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.
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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.