Everyone Misses Alina

   This morning we woke to the sound of the boys cutting the grass.  Although breakfast is later due to it being a Saturday and there isn't school (which starts at 7am) today, I still woke around 4:30ish.  All 4 of us headed to the Comedor for breakfast and that is when Moncho let us know that he could take Noah but not Jaden from here on out.  I talked with Alexander and he said that Jaden could start working with him on Tuesday since he had many things to do today to prepare for the party tomorrow (which I will talk about tomorrow).  Monday he was off of work, so Tuesday would be Jaden's starting day.  So Kaylyn and I took Jaden to the Chosa after breakfast to help watch the toddlers for the morning.  

   While at the Chosa, Marta asked about Alina.  I titled today's blog the way I did because by now...many of the children have been asking about Alina because she has been here 7 consecutive times, more times than any of our other children.  These children here at Emmanuel know her best and they think the world of her.  Some children have mistaken Kaylyn for Alina, so to a couple I pointed to Kaylyn and said "mini-Alina".  Not sure how Kaylyn felt about that.  The only one who doesn't remember us, but would most likely remember Alina is the one she wanted a picture of...Dilmer.  Her little boy.

   We took the toddlers on a walk this morning, around the farm and back, before it was time for lunch.  When lunch was over, it was nap time for the toddlers (from 1pm-3pm), and Kaylyn and Jaden also felt they needed a nap as well.  While they were napping, I worked through Profe Jorge's tarea (homework) from yesterday and then began working on the next lesson I was going to teach for this class.

   I noticed Kaylyn has a pretty bad sunburn on the backs of her knees, and am guessing that may have been an area she forgot to get sunscreen on when she used it each morning...and now, will pay the price for the next bunch of days as the burn looks to be a good one.  

   Noah missed supper tonight, not sure if he wasn't keeping track of time?  He didn't bring a watch down so is relying on the clocks that are on the microwave and coffee pot in our Team House, when he bothers to check them.  We brought his bowl of supper back to him though.  

   In the evening I played a game of Candyland with Noah and Jaden while Kaylyn showered, and then we all sat down to read before we turned in for bed.  I am guessing Noah was doing a Sudoku rather than reading, but that is still much better than electronics.  :-) 

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.

Map of Orphanage Emmanuel on our fridge door

Missing Alina

    I woke up about 4am (which would be 5am WI time) in order to get everyone ready for breakfast.  We were told that on school days, breakfast happened at 5:40am.  Last night I asked the kids when they would like me to get them up so we could be down at the comedor on time and Jaden replied with 4:30am, Noah with 4:45am, and Kaylyn with 5am (she likes to shower the night before).  This is how our mornings will run from here on out, provided all goes well with these times.

Although very miniature, Jaden got to see his 1st gecko

   Oscar is now in charge of the kitchen, and breakfast consisted of arroz con leche (rice with warm milk).  As usual, Noah is not a fan and didn't finish his breakfast.  We made sure to see Michell, Alejandra and Gibran during breakfast and to say "hi" to each of them.  Gibran is Noah's sponsored child, and as for Michell and Alejandra...I call them each mija (my daughter) as I have considered them my Honduran daughters for years. 

   After breakfast, we decided to give Jaden a tour of Emmanuel so he could begin to get his bearings straight.  Generally we are down here for approximately 4 weeks, but due to Bob and my anniversary trip prior, as well as Noah and Kaylyn's volleyball tryouts in mid-August, we were only able to come for 2.5 weeks.  I am hoping that Jaden has enough time to adjust and grow to love this place as the other kids have in that span of 18 days.  As we gave the tour of Emmanuel and were sharing stories, Noah announced that he missed Alina by saying this "would be much better if Alina were here".  Kaylyn seconded that notion.  This was extra special since Noah really doesn't talk about missing his family members.

   Our room in the new team house is now set up.  Although they had 2 rooms made up for us (guessing one may have been for just me and the other for the kids), we have decided to all be in one room.  The bed at the forefront is mine, followed by Kaylyn and Noah (with blankets draping over to both keep bugs out as well as privacy), and lastly by the back window, Jaden.  The bathroom here has 2 showers and 3 bathroom stalls with 3 sinks, so we have already finagled how they will be split up and shared.

Our room in the team house

   I dropped off $2USD in the tienda for each child, which is about $48L.  Lempiras is the Honduran currency.  Jaden let us know that he bought a small pack of Zambos (plaintain chips) at the tienda for only $6 and that he really likes it here.  We will see once he begins working the boys jobs.

   Speaking of jobs, we went in to see Morgan at 1pm about what she would like us to do while we are here.  It looks like Kaylyn will be in the casa de tiernos (Toddler House) once again, while Noah and Jaden were to work with Moncho.  We later found out (from Moncho) that the work would be too dangerous for Jaden, so Jaden will split time between working with Mike who was varnishing tables in the wood shop and Alexander in the gardens.

   Kaylyn and I spent the afternoon on the playground with the medium girls and they gave us a lovely serenade along with dancing, while Noah and Jaden spent time with the small boys in the gymnasium.  When it was time to head to the comedor for supper, we chatted with Mike and Lydia about the sink faucets and other supplies that Mike had requested we bring down.  They were all able to fit in the luggage we had planned to bring down without going overweight!

   After supper, we once again decided to turn in for the night so that we were well rested to begin working tomorrow.

Return to Orphanage Emmanuel

    This entry has been a long time in the making!  After COVID-19 hit in spring of 2020, we were unable to travel to Orphanage Emmanuel in Honduras due to travel restrictions for our typical 4-week stay from the end of July through the end of August.  And although many countries had lifted restrictions by summer of 2021, they were not yet lifted in Honduras.  This 2 year hiatus has been difficult on both me and the children, so this spring we were excited to hear that the Orphanage would allow teams and volunteers once again after Memorial Day.  Of course there are still mask requirements (which is nothing new to me as I had worn one to school each day this past school year) as well as either having been vaccinated (which we are) or a negative COVID test.  Again, to be able to return to this place that gives us so much spiritual rest and peace was a true blessing.

   With that said, what we weren't prepared for was having the online paperwork filled out to enter Honduras (which involved immigration work as well as passport and vaccination work).  Generally the immigration work is filled out on paper, on the plane about an hour before we land.  We were not notified of the movement of the paperwork to online forms, and unfortunately I wasn't able to complete all of it prior to our ORIGINAL departure date of Monday, 7/25/22.  So we had driven all the way to Chicago, parked the car, took the transport from the economy parking lot to the airport, waited in line, got sent to the back of the line to fill out the online forms, and ultimately missing that plane and had to drive the 3+ hours back home.  I am very disappointed in this particular airline for lack of notifying us via email about these online forms, especially since United had emailed me about these requirements (but for Canada) when Bob and I went on our 20th anniversary trip just 2 weeks earlier.

Monday's failed attempt to fly (before picture)

   So here we are...once again having driven through the night and arriving at O'Hare, hoping that everything this time has been filled out properly.  I even made copies on paper to prove I had filled it out!  As it turns out, while in line we met up with another couple who was also supposed to fly out Monday morning (final destination was Honduras) and were denied for the very same reason (as well as not having paperwork filled out to bring their service dog).  We chatted while in line and also found out that Guaimaca, the city where you will find Orphanage Emmanuel, was also the birthplace of the husband of this couple...Small world!  

Wednesday's shuttle from parking to terminal

Wednesday's shuttle from parking to terminal

   This trip is Jaden's 1st time on a plane.  He handled it well, both to Fort Lauderdale as well as to Comayagua (Honduras).  The airport in Comayagua is new, I believe it just opened earlier this year or last year.  But because it was new, there was not yet a place to exchange money or buy chips for phone and internet.  This is not problematic for me, but it does slow down the process of letting those back home know that we are doing alright.

Jaden's 1st plane ride

Comayagua International Airport

   A man named Lucas (recommended by Morgan) picked us up to take us to Emmanuel.  It would be a 3-4 hour drive depending on traffic, however ended up being a bit longer due to Lucas' truck overheating in the mountains.  Thankfully, his son was able to meet us where the truck broke down and lend Lucas his truck while he waited for other family members to come and take care of this.  Due to the delay, I asked if we could stop so I could get the kids a bite to eat because they hadn't eaten since about 2am.  Lucas stopped at a gas station where I bought each of the kids a hot dog (normal toppings are ketchup, mustard and mayo), Chokis (a brand of cookie here), and Enjoy juice that was pear flavored. 

Traveling by truck to Emmanuel

   We got to Emmanuel safely around 4pm.  Alexander met us at the new team house and gave me the key, letting us know that church would begin at 4:30pm.  He said they would understand if we couldn't make it, but after two years of not being here, I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

   We unpacked after church and were in bed by 7pm.  It gets dark here around 6pm and with a full day of travel it was very easy to fall asleep early.