Orphanage Emmanuel in Guaimaca, Honduras: Delays due to Internet Chip Problems

I was excited to wake up today because it's Friday, and typically Friday is Big Circle. This is where all of the children gather out in front of the clinic and hotel and have devotions as well as singing praises. Some groups of children recite the Bible passages they have learned as well. It rained overnight and was still drizzling when 5:30am came along. I didn't hear any noises outside indicating Big Circle was about to happen (generally you can hear the musicians tuning and firing up their instruments), so we walked down to the Comedor. They had decided to do the morning's devotions, recitations and singing in the comedor, which definitely kept us dry!

After breakfast, I walked Kaylyn down to the chosa at the Toddler House. The chosa is an enclosed area where the children can play with toys as well as watch movies and sing-alongs. Then I headed back to the Team House to change my clothes in order to head to school. In the mornings I am typically wearing long sleeves and pants, but I do not want to get caught in those as the day goes on, especially since it gets extremely warm for us Wisconsinites (think WI August, but much less humidity).

I met with Profe Jorge who was about to teach the 10th grade math class. If this name seems different from many of my last posts, it is. Generally over the past 7-8 years I have worked with Profe Ramon, who was in charge of the upper level math courses. Earlier this summer, Profe Ramon passed away. As I typed that sentence, initially I had the word 'sadly' in there...but as I thought about it, we should be happy for him because he truly was a man of God and he is now in a much better place in perfect health and celebrating. I watched the lesson for the day and then Profe Jorge gave me my schedule for the next 2 weeks as well as books for each of the two classes I would be teaching.

Alexander was going to take Kaylyn and I into town today and Moncho was going to take Noah and Jaden today, but there was a staff meeting at 9am. We all thought it would be done by 10am, so the boys and I waited in the Team House gazebo as we chatted with Milton, Mirna and Michell. Michell brought us some of the cheese filled bread that she and Mirna had been making for Papi (David, the founder of Orphanage Emmanuel). It was quite delicious!

It wasn't until 11am when Alexander came around saying the meeting ran late and that it wasn't just me and Kaylyn going, but Daniela and Eva as well because they had some items that needed taking care of in town too. So Alexander dropped us off at the grocery store in the center square and told us that's where he'd pick us up after dropping off Daniela and Eva where they needed to be.

We went to both grocery stores and then stopped at a Claro store to get a chip for Alina's old phone. Generally in the past, I would by 2 chips (SIM cards). One would be from Tigo and would go into the cell phone to make extremely reasonably priced phone calls home, and then the other chip would be from Claro to put into the modem so that my computer would get internet and be able to take care of these blogs. The past few years I have been down here, a few staff members at the orphanage mentioned they didn't know why I was buying 2 chips since I could just get one for my phone and then use the 'hotspot' in order for my computer to be able to access the internet. So this year I decided to try that...HUGE MISTAKE.

When we got back to the Team House from town, Kaylyn and I put the groceries away. They boys helped as well. They were also kind enough to bring back the lunches that were made for us in the comedor so that Kaylyn and I could eat after getting those groceries put away. We just had to grab the bowls from the fridge and throw them in the microwave.

After putting the groceries away, the kids all decided to take a nap while I read. I brought two Stephen King books down out of the 3 that my sister Julie loaned me, quite a while back I might add. I began reading one in Alaska on our anniversary trip, but now seemed like the perfect time to get back at it. Typically I do a lot of reading while down here.

For supper in the comedor, they served beans, rice and hot dogs. Jaden is not a fan of beans, so he was the last one finished. Over our first few days here, the kids have decided that the one to return the breakfast dishes to the kitchen from the tables we eat on would be Jaden. Kaylyn would return the lunch dishes and Noah would return the supper dishes. That way they are all taking turns and doing their part.

When we got back to our room for the evening, I tried to get the chip (SIM card) to work. Alina's old phone said 'invalid SIM'. I tried putting the chip into my old Tigo phone, but that didn't do much as well. Then I tried moving it to each of the portable modems I had acquired over the past few years and both failed as well. I tried to move it to my own personal cell phone, but it said I would have to completely restart my phone. Although it may have worked in my phone (not sure if Alina's old phone was locked?), I didn't want to chance that there would be issues and then I couldn't resume my own US chip just as soon as I got back to the States. So I didn't go any further with that. This meant that I would be unable to call home to say we got here okay or work on the blog until I was able to resolve the issue. So, discouraged, I decided to call it a night.