Kaylyn Sees Iguanas

Today went fairly smoothly, with us going to our toddler and medium boys houses in the morning and walking with them to breakfast.  Noah got to spend the morning with the medium boys playing soccer in the yard outside the church and school.  The girls and I were in the chosa all morning with the toddlers.  We have not yet been out to the park or on a walk with the toddlers in the 2 weeks we've been here, and Laurie (Miller) thought that was really odd since we were out in the park almost every day when Glenda was with the toddlers.  Glenda is now with Veronica Diaz working in the Team House. 

We walked with the toddlers to lunch and then walked them back to their living room area for naps.  It's neat how they all lay down next to each other in a row (I'll have to try to remember to get a picture of this) and just fall asleep so quickly.  I guess that means they played hard in the morning.  We walked back to our room to get some rest too.  Before Alina laid down, her and Kaylyn heated up some of the chinese rice from Luis David's birthday on Monday.  They like the rice and have been eating a little each day, but I let them know that it would have to be gone before tomorrow in order to eat it prior to it going really bad (Morgan gave us a LOT of rice).

On the way back to the toddlers house, the girls ran on ahead.  I saw 2 iguanas in the park next to their chosa.  I let Kaylyn know about it once I got to the toddler house and she ran to the park to try to see them.  We let her know exactly where to look.  She came running back and said she saw FOUR iguanas!  When the toddlers were up, they played for a little bit before lining up for supper.  We went to the comedor for supper and then walked them back and gave them showers and got them into their pajamas.  On our way back to our house there was 1 lone iguana yet, half on the cement, half in the grass.  Kaylyn noticed it and I said she should run towards it to see how long it took for the iguana to run off and hide.  Kaylyn got within 10-15 feet before it took off under a patch of cement.  She ran up to the hole and said she could see the iguana hiding under it. 

When we got back to our room, I decided that we should just stay in for the night.  Noah came back, so I got out one of the games I had purchased from the Dollar Tree (prior to coming) for them to play.  It is like our game "Watch Your Mouth" back home, where you put in that dental appliance that opens your mouth and then try to say a phrase and everyone needs to guess what you're saying.  They had fun doing that, and it was much needed, as the kiddos were starting to get on each other's nerves the past few days.  Alina cut up the watermelon we bought from Glenda, and I think the girls ate around 1/2 of it!  Alina said it was SO good.  I may have to buy another one for the kids here when we go into town on Wednesday.

The power went out again, so we lit the candles and turned on the 2 flashlights in order for the kiddos to shower and then we decided it would be time for bed.  This was the last full Saturday for us here at Orphanage Emmanuel (well, in 2019 anyway).

Big Circle Cancelled

Last night I had reminded Alina, Noah and Kaylyn that they were to be ready on time in order to attend Big Circle today.  They actually got ready on time!  Unfortunately, as all the children made it to the circle, it started to rain...and they had to cancel.  The children walked back to their areas and each had their own small circles (something that they do on a daily basis, except for Fridays).  When they walked away from Big Circle, we took this as our cue to get to where we normally go in the mornings.  I am hoping that they (especially Kaylyn) are able to see a Big Circle next week as it will be our last Friday here.

A picture of Alina, Michell and Kaylyn in Big Circle before the rain came

We walked the toddlers to breakfast and then back to the chosa to play for a bit.  Veronica Diaz had told Laurie Miller that she would open the Team House store (where they sell both Honduran goods and Emmanuel goods) at 7am, so we all walked over there to see what there was.  Kaylyn had seen a backpack last week that she really wanted and was hoping was still there.  The South Carolina team was getting ready to leave and the bus was pulled up.  Mary Beth and her husband, Steve, were headed to Tegucigalpa with the team and were going to stay there for the weekend as a mini-vacation, so I chatted with her about last evening's and this morning's events.  Kaylyn was able to buy the backpack with money her grandpa gave to her, so went away really happy!

We walked back to the chosa at the Toddler House and after just a little bit, Kaylyn said that she wasn't feeling well again.  Her stomach has been empty for a while now, so I'm guessing it will be tender while it recuperates.  I took her back to our room and got her some more pear juice, and also heated up and drank some of the tea (from yesterday) for my throat before returning to the chosa to be with Alina.

Alina has had 2 boys at the Toddler House who hang around her constantly.  One's name is Jose Francisco (and he likes to such his thumb constantly).  The other is Dilmer, who calls Alina by 4 different names: tia, Annie, Alina and mama.  Alina is so great with all of the toddlers but especially to these 2 boys who follow her everywhere!

Alina with Jose Francisco and Dilmer in the chosa

Left to Right: Dilmer, Alina, Jose Francisco walking back from lunch

After taking the toddlers to lunch (and noticing that Noah had been painting all morning again), we walked them back to the Toddler House to take their naps, and then headed back to our room to get our own rest in too before heading back to the Toddler House to get the kiddos up from their naps and ready for supper.  At the comedor for supper, I talked with Chino (who I worked with the past couple of years in the Medianos House when I was with Noah) just to see how Noah has been doing.  Chino said he's been working hard and he's really matured in his 4 years here.  That was a great compliment and I'm so glad that Noah has someone like Chino to work under!

We brought the toddlers back to their house to give them showers and get their jammies on for the night, then headed to the Special Needs house to spend the rest of the evening watching the rest of Aquaman (that we had only gotten to watch the first 30 minutes of on Wednesday night due to the power outage) with the Michell and the other girls.  They really enjoyed the movie.  When we got back to our room at 8pm, Noah was already there waiting for us.  Alina showered quickly and we went to bed to prepare for Saturday!

Making Tea Naturally

This morning Alina and I went to the toddler house, while Noah made his way to the medianos house.  I decided Kaylyn would stay back to recuperate from having been sick yesterday.  She let me know that she was still feeling quite weak and had no real desire to eat anything (and her stomach was pretty empty from not having ate yesterday), so she needed today to rest yet.

After breakfast, I headed back to my room to check on Kaylyn and to prep for math for the day.  Today I would have 3 sessions to teach.  Below is a picture of some of what we went through in the Bachillerato 2 class (which is learning calculus).  Between last week, this week and next week, we will be working a lot with limits and tangent lines.

I got a little bit of a break after teaching 2 sessions of Bachillerato 2 in order to prep for Bachillerato 1 and once again check on Kaylyn.  She ate a couple of apples and a cucumber throughout the morning, which was good.  We finished up x-intercepts with parabolas and then went into how to graph parabolas given the vertex, y-intercept and x-intercept(s).

At lunch, Suyapa told me that she would send me leaves to make a tea for my throat.  It is still pretty sore and I only have about 1/2 of my voice right now.  I went back to the room and she met me there with the tea, letting me know exactly how to make it.  I wish I would have taken pictures for you, but I didn't think to do it...probably because I made manzanilla tea many times when I lived in Mexico and this is not a foreign concept to me.  This was not manzanilla, but rather a leaf that when you make the tea, turned the water a burnt sienna color.  I pulled the leaves off of the branches, quickly rinsed them and then put them into a pot of boiling water.  I let them boil in the water for about 5-10 minutes (time flies down here), and then took the leaves out of the pot and strained the tea through a coffee filter into a juice pitcher.  I thought the tea was good, but when I shared it with Alina, she didn't much care for it.

After our 12-2pm break, Alina and I headed back to the toddler house and spent time there chatting with Laurie and Rebekah Miller while we waited for the toddlers to wake up.  We played with the toddlers for a bit before walking them to the comedor for supper.  We asked that they didn't prepare supper for us at the comedor because the team had invited staff and volunteers to once again dine with them tonight at 6pm.

After supper, I went with Alina (upon her request) to go see LaShawn.  Alina is pretty sure she is starting to get impetigo again.  Tara and LaShawn agreed and gave her the proper antibiotics for the infection to last for the next week.  LaShawn let Alina know she didn't need to feel bad or embarrassed about it because being a type of staff infection, it will come and go.  She let Alina that Sarah (in the office) gets this often, which actually made Alina feel more "okay" and less embarrassed about the entire situation.

We caught Noah playing soccer with the medianos down in the cancha after supper tonight (see picture below).

About 5:45pm, Noah came up from the cancha and we walked to the team house together.  This would be the last team dinner we will eat while here since this team is leaving tomorrow for the States and there is not another team coming down to Emmanuel until September.  I included a picture of what dinners typically look like at the team house.  

After eating dinner, when we felt the first few drops of rain, we decided to walk back to our room.  We lost power once again, and it did not come back on until probably 9 or 10pm (not really sure because I had fallen asleep).  What I do know is that our room got really warm to the point where Kaylyn and I had cold wash cloths on our foreheads until the power came back on.

Kaylyn Gets Sick

Kaylyn woke up this morning and said she had a heachache and didn't feel so well.  She didn't look terribly ill, so we went about our normal morning routine.  After breakfast, Alina and Kaylyn headed back to the toddler house while I stayed back in our room for last minute prep before this morning's 7:30am math class in Bachillerato 1. 

I had given the students homework for today (finding 4 vertices to cuadratic functions), and let the students know that if they got all 4 of the answers correct, I would give them a paleta, which is a chili-covered mango sucker that I buy in the Mexican grocery store back home before I come.  We bring LOTS of bags of these down because you cannot get them down here.  Only 5 of the 20 students had all 4 answers correct.  I gave the students the correct answers and let them know that those who didn't get a correct answer would need to go through it and make corrections in order to be sure they knew how to solve for a vertex.  We then went through today's lesson: solving for x- and y- intercepts of quadratic functions (along with talking about discriminants).  And once again they got homework.

When class was done, I decided to go back to our room for about an hour or so in order to prep for tomorrow - since I would be teaching over 3 class periods.  Alina came in around 9am to say that Kaylyn had been sleeping the entire time in the chosa without moving and the other girls said she had a fever.  So I went with Alina up to the chosa, stopping at the tienda along the way to buy an apple juice for Kaylyn to drink.  When we got to the chosa and began walking up the steps, I noticed 2 legs that were on the steps that belonged to a tarantula...they were only the legs, but when I looked on the ground, I saw the rest of the tarantula (dead, of course).  Ants were already all over it trying to figure out how to carry it away.  I picked up Kaylyn and showed her on the way out.  She had a little reaction - probably would have been bigger if she hadn't been so sick.  This is the 1st tarantula she's seen down here.

When I dropped Kaylyn off at our room, I gave her a pear-flavored Enjoy drink.  These are a bit thicker (more like a nectar) and have quite a bit of Vitamin C in them.  I told her that I had to go to the school to pick up the plates of food that I had ordered for their fundraiser, deliver them to Alina, Noah and Luis David, and by the time I got back, I expected that the drink was gone.  I went to the school and Noah was there (one less delivery for me), so I gave him his plate and 2 charamuscas, then I began walking to the comedor to give Luis David his plate.  Yensi (who I call Senorita Santa Barbara) stopped me to ask where I was going.  I explained and let her know I had an extra plate that belonged to Kaylyn if she wanted it (I knew Kaylyn wouldn't eat it, being sick).  She was happy to take it off my hands. 

The graduation fundraiser for this week. 1 Plate = $30 Lempiras ($1.25USD)

Luis David got his plate and charamusca, and Mary Beth told me she had gotten a plate for him too.  Luis David said he'd end up fat, and I reminded him of the sign my mother-in-law had in her kitchen that said, "Never trust a skinny chef".  I then went to the chosa at the toddler house to drop off Alina's plate and charamusca.

I went back by Kaylyn for the remainder of the morning since this is her 1st summer here and she is sick.  I used this time to prep some more for classes tomorrow.  Before I headed to lunch, I gave Kaylyn the apple juice and told her I needed her to drink it before we got back from lunch.  We had to eat lunch quickly in the comedor because, being Wednesday, it's our only day to go into town for groceries.

When we got back from the comedor, Kaylyn had the apple juice drank.  Alina, Noah and I got ready to go into town (Kaylyn would hang back and sleep).  Noah gave almost ALL of the Mexican suckers he had brought with him to the children throughout town.  We got quite a bit of coffee to take back to the States with us, and saw Glenda on the way back to Orphanage Emmanuel.  I am hoping that everyone is healthy next week to get a picture of all of us.

Alina, Glenda, and Noah

As we walked into Emmanuel on the way to the office, Alina and I saw another dead tarantula.  Must be all the rain that hit us yesterday and today...washing them out from their holes.

We had to quickly put groceries away in order to get ready for supper and then head to church.  After church, Alina and I went to the special needs girls house to watch Aquaman (which I had bought for Michell earlier in the week).  We got through about the first 30 minutes and a huge rain storm came through.  It pounded on the metal roof and knocked the power out.  We decided to chat with the girls in the dark until about 7:30, but Alina got pretty tired and I wanted to check in on Kaylyn.  It was a dark walk back to our room.  The girls tried to help illuminate the way by holding up their flashlights for us from their doorway to make a path for us as far as the flashlights would reach, which we really appreciated.

We made it back to the room.  Noah had already gotten back from the medium boys house.  Alina took a shower and noticed a rash forming on her face.  I'm really hoping that this isn't year 3 of her coming back to the States with impetigo, but I'm going to have her go see LaShawn tomorrow just in case...and if Kaylyn's still not 100%, Kaylyn will be going with her.

Dinner with Team South Carolina

This morning at breakfast I was sure to say happy birthday to Suyapa, who is one of the girls that takes care of and oversees Michell's house.  She had told me last week that she wanted to celebrate her birthday but wasn't sure she could do it today.  I had bought her a tres leches cake in town last Wednesday, but gave it to her early since I wasn't sure it would last until today (6 days later).

Mid-way through the morning, I went back to my room for an hour to prep for tomorrow's math class.  Their homework for tomorrow is to find the vertices of 4 parabolas that I gave them.  There were already 2 students over the weekend who asked me for help in calculating the vertices, which is nice that they were able to get a hold of me.  Here, they just grab me and we chat wherever we are.  In the States, students typically look for me on their study hall, go to a different teacher for help, or email me with their questions (which probably is the most common).  Students emailing a teacher here???...doesn't happen, as technology isn't as easily accessible to students down here.  Actually I like the face-to-face contact we have down here!  Everything is so much more personal.  Even Alina (who is an "American teen") says that this is like a home away from home for her because she feels much closer to the teen girls down here than to those in the States.

The Miller family arrived last night while we were at Luis David's birthday party, so Laurie and Rebekah were at the toddler house when I got back from prepping for math.  Our trips tend to overlap some each year.  Many of the children think we are/were friends in the States, so I explain (quite often) that we had never met until their 1st time here 6 years ago!  

We headed with the toddlers to lunch and then back to put them down for a nap and came back to our room.  Lately Alina has been using this time to nap too.  For the past 3-4 days, she has had quite the cough and sore throat.  Please pray for her health, especially since when she gets back to the States, she will be trying out for Varsity volleyball (in a very competitive program) with only 1 day to recover from travels.  So we are really hoping that this sickness goes away by then.

Noah was also with us in the room during this break.  He was with the horses all day.  When 2pm rolled around, we headed back to the toddler house (and Noah the horse barn) to get them up and ready for supper.  It rained today!  It's been pretty dry the past few days, so the rain was nice.  We did have to wait for the rain to stop to walk the toddlers to the comedor.

After supper, we walked the toddlers back and the normal routine is for them to get their clothes off, into the shower, and then jammies on.  After that, sometimes they play a little bit, sometimes they stay in their room, sometimes they go on a walk.  

The team that is currently here is from South Carolina, and we were told that they were providing supper for the staff and volunteers, so we didn't eat in the comedor and had to head to the team house for dinner at 6pm.  They served tortillas with beans and eggs (and cheese & cream if you wanted), sliced hot dogs, fruit, plantains (Alina LOVES these), and a dessert.  It was a lot more than we usually eat.  It was Kaylyn's first time trying plantains, and she's not really a fan, so gave her extra ones to Alina.  Believe it or not, Noah was not able to finish his plate...but I think that may have something to do with him using all $120 Lempiras that went into his account at the tienda (store) on Monday by mid-way through the day today (Tuesday).  I guess he was buying food non-stop!

When Noah went to return his tray, he didn't come back...and we were ready to leave.  So the girls and I just took off towards our room, knowing he'd follow at some point.  Perhaps he was talking to Nathaniel (Miller) since they hadn't seen each other since last year?  Back at our room, we got ready for bed, and Mary Beth drove over to drop off some Halls cough drops for Alina and me.  We are so grateful to have such caring people here!  We truly feel like everyone here is family.  

Luis David is Officially an Adult!

Today began like most of the other workdays, heading to the children's houses and then having breakfast...but then that's about it for the "same routine".  In the toddler house, Alina got her braids taken out and had puffy, wavy hair.

Alina and her braided waves

After breakfast I went to chat with Sarah in the office about Luis David's plan to study at a culinary school in Costa Rica.  She let me know that she broke down all of the costs for him and he has that information.  It will be expensive, and this appointment we made last week for him to get a passport is only the tip of the ice berg in costs that he will incur.  I also chatted with her about Michell and how we'd like to bring her up for a visit to the U.S. once she graduates in December.  Sarah reiterated (we had emailed in June) that the chances of a Honduran citizen obtaining a visitor's visa to the U.S. are slim to none, thanks to our president and the caravans of people sitting at the border from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.  She let me know that it would be much easier to get Michell a student visa - but that means she would have to study in the U.S.  Either way, we would need a report from her school (which is what David, the founder of Orphanage Emmanuel, said he'd need to see when we spoke to him last year).

So, my next stop was to the school to chat with Elvia.  I have known Elvia the entire 12 years I've been coming here to Emmanuel.  Elvia is now the principal of the school, grades K-12.  She said she'd be happy to chat with Michell's teachers and to put together a report on how Michell is doing.  She thought that there wouldn't be any issues at all, since Michell is a good student, and would give me a copy and send a copy to David.

My next stop was to the library.  I wanted to grab a couple of books for Noah to read while down here.  Apparently Kaylyn and Alina remembered to pack books, but Noah sort of forgot.  After a few attempts at trying to take Kaylyn and Alina's books to read and being unsuccessful, I figured I'd look in the school library.  There are quite a few books in there that are in English as they have been donated by people in the States.  They are rarely (if ever) read by students down here.

At lunch I asked David if it would be okay to purchase the movie Aquaman for Michell.  He asked a little bit about the movie, and I let him know that Alina and Noah had seen it and for Michell's age (18), I really didn't see anything wrong with it.  David told me I could get the movie for her, so I was pretty excited especially since all of the girls in her house told me that they hadn't yet seen it.  I gave some money to Milton to run into town to get it for me in the afternoon.  Milton has been my "movie guy" the past few years when I've wanted to purchase movies for the medium boys.

Around 1pm I made my way to the comedor to spend Luis David's break with him.  It was his 21st birthday today, which in Honduras is the legal age to becoming an adult.  The tradition for ANY birthday here is to smash an egg on the person celebrating a birthday.  Down here, it's pretty common to get "egged" multiple times throughout the day of their birthday!  Apparently David had told everyone that if they egged Luis David in the kitchen/comedor, they would be punished/grounded for a month!  So Luis David's safest bet was just to stay in the kitchen all day.  The 2nd reason why I went to be by him is that Mary Beth let me know the team was going to bring him a cake and they needed him around.  So by me telling him I would come to him and spend his break with him, that would ensure he was actually in the comedor when the team members came with the cake.  The pastor of the team said they'd also like to help Luis David financially with his endeavors to study in Costa Rica.  What a blessing!

Luis David in the comedor with the cake from the team

We chatted until 2pm and then I headed to the toddler house with Alina.  Noah had taken Kaylyn to the horse barn to give her a ride on Pharoah, one of the horses.  We met up in the comedor during supper time to drop the toddlers off, then ran quickly to our room to go to the bathroom, etc.  Morgan, who is a staff member in charge of the power toddlers where Luis David lives, invited us to his birthday party up at the power toddler house.  They were having chinese rice and cake.  It was a really fun time...got a little messy when Alina took Noah's egg and smashed it on Luis David's head (he wasn't in the kitchen!) and then there was a cake fight (smashing cake in the face is also common here).  I really wished I had gotten a video of Alina getting Luis David with the egg, but I didn't really she was ready to do it.  It was the first egg he received all day!  It was a fun time.  I hung around a little bit to help clean up while the girls went home to shower all of the cake off of themselves.

Luis David and Noah with his cake from Morgan

Luis David getting Kaylyn in the face with cake

Luis David going after Alina (after she got him with the "traditional" egg)

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.