Family Visit Day

    I told this kids this morning that if they haven't been already...they need to start living each day to the fullest since each DAY from here on out is their last at Orphanage Emmanuel.  For instance, today is their last Saturday, tomorrow is their last Sunday, etc.  The countdown has begun although I don't believe any of us are ready to leave and head back to the States.  Each of the kids have said that this time has flown by too quickly.

   This morning I woke to Papi (David) mowing the lawn with his boys.  More often than not, he reminds me of my dad...up before the crack of dawn and constantly working.  Then I put 2 loads of laundry in the washer before we headed down for breakfast, which was oatmeal and cookies.  The kids prefer the oatmeal for breakfast whereas I typically prefer the arroz con leche.

Papi on his zero-turn

   After breakfast, Kaylyn and I went to the chosa behind the Baby House (where the toddlers typically gather).  On the way, we saw a boy blowing leaves off the area in front of the Team House.  Due to a staff meeting at 8:30am, Noah and Jaden needed to wait here at the Team House while the staff they typically work with had their meeting.  Jaden ended up going to the horses, although Noah stayed back in the Team House for reasons that I'm not sure of because I didn't really ask.

   After lunch we ended up putting the toddlers down for a nap and both Noah and Jaden went to work with the horses.  When I got back to the Team House, Michell came to the house to let me know that her sister was here for a visit.  There is one weekend a month where family can come and visit and this was it.  Her sister asked to meet me in person (although I do remember her from many years ago being here at the orphanage), so I went down and got to meet her son as well, who will be turning one year old on the 19th of this month.  I brought them each a soda and cookies from the store on my way down.

   Around 3pm, Kaylyn and I went back to wake the toddlers and get them ready to head to the Comedor where supper was comprised of rice, beans and Honduran made tortillas (like Alina used to make when she was here).  When supper was over, I headed back to work on math lessons before we all turned in for the night.

It Got COLD!

   This morning everyone was able to finish their arroz con leche!  After breakfast, since it was Friday, everyone participated in what used to be known as Big Circle...but it seems that perhaps now it's done in the Comedor (probably due to the 7am school start time?).  The little girls and boys each recited their verses, a chapter in Psalms, and I absolutely love hearing from them because their voices project so loud and clear.  It is amazing how they learn an entire chapter!  I remember back in my elementary and middle school days at Emanuel Lutheran School having to memorize a verse, or two or three...but NEVER an entire chapter.  These children and those who take care of them and help them to learn the verses are nothing short of amazing!

   My class for Math 10 began at 7am and we worked on absolute value graphs.  The students thought it was very easy, which is good because next week we will have to go back and review the quadratic graphs (parabolas) that they had learned and struggled with before I got here.  Around 8am, Jaden left the classroom to head with Andi to work with the horses again.  There was only 1 class today, but Jaden brought in the horses, did demonstrations, supervised small groups of kids in practicing what he had demonstrated and he got to feed the horses.

   Noah went with Moncho to put tile on the bathroom sinks at the Power Toddler house.  Both Noah and Moncho said that after showing him how...Noah really did most to all of the tile!  I am glad that Noah is getting some hands on work (handy-man work) down here because that is a rarity for him in the States.

   Kaylyn let me know that she was super excited today because it was the first day since she's been here that she hasn't had bathroom and water issues while watching the toddlers in the chosa!  She said that only 2 kiddos went to the bathroom, and NOBODY followed...she was so excited about that.

   Oscar made Ramen for lunch.  He also gave each person 2 packets of chili powder to add to the Ramen, which Kaylyn claimed was hot enough without the extra chili packets.  I thought it was good.  I walked with Kaylyn and the toddlers to put them down for their naps then walked back to the Team House with Kaylyn where she napped herself and I worked more on math lessons for next week.

   Noah went to town with Moncho to get more supplies for working at the Toddler House.  He showed me pictures and from what I saw, I assume he was buying supplies for the grout that goes between the tiles.

   Jaden worked with Andi again but this time he got to use a pick axe to dig holes and then put wires around fencing poles to mend them.

   When we headed back to the Toddler House at 3pm to help wake them from their nap, Invisible let me know that they would be eating in the Toddler House due to the rains again.  So we set up the tables and Kaylyn and I sat there helping some of the toddlers eat, so that they could get to their bathing practices for the night.  The rains came and went and for a while Kaylyn and I thought we'd have to walk to the Comedor in the rain.  But there was a break in the rain and fortunately we didn't get wet walking to the dining hall.  

   Supper was rice with beans, and cookies.  When we returned to the Team House, the 4 of us decided to celebrate Friday Family Night and play a game of Sorry...it took absolutely forever, but we had fun.  At around 6pm, we heard a rattle at the door and it opened just slightly.  It was one of the security guards here checking the locks, but was a good reminder we needed to get that door locked!  

   When I turned in for the night, I couldn't fall asleep.  It was, dare I say it, cold.  So I swapped out the pajamas I had worn since coming here with flannel ones!  I also had to add a blanket to the bed, where previously I only slept with a sheet on me.  And I was still cold!  But I refused to add any more layer, because after all this in Honduras.  :-)

When in Rome...

   This morning I made a pot of Cafe Maya (a brand name of coffee down here).  The kids had told me to get Cafe Maya y Cafe el Indio when I had went to the grocery store, but it was the Cafe Maya they wanted to open first.  When Jaden came out after his shower, I made him a cup.  Now Jaden is only 13 years old, but it was fairly common when I lived in Mexico for teens and tweens to enjoy some coffee once in a while, so I allow that here.  He ended up asking the same question this morning that each of the kids have on their first year of being here (and their first sips of coffee)..."When we get back to the States, can I still drink coffee?"  And my answer is always the same...NO.  Actually if they've never heard the expression "When in Rome..." this is when I explain it to them.

   Breakfast this morning consisted of arroz con leche once again, and as we finished quite a few girls came over by Noah as he tried to finish breakfast (this is his least favorite breakfast) to encourage him to eat it all up.  They have now figured out that he doesn't much care for arroz con leche.

The Comedor

   After breakfast, Noah went with Moncho, Kaylyn went to the Toddler House and Jaden went with Alexander.  I stayed behind to wrap up the calculus lessons and work on future lessons.  Class went well today, as we went through derivatives of negative exponents, the product of a constant and a function, product of functions, and adding and subtracting functions.  The students said they were going to leave the class feeling that it was fairly easy, which is a good thing.  The next class will most likely not be as easy.

   When I met up with Kaylyn, she let me know that one of her biggest struggles in the Toddler House (aside from not knowing enough Spanish) is when one kiddo asks to go to the bathroom, they all seem to come into the bathroom asking her for water to drink and then they keep drinking and drinking and she can't clear the bathroom.  She says "no mas" (which means no more) and they whine and say "agua" (water).  She turns the faucet off, they turn it on.  She turns the off the water valve underneath the sink and they turn it on.  She feels it's a never-ending battle.

   She said that she took the 2 year olds to the other chosa behind the Toddler House where Karen was waiting to teach them.  A girl named Elsa read "8 monitos" (8 little monkeys jumping on the bed) to them and Kaylyn recognized the story immediately.

   Jaden said this morning he was working once again with the horses and Felipe, since it was Andi's day off.  He got to demonstrate how to properly walk behind a horse in the class that took place.  In the afternoon, he went to the workshop again to sand and varnish the tops and sides of the tables.

   Noah was once again with Moncho, working at the Power Toddlers house on fixing those sinks.  He took a picture to show the progress.  

A Birthday Party for David and Padilla

    When we woke this morning, Kaylyn let me know that her stomach was not feeling well so I sent Jaden ahead to the Comedor to let Oscar know that he should not set a plate for her.  I decided to stay in with Kaylyn and work on the next 2 calculus lessons and homework (along with homework answers), especially since I have many lessons to go...I will be trying to put something together for the remainder of the book, wrapping up derivatives and then into definite and indefinite integrals for after I leave so that there are examples that may have some extra steps so that students better understand what is in the book.

   This morning Jaden waited outside for Alexander.  While he was on the porch, he brought me out twice due to noticing two disparities involving creatures on the porch.  The first time he brought me out, it was because he saw a walking stick on the patio chair on the porch.  The poor thing looked scared as it tried to move to be out of sight as we walked around the chair to try to see it.  I did get a few good pictures though.  The second time he pulled me outside, it was because he noticed a bees nest on the ceiling of the porch.  There were quite a few bees there.  He reported this to Alexander, who let me know he had spray to take care of that and would make a note to get that on his list.  This side of the porch we do not use often, so it technically could be avoided.

   Alexander took Jaden over to the horses to work with Andi.  Andi had 3 classes on horse care and Jaden let me know that he sat through the first one, watching intently so that for the next 2 classes, he could bring in and take out the horses and do demonstrations on how to lift and hold the horse's hoof in order to clean it as well as brushing the horse correctly.  Noah went with Moncho to do more work at the Power Toddlers house on the sinks.

   We all headed to the Comedor for lunch where the kids enjoyed watermelon for dessert.  I don't much care for watermelon, so I split my piece into 3 so that my kiddos could share it.  They reminded me that since I didn't eat all of my lunch, I would not be able to snack between lunch and supper (an unwritten rule that our family has while down here).  Alejandra gave me a sweet little drawing with our family member names on it.  She is 12 years old now and in 5th grade.  American names aren't that easy to spell if you aren't familiar with them and fluent in the English language, but she did her best with Noah (noa), Kaylyn (Keilin) and Jaden's (Yeidan) names.

   This afternoon, I caught Noah using a leaf blower to blow debris off of the cemented areas outside our Team House with 2 of Moncho's boys, so I just had to get a picture.  He had told me yesterday this was part of his routine as well, but I had forgotten to mention it yesterday.

   At 2pm, Kaylyn and I headed over to the Chosa (enclosed play/learning area) that was behind the Toddler House.  This chosa typically acts as a classroom for 2 year olds, for early learning to take place.  Karen is the teacher, but her and her husband Mike will be headed back to the States for a few months this coming Sunday.  They are actually from the Neenah area, but moved down to Georgia a while back.  Last week when talking to Mike, Kaylyn made the comment that he sounded "Wisconsin-ish" and Noah had to laugh because he knew that they were from Neenah.  And they will actually be in Wisconsin for the majority of their stay in the States this time around.  Small world.

   My friend, Invisible (there is a story to this nickname that I use with her), planned a birthday party for David (Cecilia's boy) and Padilla.  David was turning 5 and I believe Padilla was turning 3.  She had beef- and shrimp-fried rice, orange soda and chocolate cake.  It was a small party (of 9), with her inviting Cecilia, Karen, Isaac, Jacob, Kaylyn and I.  Invisible insisted that I take a plate of the rice, the rest of the 3-liter soda and 2 slices of cake back to Jaden and Noah...so we did.  When we got back to the house, the boys were wondering where we were for supper, especially since there were only 2 bowls (theirs) set out in the Comedor.  When they saw the 2 bowls, they knew we wouldn't be dining with them, but they were happy to see the cake.

   Jaden let me know that he had been sanding and varnishing again (which was obvious by all of the sanding particles I saw in his hair), so I let him know that he needed to shower before having the cake and he needed to do it quickly because we had church this evening.

   We arrived there about 5 minutes early, so had a chance to chat with Alexander and LaShawn.  Felipe led the church service which began at 5:15pm instead of the 4:30pm from last week. Nikoll came over to sit between me and Kaylyn and she was wearing the dress we had brought for her that had been passed down from Alina to Kaylyn and now to Nikoll.  Due to church beginning at 5:15pm, it was completely dark outside by the time the service was done, so we headed back to the Team House and settled in for the night.

Jaden Begins a Variety of Jobs

    This morning for breakfast was arroz con leche (rice with warm milk) and a banana on the side.  After breakfast, Noah headed off with Moncho and Kaylyn headed to the Toddler House.  I have asked Noah to take pictures here and there of what he does and also am hoping to get pictures of Kaylyn working with the Toddlers as well so that that I can put them into future blogs.  

   As for me and Jaden, we needed to be at the school this morning at 7am because the Math 10 course (Algebra 2 / PreCalculus) began right away first thing!  We reviewed some basic concepts that the teacher said they were having a difficult time with: graphing points, independent vs dependent variables, domain vs range, and substituting values in for x when to came to functions.  Then we got into the lesson for today, using all of these concepts just mentioned to graph rational functions.  I should probably stop there for those who aren't math savvy.  Jaden got to plot some points when we got to that part of the review, so that kept him a little engaged.  He wasn't able to go with Alexander until 8am, so needed to stay with me until that point.

   Alexander told me that he was going to make sure Jaden got to work with a variety of people while he was here, so I want to be able to focus on his experiences a little more than Noah and Kaylyn's this year because it is his first year here at Emmanuel.  When I met back up with Jaden for lunch, he told me that Alexander took him to work with Chino this morning where his chores for the morning were: changing light bulbs, carrying a ladder, holding wires and holding flashlights for Chino.  He said he had a lot of fun and learned a bit too.

   Lunch consisted of spaghetti with queso fresco (crumbly cheese), zucchini and water.  After eating we chatted with a few of the children in the Comedor - which is actually the norm for us to chat and give hugs, and then we headed to our respective areas.  Kaylyn and I headed to the Toddler House to put the kiddos down for a nap, Noah headed off with Moncho and they have been busy working on the sinks in the Power Toddlers house because the wood underneath them has rotted out.  They also used leaf blowers to clean the cemented areas.  Jaden headed off to work with Mike in the wood shop to sand table bottoms and revarnish them.

   When Kaylyn and I headed back to the Toddler House just a couple of hours later to wake up the toddlers and get them ready for supper, the encargadas (older girls and women in charge) said the toddlers would be eating supper in their house today.  It has been raining on and off all day...rains for about 5 minutes and then the sun comes out for 20-30 minutes, then it rains again for a few minutes and it's been a continuous cycle like that throughout the day.  They didn't want the toddlers walking all the way down to the Comedor and getting soaked and ultimately sick.  So after getting them up and getting the picnic tables set up in their open area, Kaylyn and I took off for the Comedor for supper.

   After supper, all 4 of us once again retreated back to the Team House to settle in for the night.  Kaylyn decided to make us pancakes as a night time snack and then the extras were sent to the refrigerator for anyone to snack on over the next few days, if they last that long.

Update on Noah's finger:  We looked at Noah's finger this evening and it looks like the spritzes of Bactine have been keeping it disinfected and that the wound has closed.  So now it should just be a matter of time before he'll have a good battle wound to tell stories about.

Update on Kaylyn's sunburn:  The burn on the backs of Kaylyn's knees look like they're about to blister, but now we are wondering if this might be a combination of a sunburn and an allergic reaction as her right hand is extremely red around each knuckle (of this same color you see here).  She says it does not itch yet, but if it gets to that point we will definitely take her to the clinic to see LaShawn.  Some of the girls here at the orphanage said that another girl has allergic reactions of the same kind (on the knuckles)...so we will just wait and see.

Noah's 1st Ever in 5 Years!

    This morning when we headed to breakfast, Oscar had oatmeal on the menu.  We seem to have been rotating between oatmeal, arroz con leche (warm rice with milk), and another mixture that I have not been able to define yet.  But the main part of this story is that never, ever in his history of being here, has Noah eaten breakfast quickly.  He has a difficult time mostly with the textures of the warm cereal that is served each day.  In prior (non-COVID) years, he would eat 2 or maybe 3 spoons of breakfast and then pass the rest on to the boys whose table we shared.  Sometimes he wouldn't even take a bit and just eat the moon pie!  Anyway, this morning Noah at everything in the bowl and more quickly than Kaylyn, Jaden or me.  I am not sure if he was just starving by that point because nothing was really different about this bowl of oatmeal...but I was blown away by how fast he not only ate but finished off the bowl!

   After breakfast, Noah went with Moncho and Kaylyn headed to the Toddler House.  Jaden went back to the Team House with me because Alexander (who he will be with the majority of the time) had off today and so we arranged for Jaden to work with Mike, but the shop didn't open until 8am.  I spent an hour looking over and refining the lesson I had created for the Math 11 (Calculus) course that I would be teaching this morning.  When Jaden headed to the shop to work with Mike, I took off for the school to teach their first lesson on derivatives (constants, linear functions, and exponents).  After the lesson, I headed back to the Team House to work on the lesson for tomorrow's Math 10 (Algebra 2 / PreCalculus) course which would be on polynomial functions (asymptotes, intercepts, domain, range, graphing).  Although the Calculus topics are still pretty fresh in my brain from 3 years ago, it has been a bit longer since I have taught Algebra 2...so the lesson took me a bit more to create.

   The kids and I met up for lunch in the Comedor and then Kaylyn and I walked back with the toddlers to the Toddler House in order to help put them down for a nap.  They all nap in the same room on some large shared mats which is interesting.  I remember years ago when I saw this for the first time wondering how in the world they could get all of these children to sleep so quickly, together and at the same time!  I am guessing the older toddlers make an example for the younger ones coming in and since that's how it's been for years, it works well.  I will try to remember to get a picture of this for an upcoming post.

   While the toddlers slept, Kaylyn and I headed back to the Team House.  During this time Kaylyn generally takes a nap as well, while I tend to work through the math book carefully noting the mathematical words in Spanish that I need to remember.  Many of them are cognates, meaning that they are very similar in English (like sum is suma, or multiply is multiplicar, etc).  But there are some that are a bit different, so I want to be sure I am using the correct words in Spanish.

   We met up with the boys at the Comedor for supper and then headed back to the Team House.  Both boys showered since there were fairly dirty from their days work while I read before turning in for the night.

Noah Gets Hurt

   We have decided that on Sundays, we would not eat in the Comedor but rather eat together as a family.  This will be the one meal that we share just the 4 of us without interruption for the two Sundays that we are here.  While in town on Friday I bought 2 boxes of Cereal, the Honduran equivalents of Frosted Flakes and Cocoa Puffs.  Of course everyone wanted the cocoa puffs today.  The reason why I do this is so that the kids can be reminded of how great fresh milk from our beautiful state of Wisconsin (America's Dairyland) really is!  You see, milk here comes in a small box, about a quart of it and that box you will find on the regular shelves (not shelves in the refrigerator) of the store.  While we are used to expiration dates only about 2 weeks from the milk we find in the store, the expiration date on these boxes is in October 26th and November 4th of this year.  This probably makes Wisconsinites wonder, what in the world???  I know that it did to me as well when I had lived down in Mexico and saw this.

   Church begins at 8:30am, so the kids decided to wake up just a little bit later since Sunday is a more relaxed day and our day off from working.  We had breakfast and then Kaylyn and I walked to the yard just outside the church where the little girls were because yesterday they let Kaylyn know they wanted to braid her hair up like a princess, specifically Cinderella.  As she was getting her hair put up into braids and a bun, many of the little girls kept saying over and over, "Cenicientas" (Cinderella!!!).  I wish I would have taken a picture while Kaylyn was getting her hair braided so that it could capture all of the small girls who were surrounding her while the braiding was in process.  Perhaps she will have this done next Sunday as well and I can capture that moment.

Kaylyn's Cinderella hair

   After a beautiful performance in church for Lydia in celebration of her birthday, Pastor German gave the sermon today and I guess I never realized that his wife was Profe Juanes.  She has been a teacher at the school for quite a few years, although I hadn't seen her this year...perhaps retired?  I always enjoy listening to Pastor German as his lessons have always been applicable to what's going on with me in the moment.

Lydia thanking the girls for their performance

Lydia showing appreciation to all who have celebrated her

David acknowledging Lydia as the Proverbs 31 wife and mother

David and Pastor German

   Sundays are also our day to get the house cleaned and in order.  When we got back from church, I let the kids know what the plan was to clean the house.  We would take care of the 3 toilets, the 3 bathroom sinks, the 2 showers, then sweep and mop the entire house (aside from the 2 bedrooms we do not use).  We also needed to focus on cleaning the kitchen cupboards and sinks well in order to minimize attracting bugs (ants, cockroaches, etc).  They will still come, but hopefully less.

   As Kaylyn, Jaden and I began to clean the bathroom, Noah decided to make himself a sandwich.  Apparently the meat was in a sealed package and he thought he would open it with a huge butcher knife that just happened to be extra sharp.  One miscalculation and he went through the finger on his left hand.  At the time I didn't know how bad it was, I just saw the blood.  He said it wasn't bad and I took him at his word because I was on a mission to clean the house.  I scolded him for deciding to avoid cleaning by making himself a sandwich, and may have mentioned that perhaps that cut was his punishment for avoiding the work that lay ahead.  He put a Band-Aid on it and began to help clean.  In all, it took us an hour and 10 minutes to clean the entire house, which included the porch that wraps around 2 sides of the Team House.  Obviously it was the floors that took the longest...I swept, Kaylyn followed behind mopping with disinfectant soap, Noah went behind with a mop to clean up the soap, and Jaden followed with the third mop to try to dry up as much as possible (clean, rinse, dry).  We finished with just enough time to make it to the Comedor for lunch.

   After lunch, we took Nikoll, Alejandra and Jeremias to the tienda (store) for treats and snacks.  We chatted a bit at the store.  Jeremias is an absolute HOOT!  I love having him along to crack jokes with Noah.  We moved from chatting at the tienda to the table and chairs on the porch of the Team House.  We had some clothes to give to Alejandra and Nikoll, each got a dress, 2 shirts and 1 Honduran soccer jersey.  Jeremias was satisfied playing with Noah's Nintendo DS, although he will most likely get a few shirts next week.  All 3 got a paleta (Mexican mango flavored sucker coated in chili pepper) as well as a packet of flavored powder to add to water to make flavored water, although honestly I think they will choose to open the packet and eat it like a pixi stix or Fun Dip. 

From front left around the table:
Alejandra, Nikoll, Kaylyn,
Jaden, Jeremias, Noah

   The girls mentioned that they wanted to go on a walk yet before supper, so we all walked to the farm and saw the cows (which is why they wanted to go to the farm).  We had to take a shortcut path back to the Comedor because we were in a crunch for time.  When we dropped them off to eat, we headed to the tienda to buy a Pepsi and taqueritos (a type of chip) to take up to Michell in the big Team House where she and Mirna were preparing the supper for Lydia's 72nd birthday party.

   By now, Noah had changed his bandage twice as it soaked through and onto his hand, arm and leg.  This second time that he changed it, I told him I wanted to see it.  We cleaned it up and I got a good look at it.  In all honesty, if we had been in the United States I believe he would have went to the clinic or even the ER to get a few (3 to 5, or more) stitches.  But here we are, in Honduras, so the best we can do right now if he doesn't want LaShawn to look at it is to get it disinfected and try to get it to close up on its own.  I got Bactine on it and then put a smaller bandage over the deepest part of the cut to get it to stay closed, then wrapped a huge bandage around his finger which immobilized his finger so he wasn't able to bend it or agitate the wound.  Unfortunately I forgot the Neosporin, so I told him this would need to stay on an absolute minimum of 2 days but hopefully we could get 4-5 out of it to allow time to close.  I also instructed him to let me know if the bandage soaked through with blood, because then he wouldn't be able to avoid checking in with LaShawn (the nurse here at the orphanage).

   Lydia's party began at 5, although rarely are people on time.  We arrived at 5:30pm due to a few hiccups on our end, but they were just about to start when we arrived.  We found a table and sat down and Elvia began the evening as MC.  They had delicious food (rice, beans, eggs, sausage, tortillas, pico de gallo, pineapple juice, and fried plantains) and our plates were absolutely full!  And that didn't even include the chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  After dinner, the grandecitas (tween girls) entertained us in Munchkin Men costumes with 2 dances and even got Lydia and David out on the dance floor!  Those girls had us all in laughs!  Selvin washed Lydia's feet just as Jesus washed his disciples feet.  Rolley put together a video presentation to music of pictures of Lydia through the years which was amazing, and then Elvia offered up the microphone to anyone who had words of gratitude to say to Lydia.  When David and Lydia retired to their house, we all hustled up to the girls volunteer house where Moncho lit up some big fireworks.  I have never been next to fireworks like these (imagine city fireworks on the 4th of July, just as high but perhaps not as many) so it was just incredible to be a part of.  David and Lydia definitely would have been able to see these from the comfort of their house.  What an amazing way to end the evening!

Elvia as MC of Lydia's 72nd birthday party

Birthday meal

Munchkin Men dance for Lydia's birthday party

Selvin washing Lydia's feet

Alexander talking about fond memories of Lydia as a mother

Lydia's closing speech and gratitude to all