A Sunday with Michell

Since today is Sunday, it is a free day for us!  We began by heading to the comedor for breakfast.  They were serving a type of corn flakes with warm milk.  Instead of a moon pie, the had a mini coconut pie for dessert.  I have actually been passing on the breakfast desserts this year, trying to drop a few pounds more quickly while down here.  While at breakfast, Alejandra came up to me to give me a hug (as she does every meal in the comedor).  I gave her a new dress to wear for today (that we had brought down for her from the States), since we were planning on bringing her to church and I knew that her family would be coming later for a visit.  She was pretty excited about the dress!

We went back to the room to get ready for church and then decided to bring Michell, Alejandra and Coco to church.  Noah headed to the medium boys house to grab his sponsored child, Gibran and then also grabbed Brayan.  After church, we headed to the tienda to get some snacks.  I bought each child some chips, cookies, a beverage and later - ice cream.  We stayed at the tienda until lunch, just chatting with each other and also the other children who came to the tienda during the morning.

Noah hugging Gibran with Brayan at his side

Left to Right: Kaylyn, Michell, Alejandra, Alina

As children started walking past the tienda for lunch, the girls mentioned that there would be chicken for lunch.  In fact, it was chicken, white rice and cole slow (YUM!), but the girls weren't interested in eating lunch in the comedor and were insistent on continuing to spend time with us, so Alina and Noah went to lunch, but Kaylyn and I stayed back.  I do have to say, compared to what is served most days, I was actually a little bummed out about not getting lunch in the comedor today, but wanted to honor what the girls wanted.  Even Steve came to check in on us after lunch to see if we missed lunch by mistake.

After lunch, Alejandra's family came.  It was her grandmother and her brother.  I walked her down to the area where Orphanage Emmanuel does visits and then let her know I'd see her later, probably in the comedor for supper.  Alina and Noah wanted to head down to the school playground to get Kaylyn ready for a game they call "Ninja Warrior" and play with the children from the Miller family that would be coming down tomorrow.  We brought Michell along, and they took Kaylyn and Michell through the course they had planned out a couple years ago.

When they got tired of playing on the playground, Noah headed back to the medium boys house and we took Michell up to the hotel (which is what they call the building where we stay).  I grabbed my laptop and USB modem and got on Netflix.  We were going to try to watch Aquaman, however movie options on Netflix down here are very different than what you can get in the States and it wasn't available.  We settled on watching Poseidon.

When the movie finished, we headed to supper where cheesy rice (that had chunks of chicken) and whole beans were served.  After supper we walked back with Michell and her room of girls.  Suyapa let us know that they were going to mop the floors and then she would like us to come over and watch a movie with them.  So we stopped at our room to change and then headed up to their house to watch the movie: 17 Again.  Seems those girls like romance and drama movies.

When we got back to our room, it wasn't long before Noah met up with us.  He left the room briefly and then came back just as fast.  I will tell the story in his words:  "I went to the kitchen to fill up my water bottle.  I opened the door to the kitchen and was looking around for cockroaches and tarantulas and then saw a huge rat come out from behind the water heater and go running between the kitchen cupboards and the wall.  I looked at the sink and where the rat ran and decided I didn't need water that bad."  I don't think I've seen Noah that uncomfortable in a LONG time!  So we avoided the kitchen for the remainder of the evening.