Big Circle, Sports, Activities and an Awesome Surprise to End the Day!

This morning began with Big Circle, which was a great way to kick off our last full day here.  The weather was perfect, the children sang, Santos gave the morning devotion and the boys recited their verses.  Kaylyn got to experience her first Big Circle before going home.

Left to Right: Kaylyn, Sofia and Alina

After Circle ended, we headed to the comedor for breakfast.  We heard that the high school was going to have a sports and activities day today, so I asked Elvia if Alina, Noah and Kaylyn could participate with the classes and she said that'd be great!  We walked the toddlers back to their house and then headed to our room for the kiddos to change into more athletic attire.

At the school they decided to play soccer, zumba, twister and checkers.  The day started out with a girls soccer game, and the girls said they wanted Alina to play with them.  The boys invited Noah to help announce the game, and Noah was just hilarious because it was extremely difficult for him to follow the fast-paced talk (in Spanish of course) of the game.  This may have been the very first time that Alina has EVER played soccer in her life!...so the pictures below might be a little deceiving.  Her team lost 0-6. 

The boys began to play after the girls game ended, and Noah was out on the field playing (I didn't get any pictures in time), but it began to rain the and game got cancelled.  We went back into the school in order to get out of the rain.  A few of the teachers were selling chips with cole slaw and charamuscas, so I bought each of the kids a plate to snack on while they watched some students play twister.

Kaylyn with her plato and charamusca 

When the finished twister, they got the TV and Wii out in order to have a Zumba competition.  There were a few students who decided to compete against each other in Zumba.  The boys pulled their microphone and speakers inside and made suggestions on who should compete.  They (and the students) asked for Alina to compete against Noah in Zumba.  It was so fun to hear the students cheering for Alina and Noah as they competed against each other dancing to the Zumba recording.  I think Alina and Noah (who were hesitant to do it at first) were glad they did it and had a lot of fun.

We headed to lunch and then after lunch spent most of the afternoon giving away Alina's, Noah's and Kaylyn's Oshkosh North, Blizzard and Appleton West uniforms and warm-up jerseys that they've had through the years.  The girls were SO excited to get them!  

Before we knew it, it was supper time.  Alina walked her 2 toddler boys back to their house and I walked back to my room.  As I walked back, a girl came running up to me, telling me that Yency was in the office getting her papers.  I thought it was a girl who is here at the orphanage who I see on a daily basis, so I wasn't in too much of a hurry to get to the office.  I went to my room to go to the bathroom and then made myself a cup of coffee, and then chatted just a little with the neighbors when Sofia came running past me and said that Yency was in the office and I needed to get down there, and then she said, "Coco's sister".  This Yency I had not seen in 5 years when she left Emmanuel.  She was one of the original girls in the room I was put in charge of 12 years ago!  I was so excited that I let the neighbors know I'd be right back and sprinted to the office.  It was so nice to give her a hug once again!!!  I got a couple of pictures and then Alina came running down the hill.  A girl told her about Yency and she said she sprinted all the way from the toddler house to the office (it's quite a ways, and hilly), she said with her basketball slides...she just about sprained/broke her ankle, so she took them off and ran in her socks!

Coco came down and so they both went into the office to chat for a bit.  Alina and I hung around for a little bit but then decided to head back up to our room and give them the time/space to chat since they are twins.  It wasn't much after that Coco shouted up toward the hill to our room that Yency wanted to see me one more time to say Goodbye.  So of course I ran back down to the office (with Alina).

I really feel like this was a blessing, our last night at Emmanuel and we get to see Yency.  God is good!

My Last Math Classes

This morning the girls and I headed off to the toddler house while Noah took off for the medium boys house.  We all met in the comedor for breakfast.  Noah is eating more and more of his breakfast - and I can only assume because he's out of money to buy "extra stuff" at the store.

After breakfast, I went back to the room with Noah to get ready for school.  I got all of my books and notes in the bag and then sewed a pair of pants that I plan to leave down here, which had a small rip in them.  Mrs. Miller sent Kaylyn with some iodine and a big bandage so that I could clean Noah's back.  He slipped on a scooter last week and scratched up his back.  Most of it has scabbed over and looks like it's healing okay, but there is one patch that is rather large and looks as if it may be getting infected.  I was surprised that Noah didn't even flinch when I rubbed 2 pads of iodine on the spot.  We got him all patched up and he left to go work with Chino.

Today was the last day of math classes for me to teach.  The first 2 hours of the day were spent in Bachillerato 2 finishing up the lesson on limits.  There are still quite a few students who are confused (and rightly so with only meeting once a week for just an hour and 20 minutes), but I am hoping that they have enough notes to study from before their mid-term exam comes.  After working with them, I headed back to the room to use the open hour to prep for the other math class and also to make an answer key for the homework I gave to Bachillerato 2.  When recess was over, I headed back down to Bachillerato 1 to wrap up parabolas with them.  Many students in that class said they they were just beginning to understand everything that goes along with the study of parabolas (vertices, intercepts, quadratic formula, domain, range, graphing, etc), and I'm sure they have enough notes to study from for their test in the next couple of weeks.  I headed to the teachers break room to finish up the answer key for Bachillerato 2 and then took the math text books and all of my notes to Profe Ramon.  I made some suggestions on where to go next with Bachillerato 2, and reminded him that he had all of my notes from the past 3 years, so if he follows that as a guide, he should be able to get the students through the remainder of the book.

I only had about 15 minutes until lunch, so I spent it in the special needs yard, chatting with Sofia and Coco and a few others that were there.  I met up with Alina, Noah and Kaylyn in the comedor for lunch, and then helped walk the toddlers back to their house to put them down for naps.  When we came back we began to gather the clothes that the kids and I would not be taking back, and bagged it up to give away.  We put the smallest suitcase inside of mine, so taking our suitcase total from 5 down to 4, and rearranged some of the items.  That small suitcase is almost completely full of coffee (YUM!) and then solid dish soap to last us through the year.  In the small gaps between the small suitcase and the larger one, we stuffed some clothes that will go back to the States, but that we won't need until after we get home.  That suitcase is now locked and won't be opened until we get to Wisconsin (unless customs decides to open it up and check it out).  I am now sharing a suitcase with Kaylyn and Alina and Noah have a bunch of odds and ends (extra dish soap, candies, etc) in their suitcases.  I'm sure the 3 remaining suitcases to fill will still have a lot of extra space in them, but unfortunately none of them will fit into another, so we can't consolidate any more.

Alina and Kaylyn headed back to the baby house to get up the toddlers and I headed to the grandecitas house to drop off Kaylyn's bag of clothes.  We will have to see how many girls are wearing Kaylyn's clothes tomorrow and on Saturday morning!

After supper, Alina and I took our clothes to the special needs house.  We came back with NOTHING - which means we did not have to go to other houses to give the remaining clothes away - they wanted it all.

We decided to stay in tonight and watch a movie together as a family on Netflix.  The power had went out, but since the cell phone towers were still working, we were able to do it.  We watched a comedy and all had a bunch of good laughs!  What an enjoyable way to spend one of our last nights here as a family!

Kaylyn's First Communion

This morning I got up to post the events from yesterday, but my internet stick (USB modem) was empty.  I was a little bummed out because I only have 3 days left here, but since it was Wednesday, I knew I could get just a little more put on the stick in town later in the day in order to get me through the rest of the week.  So my morning routine changed a little bit since I couldn't type up my blog.  I finished prepping for the math class I would teach today (Bachillerato 1) before waking up the kids.

We headed to our houses and then to breakfast.  Noah is eating more at the comedor now because he is out of money...both his and the allowance I gave him for the week.  Alina and Kaylyn walked the toddlers back to their house after breakfast while I headed to my room to get ready to teach math class at 7:30am.  I packed up the books and notebook, my glasses and calculator, and pens and pencils.  We are wrapping up parabolas today and tomorrow and then I will turn the class back over to Profe Ramon who will get into teaching the students how to graph logarithms, exponentials, rationals, absolute values, etc. in the next few weeks.

When I finished teaching, I took the materials back to my room for safe-keeping before heading to the toddler house.  I also got our backpacks emptied out and ready to head into town later.  Our neighbors (Angela and Erin) were there, so I chatted with them briefly before heading to the toddler chosa.  Erin was here last summer for 2 months as a volunteer working with the small boys.  Angela, her mom, had never been here before so Erin wanted to show her around.  They will be here until Sunday (and Erin goes to back for her last semester of college on Monday), so we will be neighbors for the duration of our stay down here.

I headed to the chosa and saw that Alina's friend, Mirian, was wearing Alina's shirt.  Alina had taken a bag full of her clothes that she brought down here to the toddler house to give away to the teens in that house.  She let Mirian have first pick of the clothes because they have grown close over the past few years.  When it was time to go to the comedor, we took the toddlers down there and at a bit before heading back to our room to get ready to go to town.

We went into town with the Miller family, Angela and Erin, and the male volunteer that's here.  We stopped at both grocery stores for more coffee and solid dish soap (I SO prefer this to liquid dish soap), and then headed to the Claro store to get just a little bit more time/GB on my internet stick.  On our way back to Orphanage Emmanuel, we stopped at the bakery which sells chocolate covered frozen bananas so that the kids could purchase one, just one last time.  Noah had just enough money left in his account at the store at Emmanuel to ask for the money in cash to get a banana.  They are $7 Lempiras (about 30 cents).  Not bad at all for how much the kids enjoy them!  

Kaylyn with a frozen chocolate covered banana (with sprinkles)

Our last stop was to Glenda's to say our goodbyes.  We bought another watermelon and I am hoping that the girls share it with those who are in charge of the special needs house, or those in charge of the toddler house.  We will see.  

Left to Right: Alina, me, Kaylyn, Glenda, Noah

When we got back to our room, we unpacked everything before heading to the comedor for supper.  Tonight was church and Alexander was preaching about Moses and being brave.  We had been told earlier in the week that there would be communion tonight.  I meant to talk to Kaylyn all week about it, but every time I would have had the chance, it slipped my mind.  The style of communion at Emmanuel is just like Calvary, with everyone taking communion as one congregation.  When they called us up for communion, I noticed (after that fact) that Kaylyn went with us.  After she had taken communion, she smiled at me and said it would be a most memorable experience!

Before heading to bed, we chatted a bit with the girls in charge of the small girls house, next door...and then chatted a bit with our neighbors.  I think all of the kids were sleeping by 7:30pm due to having went into town.  It was not as hot today since there were clouds all day and a breeze.

Taking the Toddlers on a Walk

This morning was fairly normal (with going to the toddlers and medianos houses and then heading to breakfast), up until breakfast was over.  We dropped the toddlers off who would be going to school at their house before heading to the chosa in the back.  It was just minutes later when they all came running and screaming into the chosa, announcing that they didn't have school today.

Having all the kiddos from the toddler house in the chosa for the morning for just over 4 hours would be just as busy as it was on Saturday, so Laurie and I decided to take the older ones for a walk to the farm since it was still a little cooler outside.  We asked for all of the kiddos who should have been in class, and also took Rebekah, Kaylyn and Noah (who stopped by the chosa briefly to return our room keys).  Kaylyn had not yet been to the farm, so I'm glad she was able to come.  In all, we had 9 children from the toddler house.  We walked to the farm the back way, stopping at the campo (BIG soccer field), by the pigs, roosters, cows, plants/garden, tilapia farm, chicken house, and ending up at the horse barn to drop Noah off for work.  As we began our walk, I realized I didn't have my camera so I wasn't able to take any pictures.  I think Kaylyn was amazed by how big the farm actually was!

When we got the toddlers back to the chosa, we found out that a new girl was dropped off (by the Honduran version of social services) at the toddler house.  She was really quiet and didn't want to talk.  We headed to lunch with the toddlers, and then came back to get them down for a nap before heading to our room for the next hour and a half to rest up ourselves.

Lower Right: Alina and Kaylyn patting the toddlers backs to get them to nap

When we came back, we got the toddlers up.  The new girl began talking and told the girls in charge of the toddler house that her name was Rachel (she pronounced it in English).  We got the rest of the kiddos ready and them took them to the comedor for supper and then back to get them showered and their pajamas on.  As we came back to our room, we met our new neighbors...a mother and her daughter (who was a volunteer last summer) who are from Alabama, named Angela and Erin.  We chatted a bit before turning in for the night.

Big Cockroaches

This morning I went about my normal routine.  My alarm is always set for 3:30am (4:30am Wisconsin time), and sometimes I get up...sometimes I snooze it.  I never get up after 4am though as I want to be showered and dressed before I get the kids up.  After showering and getting dressed, I usually sit down on my bed next to Kaylyn (who is still sleeping) and type up my blog from the day before.  This morning as I was typing up the blog, I notice a super-sized cockroach on the floor right beside the bed, making its way by one of my sandals.  I grabbed the sandal to kill it, but then it took off at lightning speed (as most uninjured cockroaches do).  By the time I got off the bed and looked under it to try to find the cockroach, it was gone.  I can honestly say with that experience, I did not need coffee this morning...I was awake.  Cockroaches don't scare me, just gross me out.  It didn't take more than about 20 minutes before I saw it again on the other side of the room by Alina's bed.  I opened the door to outside, grabbed the broom and swept it out.  I'm not really into killing cockroaches and tarantulas if I don't have to, just don't want them in our room.

We had a pretty normal day today, heading to the toddler house and medium boys house before breakfast, meeting up again in the comedor for breakfast and then heading in our separate directions once again...the girls and I to the chosa, and Noah to the horse barn with Chino.  Mid-way through the morning, I headed to the school to see if Elvia had finished Michell's school report to give to David, but she wasn't at the school so I would have to go back later (or tomorrow).  Then I headed to the farm to check on Noah, who was working on painting the metal rafters.   I noticed that one of his eyes was just beginning to get puffy and red around the eyelid, so let him know he'd have to go to the clinic in the afternoon.  Then I went back to our room to get money to put into the kids' accounts at the store for the week, $120 Lempiras (about $5 USD).  I am guessing Noah will go through this super quickly again, but he also said that he only has $57 Lempiras left of his own money, so we will see.  I also grabbed money to pay for Luis David's passport and my notebook with the dates for future visits. 

My next stop was to the office.  Fabio (a student from 2 years ago) was visiting and said HI.  I think he had to pick up some papers and he was talking about a job in the San Pedro Sula region, either working in the office or being a security guard, but he mentioned how dangerous working security is...anywhere in Honduras.  I first went to Morgan and gave her the dates that Bob will be here in December for Michell's graduation.  I am hoping Andres goes with him, and am guessing that I will not be able to go due to my new job.  Then I gave her the dates we would plan on coming down next year, and finally checked in on what time Norman would be here this Saturday to pick us up and take us to the airport in Tegucigalpa.  Three weeks has went so fast.  After taking care of those things with Morgan, I headed over to Sarah to give her the money for Luis David's passport.  In early June, she said it would cost $50USD (or $1200 Lempiras).

I then headed to the store to drop $120L into each of the kids accounts, their last allowance for food while they are here.  And finally I walked back to the chosa to be with Alina and the toddlers once again.  Kaylyn had caught up with me at the tienda and asked for the keys to go back to the room to take an ibuprofen, but she made it back to the chosa.  She handed me a warm bun and told me that Alexander was in the bakery and gave her two, one for her and one for me.  I broke mine into small pieces and gave it to the toddlers in the chosa.  We walked the toddlers to lunch and then brought them back to the living room at the toddler house for them to take naps.  While they were napping, we came back to our room to take a nap too.  The mid-day naps have been nice, even I have been taking them lately.  At 2pm we got up to head back to the toddler house.  They don't wake the toddlers up at 2pm anymore...it's more like sometime between 2:30 and 3pm.  But sometimes those kids just need to nap a bit more.  We played with them until it was time to go to supper and then walked them to the comedor and back to their house in order to get them showered and into their jammies.

When we came back to the room, Alina took Noah and Kaylyn to the school yard soccer field and hit the volleyball around with them.  I decided to take the computer and internet USB modem up to the special needs girls house and try to help Michell find a dress for graduation on Amazon.  We found 2 that she likes, but are still going to look.  Since she only liked 2 on Amazon (she really wants a green dress), we tried the Walmart website, Target website, Old Navy website, TJ Maxx website (which doesn't work in Honduras), Ross Dress for Less (which doesn't list clothes on its site).  I was trying to think of stores by our Fox River Mall that would have sites.  I told Michell I'd come back tomorrow with more ideas of other sites.  When I got back to the room, Noah mentioned Kohl's...I don't know why I never thought of that.  So we'll be searching the Kohl's website tomorrow, and perhaps Maurices and whatever else Alina can think of.  We went to bed early because we were pretty tired.  It was our last Monday here at Orphanage Emmanuel, and it was well-spent.

Live Tarantula 2019

As we got up and ready to head down to the comedor for breakfast this morning, I reminded Alina, Noah and Kaylyn that this was our last Sunday at Orphanage Emmanuel.  It was our last "free" day.  After eating breakfast, Noah asked for the keys to the room, so I gave them to him and he ran back...I assume to change for church and then head over to the medium boys house to grab Brayan and Gibran.  Alina was next to head to our room as Kaylyn and I finished up breakfast.

When Kaylyn and I were done with breakfast, I took her on a tour of the school since it was on the way to our room.  I have forgotten she hasn't yet gotten a full tour of this place.  We will have to do some more walking out to the farm later this week.  I showed her the 2 classrooms where I've been teaching (Bachillerato 1 and Bachillerato 2), and then we headed back to our room.  As we made it up the hill, we saw Alina standing outside the hotel room, smiling.  I approached her and asked if Noah left her the keys and her response, at that time, was yes and they were on the arch.  I got closer to the arch and noticed a small black blob and paused, smiling at Alina.  Kaylyn, confused why I didn't go immediately grab the keys, went and grabbed them herself and let herself into the room.  Now, before I go any further, I do want to say that this black blob was on ONE side of the arch and the keys were on the other, so Kaylyn was not in danger at all.  I let her know after she grabbed the keys that there was a tarantula on the arch. 

Alina told me after the fact that as she came up to the room, Noah was leaving.  She noticed the room door was closed, so asked Noah for the keys.  Apparently he replied with a smile, "The keys are on the arch, right next to a tarantula!"

I'm not sure if it was "sleeping" or if it was all tucked into a ball because it was cold since it was still morning, but it wasn't that recognizable if you didn't know what to look for.  I decided that the tarantula had to go, so I got my broom and swept it down from the arch.  When it hit the ground, a leg popped off (I did NOT intend for this to happen), and then I swept it off the porch onto the grass.  It landed upside down.

I kept an eye on the spider, and a little while later noticed that it had flipped itself over.  Once again I went for the broom and decided to poke at it, so it would go running in the opposite direction as our room.  Each time I poked at it, it decided to come running towards me, so I flung it again - further away from the room.  Once again it landed upside down.  We had to go to church, and I will say when I got back from church it was gone.

We went to church this morning and Noah had brought Gibran (his sponsored child) and Brayan.  I brought Nikoll and Julissa, and Alina had went to the toddler house to pick up her 2 boys that I had posted pictures of earlier, Jose Francisco and Dilmer.  David opened up the service today and also dedicated Allison's baby to God, so it was wonderful to see a dedication.  Alexander preached the sermon today and talked about having been with pastors in town who received donations from Orphanage Emmanuel of clothes and toys, and watched as those pastors gave the donations out to the poor in town...allowing them to take 5 items each.  He mentioned a woman who only had 1 dress, so she would wear it for a week without changing/washing it...what a blessing to receive extra clothes!  When people send supplies down here to Orphanage Emmanuel, they are not just blessing the orphanage, but those in town as well.

Kaylyn with Dilmer, Alina with Jose Francisco, Julissa, me, Nikoll, Gibran, Brayan, Noah

David (founder of Emmanuel) opening the service

After church, we took the children to the store to get them chips, a soda, cookies and ice cream.  We spent the morning with them and then headed to the comedor for lunch.

Left to Right: Alina, Jose Francisco, Kaylyn, Nikoll, Michell

Kaylyn with Dilmer

Left to Right: Gibran, Brayan, Noah

After lunch, I spent the afternoon with Erika, Dayana and Coco in the medium/big girls yard, which it out front of the comedor.  One of the girls braided my hair as I chatted with the girls.  Kaylyn got her nails painted by some of the older girls.  The nails on her hand are an alternating red and blue, and her toe nails are a deep burgundy (which she didn't really care for, but then do look much nicer than they were before).  Kaylyn walked back to our room (where Alina was taking a nap).  I stayed in the yard with the girls until it was time for them to line up for supper and then went to the comedor again.  Noah made it down to the comedor on time for supper, but Alina was about 20 minutes late.  When I asked her where Kaylyn was, she didn't know.  What actually happened is that Kaylyn went to the bathroom and Alina thought she had left for the comedor, so she left too...locking Kaylyn into the room.

When we got back from the comedor, Alina and Kaylyn decided to enjoy the rest of the watermelon that we had bought from Glenda last Wednesday.  I let them know they would really need to clean the kitchen when it was gone because ants would find their way to the kitchen in droves if they weren't careful with the cleaning.

As they finished up eating the watermelon, Rebekah and Nathaniel (Miller) came over to play with them.  They headed down to the school playground and played until dark.  It does get dark early down here, compared to Wisconsin.  It's pretty black by 7pm...so I really don't have to worry about them staying up too late!