We Are Now Alone

    This morning when I opened the door of our room, we were surrounded by fog.  Now honestly, I can say that I am not sure if it's fog or if we are in a low lying cloud, because we are up in the mountains and I have seen clouds so low on nearby mountains that you cannot see the top of them.  Anyway, it was beautiful today.  April and her 3 kiddos (Zoey, Zayden and Micah) are leaving this morning at 8am, so they headed to the baby house to get some pictures before taking off.  I didn't see them after that, so it's a good thing we had said goodbye last night.  Kaylyn and Zoey exchanged numbers so they could keep in contact.

   The breakfast this morning was arroz con leche and generally Saturdays are the porridge type breakfast made of that flour mixture I had mentioned back on Wednesday (Jaden's least favorite breakfast).  He was so relieved to know he would not have this breakfast again during this trip.

   Kaylyn and I headed to the Chosa to watch the kiddos.  Since April had left, this is the first day we were in here alone with Eva watching the toddlers.  The small girls stayed in their house, so the amount of toddlers was manageable.  Although this is the last "full" morning for me to watch the toddlers (since I have to teach on Monday and will only have half a morning with them), Kaylyn will have one more full morning on Monday.  She has been coughing a lot lately and has been taking the DayQuil and NyQuil that I had purchased, so I have to try to remember next time to pack cough drops.  I feel like she has been sick down here more than she has been healthy...but I am just glad she has a good attitude about it, and the serving she is doing while here.  She even asked to braid my hair today and made 2 separate braids that she said formed a heart.

Brithany

Clara and Brithany

   After being at the Chosa for an hour or hour and a half, LaShawn called for the toddlers to head up to the clinic to get their heights and weights taken, so Graciela (who is in charge of the Toddler House), Eva, Kaylyn and I got them all ready and walked them up to the clinic.  The nurse from town pulled the scale and the height measuring tool out to the porch out front of the clinic.  While we were there, Clara (Kaylyn's favorite) decided to close the clinic door and it locked in the process.  Both sets of keys were in the Clinic, so it took some finagling (what we would call breaking and entering) to get the door open.

Camila getting her height measured

   When we walked back towards the Toddler House, Graciela said we were going to let the toddlers play in the park.  When she told the toddlers that, every one of them let go of our hands took off running towards the park, obviously excited because this is only the 2nd time in the nearly 5 weeks we have been here that they have gotten to play in the park.  About an hour before we needed to head to the Comedor for lunch, Graciela decided to turn the water on at the park's "waterpark".  The kids were SO excited!!!  They stripped down to just their underwear and for about 30-45min got to play under all the streams of water.

Moises enjoying the sprinkles

   We headed to the Comedor with the toddlers and found that there was a HAND-MADE tortilla at each place setting.  This excited me so much because I hadn't had one of these since last year!  Alina had learned to make them years ago, I wonder if she still remembers how.  When we walked back to our room, we noticed that Cristian was up there with his gator and crew.  They were moving Karen and her 2 daughters (Dara and Nachita) out from the room next to us and into Mirna's house.  So we will no longer have neighbors for the last few nights here.  Once they were gone, we swept out the kitchen well, and I got ahead on some of my lesson for Monday.

Kaylyn coming into the Comedor with Clara, Camila and Natali

   We headed back to the Toddler House at 3pm and gave Graciela most of my clothes that I was leaving behind.  There are still a couple of shirts and pants that I need to wear before taking off, but as soon as I do and I get them washed, they will stay down here too.  Generally all of my kids' things stay down here each year as it will not fit them the following summer because they are still growing.  This year, when it came to my things, there are more things staying here than heading back as well.  When I gave it to Graciela, she said that she would make sure it got divided up where the necessity was...between her, Eva, Lourdes, Mirna, Pamela, or whoever else might need it.

   We walked with the toddlers to the Comedor for supper (and once again there was a hand-made tortilla at our place setting), and then the toddlers headed to the Cancha (playground outside the school) to play some soccer and on the playground equipment.  We used this time to start getting more things together that was going to stay behind.

All meals are covered to protect them from insects

Medium Boys

Special Needs Boys

Grandecitos with the Grandes table behind them

Small Boys (girls tables are behind on other side of Comedor)

Our place setting each day (between Medium and Special Boys)

Rice, Chopped Hot Dogs in Ketchup, and Handmade Tortillas

   This evening's movie was Kaylyn's choice:  Love Hard.  Jaden said when it was all over that he no longer wanted to watch rom-coms...so guessing that it might end up being a Mission Impossible night for the last two nights we are here.

Kaylyn Gets to Participate in a SleepOver

    This morning Jaden woke up with a swollen lip, and it was quite swollen.  We asked him if he got into a fight, although honestly we would have heard about it from whoever was in charge of the groups he was with yesterday.  The only possible conclusion we could come to when he said, "No" was that he was bitten ON the lip overnight by a mosquito.  He rarely covers up and he does not wear the bug protection that we brought down (although you definitely wouldn't apply that to your lips), so in a way, this is more on him.  It should go down throughout the day, and definitely by tomorrow.

   Today was the FIRST day since pre-COVID that the kids got to do a traditional BIG Circle.  They all had to meet outside the hotel and they form a super-sized circle (hence the name), and then they have devotions together and sing together.  Chino led the devotion for today and prior to him taking us through the Word today, the grandecitas and the grandes recited their verses for today.  Alejandra was part of this group, so I definitely enjoyed watching.  They generally practice for 4-5 weeks before they have to recite a chapter of the Bible.  Zoey and April joined us for Big Circle, which was awesome as they're leaving tomorrow and they have never seen one before.

Jaden, Kaylyn and Dilmer

Kaylyn, Gibran and Jaden

Kaylyn, Cristofer, Jaden and Alejandra's brother

Kaylyn and Alejandra

The grandecitas and grandes reciting their verses

Chino with this morning's devotion

Big Circle

   After breakfast, Kaylyn and I headed to the Chosa.  It's Zoey's last day in here, so we tried to have fun.  During some down time in the Chosa, where the kids were otherwise occupied, I began to work on my last lesson plan for Monday.  I will be reviewing the 6 types of functions that they have studied and learned how to graph in a Jeopardy-type formatted game.  Kaylyn recommended to do it that way.  I am going to try to remember to take pictures of the classrooms prior to leaving, but honestly it hadn't even crossed my mind the past 4.5 weeks.

   We walked the toddlers to lunch and then I headed back to my room to do final preparations on the Ensenanza for the big girls.  This is devotional time that they have Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays at 3pm after school gets done.  The topic was on Leah, although if you'd like to know more...you will have to ask.

   Jaden watered Alexander's plants today.  I had to ask him about this, because it seems like it's been about 5 days since he's mentioned to me having watered them the last time.  He spent the morning with Chino painting the steps to the Medium Boys house, and there is paint all over a pair of shorts that actually fit him well...so those will not be coming home.  In the afternoon, he was in the Horse Barn, moving wood and sweeping.

   The big highlight of the night was Kaylyn asking me if she could spend the night up in the Girls Volunteer House with Zoey and Ellie.  I was very much okay with it, but let her and Zoey know that Zoey's mom had to be okay with it, especially since Zoey was leaving tomorrow.  With both moms' permissions, and Ellie's permission, Kaylyn got packed up around 6pm and headed up to the Volunteer House, very much excited.  I reminded her as she went out the door that she had to make sure she got up on time and left the house when Ellie did in the morning.

   And with that it was just Jaden and me in the room for the night.  So I decided to put on the movie "Heart of Stone" which was supposed to be an action movie.  The movie was alright, probably Jaden liked it more than me, but it ended about 8:20pm and then the rains came, which made for a cooler and more comfortable night to be able to fall asleep.

It is Jaden's Turn

    This morning I went to the Comedor with Jaden for breakfast.  Papi (David) was there walking around and when he came by, he asked me why I didn't have a bowl of breakfast, so I let him know, with a chuckle, that if I had 3 meals a day down here I would most likely gain weight...trying to slim down!

   When we got to the Toddler House, we found out that Graciela was sick today, so the big girls in charge didn't have the keys to get into the Chosa, meaning we got to spend the morning in the Sala (living/family room) of the Toddler House.  There is more of a variety of movies in this room, although the ventilation is not as good as in the Chosa and there are really no toys...so eventually you could tell that the toddlers were getting sick of being in there.  Zoey tried her first paleta today, and I also found out when I offered Kaylyn one, that she had never tried one before either.  Both said they were "interesting" (chili coated mango suckers).

Anderson looking at Kaylyn's paleta

   Jaden was weed whacking with Moncho and his crew today, so I gave Moncho 8 paletas for the guys to enjoy on their next break.  In the afternoon, Jaden headed with Micah out to the front playground, called the Area Verde, to play with the small boys.

Jaden Weed Whacking

   For lunch, April joined us in the Comedor to see what all of that food was about.  She heads home on Saturday with her 3 kids, but is planning to come back as a long-term volunteer in mid-September.  We will see what God has in store for her as she goes through that transition.  The most reluctant to come back from her family was Zoey, but even she seems to be warming up to it more and more each day.

   So we found out that Jaden is now the one to come back "sick".  He officially has ringworm.  I don't know much about that, so will be Googling it, but I guess it is pretty common down here when you work on the farm.  Zayden had it as well when we got here.  Jaden has 3 circles right now where you can see it, one on his knee, one on his arm and the other on his cheek.  LaShawn gave him some cream that he is supposed to apply 3 times a day until it is gone.  She also told us that sunscreen lotion will also help get the skin the proper nutrients it needs to help in the healing process as well...so we will have to keep an eye on this.

   So I had bought a phone/data package that SAID it was supposed to be 30G or 15 days, whichever came first, and so at the end of 15 days I bought another package.  But I had gotten a message about a week ago saying my 30G got used up and the next 30G package that I had bought was now beginning.  This confused me a little, but now we have way more data than we need.  So I decided that starting tonight, we would have a movie night every night we are here until it is time to leave on Tuesday.  Tonight's movies was called "Half Brothers" and was entertaining enough to keep us up until about 8pm when we generally head to sleep anyway.

Jaden's First Communion

    This morning I headed down to breakfast with Jaden and rather than the typical Wednesday with the flour porridge breakfast he tends to really dislike, there was oatmeal...so he was pretty excited, saying "only 1 day left, on Saturday".  Little does he know that Ellie later told me the tias that come in the morning are the ones who make that on Wednesdays and Saturdays and for the next 2 months, they will not be coming in as early, so he really won't have to eat it again on this trip.  I am going to leave that as a surprise for him though, so SHHHHH!!!

   When I got to the Chosa this morning, the small girls who didn't have class soon followed.  Their teacher was out today, and this is generally where they get sent.  So it was a "packed" Chosa.  Good thing my lesson plan got prepared yesterday and was ready to go.

   I headed back to our room to gather my things for school about 9:20am, and got to the 9th grade right around 10am (class starts at 10:10).  They are beginning the geometry unit today, which I am excited about.  What I wasn't excited about was how this book introduces geometry and the topic that they start with, which is the measurements of the angles of polygons (interior angles, exterior angles, angle sums, and central angles).  These are concepts that generally show up for us during 2nd semester geometry back in the States.  So we had a lot of vocabulary to catch up on, like the names of all of the polygons from 3 sides (triangle) to 10 sides (decagon), apothems, diagonals, and what it means to be equilateral, equiangular or "regular" when it comes to polygons.  I learned a new word in mathematics in Spanish...the word for protractor (the device used to measure angles) is "transportador" down here in Honduras, which is definitely NOT a cognate.  The 9th graders had never used a protractor before and I wanted students to see where the formulas came from that they were about to learn.  So we needed to start with a tutorial in protractor usage, which made class go extra long beyond our normal time, making math less enjoyable to those who already dislike it but more enjoyable for those who do like it.  

The nonagon (9-sided polygon) is the only one that isn't a cognate from the names of polygons we use in English.

Math book gives them the formula but doesn't explain why it is the way it is

   Jaden did some weed whacking today, moved wood from the medium boys house to the horse barn and then hung out with the medium boys when they were done with school.  There was an incident with bullying, although it didn't involve Jaden, but it was serious enough for Elvia to address at lunch with the microphone for all children at Emmanuel to hear.  She first told all of the children what bullying was, then gave a few examples, then said that if it continues to happen here, there will be consequences for those that do it.  I really enjoy having Elvia as the school principal (as I have mentioned before) because her experience growing up here and then studying in the university for her degree(s) make for a better environment for those coming through Emmanuel now.

   Church was after supper, and Kaylyn noted that there would be communion this evening.  We did not have this option last year, and I have been telling Jaden that his first communion would be down here.  David (founder of Emmanuel) referenced the Bible on the last supper and what it means to partake in communion, and I made sure that Jaden not only followed along with the verses in Spanish, but also read the English translation right next to it (I have a bilingual Bible).  When it was time to go forward to get the sacraments, I asked Jaden if he was ready and he said he was.  Zayden, Zoey and Ellie all joined us in walking up to the front.  

   After getting back to our room, at some point before heading to bed (after we locked up), I opened the bathroom door because I was going to use the bathroom before heading to bed.  And there, not much above the toilet, on a shelf was an enormous cockroach facing me.  Well, that kind of grossed me out.  I had seen another of about the same size crawl under the actual toilet (which has some shimmies under it to keep it balanced) almost a week ago, not sure if this was the same one.  Either way, I needed to get it out of the bathroom before I used it.  Kaylyn came over to check out the cockroach and got a little close, not sure why, but the cockroach lifted its wings and "flew" right at her!  At the time, we weren't sure if it actually flew or if it was "caer con estilo" (falling with style) as they say in the Toy Story movie that we have probably watched one too many times in the Chosa with the toddlers.  Personally, I didn't think cockroaches could fly, but Kaylyn googled it and said they there are some that can fly small distances, and if they fly directly at you, it may be because they are trying to protect their nest of eggs.  I certainly HOPE NOT!!!  And of course with that, it was bed time.  Makes you feel all comfy and cozy as you head to bed wondering if there is a nest right next to you in the bathroom...NOT!

Math Students Want MORE...What???

    This morning, I woke up realizing that it was Tuesday.  Exactly one week from today, we will be waking up much earlier to finish packing, quickly clean this room we have been staying in and then head out early to make the long trek back to the United States.   The kids and I cannot believe that 4 weeks have flown by this quickly!  This is the first year ever that we have stayed at Emmanuel beyond 4 weeks (we will have been here FIVE), and yet it barely seems like we have been here 1-2 weeks, and this is exactly why we know that God has put us in the right place.  So I reminded Kaylyn and Jaden that each "day" would be their last full day here doing His work.  Today is our last full Tuesday at Emmanuel for this year.  Tomorrow will be our last full Wednesday here, and so on and so forth.  Appreciate it, make the best of it, and treasure it in your heart.

   I headed down to breakfast with Jaden and he got to enjoy arroz con leche.  More days than not, this is the breakfast he eats and it is his favorite.  I also like arroz con leche, but have been replacing breakfast with my "proffee" (vanilla bean flavored protein powder mixed in with my coffee) so that I could get more protein during the day that I would otherwise get.  I tried to pack enough protein powder for this trip, but am getting down to the end of the huge container, so we will see whether the powder makes it all the way or whether I fall short a few days.

Headed off to school!

   My math classes began right away with the school day at 7am this morning.  First I with the 9th graders, working on systems of equations word problems that I had created.  I had the students get into groups and they solved the word problems with a study team strategy called "Hot Potato".  This is where each student has a different colored writing utensil.  They each write their name at the top (so I know who has which color), and then each complete a step to the problem until it is solved.  When they solve a problem and it is correct, they turn in that problem and receive the next.  There were 5 problems.  This is the first time they have been allowed to work in groups in a math class, so it was a new concept to them, but they caught on and when our hour and 20min were up, and the 5 problems were not yet solved, they begged to go into the next hour and 20min class because the teacher for that class was not in school today (so they would have otherwise had study hall).  Because I had to be in the 10th grade class during that time and I could not be in 2 classes at once, I asked Profe Jorge (who is normally their math teacher) if he could be with the 9th graders and the answer key to each problem.  He agreed and the students ended up doing math, AT THEIR REQUEST, for 2 hours and 40min!!!

Hot Potato activity I created...by hand

   So I headed to the 10th grade class and taught them their last new lesson, graphs of logarithmic functions.  I will still teach them on Monday, but we will be reviewing all function graphs they have learned so far: parabolas, rational expressions, absolute value, greatest integer, exponential, and logarithmic.  There will be more information on how that goes on Monday when I teach them for the last time.

   Kaylyn was in the Chosa with the toddlers, even though she is now sick for the 4th time this trip.  That makes once a week a norm for her, and I'm hoping that doesn't continue into the school year.  This time around, it is just congestion issues and a sore throat (no fever), so we gave her a decongestant and nasal spray and she headed to the Chosa.  I think she is not drinking as much water as she should be, but she seems to think differently about that.

   Jaden spent time in the horse barn today, got to put the trailer on Chino's gator, helped rearrange 2 rooms of the medium boys house so that they could clean well, collected chicken eggs in the afternoon and then hung out with the medium boys before coming to supper.  He has been healthy this entire trip so far, which I am very thankful for.

   When the toddlers were napping, I used that time to prepare my 9th grade lesson for tomorrow, which will be my last for the 9th graders since their next class isn't until next week Tuesday and that is the day we head out early.  They are beginning their geometry unit, so I am pretty excited about that!  I will have more information on that tomorrow.

   When we walked into the Comedor for supper, we saw that Gibran and Cristofer shaved their heads bald!  There were 2 other boys in the big boys house that did that as well.  Gibran told me that he didn't care for the hair cut he got yesterday, and just decided to cut it all off.  The boys have to have their hair a certain length, and no longer than that as part of their school dress code.  Students dress codes are non-negotiable.  They boys wear either tshirts or button down shirts, khaki pants and a belt.  The girls wear dresses or skirts and they MUST come down to the knees or they are not allowed to be in school.  They wear tshirts, and long socks with black dress shoes.  It is nice having Elvia in charge of the school as acting principal because in years past, the girls have tried rolling up their skirts or unbottoning their shirts to questionable levels.  Elvia has grown up here, then went to college for her degrees and come back to work and live here.  She knows what's been "tried" in the past.

   After supper, we read for half an hour before I got online and read a message from my sister that my godmother, aunt Jeannie, had passed away in the middle of the night.  The funeral will be on Monday, yet we do not get back until Wednesday, so I will be missing that but my thoughts will be there.  I specifically remember my mom saying before I left that if something like this happened with a family member, I should not cut my trip short.  My dad always taught me family comes first and I remember how he would run errands for my aunt when she needed him to whether it be getting groceries or a prescription or whatever, or take her to appointments (she didn't drive), or invite her to our family events, or fix things that had broken in her apartment.  Jeannie never married and she didn't have children, so as she got older and things got more difficult for her...dad took on quite a bit of that responsibility.  After he passed away, then her other siblings took on more of what they already were doing for her.

   Later, when we were about to take showers, a big storm came through and the power went out.  It was out for a bit, so we finally decided to just call it a night (since it was super dark outside and in our room) and shower in the morning before heading out for the day.

The Beauty of God's World (part 2)

    This morning I headed to breakfast with Jaden and then spent the morning prepping for the 10th grade's lesson on exponential functions.  I also made an answer key for the homework that I was going to assign them, as well as began the lesson for 9th grade for tomorrow.

   Kaylyn let me know that Brithany screamed louder than she has ever heard her scream in the Chosa this morning while I was gong.  She met me when I got back to our room from class, took a quick bathroom break and then we walked to the Chosa together to finish out the morning there with the toddlers as we usually do.

   At lunch, the tia Berta (who was with us last year in the Chosa) gave me ciruelas (which are plums).  They definitely did not look like ciruelas, so I had to google them and apparently they are very hard and green before they ripen into yellow, red or purple coloring.  Most fruit down here gets picked and consumed well before it ripens.  I am not sure how I am going to like these, but she said that Jaden has already had them, and we will need to eat them with salt.  I asked Jaden about the salt, and he said we will definitely need to eat them with salt.

   Jaden spent the day bagging sawdust from the Bodega (warehouse) and then putting it into a container by the horse barn, as well as doing poop patrol for the horses, changing their water, and picking up grass in the stable that shouldn't have been there.  Snow (Elvia's dog) jumped on Jaden's back this afternoon because he really does not care for men, so I needed to have a chat with Jaden about responding to the dog.  Snow wears a muzzle, but the jump still shocked him.  This afternoon he watered Alexander's plants in the Greenhouse, ran errands with Chino, and then raked and picked up grass.

   This evening it was Jaden's turn to go walking with the medium boys around the outskirts of Emmanuel.  We gave Chino enough Mexican paletas (chili coated suckers) to give one to each boy on the walk.  Jaden said they were ALL thankful for those paletas.  Chino took pictures of the crew on the walk last week which I'll share here since I just received them a day or two ago.

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.

Dilmer with his ArcoIris and his Fresco

ArcoIris: square cookie with 4 mini marshmallows

Samuel, Jaden, Kaylyn and Dilmer