Heading Home - Day 1

This morning we woke up at 4am, partly to do last minute packing, partly to clean up, partly to have time to say our goodbyes to everyone.  We showered and got dressed in the clothes we'd be leaving with.  We borrowed the luggage scale that the Miller family (who lived in the room next to us) had brought down and found that we were at 50 pounds and 55 pounds.  We originally wanted to leave a backpack in the suitcase so we only had 2 backpacks and 2 suitcases, but that looked like an impossibility.  I got my suitcase back out and we put the bibles in the suitcases (which emptied out enough weight for the suitcases to be under 50 pounds each).

We started washing the bedding from the room so that we could leave the area clean.  Alina went to the baby house to say her goodbyes, and Noah and I headed to the medium boys house to say our goodbyes.  We walked with the medium boys to the 'comedor' where I said goodbye to many of the other children as well.  Then we spent about 1/2 hour with the medium boys in the yard out front of the school.  When the 1/2 hour was up, I wanted to head back to spend our last 1/2 hour with Michell before taking off.  She was taking the goodbye rather hard, and when Alina came back from the baby house to give her and hug and spend a bit of time with her, she began to cry.

Our medium boys!

Me and Michell

Walter (a friend of Norman's) came to pick us up right at 8am.  On the way to the Tegucigalpa airport, he laughed at all of the little Honduran expressions that Alina and Noah had picked up during the past month ('huela madre', 'picojuco', 'pucha', 'nambre', and 'que mas hizo').  I spent time reading all of the letters that the children had written me, and chatting with Walter.  I had a pocket-full of letters to go through, that that was in ADDITION to all of the letters and drawings I had received during my month here (which I had already went through).

There was a slight traffic jam before getting to the airport, but we were WAY ahead of schedule, so it was all good.  When we got to the airport, I had completely forgotten to get newspapers to bring back out of the newspaper stand where I normally shop before heading home...I give these to students at FVTC when they are the highest scorer on a test.  I did make sure that Alina and Noah ate enough McDonald's before getting on the plane, because it would be a LONG time before they would get food again in Atlanta.  Noah's stomach ended up getting upset just before and during the flight, and the 'smell' of his upset stomach made our (and probably the people around us too) noses/stomachs upset the entire ride to Atlanta!

Getting ready for our flight to Atlanta

In Atlanta we had to go through customs and then get a shuttle to the Domestic terminals, then a shuttle to the hotel.  When we arrived at the hotel it was around 7:30pm.  We were really only a little hungry (dessert sounded good), so we asked the receptionist if there was a restaurant that would have good dessert around and she recommended a Ruby Tuesday about 5 blocks away.  We walked there and had an appetizer and dessert.  So yummy!  When we got back to the hotel room, we watched a little bit of TV before turning the lights out to get some sleep.

Noah being his goofy self - no clue he was photo-bombed by the manager

Not for the Weak-Stomached

This morning would be our last BIG circle (where all of the children come together to sing praises to God, pray and hear the message).  Alexander led BIG circle.  Alexander has been at the orphanage since a child and is currently on a scholarship studying to be a missionary.  He came back to the orphanage for 2 weeks between trimesters, so I got to see him once again.  He should be completing his studies this November.  He has such a peace in him!  He said that at missionary school, he had gotten really sick with sinus and breathing problems because it's in another part of Honduras which is always fairly cool and damp.  After talking with doctors, he will eventually need surgery to correct his health problems...but he's determined to finish his studies so that he can do the work that God is placing before him.  Please keep him and his health in your prayers as he goes through these last 3 months at school.

We began washing clothes that we would be leaving behind this year.  Generally Alina has been leaving plenty of summer clothes behind, since she'll be bigger and her clothes will not fit next summer.  I tend to leave a lot of my clothes too (Esperanza asked for many of them this year).  This year Noah is leaving his clothes too...so we just wanted to be sure they were clean before passing them off.

I headed to school to check on the status of the two students who were supposed to retake their test today.  I said that I'd be back in the afternoon to help Profe Ramon correct the retakes, but I never did make it (will explain why later).  Sometime during the morning the electricity turned off for a couple of hours, which put us quite a bit behind in doing the laundry.

They told us that they would be killing chickens at 8am.  We walked over there, but then it was switched to 8:30am, then 9am (Latino time is a little different from American time).  I think they started around 9:15am...but we were there and ready.  Alina wanted to leave after a little bit to go back to the baby house to work - not sure she had the stomach for the process.  It took Noah a while to warm up to what was going on, but eventually he did okay and ended up deciding to feed the vultures the 'left-overs'.  I was at the end, bagging the prepared chicken so that it could be frozen or go straight to the 'comedor' to cook.  They processed 40 chickens today.

Noah getting used to dealing with processing chickens - the chicken was still opening and closing its mouth

This chicken is still alive and waiting to be processed

Pulling the feathers off

Getting the insides out

This is before ALL of the vultures came for the leftovers - only about 1/10 of what actually came

We headed back to the room to change clothes (so that we could wash these clothes) and then Noah took a shower.  Then we headed to the 'comedor' to eat lunch with the boys.  When lunch was over, we headed back to the room to ensure that all clothes were getting washed and then I spent the afternoon making guacamole for all of the medium boys.  It was a LOT of chopping of avocados, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic (and I missed heading back to the school because of it), but it was completely worth it!  The medium boys were surprised I did that for them and they said it tasted REALLY good.  EVERY boy asked for some with their food!

When supper was over, I quickly headed back to our room to pick up the clothes for the boys that Noah was going to leave as well as the Jurassic World movie we were going to watch tonight and the popcorn we had bought for the boys.  I dropped off some things at the big boys house first, before heading to the medium boys house.  They were giving the medium boys buzz cuts when I arrived, so that gave me time to get ready to watch the movie with the boys.  I gave each boy a 'paleta' (Mexican chili-coated mango sucker) as he came into the rec room, and we got the movie going.  About 1/2 way through the movie, I had Rudy (one of the bigger boys in charge of the medium boys) distribute the popcorn equally among the medium boys.  The boys got special permission to stay up past 6pm (when the doors normally get locked) so that they could finish watching the movie with us, since it was our last night there.  When the movie was over, they all surrounded Noah & I, giving us hugs and saying their goodbyes and good nights.

We walked back to our room and started packing our two suitcases.  Alina's suitcase would get left behind since 1 zipper broke off of it, but we generally leave one suitcase behind anyway since we leave so many clothes here.  The suitcase still has a working zipper, but we just don't need it.  There may be a greater need from a future volunteer whose suitcase gets completely destroyed in transit to Emmanuel.

We got to bed later than normal...around 9pm.  But all things considered, it was a great day!

Calling Home

This morning we headed to circle and then to breakfast with the medium boys.  They got to be in the yard today because there were no classes for them.  Their teachers had a reunion/inservice.  I noticed that the tia (care-taker) was taking some of the medium boys over to the soccer field by the church, so Noah and I headed over with them.  They spent about 20 minutes sweeping the water puddles off of the cement field so that it would be more safe to play on.  As they were sweeping, Noah found & held his 3rd gecko.  I actually had my camera with me this time (the 2 prior time I didn't), so I got his picture.

Noah and the gecko

The gecko

When it was 10am, I had to go to the school and work with two of the three students who did not pass the math test on Tuesday.  I went through 3 types of problems with them and then they asked me to give them some homework.  I gave them 3 practice problems of each type (so 9 problems total) and let them know that I'd check their answers tomorrow before they retook the test, to see if they were on the right track.

I headed with Noah to lunch and then we went to the yard again with the boys.  Later in the afternoon I went to the tienda with Alina and bought her some fried yucca chips.  I found Noah playing soccer with the small girls when I walked back.  We headed to supper with the boys and then met up with Luis David at the tienda so we could call home.  Both Bob and Andres were at home, so they each got on a line in case Andres needed to translate (since my phone down here doesn't have a speaker option).  I was hoping to Skype, but it didn't work out so well.  Bob said perhaps there wasn't enough bandwidth to do it...although I don't understand that technical jargon.

When Luis David was done chatting, we brought him back to his house and went up to our house to grab Michell so that she could also chat with Bob.  Towards the end of the phone call, when she knew that the call was winding down, she got very teary eyed and could barely talk.  I know that she felt as if her time with us was winding down and we had less than 36 hours to be together.

When Michell had to go into her house, we went in for the night as well.  Tomorrow (our last day here) will come soon enough and we want to enjoy and celebrate it all we can!

Evening Fun

Today at boys circle, I shared Luke 10:30-35 which is the parable of the good Samaritan.  I mentioned how none of the 3 men had known the wounded man on the side of the road...none of them, yet one decided to help.  One felt the need to help.  I let them know that there are some friends and family back in the States who do not know ANY of these medium boys, yet are working hard to gather shoes for them to send them down.  I told them about the time I took Doris into town for ice cream and as we were walking back to Emmanuel eating our ice cream, she saw 2 children without shoes, dirty, and hungry on the side of the road and she gave them her ice cream...she didn't even know the children.  So I asked the boys, what are YOU willing to do for a stranger?  Or maybe when a new boy comes to the orphanage to their house, what are they willing to do for the new boy that they do not yet know?

After circle, we headed to breakfast with the boys and then to the school.  I chatted with the new long-term volunteer, Whitney, a bit about Skarleth Michell and our progress in reading (Skarleth is a non-reader) before we walked down to get Skarleth so that she could begin working with Whitney.  I let Skarleth know that by next year when I came down, I expected her to be able to read me a children's book.  As Whitney settled into working with Skarleth, I walked over to the school to check with Profe Ramon on how the math tests went from yesterday.  He said there were for sure 2 students who would not pass it.  He asked if I would have time between now and Friday to go over some more examples with these 2 students and we decided to block out a time tomorrow to work together.

When it was time for lunch, we went with the medium boys to lunch and then headed quickly back to our room because it was the last time we'd be going into town on for 2016.  We got coffee and treats to bring back home for family and then made one last stop at Glenda's for some guacamole ingredients, since my plan was to make a big dish for the girls who work in the kitchen.  We said our goodbyes to Glenda before heading back to Emmanuel.

Alina, Noah, and Glenda at her small food stand

When we came to the gate of Emmanuel, we gave some Mexican suckers to the security guard.  This guy has been there for the 9 years I have been coming.  He's super nice and I'm very appreciative that he works security here.

Alina and Noah with Emmanuel's security guard

We were told that there would be no church this evening because Wade and Lourdes had an activity planned for staff and volunteers.  We met up above the girls volunteer house, just below the water towers, where a team had put up a 3-man swing a few years ago.  The activity was going on the swing.  Alina had been on this swing before, but I never had and since it's Noah's first year here...he hadn't either.  We decided to go for it!  They secure you in with ropes and then use a gator to pull you at least 30 feet up into the air (or higher...I don't know, it's CRAZY high!).  You can see the mountains all around.  You have to pull a rope which sends you swinging into the air.  The first try, Alina could not get the rope pulled.  I think she may have tugged it 6-10 times before we finally were let go and swinging.  The second time they sent us (each person got 2 times at the swing), we didn't think she'd be able to send us swinging on the first try, so we were shocked when she tugged and we were released right away.  What a rush!

Waiting to get pulled all the way to the top of the pole behind us

What we looked like coming down after Alina pulled the rope

After everyone got their chance on the swing (who wanted one) and it was dark, we walked down below to the medium girls comedor and there were baleadas and beverages waiting for us.  Baleadas are Honduran tortillas with beans, eggs and butter in them...super delicious!  It was a great way to end the evening!

Sharing in Circle

This morning in circle, Miguel shared a piece of the New Testament on loving your enemies -

Love for Enemies

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn them the other also.  If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.  Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.  Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Luke 6:27-31

Generally when passages are read, there are a couple of examples given that show application of the passages.  So I decided to give an application of this passage for the boys.  Although I won't share here the example of love for enemies (because it is not MY story to share but one that greatly influenced me), it deeply impacted the boys and they all thanked me after sharing.

Sharing at medium boys circle

We headed to breakfast and then to school where I stopped in Profe Ramon's class to help the students study for 1/2 hour before they had to take their test.  One girl was crying...I'm guessing because she felt she wasn't adequately prepared for the test.  When the test began, I quietly excused myself to go work with Skarleth Michell on her reading.  She is the only girl I did not turn over to Rachel when I was needed for larger time periods in teaching math because she has a difficult time dealing with change.  I hung on to her as a student hoping that a long term volunteer would be coming in who would be able to take her (minimizing change on her).

When reading was finished, we headed to lunch with the children and then spent the afternoon in the yard with the medium boys because school was let out for the afternoon for the elementary grades.  Yes I know, if you've been reading my blogs you've seen a lot of NO SCHOOL days.  There are no such things as substitute teachers here, so if a teacher is sick, there is no school that day for that particular class.

After hanging out in the yards, we headed to supper with the boys.  They let us know that they'd most likely be watching a movie when they got done taking showers and we were more than welcome to come, but it decided to downpour right around that time, so we hung back at the room and the kids played games with each other until it was time to turn in for the night.

The Day of the Tarantulas

This morning I left our room and locked up, but Noah was trailing behind because he still had to put on his shoes.  He caught up with me at the medium boys house for circle and was VERY excited!  He took a different route to the house than I did and saw, in his terms, a "large, live tarantula"!  He was so excited that he wanted to show it to me after circle was done, while we were on our way with the boys to breakfast.  I knew that the tarantula would be long gone, but he insisted it was moving very slowly (typical) and it would still be there...it wasn't there.  But I was happy that he got to see one before we left, because I have seen many throughout the years (check out previous years blogs for more on that).

After breakfast we headed to the yard with the medium boys.  There was no school today for the elementary levels, so the boys were out in the yard all morning, headed to lunch and then all afternoon.  It was fairly cool and quite overcast in the morning, but the afternoon was 100% sun, so I had to change from my jeans to capris.  While in the yard, a medium boy thought he could startle me by throwing a red tarantula on the ground in front of me, saying it was the "most dangerous" tarantula in Honduras!  I think he was a little disappointed when I didn't jump...I knew there was no way he'd ever throw a live tarantula at me.  And it was pretty small compared to the black ones I've seen around here.  The rains are bringing the tarantulas out more and more now.

After supper I had a date with Lucy, Karly and Ruth Maria to study with them for their big national math exam tomorrow.  We worked on the calculus for an hour and a half before they had to go back into their houses for the night.  I wished them the best on the test tomorrow.

When I got back to our room for the evening, Noah pointed out another tarantula that must've fallen from our roof top.  It was upside-down and dead on the ground right in front of our porch.  Another small one...wondering when the big ones will come out???

Thank You Kevin!

When we arrived on July 22nd, we noticed that one of the dressers in our room had a small termite problem.  After quite a few days of sweeping larger and larger amounts of termite left-overs out the door, I finally decided to put our DEET to a 2nd use and we were problem-free for 2 weeks.  Now we noticed that the termites have migrated to the other corner of the dresser and we're once again dealing with the daily clean-up.  I haven't decided yet whether I'm going to tackle them again.

The small particles on the floor is what's left behind daily by the termites

After sweeping our room and a few other chores, we headed to church.  Julissa came over to sit by us on her own accord, which was fine with me but a bit 'unusual' because generally we would have to invite a child to sit with us and then get permission from the person who is in charge of caring for that child.  Pastor German from in town came to preach the sermon today.

Alina, Julissa, and Noah

After church we walked to the power toddlers house and then to the medium boys house to grab some children to take to the tienda.  In years past, we've mostly taken girls to the tienda or toddlers because those are the houses we have been assigned to.  It seemed only fitting to take boys this year since we have been spending so much time with the medium boys.  I chose Jeremias from the power toddler house (you may have seen pictures of him in last year's blog) and then also his big brother Josue David from the medium boys house.  Alina chose to bring Toni, and Noah chose to bring Oscar.  We had an awesome time and I learned that boys will eat WAY more than girls!!!  Good thing I had brought plenty of Lempiras (the Honduran dollars).

Alina, Jeremias (in orange), Noah, Oscar (in yellow) and Toni (in my sunglasses)

Many of you may now be wondering about Oscar...there are a few children here who have lighter skin.  I've been told that the region in Honduras (called Santa Barbara) is where there are numerous Hondurans living that have light skin, light eyes and light hair.

When the boys houses walked by to go to the 'comedor' for lunch, we said our goodbyes and they headed in to eat some more with their house.  They were all very appreciative and said thank-you for the plate of food, chocolates and ice cream that we had bought them.

After lunch I headed with the Miller family to the big soccer field.  Pastor German had brought a team from the town of Guaimaca to the orphanage to play against our big boys.  I figured that Luis David would be playing (he is the goalie), so wanted to go watch the game for a bit.  Last year he had asked me for a goalie shirt, some gloves, and cleats for a Christmas gift.  I know absolutely NOTHING about soccer, so when I had gotten back to the States I decided to ask my colleague at Oshkosh North who is both a math teacher and the head boys varsity soccer coach for some help in what exactly a goalie shirt was?!?  He said he had a spare one that I could just have to send down.  Well, when we came down this year, Luis David was wearing it and very proudly.  He drew a few stripes on the shirt and wrote his name on the back.  I know that I would not be able to wear a long sleeve shirt like that in 95-degree weather with complete sun.  But I wanted to really show my appreciation to my coworker for what he had done for this boy who I've known for 9 years!  Emmanuel won 5-2.

Luis David as the goalie waiting for the ball to come his way

Me with Luis David

When I got back to our room, I made some guacamole to eat.  It's so much easier to eat cold food on hot days.  Alina saw that the medium boys were playing soccer in the field just below our room, so she went to play with them.  When they went home for the evening, we called home.  Unfortunately we ran out of money on our phone and were not able to chat as long as anticipated, so we will be sure to get our phone restocked to call later in the week.

I ended the evening with a good long chat with Michell and 3 other junior staff.  I have lots to share regarding this chat first with my husband, and hopefully soon with all of our family and friends.  I was really blessed to be able to spend this time with Michell because since I'm with the boys this year - I don't have much time during the day to be able to really chat with her.  We chatted for about 30-45 minutes before saying our good nights and heading to bed.

We're really making an effort to appreciate each day from now until Saturday because it will go fast.  We are beginning to miss our family back home, but also really that it will be really sad when we go as well.  As my husband put it earlier in the evening, our goodbyes will be "bitter sweet".