All About Hair

Even though it was Saturday, we are still working.  Our only day off as volunteers is Sunday.  So that means our day began as all of the others this week, the girls and I heading to the toddler house and Noah heading to the grandecitos house, breakfast and then hanging out with those kids.  

Because we were in the chosa all morning (4.5-5 hours), some of the big girls decided to braid Kaylyn's hair.  Unfortunately, Kaylyn was really not in the mood to be in the toddler house (I won't get into details on that), so I had to walk her back to the room and lock her in for the rest of the morning.  So instead, the girls asked Alina if they could braid her hair.  It turned out really nice and they asked Alina to leave the braids in until Monday when they would take them out.

We headed to lunch and then Alina walked the toddlers back to the toddler house while I walked Kaylyn back to our room to rest a little bit more until early afternoon when we'd have to head back to the toddler house.  When we headed back, Alina was watching a movie with some of the big girls.  She had used her spending money to buy a bunch of snacks and 3-liter sodas (yes, you read that right) for the girls.  She let me know that that she was surprised the 3-liter sodas were only $2 USD each!

We took the toddlers to supper and when we got back and showered them, another girl asked if she could crimp Kaylyn's hair.  Knowing that we had to wait for Invisible (Pamela) to celebrate Angel's birthday with his mom, Cecilia, I said "yes".  Invisible and a few others got chinese rice, soda and cake to celebrate Angel's birthday with all of the toddlers and the big girls at the house.  She shared the rice and cake with us (she had invited me earlier in the week) and also sent a plate for Alina, who had went back to the room early because she didn't feel well.  She also cut a slice of cake for Noah.

When Kaylyn and I got back to the room, Noah was gone.  Alina said he had just left for the medianos house.  She still wasn't feeling very well, and we went through the 4th power outage since being here a week ago.  This one, fortunately for Alina, only lasted about 20 minutes or so.  I say fortunately since she was on the brink of having to sprint to the bathroom.

When Noah got back, he ate the rice and cake and locked up for the night.  It's pretty dark here by 7pm, so we generally head to bed just before 8pm.  

New Neighbors

Today is Friday!  That means it's time for Big Circle.  I was hoping that Alina, Noah and Kaylyn could enjoy big circle (it would be Kaylyn's first time), however they were not ready by the time it began, so they got the same treatment as children here...they were locked into their room and had to listen to it through the window.  Big Circle happens right outside of our room since there's a big open space for all of them to have a morning worship and devotion together...all the children from Emmanuel come this way, so I told our children that when they hear kids coming, they'd better be out front of our room as soon as they heard the 1st group arriving, because I would not allow them to be the last ones out front since they "live" the closest to where it happens.  I don't think they were happy with me about being locked in, but perhaps next Friday they will be ready on time.

Since I didn't have classes today and don't really have to prep for classes until early next week, I spent the day with the toddlers just like Alina and Kaylyn do.  The morning (after breakfast) was difficult for me.  We spent the entire morning in the chosa and sitting on the hard tile floors for 4.5 hours was tough on my "old" body.  I stood multiple times to stretch, but it was difficult.  The toddlers play a lot during this time and I played with them some.

Noah told me that he spent the morning painting a "garbage holder" (his words).  It's a wooden boxed in area to hold the garbage can, I'm assuming so that the dogs don't tip the garbage over in the middle of the night when they like to go through garbages.

After lunch, we went back to the room from 12-2pm.  This is when the toddlers nap, so I definitely decided to get an hour nap in too!  Alina napped as well, while Kaylyn did some word searches and read a book.  At 2 pm we went back to the toddler house to wake them up, get their shoes on and then take them to supper.  After supper, the toddlers get showered and into their jammies.  They went on a walk. 

Before they left for their walk, Mary Beth (a member of the staff here at Emmanuel) stopped by to chat with me about Luis David and how well he's doing here in the kitchen, and in general.  We chatted for quite a while and as we walked back to our houses, we actually saw Luis David coming back from playing soccer.  He was wearing the uniform I had sent him for Christmas!  Wish I would have had my camera because I would post it here.

When I got back to the room, Alina told me that Tammy had arrived...meaning we now have neighbors.  Tammy has a ranch back home, so when she comes this way, she works with Chino to help him improve what's going on here at the horse barn.  She was the one responsible for designing and helping get this new horse barn all set up.  I'll be excited to chat with her over the next few days.

Supper with Team Ohio

This morning we began with our normal routine, the girls and I heading to the toddler house and Noah heading off to the grandecitos and then meeting up at breakfast.  After breakfast the girls went back to the toddler house, Noah went to work and then I had to go back to our room to prepare lessons for Bachillerato 1 and Bachillerato 2.  I would be teaching for 3 class periods today. 

School began at 7:30am and I had back-to-back periods for Bachillerato 2.  It seems math class for them only meets on Thursdays, and each class period is 40 minutes.  We got through all of the notes (theory) for limits and then 1 example before that the class periods were over.  There were 2 ladies from the Ohio team who came into the classroom to help out the students if they got stuck.  With 20 students in the classroom, and talking about limits (something the students had never heard of before), it was nice to have the extra help and support.

I went back to the room to work on more math prep until the other class began (in Bachillerato 1) and then headed back to the school once again to tackle that lesson.  We got through a lot of definitions of terms with parabolas (vertice, domain, range, quadratic equation, etc) and then I set the students up to do some practice problems.  They have 4 problems for homework due next week Wednesday.

Noah told me that he painted at the horse barn today...some of the rafters?  And we found out that we were invited to supper up at the team house, which is always a joy.  Noah enjoyed the food up there as they served scalped potatoes with ham, salad, fruit and freshly made buttered buns.  It was a great way to end the night.

Graduation Fundraiser - Baleadas

This morning we headed out as usual, the girls and I to the toddler house and Noah to the grandecitos house.  We met up in the comedor for breakfast.  After breakfast Alina and Kaylyn walked the toddlers back to the toddler house and Noah headed with Chino to the horse barn.  I stopped in by Michell where the girls were making tortillas for the fundraiser later in the day before going back to our room to prep for math class.

Today I would be teaching Bachillerato 1 (the equivalent of 10th grade).  The schedule says class begins at 7:30, but we always have to wait a bit for students entering a little late.  I got through 1 review problem (that Profe Ramon had asked me to do).  I had 2 problems, but had to assign the 2nd one as homework since we only had about 10 minutes left to get into the lesson.  I gave them an introduction to quadratics, but we would have to finish tomorrow.

After that class, I headed back to our room to prep for tomorrow's lesson Bachillerato 2.  The lesson was going to be difficult...introducing limits.  When 9:30am rolled around, I headed back to the school because the Bachillerato 2 class was selling baleadas as a fundraiser for their graduation.  I bought 4 plates of baleadas.  A baleada is a hand-made tortilla with beans, eggs and a cream inside.  A plate had 2 baleadas and then we got a charamusca (fruit drink in a bag).  Four of these cost me $100 Honduran Lempiras (about $4 USD).  I chose 4 different colors of charamuscas and then went to the horse barn first for Noah to pick out his.  He was pretty excited to get to eat a mid-morning snack on my expense!

Noah excited to get the baleada

Kaylyn with Michell (who actually gave her a taste of a baleada this morning)

My baleada and charamusca (before I gave the charamusca to Noah)

Then I went to the chosa at the toddler house to deliver the girls plates.  They were also excited to get the plates and charamuscas.  There was 1 charamusca left over for me, but I didn't necessarily need it (I'll stick to water to stay hydrated), so I ran it back to Noah, who again was very excited to get a 2nd one.  After all of that running, I went back to my room for more "math prep" until it was time to go to the comedor for lunch.

On Wednesdays, volunteers can go into town shopping (groceries, etc), so I took Noah and Kaylyn (Alina preferred to stay back) to town.  On our way to the orphanage gate, we saw the semi container coming in.  Noah was hoping they'd still be unloading by the time we got back, but I told him there was only a slim chance of that.  They work hard to get that semi unloaded quickly.  This would be the 1st year he didn't get to help unload.  We got our groceries and stopped for a chocolate covered frozen banana for Kaylyn.  She really liked it!

When we got back, the semi was leaving.  There are boys who stand on the top of the semi because some wires that cross the roads are so low that they have to be lifted over the semi.  When we got back to the room, we put the groceries away and then Alina and Kaylyn headed to the toddler house while Noah and I rearranged our room.  The bunk bed was in front of the window which gave little space to open and close the window in the morning...plus they were in FRONT of the only window we have in the room.  Now the room looks a lot more efficient and with the bunk beds in a different spot, we can get to the window a lot easier to open each morning and close each evening.  We also re-folded most of the blankets and towels that were in the armoire since they were scrambled around quite a bit.  We were so busy doing that, that Kaylyn came in and asked where we were for supper.  We had completely forgotten that since it was a Wednesday (a church night), supper got served earlier!

We all dressed for church and then headed down where the Ohio team put on a great skit.  After church, the 3 kiddos showered and then we headed to bed.

A Passport for Luis David

This morning I slept in...just kept hitting the snooze button, so instead of waking up at 3:30am, I got up at 4:30am (which is 5:30am Wisconsin time).  The kids have requested that I wake Noah up at 5am, Kaylyn up at 5:10am and Alina up at 5:20am since we need to be out the door by 5:45am, and once again I tried to get Noah up but he didn't wake up until after Alina was out of bed.  Glad that they shower the night before!  We headed to our separate areas (girls to toddler house, Noah to grandecitos).

We met up at breakfast in the comedor.  Mary Beth had told me that they were going to rearrange seating in the comedor and the big boys would be switching with the small boys.  It seems that the big boys, being way back against the wall and mostly out of sight were having some issues that needed to be monitored.  Our plates were usually on the small boys table, but would have to get moved since the big boys needed the entire table.  We found our plates at the end of the medium girls table.  Breakfast this morning was arroz con leche with a chocolate moon pie.  Noah was excited to get the moon pie and quickly took Alina's (since she doesn't like them).  I let Noah know that he was not allowed to eat the 2nd moon pie until he finished his arroz con leche.  He didn't.

When breakfast was over, the girls and I walked the toddlers back to the chosa while Noah went with Chino to work with the horses.  It seems I forgot the cord that connects the camera to the laptop, so I am going to have to remember to pack my phone when I'm out and about so I can take pictures with that.  I know I usually post pictures with each blog entry, and I'm going to work on that.  Please be patient as I try to remember to take my phone with me during the day.  The 1st morning here, I went to snooze the alarm on my phone and it fell to the ground, completely cracking the protective screen.  I think everything underneath it is still okay, but with how much kids here like to play with american phones...I'm just a bit leary.  I will try to muster up the courage to bring it along.

During recess I headed over to the school to get the materials from Profe Ramon for Bachillerato 1.  I will need to teach that tomorrow - the focus is parabolas (quadratic form, domain, range, vertex, facing up or down, intercepts and graphing).  This is typically an entire unit in our math class.  I have 40 minutes to teach it.  I'm pretty sure I will not be able to get through all of it.

After getting the math materials, I headed over to the horse farm to check out the new building.  It's absolutely gorgeous!  Chino gave me a tour and I saw Glenda and Veronica Diaz there.  We chatted a bit before I headed back to my room to begin preparing for class tomorrow.  Noah let me know later that he saw Wade and I saw Carolina, both who were staff members here last year.

Classroom in the horse barn to teach children about horses

We went to lunch and Steve (a staff member) gave me 4 rolls of toilet paper.  Toilet paper is such a hot commodity here!  Think about it...an orphanage with approximately 500 children who all have to use the bathroom multiple times a day.  Children have to be taught how much toilet paper to use or can really abuse that.  If you don't teach them how to use it, it goes as fast as leaving a cat locked in a bathroom that discovers the toilet paper roll!!!  Anyway, our room did not have any toilet paper when we arrived, and there was only 1 roll in the kitchen.  We go grocery shopping tomorrow, and it's getting low.  Our kids know that you get 4 squares and that's it...and with 3 of us being girls and drinking LOTS of water due to the hot dry weather (and not wanting to deal with dehydration or heat stroke), it's going faster than it would at home.

At 1pm, I met up with Luis David to head into town to the bank.  This will be the 1st step in the process for him to get a passport to go to Costa Rica to study.  The passport process is apparently a little different here than it is in the States.  In the States, you simply fill out an application, get a photo, bring your birth certificate and a check to the post office where they verify everything has been filled out correctly and you have the proper documentation before sending it in to the government.  Once all's sent in, it takes 3 weeks to 2 months to get the passport.  Here, you go to a bank and pay a bit of money to make an appointment to go get your passport.  I'm not sure if the money is for the bank or if it's a down payment for the passport.  Luis David's appointment is for October 25th at 7am in the capital city of Tegucigalpa.

Waiting at the bank came with a lot of cultural experiences too (although having lived in Mexico, I'm already used to them).  Generally in the States, when you go to the bank, your experience in front of the teller lasts about 2 minutes.  Here, it's more like 5 minutes (or more!).  There were 4 customers in front of us and we were there for about 30+ minutes, waiting.  One of the customers in front of us started preaching about the apocalypse (the book of Revelations in the Bible) to 2 other customers right behind him.  Those 2 customers mocked him out loud and laughed at him, and every once in a while looked at me.  There was a lady behind me who audibly agreed with the preaching man.  Luis David did not say a word.  When these 2 men looked at me, I had to bite my tongue.  I didn't really have time to start something because Luis David had to get back to work, but it really annoyed me that they behaved the way they did.  Some might say that God told this man that the 2 men behind him weren't Christians and to preach in order to plant seeds to be sowed down the road.  I don't want to repeat the things these 2 men said about their lives and how they disagreed with the man who was preaching, but I can say that even in the States...what they claimed to do would be unacceptable to Christians and non-Christians alike.  I am used to this preaching in public, having lived in Mexico it happened a lot on public transportation.  I am not a preacher, that is not my spiritual gift, but I agreed whole-heartedly with what this man was saying.

When we got back to Emmanuel, I used the afternoon to work on the math lessons for tomorrow up until it was time to go to the comedor for supper.  While in the comedor, it rained SO hard.  Some children were still running to the comedor when the rain started.  Some children ran back to their houses in the rain.  I chose to stay in the comedor until it settled down to a very light sprinkle.  When I left the comedor, I saw a rainbow.  This is the 2nd rainbow I've seen in the 4 days I've been here!

After supper, Noah stayed at the gym to play soccer with the medianos while Alina and Kaylyn went with the toddlers to help with showering them and getting them into their pajamas and ready for bed.  We all met back in the room.  Around 6pm, Alina took Kaylyn to the girls special needs house.  Michell is there, and so is Sofia.  Apparently Michell had been talking so much about Alina this past year that the tia (the night lady who is in charge) said she'd like to meet her.  They were there until just after 7pm.  When they came back it was completely dark and we decided to get some sleep.

Managing Money

This morning we got out the door at 5:45am (which I believe is normal time).  We girls headed to the toddler house to help round up the toddlers for breakfast while Noah headed to the grandecitos house.  Since the team from Ohio is here this week, Noah told me that they used him as a prop for their morning devotions.  He got to be one of the "waves" in the story of Jesus calming the storm.

We went to breakfast where arroz con leche was served with a mini coconut pie.  I did eat the arroz con leche, but once again had to give the coconut pie away.  Kaylyn decided to eat with Sofia, Alina ate with the toddlers, Noah ate with the grandecitos and I moved over to eat next to Michell.  We walked with the toddlers back to the chosa (a closed in gazebo-type building) to watch some educational videos until school started.  When school was about to start, I headed that way to talk with Profe Ramon to see if he would need help with any classes.  He told me he'd like help with Bachillerato 1 and Bachillerato 2 (10th and 11th grades) this year, and that he would get me the materials after recess.  So I let him know I'd be back.

I stopped at the tienda to begin separate accounts for Alina, Noah and Kaylyn.  I let them know I would put $120 lempiras (about $5 USD) into their account at the tienda that they could spend as they felt fit.  There are beverages, chips and ice cream at the tienda.  This way, if they needed to snack or to have a dessert, they could do it.  I let Lourdes, who runs the tienda, know that I felt Noah would blast through his money the fastest, especially since I know he doesn't really care for arroz con leche at breakfast, and he really enjoys having his Fresca soda.

Noah went off with Chino to spend the morning working with the horses.  Around January, a new horse building went up which houses the horses and has a classroom so that the kids here can learn more about horses and how to properly care for them.  Noah hauled saw dust to each of the horses stalls.  After the horse care was finished, Noah got to use the weed wacker to cut grass with the other boys.  He really had a day filled with heavy labor!

I returned to school during recess and Profe Ramon gave me the book for Bachillerato 2, which I will be teaching on Thursday.  The topics are going to be difficult (tangent lines to parabolas at a given point, perpendicular lines, and limits) and I will have to do a lot of planning for that.  He let me know that he didn't have the book for Bachillerato 1, but would get that to me tomorrow, in order to prep for Wednesday's class.

After collecting the books I headed back to our room to fold the laundry that was in the washer and dryer when we arrived and also to wash all of the towels from the "flooding" that Noah's shower created in the room last night.  In addition to that, we already had a load of our own to wash.  I used this time to start looking through the math materials as well.

After lunch, Mary Beth (who is in charge of overseeing the kitchen) asked me to chat with Luis David about his cell phone usage and a few other things.  Luis David just got this new cell phone on Saturday, and of course...like all teenagers...wants to be on it as much as possible.  So I went to the comedor around 1:30pm, when he was on break, to chat with him.  And like all teens, he got a bit defensive at first, but I brought in how it destroy relationships and in terms of jobs...get people fired if they are using it and shouldn't be.  We had a lengthy conversation about that and then also about him saving up for college.  He'd like to go to Costa Rica to learn to be a chef.  It is a 3-4 year program, and seems like it's fairly expensive.  We'd like to help him through college, but I'm not sure that we can help him completely.  If any of our friends out there would like to help, please do reach out to us.  I affectionately call Luis David my Honduran son because I've known him for the past 12 years of coming down to Orphanage Emmanuel.  When he graduated this past December, I was allowed to take off work to come down for his graduation, thanks so much to a wonderful and understanding HR department in the Oshkosh Area School District.  A few years ago, he didn't even think he was going to finish high school (anything after 6th grade is completely optional here in Honduras)...and upon graduating, he told me that I was one of the main reasons he pushed himself.  There's SO MUCH MORE to his background story that I just don't have the time and space to put in here.  But we are really hoping that he can follow his dreams and go through culinary school.

Noah spent the afternoon working on laying cement.  They are extending the road in front of the team house to the health clinic area.  I can remember back to 12 years ago when there was barely ANY cement roads!...and now most roads between buildings here are.  See the picture below which shows where the cement is being laid.

After supper, Noah went with the medium boys to play dodge-ball, and the girls went to the toddler house to give showers to the toddlers and get them in their pajamas and ready for bed.  It gets pretty dark here by 7pm, so we generally turn in by 8 at the latest.

And at the end of the night, I asked each of the 3 kiddos how much money was left in their accounts at the tienda (at the end of just 1 day), and as predicted, Noah had spent the most...with only $30 lempiras left.  Hoping he spaces it out until next Monday, but guessing he'll be diving into some of the "mad money" that his grandfather sent along with him!

A Flood in our Room

When I woke up this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Alina and Noah had remembered to wedge a towel between the floor and the door to outside so that no larger critters would crawl in underneath.  I just remember back to years ago when a snake slithered into our room...not a pleasant experience.  From geckos to mice to cockroaches...they can all manage their way in underneath the door, so it's best to wedge the towel in there.  I learned this trick when I lived in Mexico.

We went for breakfast this morning and we were served arroz con leche (rice with milk) with a coconut pie.  I'm not really a fan of coconut pie, so decided to give this to one of the grandecitos boys that I've known as long as I've been with Noah.  Kaylyn, like Noah, is not much of a fan of the arroz con leche, but she does eat more of it than he does.  I have let my children know through the years that they will be eating with the kids at Emmanuel so they can more appreciate what they get at home.  Alina took her breakfast and went to sit to eat with the toddlers, while Noah went to eat with the grandecitos.  After breakfast, Kaylyn, Noah and I went back to the room to get ready for church while Alina went with Michell and Sofia.  I picked up Alejandra to go to church with us and Noah ran to get Gibran and Oscar. 

After church, Alina decided to go with the toddlers, Noah headed with the grandecitos and Kaylyn went with Sofia while I went on a walk with the big girls.  We all met up at the comedor for lunch.  There is a team from Ohio here that planned on serving chicken for lunch today.  I heard the rumors about chicken all morning from the children!  The chicken had a spicier crunchy coating to it and there was also rice and cole slaw.  I think my children ate their entire bowls on their own!

In the afternoon I went on another walk with the big girls and Kaylyn came along.  It began raining and the rain was pretty strong.  When we headed to supper, it was so strong that Kaylyn was getting hit with tiny little rocks. 

After supper Alina and Noah decided to take showers.  I was tired once again, so didn't even notice when Noah finished his shower, but I did notice when he wouldn't go to bed because he kept moving around the room.  This is when we noticed that when he showered, the shower curtain wasn't tucked into the shower properly and water leaked out.  Noah likes to take long showers, so our room flooded a little.  Kaylyn's suitcase got a little wet, we saved mine just in time, and the other 2 suitcases were on the far side of the room, so no damage done there.  Noah used every spare towel we had and a couple of blankets to soak up the water.

All of this flooding was in ADDITION to us having lost power in the late afternoon.  No power.  No phone service.  And Mike (next door) came over to let us know that it would be a "long, dark night" since this most likely happened closer to Tegucigalpa and wasn't just a local outage.  We were without power all night long.  Thankfully we had flashlights and candles.