On Saturdays, they eat lunch earlier than normal. Because I was prompted by Luisito (one of the teenage boys who lives with and is helping the medium boys) to celebrate Luis David's birthday "Honduran style", Noah and I concocted a plan to carry through at lunch. Noah ran up to get the 'necessary supplies'. I walked the medium boys to lunch, got Noah's and my bowl of food and set them down and waited for Noah. When Noah came in, I approached Luis David and told him that I'd like to take him to the store for his birthday (Noah was coming around the back), so I asked him who I needed to ask permission for him to be able to go to the store with me. He said 'Papi', so I asked where David was...he pointed him out. I said, "ok!" and then officially told him Happy Birthday & gave him a hug. Noah quick handed me the egg, and I said, "I'm so sorry" and smashed the egg on Luis David's head. So in the United States we give the number of spankings and then give a 'pinch to grow an inch', down here in Honduras if you are the birthday child, you get eggs thrown at you. In 10 years of being down here, I have never celebrated their birthdays this way, so Luis David was quite surprised. I let him know that I wouldn't have done it if it weren't for Luisito. I found out later that during the day, he had to change his clothes and wash his hair THREE times.
After lunch, we headed back to the room, where we reorganized the room for Bob. A double bed would be completely too small for me and Bob to share, so we pushed Alina and Noah's twin beds together and shoved a blanket between the 2 mattresses before putting a sheet over the top. It's now a fairly large bed. I gave the double bed to Alina and Noah took the bottom bunk of the extra bunk beds that were in our room.
I spent from 1:00-3:00ish with Luis David. I wanted to take him to the store, but the girl who runs the store had a visit with her mom today, so the store was closed. The first weekend of every month are allotted to families who wish to visit with their children. It's a pretty busy time down in front of the orphanage, and it's fun to see the children who have visits sprint down to the gazebo in front of where our room is to see their mom and other relatives.
Luis David and I just sat in the chosa (gazebo-like hut) in the big boys yard chatting). He shared quite a bit of what's going on with him and his plans for the future and said that when he headed into the capital city of Tegucigalpa a week ago, it was the first time that he had been outside Orphanage Emmanuel (probably aside from the town the orphanage is located in), and it scared him quite a bit. He thought Tegucigalpa was a pretty ugly and scary place. As we were chatting, Noah came up the road with Bob! I was hoping to have been back at the room when Bob was dropped off, but I guess he got in earlier than I had expected, so I quickly said my goodbyes to Luis David and headed with Bob back to our room so that he could put his suitcase away and rest. I think he slept for the rest of the afternoon, evening, and through the night!
Noah and I met up with the medium boys for supper and then we headed to the cancha (soccer field) for them to play soccer until 6pm when it gets dark and is time to head to their rooms for the evening. Noah and I headed back to our room and settled in for the night too.