Orphanage Emmanuel in Guaimaca, Honduras: Sundays = Deep Cleaning Time

This morning when I went with Jaden to the Comedor, they served Corn Flakes with warm milk. This is also not necessarily a favorite of Jaden's, but he considers it much better than the breakfast from yesterday. While we were in the Comedor, I asked the head cook if it would be possible to get some cilantro so that I could make a nice Mexican guacamole. Oscar has been asking for this for a few weeks, and I figured today would be the day that we had time to do it. I wanted to give it to the cooks in the kitchen for all the work they do 3 times a day preparing meals for 254 children plus staff, and also including us as well.

Before we got back to our room from breakfast, the power went out. Kaylyn was wondering if we were still in the Comedor when it went out, but we weren't, so we were oblivious to when it happened. Because the power went out, Alexander (or David) decided that church would be delayed to 4:30pm, just after supper time. Since we had extra time, we got to cleaning right away so that we could make the guacamole this morning prior to lunch time. We have gotten into a routine now for Sundays. I sweep our room and bathroom while Jaden takes care of sweeping the bathroom in the kitchen as well as the kitchen, and ultimately the patio out front of the hotel.

Kaylyn is the initial mopper, getting the solution she mixes together (with apple scented disinfectant and bleach) and then splattering it onto the floors and mopping it around, disinfecting all areas of the floors. I go behind her with a "rinsing" mop to wash away the soap, and generally we let the wind and heat dry the floors. We also do the full patio outside the hotel as well. While we are mopping all of this, Jaden is giving the bathrooms in both our room and the kitchen a good wipe down with disinfectant, as well as the kitchen counters. Today, after mopping I had Jaden get a scrubbie and take care of a bunch of brown tar-ish marks off the patio so that the patio would look quite a bit nicer for the remainder of the time we are here.

This picture is mostly for Alina, of Kaylyn mopping the "correct" way

Kaylyn mopping the "wrong" way

Kaylyn waiting on Jaden

Kaylyn striking a pose for the camera

We took a 20min break or so after cleaning before tackling making the guacamole. Ingredients: Onions (I could only find purple ones in town, and not the white ones), garlic, salt, Roma tomatoes, avocado, cilantro (received from the Comedor), and lime juice. Kaylyn and Jaden both helped peel, slice and dice everything. And of course when all was said and done, they wanted to help taste test as well. So I got them a plate and they each got a spoonful. The rest got packaged up into a sealed container to head to the Comedor at lunch. The ladies thoroughly enjoyed it, not only saying Thank You, but also wondering when I could make it for them again! Oscar told them... NEXT YEAR.

After lunch we took 2 boys to the Tienda: Dilmer and Samuel. Jaden had asked special permission to be able to take Samuel, and Dilmer has been that special boy of Alina's back in 2019. We were hoping to be able to do a videochat with Alina so that they could see each other, but unfortunately that didn't materialize. Both boys were able to choose some chips, a soda, and a package of cookies. And both were extremely well behaved. There was a cat around us that hung around us quite a bit because Kaylyn and Dilmer decided they wanted to feed the cat some of their chips. Dilmer saw that the small boys (from the house he stays at) were in the gymnasium just across the street from the Tienda, so with about 45min left until supper time, we decided to let him head that way and get some soccer-playing time in with his friends. We went to our room for quick bathroom breaks before heading back to the Comedor for supper. The rest of the evening was for much needed rest and relaxation, after our showers, of course.