We rearranged the luggage since there were some things that we were bringing to Honduras from Atlanta and some things we were leaving behind, and then sent the Atlanta luggage we didn't need back to Wisconsin with Bob and Jaden. Around 10:30pm, Alina, Noah, Kaylyn and I took the hotel shuttle to the O'Hare International airport because our flight took off at 1:25am. It would be Alina's and Noah's first time taking Copa Airlines to Honduras, and Kaylyn's first international flight. I have to say, I love Copa Airlines. We could sleep most of the way there, and about an hour before landing they served a complete breakfast: french toast, yogurt, a cup of fruit (cantaloupe, pineapple, and watermelon) and a bun. I ate everything except my watermelon and strawberry yogurt, since I'm not a fan of those fruits. Noah ate my yogurt and Kaylyn ate my watermelon. Then Noah proceeded to eat Kaylyn's yogurt and half of Alina's fruit along with all of his tray. We flew into Panama City and then had to get on a second plane which made a short stop in San Jose, Costa Rica before heading to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. They served hot sandwiches on both lengths of these flights and Noah had both his and Alina's hot sandwich on the first flight and then had his hot sandwich on the second flight. He must be in a growth spurt with all the food he ate!
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Alina, Noah and Kaylyn a little overtired in O'Hare Intl Airport |
Norman picked us up from the airport and was absolutely stunned by how much Noah grew in the past year (as would be most of the people at the orphanage)! We exchanged our American Dollars for Honduran Lempiras at the airport (current exchange rate was $23.50L to $1USD). Kaylyn was really excited about getting a $500 bill in Lempiras! I also got chips for my phone and USB modem so that I could keep up this blog and also call home as needed. It was a fairly smooth ride to Orphanage Emmanuel, no road blocks like last year. Alina and Noah slept most of the way, Kaylyn only slept for about 10 minutes since she was fascinated by all she saw.
When we got to Orphanage Emmanuel, Noah was very eager to give Kaylyn a tour so we dropped our suitcases off in our room and then took her through the front half of the orphanage. We stopped by the tienda, then stopped by the comedor to see Luis David (whose graduation I went to in December...I don't think I wrote in my blog for that), then up to the special needs house to try to visit Michell but when we knocked no one answered, and lastly we stopped at the toddler house for Alina to say her hellos. When our mini-tour was done, we headed back to our room to unpack while there was still some light. We headed back to the comedor for supper where we ate rice and beans. We were very tired from our travels, and I'm not quite sure when Alina and Noah went to bed, but I can tell you that Kaylyn and I were sleeping by 5pm!