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.