The Chainsaw

   This morning began with our normal routine of granola for Kaylyn, proffee for me, and arroz con leche with cookies for Jaden.  Because there was a staff meeting after breakfast, there was no work for Jaden to do (since he is generally working with a staff member who can keep watch over him).  So Jaden spent the morning in our room, sweeping, reading and napping.  By the time we saw him at lunch, he said he was thoroughly bored.

   Kaylyn went to the Toddler House at about 7am and I joined her at 8am.  We were in the Chosa with the toddlers.  There is a family of 4 here (mom and 3 kids) who came in June and will be leaving a week before we come home.  The mom, April, is assigned to the Toddlers in the morning along with her 14 year old daughter Zoey.  She has a 5 year old son, Micah, who generally spends every other day with the toddlers and the off days with the small boys since that is more his age group.

   After lunch in the Comedor, Kaylyn and I headed back to the room because Alexander was sending some boys over to fix our slow draining sink in our bathroom.  Alexander also brought over toilet paper and a garbage can for the bathroom. 

   Jaden went with Chino to the medium boys house where they had to rearrange furniture in the house as well as prune the bushes outside.  When Jaden came to supper, he was excited to tell us that he saw his first tarantula, however at the instructions of Chino, another boys stepped on it and killed it.  And he was even MORE excited to tell me he got to use a chainsaw.  This shocked me a little bit that a 14 year old with not a lot of tool experience would get to use a chainsaw, so I prompted him with more questions about it and then found out that he used his "said chainsaw" to trim bushes.  So then I asked him if it was a hedge trimmer and described the difference between the two.  Thankfully yes, he was using a hedge trimmer.  Of course that has danger to it as well, but as a mother it made me much more comfortable knowing it was just a hedge trimmer rather than a chainsaw.

   In the Comedor, we sit between the special needs boys and Chino's medium boys.  Last year we were on the girls side, and there just seemed to be problems with the girls not following instructions as well because they were distracted with chatting with us.  Personally, I think it might have been Noah (so many girls had crushes on him and still must as they have been asking for him).  After supper each day, we are going to spend a half hour in our room reading, to get some reading time in since we all brought at least 5 books down.

   A couple of my books were left behind by Alina when she moved to my mom's.  I think they might originally belong to my sister Julie, so I will be sure to bring them back and return them to her.  The book I started reading is called The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James.  Within the first hour, I knew that I was going to like this book, and I am now going to have to limit and pace myself.  I used to be really into reading back in late elementary, middle and high school, but then college came and kids, and a master's degree, and marriage, and coaching and then my kids sports...that reading kind of went by the wayside.  I am really appreciating the time I have had this summer to try to get back into something that I loved a lot years ago.

Dia del indio - colegio

    This morning breakfast was at 6:45am instead of 5:45am.  We were told that this will be the "normal" time on days there is no school/classes.  At 7am, Kaylyn went to the Toddler House, where a little bit later she and the children went to the other "Chosa" Kaylyn told me that a girl, Clara, started crying because someone stole her toilet paper.  When another volunteer picked her up she reached for Kaylyn and settled down once she was in Kaylyn's arm.  where Karen (Mike's wife) led educational activities, similar to a preschool setting.  

   At 8am, Jaden left to go work with the horses where he helped bathe a horse, led horses to the stable and swept out the stable. His work took just about all morning, so I did not see him for lunch.

   I met up with Kaylyn at the gymnasium at 8am where the middle and high school were celebrating Dia del indio.  There were 3 categories for dressing up for each grade:  native wear (designs were painted onto the outfits), formal wear, and making an outfit out of common items (newspaper, plastic, etc).  I've included pictures at the end of this blog entry as I had taken so many.

   I walked with Kaylyn and the kids back to the Toddler House and we stayed in the Chosa until lunch time when we walked back to the Comedor with them.  All 3 of us eat lunch and supper together, so we chatted a bit before Kaylyn and I went back to the room and Jaden headed off to the chicken area to gather eggs, wash them and then deliver them to the kitchen, Team House, and the front Security gate.

   This evening a team came in from Ohio.  Kaylyn said she had heard there were 11 members.  This is the home church of LaShawn, the nurse who has been down here working in the clinic on the Emmanuel campus for the past 5ish years.  Hoping to meet some of them tomorrow.

Dia del indio - primaria

    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!

Kaylyn and Genesis

Tamale

Honduras 2023: Houston to Emmanuel

    Although we technically went to sleep this morning at about 3am from our flight from O'Hare, the kids slept for a few hours and I may have gotten some rest in as well in that chair.  Both Kaylyn and Jaden woke around 5am as employees and travelers started to fill the airport.  We rearranged Jaden's chairs back to how they originally were, but there was another family looking for somewhere for their son to rest/sleep, so we left Kaylyn's arrangement of chairs for them.

   The hotel we originally would have spent the night at offered free breakfast, so we were missing out on some critical protein and fruit for breakfast, and all we had packed in our suitcases were granola bars.  Because of missing the hotel's breakfast, I had to get us something that would get us through the day...so we headed to a restaurant where Kaylyn and I had an omelet and Jaden decided to go for some sort of breakfast burrito.  Our plane out of Houston was on time and within 2.5 hours, we landed in Comayagua.  The airport had Wifi, so Kaylyn and I connected for her to reach out to friends and I just wanted for my time to be correct on the phone (Honduras is an hour behind Wisconsin).  What I didn't realize later was that I didn't connect my Fitbit at that time, so I would have to go a few days looking at the time on my wrist and subtracting an hour.

Houston airport

   Getting through customs was pretty smooth although there was an extremely long line.  I am pretty sure at least 3 big planes came in at the same time.  After picking up our suitcases, I headed to a money exchange to change about $300USD to Honduran Lempiras.  The exchange rate that day was $23.70 Lempiras for $1USD (you do the math if you'd like to know how many thousands that is).  

   When we came out of baggage claim, a man named Luis was waiting for us with my name on a card (yep, like you see in the movies).  I directed Kaylyn and Jaden over to him and decided to use the bathroom one last time since the trip to Orphanage Emmanuel would be about 2.5 hours and we weren't really planning on stopping since we all had water and granola bars to snack on.  Luis got us to Emmanuel easily enough and after getting through the security gated entrance, we met up with Danielle who let us know we'd be staying in Hotel #1 (the room closest to the kitchen of the 3 hotel rooms).  There was a double bed, twin bed, and a set of bunk beds in this room, as well as a couch and luggage table.  It was nice to have something a little more cozy since it's just the 3 of us.

   We got our bags into the room and then ventured out.  We didn't get much off of the porch of the hotel and we all heard a girl shriek "Gloria!!!"  And then shouted for Alejandra to come out of the 'grandecitas' dorm.  So we went up right away and spent a little time up there with Alejandra.  I was pleasantly surprised to see her, especially since she had told me last summer that she wasn't sure she'd be here this year since her mom told her that she'd like to come for her.

   As we walked around more, we ended up seeing Invisible (Pamela), Sarai, Julisa, Oscar, Jose, Alexander, Chino and Moncho.  We talked with Oscar about meals at the Comedor (dining hall).  Kaylyn decided she would eat a granola bar or two each morning, so she will be missing breakfast.  About a week ago, I had started mixing a vanilla bean protein powder with my coffee, so I decided this would most likely get me through the morning as well...although I do like arroz con leche (Kaylyn and Noah do not)!  So it would just be Jaden eating breakfast in the comedor.  All 3 of us would eat lunch and supper down here though, but just a half portion since the heat down here tends to make you less hungry.

   I planned to leave $5.00USD each week at the store for Kaylyn and Jaden to use as they wish, so if the half-meals in the Comedor aren't enough, they can supplement with a treat from the store.

   We made our way back to the room and sorted through our suitcases (since all was mixed together so we could hit a goal weight of 200 pounds, 50 per suitcase), getting out the items for the kitchen, the bathroom, the first aid kit and then making sure each one of us had a suitcase for our own personal belongings.  When that was done, it was definitely time to get some rest.

The white door leads to our bathroom (toilet, sink, shower)

   P.S.  Don't be fooled by the pictures.  After originally choosing their beds, Kaylyn decided she wanted to go with the twin bed and Jaden ended up with the bottom bunk.

Honduras 2023: Appleton to Houston

    When searching for flights to Honduras, I am always checking Appleton, Green Bay, Milwaukee and O'Hare (in that order), however I do take cost into account.  For instance, if we fly out of O'Hare we can get to Honduras in the same day but I need to either rent a vehicle down and then back or I need to park my car for a month...which is about the same in terms of being extremely expensive.  Flying out of Milwaukee will generally get us there the same day as well, and renting a vehicle to/from or the option of parking our own vehicle is less expensive than O'Hare but the ticket tends to be a little more.

Kaylyn packing sports items that will stay at Emmanuel

   Obviously tickets out of Green Bay (35 minutes away) and Appleton (5 minutes away) are going to cost quite a bit more than the previous two, but usually we can find a ride to either of those airports from Bob or another family member, so we save on vehicle transport costs.  So I weigh in the total expense before getting tickets.  This year the price of just the plane ticket to fly out of Appleton was almost equal to the price to fly out of O'Hare, however Appleton involved an overnight stay both on the way to Honduras and on the way back from Honduras.  After researching 2 hotel costs versus vehicle transport costs...I decided that we would take those tickets out of Appleton.  My mom took Kaylyn, Jaden and I (along with our 4 suitcases and our backpacks) to the Appleton airport with her van today and saw us off.

   Today is Alina's 20th birthday, however family would not see her because she headed early this morning for South Carolina with a friend for a few days vacation.  If she reads this blog, perhaps she will discover that I left her a card/gift on our kitchen cupboard back at home...Happy 20th Birthday Alina!

All packed and ready to go!

Kaylyn at the Appleton airport

Kaylyn and Jaden

   On the flight from Appleton to O'Hare, Kaylyn and Jaden got to sit in row 2 whereas I was in row 4.  It was a small plan with only 2 seats on each side of the aisle and I think I counted 48 seats total.  The flight was good and we came into O'Hare with no problem.  We were supposed to have about a 5 hour layover in O'Hare with our plane to Houston departing time being 9:15pm, however I got a few notifications that the time would change.  The first notification said it would be delayed until 9:50pm, then 10:50pm, then the next notification said that the plane had a "lesser delay" and would be leaving at 10pm, and finally they had a hard time finding crew for the plane, so we ended up leaving at 11:30pm.  This put us in Houston around 2:00am, and I felt at that point it really wasn't worth it to head to the hotel as we would only get about 2-3 hours of sleep before waking to shower, have breakfast, and turn around and head back to the airport.  So we tried to find a comfortable place to sleep.  

Flying out of Appleton

Waiting at O'Hare to fly to Houston

   Kaylyn had 3 comfy chairs put together into a "bed", I put 2 chairs together for Jaden to sleep on, and I grabbed my backpack as a pillow and laid on the floor.  A few minutes later, Kaylyn told me that there was a mouse running around.  She pointed it out to me about 20 feet away, and I decided perhaps the floor is not the best place to sleep.  So I gathered my backpack and tried to get as much rest as possible in a chair near them.  Tomorrow morning we will fly from Houston to Honduras, the plane is set to leave at 9:35am.