouse, we went there next so that Lane could explain to us how it all worked.  Basically the waste from the tilapia farm is sent to these hydroponics raceways which will fertilize the plants that float on them.  I believe Trey made the first few floating pods, but as we were walking to the farm, we passed by Wade with his 2 daughters who had just planted another pod of 72 carrots!

Lane next to the hydroponics raceway

The plants in the raceway

Wade with his 2 daughters and John Will (a male volunteer) carrying carrots to the raceway

Mark took quite a few boys to the store today for some snacks and was surprised by the boys who didn't open their bag of chips because they wanted to take them back to all of the boys to share.

Later this afternoon the Alabama team came in.  They seem so nice, although their accent is SO STRONG.  This particular group comes from the same town as Wade, so he knew many of the members on this team.  He let them know that they had some hard work ahead of them with laying cement and trying to do as good of a job as the MD/WVA/WI team did. 

2014 Honduras HoeDown

Today's the day of the HoeDown!  There's a lot of things that need to get done in terms of decorating and food preparation before this can happen (lights, food, a banner, making kiddie bags, planning kids activities, sweeping the courtyard, and table decorations).  I woke up very early this morning and since I didn't have internet access, began right away on making up the kiddie gift bags.  We found out pretty early that it's also the day that cement needs to get poured at the greenhouse, so just about all of the men are needed that way.  A handful of women stayed back to help Bob in the kitchen and I needed to be at school at 8:30 to translate for John's math lesson.

The math lesson was a continuation of what John had done on Wednesday - Algebra word problems.  We put the students into groups, just like in my classroom back in Wisconsin (it's a CPM math, feel free to ask me about it sometime), and assigned each group a problem to set up.  The class went fairly smoothly and John did a great job explaining the problems.  At the end of the class, Profe Ramon mentioned to the students that there are various ways to solve the algebra problems and even though he would've taken a different route than John, the answers came out the same each and every time.  He let the students know that it's the practice that's necessary in order to solve problems.

John teaching Algebra

After school, I headed back to the team house to work some more on preparations for the HoeDown before lunch.  After lunch, I was needed to help size the grandecitos boys.  They are the boys that are in between the medium boys and the large boys, about ages 13-15 who had a house built for them last summer.  I had a plaque made for them with the verses that were read during the ribbon-cutting ceremony last summer which come from Psalm 133 - 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 Mount Zion.   For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.  What fitting words for these boys of this age!  The plaque is now hung above the door to their house.

At the grandecitos house, I had to help measure the boys.  Luis David (who I've known for the past 7 years of coming down here, and who also has a crush on Alina as of this year) helped me get the boys through as quickly as possible so that I could return to the Team House for more HoeDown preparations.  I was very thankful to him for this!

Back at the Team House, we had about 2 hours before the HoeDown began.  The men and teen boys came back from doing cement and Nate and Lane (as well as a few others) got to work putting up the Christmas lights so that we'd have nice lighting around the courtyard.  Bob was still in the kitchen finishing up the mini-apple pies, and I was decorating the tables with the tablecloths and balloons that Alina worked with others to blow up in the morning.  Everything came together pretty nicely and by the grace of God (because I felt the time-crunch) it was finished just as the HoeDown would begin at 6pm.

Our decorated courtyard

Alina and Lori with John doing a photo-bomb

Kelsey, LoriAnn, and Nate ready for the HoeDown

As people came up to the Team House, they were guided to the gazebo where Erin took their picture in front of a beautiful sunset backdrop that Rita had spent the day painting.  Then they chatted out front for a while before being escorted to their tables.  We found out the container had come, so the men wouldn't be joining us until way later because it needed to be emptied immediately.  Their wives were instructed to make a plate up for them and to have it ready.  Kelsey did a wonderful job getting our teens together during the week to learn a line dance that would be performed with a select few Emmanuel staff and volunteers.  Erin created a beautiful devotion to read before the meal, and Mark finished the devotion with a prayer to bless our food.  The meal included Texas toast, pulled pork, chicken, cole slaw, baked beans, watermelon and mini-apple pies.  We even had an unexpected, uninvited guest (see below)!!! All-in-all it was a nice time!

LoriAnn and Katja

Seating of our guests 

Katja chosen to line dance...was that random?

Erin's devotion about the Shepherd and the sheep

Our unexpected, uninvited guest appearance!