This morning I walked with Jaden to breakfast and we were greeted and hugged by Papi (David Martinez, founder of Orphanage Emmanuel) and also saw Jeremias. Breakfast was arroz con leche, which Jaden likes. We noticed that the Comedor doesn't house as many kids this year and Alexander told me that they have around 280 kids right now, which is WAY lower than the 400-600 that I am used to. Daniela in the office later told me that there are currently 254 in the database at Emmanuel, so even lower than Alexander's estimate.
In the hotel, in room #2, lives Karen with her 2 daughters: Dara and Nachita. I believe they are 4 years old and 2 years old. Karen's sister comes to get them up and ready for the day since Karen is in charge of the grandecitas (ages 12-14) dorm and needs to head that way about 6am. At 9:00am in the gymnasium, we were invited to the elementary school's celebration of Dia del indio (day of the 'indian'...or as we would say, Native American). I got there a little late, I guess, but did get to see quite a bit. As we left, the teachers handed us a tamale which was filled with beans.
For the most part, we rested today due to the nature of coming down here and little sleep that we got. Typically I do not rest on Day 1 and we get to work even though volunteers can use that day for rest, but the kids really needed to catch up on sleep and I rested a little bit as well.
After lunch we went to the office to chat with Danielle about where she could best use us. Due to many children having left, there is a HUGE need for volunteers and help right now. We also found out that Selvin, who is 28 years old, has perfect English and has lived at Emmanuel his entire life, would be leaving the orphanage for the first time to move to Tegucigalpa (capital of Honduras) to try to find a new life there. Since he was generally in charge of a crew and responsibilities around the orphanage, his responsibilities would need to be dispersed to others in charge, making even more work for each individual.
Anyway, Kaylyn is going to work in the Baby House on school days and on non-school days she will be working in the Toddler House. Jaden is supposed to report to Alexander every day, but some days he would be with Alexander, some with Chino, some with Andy and perhaps others as well. He will be working all over the orphanage from the farm to the greenhouse to general repairs throughout the buildings on the campus. I will either be in the school (not sure doing what yet) or with Kaylyn for the 5 weeks we are here.
As we were leaving the Comedor from supper this evening, Gibran (Noah's sponsored child, who is now big) and Cristofer came over and gave me hugs. We are looking forward to our first day of work tomorrow!
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| Kaylyn and Genesis |
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| Tamale |
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