Leaving Honduras

This morning we slept in.  When I got up, I spent time working on devotions and the blog...waiting for Bob and Alina to wake.  Bob got up and showered and then I decided to shower myself.  When I was done, Alina and I headed down to breakfast to find Bob already down there.  Our plane left at 1pm, so we weren't in any hurry this morning...in fact, we took extra care to make sure everything was packed just right.  Alina and my things for our overnight stay in Atlanta would be in one suitcase and Bob would take the other suitcase with him.

The hotel got us a private taxi to take to the airport, however in doing so, we ended up paying about 3 times the price that a normal taxi would charge which was very disappointing.  Considering that we didn't have much Honduran money (Lempiras) left, this will be a mental note for next year...NO private taxi.  At the airport, I went to the newspaper stand (which I've been doing every year for the past 8 years) to buy one of each of the newspapers.  I typically give these away to my Spanish students if they earn the highest score on the exam.  I purchased the 4 major newspapers for $37 Lempiras (about $1.85 US dollars).

Once in the airport, we headed to check our suitcases.  We realized that Delta has now incorporated the $40 per person country departure fee into the cost of their flight, which saves us the time of standing in a separate line to pay it as well as makes me realize that the actual flight itself was really $40 less than what I paid.  That ended up being a real time-saver and money-saver for us!  After checking the bags, we headed upstairs to check out the souvenir stores and snack on some fruit before going through security.  I got my backpacked checked by security, but no tarantulas (like I heard had happened last year with a member of the Maryland team).  We waited at our gate until it was time to board.  Our flight was about 3 and 1/2 hours to Atlanta and we arrived to the Atlanta gate at 7pm.

LoriAnn and Alina leaving Tegucigalpa (do you see Bob waving in background?)

Leaving Tegucigalpa

Heading above the clouds

Flying over Cancun, Mexico

Coming into Atlanta

Coming into Atlanta

Right when we got off the plane, we realized that those with connecting flights had to head through customs in one direction, whereas those who were staying in Atlanta (we had an overnight stay) had to head through customs in another direction.  So we said goodbye to Bob who was flying all the way through.  Getting our suitcase and going through customs went well and quick.  We had to call our hotel to figure out how to get on their shuttle bus to get to them, but even that went smoothly.  We met a man on the shuttle that was from Dallas, TX who called us "normal people" when he found out we were from Wisconsin (he had guessed we were from MN).  Alina didn't quite get what he meant by that, but I did.  There was a KFC 2 blocks from the hotel and then we were in for the rest of the night.  We called home from KFC, but continued to talk to Noah all the way back to the hotel and then while sitting in front of the hotel.  That was pretty much our day...welcome back to the USA!

The Capital - Tegucigalpa

This morning I showered and threw the first of two loads of bedding into the washing machine (less to do for the girls who come in and clean the room after we leave), got the last of our clothes out of the dryer, then made some coffee for the morning and went to do devotions.  I didn't really have time to type and upload any blogs I had missed from not having internet, so that will have to wait until I get to the capital later today.  When Bob and Alina woke up we rearranged the suitcases so that Alina's and my backpack would fit into the suitcases since many people here were concerned with us getting robbed/attacked on the way to the bus station since we'd have "so much luggage".  I have always taken the bus back to the capital since it costs less than $3 per person, but I guess volunteers just don't do that anymore due to safety issues and, I'm guessing, their lack of knowledge of Spanish and Latin culture.

When we were all packed, Bob headed off to say good-bye to the Big Boys and get his hat signed while I headed with Alina to say good-bye to the Small Girls, the Medium Girls, the Big Girls, and all those at the Toddler House.  When we got back to the room, Bob was waiting outside for us on the steps since I had the key.

We left at 8am (saw Wade on the way out, so gave him the key to our room to get back to Andi who is the volunteer coordinator) and headed on our walk into Guaimaca.  We had 2 suitcases and 2 small backpacks (with the big backpacks tucked away inside the suitcases), and I had my purse.  On the way we decided to stop by Glenda's little store.  Glenda (if you haven't ready my blog in past years) is a lady who has a store out front of her house with vegetables and fruits.  We usually buy from her every year, but it just didn't work out this year.  She was sitting outside so we chatted for a bit, long enough for a dog to walk by and pee on my suitcase (ugh, sigh) and then said our good-byes and let her know we'd be back again next year.  The walk to the bus station was mostly on dirt roads, so as usual, one of the wheels on the larger suitcase broke.  This will be the suitcase that stays down in Honduras next year!

We got on to the bus, but since the larger suitcase wouldn't fit underneath the bus, we had to pay for an extra ticket (4th passenger) since the suitcase would have to occupy a seat.  So the total cost was $220 Lempiras...roughly $11 US dollars, for a hour and 45 minute ride in a nice air-conditioned mini-bus back to the capital.  Not too bad.  We arrived into Tegucigalpa and got a taxi to take us to the hotel. putting us at our hotel at 11am.  Our room was on the 8th floor, and the only thing above us was an exercise room with really nice equipment and running track on the roof.  I have never seen a hotel with this extensive of an exercise room!  The hotel had a pool and a private exit/entrance with security guard to the mall next to it.  We headed to the mall and Bob decided he wanted Pizza Hut for lunch.  When we got back to our room, I started working on my blogs when we got a call from Doris who was outside our hotel waiting for us.  I had sent text messages to the unrecognized numbers that had been calling me the past 3 days simply saying "we should arrive at our hotel by 12:30 if you'd like to come and spend time with us".  I figured if any of those were Doris, she'd know which hotel and who was messaging since we had talked the week before and I had given her that information.  If it wasn't Doris, there are MANY hotels in Tegucigalpa and I wouldn't have to worry about my safety.  I never got a response from any of the 3 messages I got, but we were SO excited she came!  She brought her friend Kenia with her (safety).

Left to Right: Alina, Doris, LoriAnn, Kenia

View of Tegucigalpa from hotel roof

Hotel fitness center on roof

Hotel fitness center on roof overlooking Tegucigalpa

Hotel fitness center on roof overlooking Tegucigalpa

Left to Right: Doris, Alina and Kenia

Hotel pool and whirlpool

We chatted with the girls for quite a while in our room and showed them photos of Noah at Disney World this summer and of the kids on their sports teams.  Then we showed the girls the 9th floor exercise room, track and balcony, and the pool on the main floor, then walked over to the mall to take them to eat at TGIFridays.  We had the left-overs boxed up and sent them home with the girls.  When we got back to the room to drop off the left-overs, Alina gave Doris the bag of items she had bought for her back in the States...a really nice dress, shoes, necklace, earrings, make-up kit and nail polishes.  Doris started her studies at a cosmetology school last week and said she had to purchase a make-up palette and nail polishes (white, black, gold, silver)...so Alina's gift was just what she needed at the right time, since she didn't have the money to purchase those school supplies!

We decided to end the afternoon by taking the girls to see a movie at the mall.  The Fantastic 4 was playing.  We didn't realize that there were no English subtitles to the dubbed over Spanish (poor Bob), but good thing he knows comics pretty well and was able to understand most of it by his knowledge of comics and superheroes. When the movie was over we went up to the room for the girls to gather up the left-overs and the bag for Doris and then we took them to the main floor for the hotel to help in getting them a taxi home.  It was already dark out and we figured that this would be MUCH safer than taking a city busy home.  We waited for the taxi and then said our goodbyes.

When we returned to the room, Alina and Bob headed to bed for the night.  I ended up watching a movie since I was still quite awake from all of the action of the day, before finally falling asleep.

My Last Complete Day at Emmanuel

Alina finally felt a little bit better to come along with me to the Toddler House.  There were no veggies to cut this morning, so we just watched the television with the children in the 'comedor' (dining hall), and watched a really pretty moth for a bit until it was time to eat.  Karla, who is usually in charge of the Toddler House, had the day off; but it seemed that all of the teen moms were able to work through this and they actually got breakfast and cleaning done early...AND got to school early!  I'm guessing it's because they didn't take the extra time to do their circle devotions.

Beautifully colored moth

Big Toddler Girls

Zelenes with her Big Toddler Boys

Jeremias (striped shirt) praying before breakfast

Marisela with her Little Toddler Girls

Ana and Alina with the Little Toddler Boys

Vilma sitting down for breakfast with her Little Toddler Girls

I walked to school with the girls since it was my last day teaching reading.  Rachel will be taking over for me, so she was with me again this morning.  I worked with the first 2 students since she didn't meet them last Thursday when she shadowed me and then she worked with the rest as I watched her.  The very last girl, Skarlett Michell let Rachel know that she would not see Rachel on Thursday.  When Rachel asked why not, Skarlett said that she'd be in Tegucigalpa.  Almost every day a few children have to go into the capital for their annual doctor's appointment.  I knew that there were 2 going into Tegucigalpa on Thursday for their appointment, so I asked her if she had an appointment and she said, 'yes'.  We found out later in the afternoon that Skarlett had run away from the orphanage after lunch with 2 other girls...so I guess that was the REAL reason that she wouldn't see Rachel on Thursday.

When the reading classes were done, Alina and I headed to the 'tienda' to get the internet stick from Carmen and then I headed back to the room to finish my last letter to one of the orphans here at Emmanuel.  We sorted through laundry and began to bag up a lot of our clothes that we brought down to wear down here for the last time, as we would leave them down here.  We tend to come down here with very full suitcases (this year we had a 3rd suitcase of all of the donations that Alina had received from her birthday party) and we leave with fairly empty suitcases.  Actually if you count Bob's suitcase, we came down with 4 suitcases and will only be leaving with two!

We headed to the Toddler House to serve the last supper this year and then help put the children to bed.  I gave each of the children a passion fruit sucker that I had bought in town and then gave the moms a Mexican chili-coated mango sucker.  I left Zelenes with a big bag of my clothes, my shampoo and conditioner, an almost full huge bottle of lotion and a bag of 40 chili suckers, and also gave her the note I had written for her.

We left early tonight so that we could get ALL of the last of the donations (soccer balls, badminton set, last pair of shoes and all of the clothing) out to their respective houses.  Each spot that we stopped was SO grateful for what we were leaving with them.

We spent our last hour before going to bed with the Karen, Lucy and Michell in the big girls yard.  Karen and Lucy hadn't eaten much supper since the 'tia' (night lady) had said she'd bring in a special dish for them.  Unfortunately she forgot to ask permission (which is MUST), so she wasn't able to bring it.  Alina mentioned to them that Bob had cooked a really good dish with eggs and vegetables for supper and that there were tons of left-overs.  I still hadn't tried it, but was more than willing to let the girls have it to eat.  Alina and Karen walked over to our kitchen in the dark to heat it up and bring it back.  They came back with the bowl and 3 forks and couldn't stop complimenting Bob's AWESOME cooking!  Lucy said she had never had anything that good in her life!  We chatted a bit more before saying our goodbyes, giving Michell the note I had written for her, and then headed back to our room to get a good night's sleep for our trip to Tegucigalpa tomorrow.

No Internet

This morning went a little more slowly for me since about half-way through the day yesterday I realized that I had used up the gigabytes I had purchased down here.  Technically if the days had expired first, I'd have internet usage through the last day I am in Honduras.  Perhaps it's all of the pictures I am posting this year online.  There is a girl down here who works in the 'tienda' named Carmen who knows how to add days, weeks, a month of time/gigabytes to the internet stick, but unfortunately she headed into Tegucigalpa (the capital) today and wouldn't be back until late.  So I would have to put off posting blogs for a while.

Alina was still sick, so we told her she needed to stay laying down and resting all day today - no exceptions.

My morning routine at the Toddler House stayed the same: cutting vegetables, taking the children to the 'sala' so that the teen moms could have their circle devotions, serving breakfast, and washing dishes.  I walked with the big girls to school to encourage them and say good luck since their mathematics exam was today.  I knew it was going to be difficult.  When I got back to the house, the children were in the 'sala' since the door to the toys storage room in the 'chosa' was still broken.  The 'sala' got very loud this morning since it is a lot smaller than the 'chosa' and keeping kids couped up that long is not an easy task.  It is the rainy season and had been raining on and off all morning, so going on a walk was out of the question.

We served lunch around 11am, I washed dishes and then headed back to my room to begin writing good-bye letters to a couple of children down here.  It is very common that the children write you on your last day here, so I figured I would need to get a head start since there were at least 3 letters that I needed to write.  We were still making sure Alina took her pills every 3 hours.  At 2pm I headed back to spend an hour with the toddlers before serving supper, doing dishes, and then helping Ana with showers.  After showers I headed home once more to give Alina another pill and then returned to the Toddler House to spend my last night helping Ana study for the mathematics part of her college entrance exam.  As I was working with Ana, Carmen came over to visit Lourdes.  I gave her my internet stick and she said she'd get it back to me tomorrow morning.

La Tienda

This morning began with devotions and my 'cafecito', followed by updating my blog.  Little did I know that I would use up my gigabytes today and I wouldn't be able to blog again until 3 days later.  Alina got sick overnight, perhaps due to our walk back to the Toddler House in the rain last night.  She ended up with a pretty high fever, headache, stomach ache and vomiting.  We decided it would just be best for her to stay in the room and not go to church with us and we alternated ibuprofen and tylenol every 3 hours to try to get the fever to go down.

Bob and I headed to church this morning, checked on Alina afterward and then headed to the Toddler House to take my little Alejandra, Nikoll, Jeremias and Alina's little Chino to the 'tienda'.  Unfortunately the toddlers had already headed out on a walk, but Ana let us know that they should be walking around by the tienda at some point before lunch.  We waited and waited and waited, and finally they came.  Since it was so close to lunch, we decided that rather than just a snack, we'd get these 4 a plate lunch and a snack to take with them.  Each kiddo got 1/2 of a hamburger (they're pretty large) and some french fries, along with a soda and some chips.  Alina stopped by for about 10 minutes, but her fever started to go up again so we let her know that she should rest.  We walked the toddlers back to their house as the other toddlers were finishing up since it would be nap-time immediately afterward.

From left to right: Alina, Chino, Alejandra, Jeremias, LoriAnn, and Nikoll

Bob and I walked back to our room to check on Alina whose fever was still pretty high.  We let her know that she should probably sit the day out, although this would be the only day that we'd be able to take children to the 'tienda'.  We made sure she had plenty of liquid and took her next set of fever-reducing medicine and then headed out to get the 2 big boys - Christian and Luis David.  We gave them each a soccer ball and they were both very excited to have it.  Bob even kicked the ball back and forth with Christian for quite a bit before he got pretty sweaty and/or tired.

After walking them back to their house, we headed back again to check on Alina and to grab the gifts for the big girls.  Bob reiterated that she should stay laying down, but as we were about to leave the big girls yard with Michell, Yensi and Coco...Alina came walking down the road.  When she got to us, I said to her, "mule"...it took her about a 1/2-second and then she smiled and replied, "nag".  Alina and I had just watched 'A League of Their Own' before coming down here if you didn't recognize the lines.  We had a great time with the girls at the store and were there for quite some time before Alina started to heat up once again.  We got her home around 5pm-ish and then I headed to the Toddler House for the remaining 2 hours to help Ana, Deisy and Karla with their math.

Left to Right: Yensi, Michell, Alina, Coco

Clockwise: Coco, Yensi, Michell, Alina

Left to Right: Michell, LoriAnn, Yensi

Left to Right: Yensi, Bob, Michell

Alina, LoriAnn and Coco

Michell, Alina, Coco, LoriAnn and Yensi

Alina and Michell

Bob Arrives

Yesterday morning was the tarantula in the shower, this morning began with a millipede in the bathroom sink, ugh.  I took this bug outside as well on a sheet of paper and then went about my morning routine of showering, doing devotions with my 'cafecito', and updating my blog when I saw what I thought was a cockroach in front of our door to go outside.  As I got closer, I noticed it was a big grasshopper...so now I've been exposed to 4 different kinds of creatures in our room during our stay this year (aside from the normal mosquitoes, moths and daddy long-legs).

This morning's bug...a millipede

When Alina and I got to the Toddler House, Lori and her 2 daughters were already cutting vegetables.  We chatted with them as they were finishing up and then headed with the children to the sala before serving breakfast.  Since the lock on the toy room in the 'chosa' broke last night, Karla decided that we wouldn't go in there because it would be too difficult to try to keep the toddlers from pulling out ALL of the toys in the toy room.  Normally she gets a rubbermaid container out of toys for the children to play with (since there are numerous containers in the toy room) and then they play with that batch of toys for the morning.  The movie of choice this morning was 'The Croods'.  Thankfully it was something different than our typical Frozen movie or Barbie movie.  Most of the teen moms were cleaning the Toddler House as that is what's done on Saturday morning while the children are away.

When it was time for lunch, we served lunch, did dishes and then headed back to our room to clean and prepare for Bob's arrival.  We swept, cleaned the bathroom and put fresh sheets on the bed for Bob.  We rearranged a little bit of the furniture and got placed our luggage on the floor by our beds.  Then we headed back to the Toddler House where we saw that they were already up and out in the play yard in front of their house.  We weren't there for more than 10 minutes or so when we saw Norman drive by towards the Toddler House.  Knowing that Norman was picking up Bob, we figured that Bob was in the van too and Alina and I went running to greet him.  But it was just Norman looking for the keys to our room.  I gave him the keys and Alina asked if she could run to the house to say "hi" to Bob, so I gave her permission.

Turns out that Bob was already 1/2-way to the Toddler House by that point, so we chatted for about 10 minutes and then he decided to get his luggage in the room and eat a little bit.  By the time he made it back to the Toddler House, we had served supper and I was doing dishes.  We chatted again for a bit, but I told him to get some rest since he looked pretty beat.  We got the toddlers washed up and then took them out for a walk out in front of the orphanage.  I was on the swing with Jeremias for a while when it started to sprinkle.  All of the toddlers began sprinting back towards their house, but they only got to the Medium Girls' House before it became an all out down-pour with heavy wind.  The kids were shivering as we stood under the medium girls house waiting for the rain to break.  We were there for about 20 minutes.  Finally little Emmanuel asked if we could pray for the rain to stop...the faith of a child!  He led the prayer as all of the other kiddos repeated what he said.  Within a minute of his prayer ending, the rain lifted and we finished our walk home!

Alina and I decided to just help drop the toddlers off at their house and then head back home before another downpour began, and wouldn't you know as soon as we walked in our door...yep, it started up again and rained until around 2am.  We were so beat that we headed to bed almost immediately.

La Tarantula

So ever since the 1990 release of the movie Arachnophobia, I have had a more "serious" fear of spiders.  The shower scene in that movie (you can look that up on YouTube if you're not familiar with it) just freaked me out!  For months after the movie, I was thoroughly inspecting the shower for spiders before entering.  When I moved to Pulaski in 1996 and stayed until 1998, I had a problem with these large brown spiders, not much different in size than the ones in the movie.  Finding a spider in my shower there (amongst other places like the kitchen, bedroom, living room, etc) rekindled all of my fears of large spiders...especially in the shower.  Well it's been a long time since 1998, so my fear has passed a bit...UNTIL this morning when I got up at 3:30am, went to the bathroom and then got ready to shower.  I opened the shower curtain and this is what I saw. My heart started pounding 1000 times per minute! Tarantulas don't move nearly as fast as the cockroaches I spoke of earlier, so I knew I had time to deal with both my adrenaline and the spider.  I grabbed my camera to take a picture - after all, it is one of God's creatures.  I had 3 choices: 1) leave it there, 2) kill it, or 3) scoot it out the front door.

My head quickly reasoned through all 3 responses.  If I left it, there'd be a chance it would crawl back into the room onto one of our couches or worse yet, into one of our beds!  If I killed it, that would mean I'd have to get pretty close to it and then try with all my might to pound at it with a shoe or a rock, leaving a yucky, fuzzy yet gooey mess for me to clean up.  Yep, I'd have to go for option #3.  I opened the front door and grabbed the broom.  I scooted it out of the shower, but then it ran to hide behind the sink pedestal and the wall.  So I needed to cram the broom bristles back there to scoot it out.  When it came out, I brushed it out of the bathroom into our main room.  By then I could tell the spider was ticked off since it froze with its front 2 legs up and its head raised.  So quickly I started scooting it out the front door and then over the porch ledge onto the grass.  There...now I can say I let a tarantula loose out into the wild, or back into nature - and I didn't kill God's precious (yet creepy, crawly, gross) creature.  :-)

My morning encounter in the shower

All I can say after this experience is that I'm glad it happened in year #8 down here in Honduras rather than year #1!!!

So I did not need coffee this morning as I was already awake.  I quickly took my shower and then did devotions.  We left our room a little early since there were around 16 girls still in Veronica Castro's Medium Girls' House (there are 2 medium girls houses here) that we didn't get measured.  Monica came over by me and offered her help which once again, we were VERY thankful to have!  We got all 16 girls measured before Big Circle began.  Since we are at the Toddler House this summer, we didn't have the opportunity to participate in Big Circle, which was a little sad but Alina and I have participated in numerous Big Circles over the past 2 years, so we were okay with it.

At the Toddler House, we cut the vegetables, watched the children in the 'sala' while the teen moms had their circle devotions outside, served breakfast when they came back, and then took the children to the chosa.  Ana and I went to the dining area around 10am so that I could work with her in practicing her mathematics review for the college entrance exam again.  It's coming along okay, but there are many problems to do.  I'm hoping that we can get through them all before I leave on Wednesday next week.

We served the toddlers lunch around 11am and they headed into the 'sala' to take their nap while the older girls cleaning the dining area, halls and front play area.  I headed to our room to change from pants to shorts as the sun was shining brightly by now and it was rather hot out.  I stopped by the store to grab a large bottle of soda and some Doritos for the girls to eat while watching Maleficent later.  I had a boy run into town yesterday to get a copy of the movie Maleficent for me.  I'll leave it here with the girls.  Ana, Alina and I watched it while the toddlers were napping since Ana wouldn't be here later on in the evening when the other girls were watching it.

When nap time was done the toddlers came out and played for a little bit before we served them supper.  As I did the dishes and helped Ana give showers to the 4 boys she's in charge of, Alina was helping with the cleaning in the dining area, and halls.  She absolutely loves to mop with the girls, and the girls like her help.  I'm not sure that many volunteers help with mopping.

Alina mopping the hallway

Alina washing out her mop

I worked through another 12 math problems with Ana before I headed out.  Karla and I put a bunch of toys away back into the 'back room' of the 'chosa' and while she was trying to lock up, the lock on the door broke.  She was very concerned that since the door was now loosely open, the kids would just be a wreck going back into that room and pulling EVERYTHING out.  So I left early to head to Mike and Karen's apartment (which is next to our room) to ask Mike if there was anything that he could do to seal off that door before tomorrow morning when the toddlers would be in the chosa.

At the end of the evening, we took 2 pairs of running shoes (size 8) to girls we had measured earlier this morning that didn't have tennis shoes and we also gave the brand new pair of size 7 tennis shoes to Veronica Castro's 11-year-old daughter who has been growing like crazy!  All 3 girls were SO excited to get some new shoes.  We also took the 2 baseball gloves, 4 baseballs and the pack of plastic baseballs (for hitting practice) down to Max who told us that he'd use them with his house of boys because he's been trying to teach them how to play baseball.  That about wrapped up our day.

Thank You Monica!

My normal routine for the morning is devotions with my 'cafecito'.  Once again I didn't have time to type yesterday's blog since I woke up very late (due to staying up late last night watching a movie with Alina and Doris calling).  We left almost right away for the Toddler House.  When we arrived, we cut the veggies and then found out that the team that's here grabbed all of the big girls with the exception of Deisy to do circle devotions.  In addition to that, Papi (David) came around and gave moon pies to each of the toddlers.  This does 2 things: 1) makes the toddlers hyper, and 2) fills them up a little bit so they're less likely to line up well for breakfast.  They hyper-ness was very difficult to manage since Deisy was the only one in charge (and then 3 of us volunteers).  Then when the team's devotions ran late, we needed to round up the toddlers, feed them, do dishes, clean the dining area, etc.  I had to make my way to school by 8:30am and as I was leaving the big girls were coming back, so I'm not sure how late they were to school?

The reading pull-out program that I am doing is going well.  Rachel stopped by after working with a couple of kids to see how it was going.  I'm hoping that she can continue doing this after I leave so that their reading isn't so sporadic with different materials being used each time.  When we got done reading, all 3 of us headed back to the Toddler House to serve lunch and help clean.  I helped walk the toddlers to school with Zelenes in the afternoon and then headed back to our room to book a hotel for our overnight stay in Tegucigalpa.

When I went back to the Toddler House to serve supper, there were some team members there and Alina led the toddlers in their 'prep' to get ready for supper and also in prayer!

Alina (yellow shirt) getting the toddlers ready for supper and leading them in prayer.

After supper and bathime, Alina and I headed to Ana Yanci's Medium Girls' House to measure this last house.  Monica (a girl I've known for the past few years) asked me what I was doing, then she wanted to be measured first.  I explained each measurement I was taking (bust, waist, hips, then belly button to knee for skirts), then I sent her to Alina who took a foot measurement for shoes.  Then she asked if she could do the measuring of all of the other girls!  As a mathematician who likes accuracy, I glanced at the measurements that she was taking sporadically while I wrote down what she was telling me.  She was doing great and we got through the entire house really quickly!  I was SO thankful to have her helping me.

When we got back to our room, we called back home to the States to chat with my kids who were with Bob.  Bob leaves tomorrow afternoon, so it would be the last night we could chat with everyone.  Although Jaden was sleeping, we talked with Noah, Kaylyn and Bob.  With 5 minutes left to go in our chat, the power went out.  I'm guessing that our cell phone tower went down too, because my phone cut out at exactly the same time as the power went out.  Power came back on around 1am.

Grocery Shopping for Bob

It rained (poured) all night long, and with a metal roof/ceiling, it can get pretty loud.  Alina and I both woke up several times during the night.  My morning routine wasn't any different this morning aside from the fact that it took the entire morning to load just the pictures for the last 2 days of blogs, so I wasn't able to enter any blogs this morning like I generally try to.

When we left for the Toddler House, Alina told me that she saw a live tarantula in a 5-gallon bucket at the medium girls house.  Guess they had a visitor during the night.  We headed to the Toddler House and did the normal routine there too, cutting vegetables, watching the toddlers in the 'sala' while the teen moms did a morning devotion together, served breakfast, washed dishes, and then headed to the chosa.  A few children (Nicol, Jeremias and Alejandra) decided to start calling me 'Mami'.  They are such cute little kiddos!  We watched the movie Frozen for the ump-teenth time...I think Alina might have it memorized in Spanish!

After the movie was finished, I headed to the dining area of the Toddler House with Ana to help her prepare for the math portion of her college entrance exam, which will take place in October.  She had a review for this exam, so we went over about 25 problems.  While we were going over the math, Alina walked with the Toddlers to play at the playground in front of the orphanage.  On the way back from their walk, Alina bought 2 big bottles of Mirinda (a type of orange soda) and Sprite.

After lunch, we headed into Guaimaca with a bunch of volunteers to do our last grocery shopping for our stay here.  Bob had emailed me a list of things he'd like to have, which we added to our own list.  We came back with 2 very heavy backpacks and an additional plastic grocery bag full of items that will be used between now and next Wednesday when we leave.

After unpacking groceries, we headed back to the Toddler House to serve supper, give baths, and say goodbye to Claire (a volunteer from Ireland) who was leaving for home tomorrow.  She gave suckers to each of the toddlers before leaving the house for the night.

Since it was Wednesday, we had to finish up early so that we could get to church by 4:15pm.  There we met my friend Lori from New York who was here last year with her husband and 3 children.  They just came in today.  Alina wanted to sit with them, while I sat with Deisy.  The California pastor, Frank, (who was originally from Mexico) spoke.  I have mentioned him in the past couple of years' posts because he speaks in an accent that is so familiar and "like home" to me...that it's just a really nice way to enjoy the sermon.  I am still getting used to the Honduran accent and some words that are different than their Mexican counterparts (you know, how those of us in Wisconsin tend to say 'bubbler' while other states say 'fountain'?).

When we came back to our room, I quickly typed up the 2 days of blogs of the pictures that were loaded this morning, and then Alina and I began watching Despicable Me 2 on Netflix.  The internet was working pretty well, which is a rarity.  About half-way through the movie, Doris called from Tegucigalpa.  We chatted quite a bit and we've now changed our plans to leave Orphanage Emmanuel a day early so that we can spend an entire day in Tegucigalpa where Doris is...and spend it with her!

All in a Day's Work!

So after my morning devotions and heading to the Toddler House to cut veggies, watch the toddlers in the 'sala' and serve breakfast, we needed to leave to begin measuring the big girls.  There was no school today (like the Profesor Ramon mentioned), so we knew that we should be able to catch just about all of the girls in the Big Girls' yard.  We got through 20 or 30 when the California and Ohio teams asked for all of the girls to come to the gym and participate in a VBS.  I went as well, and it was pretty fun for the girls.  Alina participated with Michell.

California and Ohio teams doing a VBS with all of the girls

After the VBS was done, we headed back with the big girls and got a few more measured before it was time for lunch.  Alina decided that she wanted to each lunch in the 'comedor', a huge dining hall that was built between the time we were here last year and this year.  I headed back to our room while she ate since I wasn't very hungry.  When lunch was over we finished measuring the big girls that were in the yard, and then headed to the team house, the 'cocina' (kitchen) and to 'costura' (the sewing class) to get the 12+ girls that were in those locations before taking the filled out information to the office for Kim to enter.  We dropped this chart off in the office and Vero Castro's medium girls were in the yard right in front of the office, so we asked to measure them.  I believe we got about 1/2 way through the medium girls and will have to finished up with the other medium girl house another day.

After supper we headed down to the big girls' yard and found the teams playing a game of soccer with the big girls.  Alina wanted to play too, so below you'll find a picture of her against Claudia (I mentioned her yesterday).  Claudia is to soccer what Alina is to basketball...a tough player who's pretty good and walks around with confidence.  Alina decided to give her a rough time on the field.  I think she's hoping that she'll have a chance to get Claudia on the basketball court, because Claudia can beat her "hands down" (LOL) on the soccer field!

Claudia in the black shirt and Alina in the blue shirt.  By the time the picture snapped, the ball was already to China in the yellow shirt.

We took 'Invisible' (Pamela) the new size 9 red & gray tennis shoes, although when we gave them to her...we saw they were a mens' size.  She said she knew just the big boy to give them to, so we trusted her decision.  Generally I pass along my tennis shoes and sandals to her before I leave anyway, so this year will be no different as I have a 2nd pair of tennis shoes waiting for me at home.

When we got home for the night, we decided to show you how much walking we do.  Alina and I are always wearing sandals and what you'll see in the photos below is pretty typical in how we come home and how our feet look.  It makes me wonder how dirty Jesus and his disciples feet got back in their day and also makes me realize how awesome it must have been to have someone else wash them.

Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair.  And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

John 12:3 (NIV)

Alina's feet at the end of the day

Alina's feet after washing

Alina's Little Friend

This morning began with devotions and my 'cafecito' and enough time left over to enter yesterday's blog.  I've found that the later it gets in the morning (the closer to 6am), the more time it takes to upload pictures, so some mornings I'm just not able to get the blog completed due to that.

We headed to the Toddler House and went about our normal morning routine: cutting vegetables, taking care of the kids in the 'sala' while the big girls and teen moms did their circle devotions, serving breakfast and then taking the children to the 'chosa'.  Today I walked to school with the girls because Profesor Ramon wanted me to help while he taught a lesson on the equations of circles in class.  Although when I got to school, I found out that there was a "miscommunication"...he fully anticipated me to teach the lesson.  The good thing is that, as a geometry teacher, I teach this lesson multiple times each year (as I generally have 2-3 geometry classes)...so I could "wing" the lesson.  It actually went very well and in the end, I had the students work in pairs to complete a more difficult problem and if they graphed the circle, they got a 'paleta' (Mexican chili covered mango sucker).  Every student got one.  The students later told me that: 1) their teacher never lets them work in pairs or groups, and 2) I made the lesson SO EASY for them!  YAY!

Today was Claudia's birthday, so we got her some 'churros' (chips) from the 'tienda' and also gave her 3 'paletas'.  We also brought her a pair of the running tennis shoes that were donated for Alina's birthday, since she is a size 8 and doesn't have tennis shoes to play soccer in...and she's probably the BEST female soccer player!  She plays in her crocs.

I went back to our room for lunch because Profesor Ramon gave me 3 more problems to solve from the test that the students were supposed to have for tomorrow (although he told me that due to a teacher's conference in town, there would be no classes tomorrow and the test would be pushed back to Monday).  I told him that I'd get the problems solved over lunch and get them back when school resumed at 1:00pm.

When we headed back to our room after dropping off my solutions to the test problems, we stopped to chat with Kim (Elizabeth's mom) about measuring the medium girls and the big girls.  She had done measuring at all of the other houses and just needed these two houses done.  I let her know that I'd be able to measure all day tomorrow and see how much Alina and I could get done.  Alina seemed to be occupied while I was talking to Kim and when we said our goodbyes, I saw why.  She found a little friend on one of the flag poles!!!  I let her know that she should put it in the shade so it didn't bake out in the hot sun.

Alina and her little friend

A close-up of her little friend

When we headed back to the Toddler House, Kim was measuring the last of the toddlers and the teen moms.  When that was finished, we gave them supper, baths and played with them for a bit before heading to the Big Girls' yard.  We stopped in to Michell's house and chatted for a couple of hours with the 'tias' (night care-taker lady) permission, then headed home for the night just after 7pm.

A Sunday with the Big Girls

As I was doing my devotions this morning, I saw another cockroach (ugh) run from underneath the bunk bed that Alina is sleeping in to the rug on the other side of the door.  I tried to sweep it outside, but it was too close to the big chair & ran underneath.  Just when I thought we wouldn't have a problem for a while...another shows up.  There is no food in our room, so eventually it will have to choose to leave or die of hunger (if we can't shuffle it outside), right?

Church began at 8:15am this morning.  We got there around 8:00 so that we could green the kids as they came in.  A girl from the Ohio/California team led the service today, but I liked that David (Papi) began the service and Lydia (Mami) closed the service.

David beginning the service in prayer

Lydia ending the service with a summary of the message and in prayer

After church, Alina and I headed to the 'tienda' since we had not yet had breakfast.  They were serving hamburgers, which ended up filling me up for the rest of the day!  As I was walking back to our room, I saw Papi's crew of boys painting the fountain in front of the church.  I chatted with them and gave them each a 'paleta' (Mexican spice-coated mango-flavored sucker) for their hard work.

Papi's crew hard at work painting

After chatting with these boys for a bit, I headed to the Big Girls yard where Alina was playing a game of Skipbo with Yensi and a few other girls (Grandma Wendt would be so proud!).  I also dropped of an envelope that my former student, Kelsey Phillips, had sent along with me to give to a girl named Isabel Rosario.  Kelsey had come down last year with a few Wisconsin people to work with the Maryland team.  While she was here, she connected with 2 girls and sent 2 envelopes filled with a letter, pictures and some gifts for them.  I work with Isabel in the school on reading, so it was easy for me to find her.  She said she remembered Kelsey and was very excited to receive the envelope!

Alina and Yensi

I left Alina to play Skipbo with the girls, but I had to run to teach some more math to Zelenes and Deisy at the Toddler House while the toddlers were napping.  I spent around 2 hours there with them going through material that would be on Tuesday's test, and then when Alina came we headed down to the 'cancha' where the team was putting on an Olympics-type of competition for the big girls.  We watched the tail end of the competition and then walked with the big girls back to their yard and chatted until they had to go to supper.

Around 5pm, I went back to the Toddler House to tutor Karla in math.  She had been working all day (I believe watching Katja's children), so this was the first chance she had to get together with me.  We spent about an hour and a half going over graphing rational functions, step functions and absolute value functions, and then listing the domain and range of these functions (I know, the math nerd in me is coming out again).  When we finished for the evening, we started heading back to our room but as we passed the Team House, Juliet and Veronica Diaz were there opening the gift shop...so we stopped by, chatted and purchased a few items for our kids back home.

A Fun Afternoon for the Toddlers!

This morning began with devotions and my cafecito, followed by updating the blog from yesterday.  When we headed to the Toddler House, I cut the vegetables since there was only 1 knife to be found while Alina went to take care of (round up) the toddlers.  Before breakfast, Alina helped to get the toddlers in line and took the initiative of taking charge in leading the prayer.  Karla (the one in charge of the Toddler House) was VERY impressed.

We served breakfast and then I did dishes.  This morning, all morning, we were in the 'chosa' so that the big girls could get the entire Toddler House cleaned.  They wash mattresses (if needed), pull out all furniture so that they can sweep and mop underneath it and behind it and really do a thorough cleaning of the house, top to bottom.  This is done EVERY Saturday.

When the house was cleaned, we brought the toddlers back to have lunch and then did the dishes afterward.  Alina and I decided to give Karla the volleyball that was donated at her birthday party since Karla had talked about how much she loved learning to play volleyball this past year in the gymnasium.  She said that she hoped she could take us to play before we left.

While the toddlers were sleeping, Alina and I came back to our room to clean.  Alina started with the kitchen, sweeping and mopping...but accidentally poured WAY too much soap into the solution and so she spent the rest of the time working on getting all of the soap off of the floor.  While she was working on the kitchen, I cleaned our room and the bathroom (if you know me, I really dislike cleaning bathrooms...bad McDonald's experience).  The thing is...if you don't clean frequently down here, the more bugs will enter!

When we went back to the Toddler House after naptime, we found out that they were going to take the toddlers out to the sprinkler system on the playground.  It had been painted so nice since last year.  I chose to stay back and chat with the girls in the kitchen (and there was one Ohio girl chatting as well) while Alina went to get soaking wet with the toddlers.  All of the toddlers got baths today BEFORE supper as opposed to after and then we served them their rice, beans, eggs and tortillas.

Alina running with the toddlers under the sprinklers

After doing the supper dishes, Karla let us know that we'd be going on a walk with the toddlers.  We walked in front of the team house, stopping for just a little bit, then walked between the hotel and the medium girls' house, and then towards the office, where Papi came and decided to give all of the toddlers a moon pie (they're pretty common treats down here...check the website to see how many have been eaten to date!).  When we walked past the big boys house, I saw a 'guy' in the distance who I thought I recognized.  When I pulled my sunglasses down just a little bit to be sure (before saying 'hi' to a stranger), Alexander shouted my name.  I've probably mentioned Alexander in prior years' posts, but he had graduated a few years back and is currently studying to be either a pastor or a missionary.  He came back to Emmanuel for the week because he is inbetween semesters and was thinking he'd come back to help out if they needed him.  It was so nice to see him!

We walked around the back way to the Toddler House and dropped of the toddlers before heading home.   The California group has arrived, and I'm so excited to see some very familiar faces yet once again!  There will probably be some pretty exciting posts coming up this next week because of the California-Ohio teams being here!!!

Lots of Math

This morning began once again with devotions and my 'cafecito', but instead of updating by blog next, I had to pour time into the 3 questions that the Profesor Ramon gave me so that I could bring them back to school when it started around 8am.  Two of the three questions were pretty easy to solve (the one on ellipse equations and then giving the domain of a rational function), the 3rd problem on step functions gave me a bit of a problem, and I wanted to discuss it further with the teacher since I wasn't quite clear on what the question was asking.

We are supposed to be at the Toddler House by 6am, so we headed over there and as I hung up my bag, I noticed a moth on the wall.  These moths are super huge, probably at least a 6" wingspan.  Very pretty.

We headed into the kitchen to begin our routine of cutting vegetables, and then heading to the sala to spend time with the kids while the older girls did their circle devotions.  The other children of Emmanuel had big circle today, since it was Friday, so we were a little "short-staffed" since the 2 volunteers from Ireland (Caroline and Claire) decided to see what a big circle was like.  So it was just Alina, me and Rosa in watching the kids.  When it was time to line the kids up for breakfast, they were so disobedient that Rosa had to call others for help so she could leave & collect herself.  I can't even imagine living with 25+ toddlers!  These girls have a lot of work to do.

After serving breakfast and doing the dishes, I headed to school to collaborate with Profeesor Ramon.  He liked the 2 answers that I had (they matched answers that were on the multiple choice government test), and for the question on which I was confused, when I looked at the test, I noticed that he had written the question down incorrectly...which is why I was so confused.  Upon looking at the test, it was a simple step function for me to solve.  We chatted a bit about this upcoming test, and he asked me if I would be willing to come in to their class on Monday and help him teach about circle equations and then review for the test.  Each year I tend to go into his classroom at least once, so I agreed that I'd help him out.

When I got back to the Toddler House, Zelenes and Deisy were waiting to begin their math lessons.  We spent the entire morning going over solving, graphing, and listing the domain and rage of: absolute value functions, step functions, and rational functions.  I'm sure some of you reading this may be confused with all of the math lingo, but this is some upper-level stuff and it was SO fun to be using my degrees in math, Spanish, and bilingual education to work with these girls.  I'm just so nerdy that way!

Karla and I served up the plates for lunch before the children came back from the playground.  We had a good chat about how to raise toddlers...I'm not so sure I contributed very much since this age is definitely not my area of expertise, but I encouraged her and let her know that I was very supportive of what she was doing.  After lunch, the toddlers were sent into the 'sala' to nap while we did the dishes.  When dishes were done, Alina asked if she could stay and help sweep and mop the dining area while I went home to take a nap.  I was extremely tired from the sun and from the math/Spanish combo of tutoring.  It was after Alina came back to the room that I realized that my body was lacking sugar (natural sugar) because I was so weak.  So I headed to the 'tienda' to buy one of the California mango/peach juices to replenish lost sugars.  I was feeling much better soon after.

We chatted with the big girls a little bit before heading back to the Toddler House to serve supper.  Karla wanted all kids to have eaten by 4pm and then dishes done, showers done, and the dining area cleaned.  After the boys showered, I helped them into their pajamas and then read some Dr. Seuss books.  Then I went over to chat with Karla some more before heading back to our room.

Alina mopped the hall area in front of the hotel (she's really into mopping the Honduran way!), and then washed up some string beans and opened our last little container of ranch dressing and invited me to sit outside on the steps with her and snack as we watched the sun go down.  We wrapped up the night by calling home and talking to everyone except for Noah, who was sent to bed before getting the chance to talk.  I'm hoping that the next time I call that I can talk to him because I've missed him twice now when calling.  Sounds like they had a fun family night last night with pizza and movies!

More Math Help

This morning after I finished my shower, when I came out of the bathroom...there it was, right on the side of the armoire...the cockroach we've been looking for.  I was quick to grab the broom and open the door and then rushed over to brush it off the armoire onto the floor and out the door.  Bye Bye!!!

When the adrenaline rush settled a little bit, I sat down with my online Proverbs31 devotions and my 'cafecito' to take in the beginnings of my day.  After that, I updated my blog from yesterday and then worked on getting Alina up (which has been quite a lengthy process these past few days).  We set out for the Toddler House, cut carrots and then took the children into the 'sala' so that the big girls could do their circle devotions together.  Then we helped serve breakfast and washed the dishes.

Since it was Thursday, after dishes were done, Alina and I headed to the school so that I could work with the five 4th graders on reading.  While I was reading with one of the boys, Profesor Ramon approached me and asked if I could work through 3 problems that were on the upcoming test the students were to take on Tuesday.  He had worked through the answers, but wanted to discuss these 3 problems.  He had them written down for me so that I could take them with me (since all 3 problems were of very different types: step function, ellipse with foci, and a circle problem...for those of you that know your math).  I told him that I could meet with him tomorrow morning to go through the answers that I got.  Alina and I finished up with the children and reading and then we headed to the 'tienda' since we missed lunch at the Toddler House.  A volunteer by the name of Devin came over and chatted with us for quite a while.

When the big girls were back in their yard during the lunch hour, Alina and I took the last 2 chocolate muffins and 3 Mexican suckers each to Yensi and Coco, twins that were celebrating their birthday today.  We walked with them to school for the afternoon, and when they went into class, we headed back to the Toddler House.  Marisela was having a mini-birthday party for her daughter Perla.  We had given her a dress (donated by a coworker of mine) and she was so excited to wear it today.

Marisela with her daughter Perla on her 3rd birthday

This afternoon we served supper, did the dishes, and then I spent the next couple of hours working with Zelenes and Deisy on their math problems, while Alina went with some of the teen moms and the other 2 volunteers from Ireland to the big swing (a big ropes swing, kind of scary) that the Team decided to run with the girls.  When she got back it was getting dark and time to get back to our room.  It gets dark here around 6pm, which probably seems a little odd to those of us in Wisconsin, especially since it's still light around 8pm in the summer,..I'm thinking that with the mountains here, that has a lot to do with the sun going down earlier - compared to our REALLY FLAT land in Wisconsin.