When I got dressed this morning, I went to pull up my jeans (always pull them up using the belt loops, probably bad practice), and a belt loop broke free. This was the only pair of jeans that I was going to take back out of the 3 pairs I had brought down, but now it looks like there will be all 3 pairs staying down here. In the high school there is a sewing room that is used to teach kids how to sew (and alter/repair clothing) and some team members who are proficient in sewing also use it to do repairs. There are multiple sewing machines in the room and although I am not proficient in sewing, when I leave pants down here, they definitely take a little bit of length off and then pass them on to someone who they will fit. So in addition to numerous shirts I will be leaving down here...there will now be 3 pairs of jeans as well.
This morning I saw a part of the team walking to the clinic rather early and wondered to myself if they were heading to Big Circle. Since I have been here this summer, "Circle" has been in the Comedor and not out on the grass with all of the insects and mosquitos. Eventually I saw the kids from the various houses line up and head in that direction as well. So, I got my tennis shoes on and sprayed from the knees down with the DEET, then put my fleece jacket on (it was cool this morning and I also wanted to protect against any bugs that might fly higher up), and headed towards the clinic out in front of the hotel. I saw John Perez first. Noah told me about who was headed this way yesterday, since he had went to the airport to pick up the teams...so I was pretty excited for a good day!
John was here as a young, long term volunteer, for quite a few years, back when Andres was in high school and came down with me. Andres really liked working with John and talking to him, and John really liked the Mexican chili-flavored mango suckers that we brought down! Every year that Andres came down, he hoped John would be here so that he could work with John. Because of John's efforts, the Grandecitos house was built...the first 2 story dorm here at Emmanuel. Four more of these 2 story dorms followed after he left. John recognized me and we chatted for a bit, I let him know that my son just had to go to the airport and help pick him up because he wanted to know who this guy was, that his older brother would rave about many years ago. John laughed and said he probably didn't impress Noah that much but that they talked on the way back from the airport.
I said "Hi" to my typical crew of kids and to Graciela. And then Wade was introduced to the teams and to the new kids as the one who would lead the devotion for Big Circle. Years ago, Wade seemed to be the "head honcho" (behind Papi, of course) that ran Emmanuel. Everyone had a huge amount of respect for him and he was so kind. He was married to Lourdes who had grown up here at Emmanuel, and they have 4 children. A few years prior to COVID, they moved to the U.S. and I had not seen them since. So it was nice to see him and hear his voice. After Big Circle, I found Noah and we started walking to the Comedor together with his special needs boys. When I turned to look back, Wade saw me and extended his arms for a hug to say "hi". We chatted for a bit about our trips down here and how we hadn't seen each other since he had left. It was a nice chat. He will be down here about a week and his wife and kids will be staying for 5 weeks, so there should be plenty of time to catch up.
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| Wade leading Big Circle |
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| The girls side of the circle |
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| Wade |
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| The boys side of Big Circle |
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| Noah and his boys |
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| Andi leading the praise songs |
I headed to lunch in the Comedor and then back to the house. Hector's boys were cutting grass using weed whackers up by my house this afternoon, so when I saw Hector taking a break, I went out to give him a chili-coated sucker for him and each boy that was with him working as a thank you for doing what they do. They were all super appreciative, all of them saying thank you for the sucker. Because of all the weed whacking around the house, I had to go through and sweep all the rooms inside because quite a bit of grass creeps inside through the crack underneath the doors and through the screen windows. Just like Monday when I mopped...my Fitbit registered that I got a LOT of steps in with the sweeping motion, so I rather easily hit my 10K for the day.
This year I brought a brand new small fan down here for my bedroom, in addition to the one I already had. I had left the fan in the box when I put it in my suitcase and discovered that it had both a base and a clip. I chose to attach the clip to the fan, so I could clip it to my bed and blow on me at night which meant I didn't need the base. The base sat in the box for the past few weeks here, and after Anna and Olivia left, I noticed that there were 3 fans in their bedroom that were not attached to anything. So at lunch today, I took my new base and one of the fans from their bedroom (now that they are gone) down to Noah to see if he could bolt them together. Noe who is a young man that works in the special needs boys house, saw it and asked if he could have the base because he had a fan without a base. So I told Noah to fix it up and give it to him. He came over by me at supper to thank me...I continue to be amazed by how much children here appreciate small things like that and am thankful that each of my children have had the opportunity to serve here and realize this appreciation because that has also been engraved into their hearts due to their serving here.
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