17,000 Steps

   After waking and getting ready this morning, I decided to head down to the Comedor.  There was no school today and cleaning our house generally takes place on Sunday, so I thought I would walk the toddlers back to their house (the Chosa) at 6am, and sit with them for the morning.  We watched an animated Batman series as well as watching the Curious George movie.  Around 9:30am, I made a trip back to the Girls Volunteer House to fill up my water and go to the bathroom.  When I got back, Dunia let us know that we were going to take the toddlers out to the farm because 2 new horses arrived yesterday.  When we got to the horse barn, Andy was there to welcome us and tell us a little bit about the 2 new horses, that were a little malnourished and only 3 years old.  They will definitely get good care here and will be healthy soon enough!  Our time at the horse barn wasn't as long as was originally hoped, so we walked over to the greenhouse for the toddlers to see the squash and cantaloupe and corn.  With an hour left before lunch, at this point we walked all the way back to the Toddler House and spent time in the sala watching a movie.  The sun was really strong this morning, which continued through the afternoon, leaving me with a very light burn that would most likely be gone by tomorrow.

   After lunch, I went into town with Noah, John, and Nora.  Nora needed to do some grocery shopping and had never been in town before as she's always come down on teams.  I needed to get some toilet paper for our bathroom, then also decided to get some bananas, green grapes, supplies to make guacamole at some point for the cooks in the kitchen, and then a lot of Zuko for the family back home.  John offered to carry one of my bags back and Noah carried the other.  As we passed Matilda's (where we typically get the frozen chocolate covered bananas), John realized he had forgotten to get something in town.  Noah wasn't too happy because he had just bought 30 Hershey's chocolate bars (which were in his black backpack) and the sun was strong.  So I suggested that Nora and I go into Matilda's (which is air conditioned) while the boys go back into town to get what John missed.  That way the chocolate candy bars could stay in Matilda's store and not melt, and Nora could try a frozen chocolate covered banana, WIN-WIN.  When the boys got back to the store, they each bought a frozen chocolate banana and we continued our walk back to Emmanuel, stopping at Glenda's on the way back and saying "hi".  We chatted for a bit and I bought onions from her before we headed back to Emmanuel.  

   Nora and I put our groceries away and chatted for a bit before heading down to the Comedor to eat supper.  They served eggs, refried beans, ketchup (for flavoring) and tortillas.  Noah wanted to do smores with the the Small Girls House, but that was the time it started to rain.  And it rained hard for the rest of the night...so smores would have to hold off.  About 5pm, I went to my room and settled in for the night, my Fitbit said I had gotten over 17,000 steps today which makes sense with the trip way out to the horse barn and then into town.  I was beat, and the Fitbit also reported out that I was fast asleep by 6:04pm.

Judging a Science Fair

    This morning "Circle" was held in the Comedor.  With all of the rains, I am guessing this will become a bit more common.  Felipe talked about who God is, and when he posed the question a child came forward to answer that He is the Creator of the universe.  Felipe said that was good, but that God was so much more!  So he continued to ask who God is.  When no other children wanted to answer, Dunia volunteered and recited verses she knew where God said He is the Alpha and Omega, Beginning and the End, and continued on with a more in depth description of who God is so that all could absorb His Being.  After the lesson, Andi played the guitar and led the orphanage in praises to God.

The Big Girls reciting their verses (David - "Papi" is in blue)

   After breakfast, I walked with the toddlers to their house to spend time with them before school started.  We were in the sala and the TV was on as we waited.  Brithany came over to sit next to me and a few others came and left, so we enjoyed taking a few pictures together before heading to the school.  The 10th graders have their big math test today, so I will be interested to find how how they did.

Mateo, Camila and Me

Mateo, Brithany (tongue out), Abi and Me

   When the toddlers were all situated in school, I headed back to the Girls Volunteer House, but met Graciela along the way.  She told me that she was frustrated with the girls in the house she is in charge of...the big girls.  That last night, the tia kept calling her because the girls would not settle down and they were throwing things, even their sandals to the point that they had broken just about all of the light bulbs on the first floor of their house.  They are constantly misbehaving, and she is at a loss about what to do because there are limitations on punishment (jsut like there are limitations in the States with foster children).  Honestly in the moment, I didn't have any ideas for her and I could only listen...but I did tell her that if I could help her in any way, she just needed to let me know.  Little did I know in the moment that she would take me up on that offer later in the day.

   I saw that Noah was over at the hotel working again, so since I didn't get pictures yesterday, I decided to head over to get pictures so that those who are interested in seeing Emmanuel's "hotel accommodations" could get a glimpse on the construction progress.

Coming into the hotel

One of the bigger hotel rooms

Bathroom under construction

Bathroom under construction

A smaller hotel room

Living room area of the hotel

Dining area of the hotel

   I decided to get more steps in and walk the "long way" back to the Volunteer House, and I saw some decorations down at the elementary school on my way, so I decided to stop in.  They were having a science fair.  Nora was there (she spends the day in the elementary school helping out the teachers in any way she can since she is going into early childhood education).  We chatted for a bit and then Raleigh came out and asked me if I would like to be a judge for the science fair...I was pretty excited to oblige!  I was given an official folder as well as a scoring sheet to work through as I saw each experiment being presented.  There was a group from each grade (1-6) that participated with their experiment in the science fair.  They had to introduce us to the members of their group, to their experiment, tell us the materials they needed, and then report the process as well as carry it out.  Each group had a poster with all of this information on it.  The first group to judge was 1st through 3rd grade, and the interesting part was that the 3 of us judges (Raleigh, the kindergarten teacher and I) had all picked a different grade to win, so we added our total points and the 2nd grade class ended up being the overall winners.  For the 4th through 6th grade competition, the 3 of us judges were unanimous in picking the 6th graders as the winning science fair experiment.  At the end of the science fair, we were presented with official judging certificates!

Elementary School Science Fair

My official judging folder

Judging scoring sheet

The elementary school children waiting for the science fair presentations

2nd grade - winners of lower elementary school fair (Raleigh is in black to the right)

Poster and presentation for 5th grade

5th grade experiment

6th grade experiment (Lava Lamp)

My judging certificate

   While in the Comedor for lunch, Graciela came over to ask me to do the Ensenanza (Bible study) this afternoon for the big girls.  I knew she was stressed and she said that if she were to do it, her anger might come through in the lesson and that would definitely not be a good way to go through Ensenanza.  I let her know I'd be happy to prepare a lesson for the girls, so I spent the afternoon working through a lesson on obedience and self-control.  I had the girls read the following verses:  Eph.6:1, Col.3:20, Ex.20:12, John 14:23, Lev.18:4 and 2 John 1:8.  We talked about Martin Luther's 
"What Does This Mean?" to the commandment "Honor thy father and mother so that it shall go well with you", which is "We should fear and love God, so that we do not despise our parents or superiors (others in authority), nor provoke them to anger, but honor, serve, obey love and esteem them."  That Graciela is doing all that God charges her with...working hard to raise the girls in this Big Girl House in the ways of God, and they are called to honor that.  We talked about decisions, that the girls being teenagers are at the point where they are wanting to make their own decisions and know the difference between good and bad...meaning they will have to either reap the benefits or the consequences of their decisions/actions.  And as parents, we have to give out the consequences or the rewards to various decisions our children make.  To encourage positive behavior, at the very end of the lesson, I gave Graciela a bag of the Mexican chili-coated suckers in front of the girls.  And I told the girls that this can be ONE reward that Graciela gives out, perhaps only one at a time, probably not any time soon...but as time goes on as she sees good decisions being made.  Maybe they don't get one today, or tomorrow.  Maybe it takes 8 months.  Maybe in that time Graciela eats them all herself.  That would be completely up to the girls and the decisions they make.

   These suckers are something the kids have come to know over time.  I began bringing them down in 2008 and have brought them down every year since.  You cannot get them down here.  The kids enjoy them so much that as my own kids came down, I turned handing them out over to my kids.  The only place where I give suckers out is in the school as prizes for games we play every once in a while.  So Graciela having an entire bag of 40 suckers (I only brought 3 bags down this trip) is a BIG DEAL.  Will the girls from her house get them?  Will she give them out to others?  Who knows?  Only time will tell.

   When it was time for supper, I went back to the house to grab the socks and underwear and bras I had brought down for the grandecitas, grandecitos, and pequenos houses.  I turned them over to the ones in charge of that house to distribute as needed.  Orphanage Emmanuel has their own website...they have had an online presence since before I began coming in 2008.  And always on their "We need" list, is undergarments and socks.  Sometimes that can be an "after thought" for many who send down clothes, so there is always a shortage.  Feel free to head to their website to see a list of needs if you are thinking of sending things down on a container.  If you are not quite sure how to donate, ask me and I can get you hooked up!  

Typical meal at Emmanuel in the Comedor

   After supper, Anna and Olivia headed to the Small Girls House to do a sleepover.  Their days are winding down (headed back on Monday), so they want to make the most of each day and night.  And I used the time to chat with Nora for about an hour before we both turned in for the night.

Rain - ALL DAY LONG

    This morning I went to the school to find out that students would be testing today through Tuesday of next week.  This means I didn't have to teach my lessons today and could use the day to get caught up, especially with the upcoming 8th grade lesson on dividing polynomials.  I had looked at this lesson earlier and the way that division is done in Honduras is definitely a different formatting than we use in the United States, so I knew that I would need some uninterrupted time to be able to figure out what they were doing, in order to mimic that process as well as give extra examples to the kids so they understand better.  Math has always been a challenge down here, but I know that each year I come...the students are excited I am here because I give them quite a few extra examples that we can practice together as well as for them to practice on their own.  So I headed back up to the house to begin taking a look at polynomial division.

    So I worked throughout the morning and afternoon on wrapping up polynomial multiplication and division.  Today it rained all day...quite literally all day.  So it was a nice day to stay in and get these notes done.  I had 12 "formal" pages of teaching and practice for polynomial division.  It sounds like a lot, but each problem does take up a lot of space.  Of course as I worked through these pages, I needed breaks here and there, so every hour or so I would find something to do around the Girls Volunteer House, from sweeping the kitchen, dining room and living room, to cleaning all 5 bathroom mirrors (it is a large bathroom with 3 stalls, 3 sinks and 3 showers), to washing and drying my laundry.  

   I took a temporary polynomial division break for lunch, and in the Comedor I asked Noah if he was heading back to his house before going back to the woodshop.  Since he said yes, I told him to stop by the Girls Volunteer House to pick up the sports uniforms, warm up shirts, and hoodies I had brought down here that our kids have now outgrown.  Since these items have our last name on them, donating them to Goodwill or another thrift store back in the States doesn't really make sense...so we have been bringing them down here for the children to wear and they definitely wear them with pride, especially since they personally know the athlete that it originally belonged to was!  I figured since Noah has been down here since February, he would want to hand them out to some children he has made good connections with.  We don't have many of these clothing items left back at home because the 2 kiddos left in the house don't really play sports where they would have constant access to this type of clothing that would have their names on the back.  There was a hoodie and volleyball shirt that I had brought to the Comedor to give to Julissa and Oscar for all the work they do feeding everyone here at Emmanuel.

   In the afternoon, I worked some more on the lessons as it rained.  On one of my "breaks" from lesson planning, I put my clothes away that just finished up in the dryer.  When I looked out my bedroom window, I could see that Noah was working at the new hotel (used to be the small girls house).  I may have mentioned in my spring blog that the hotel they had for years was turned into offices.  Noah told me that it was government offices (think along the line of our "Child and Protective Services" in the States).  So the plan was to take the "U-shaped" old small girls house and turn that into their new hotel.  They would get 5 hotel rooms out of this, as well as a large kitchen area, a large dining area and a large living/family room area.  I decided to walk over there since it was just "drizzling" at this point, and check out the progress.  Noah saw me and decided to show me around.  The rooms are very nice, already painted and with future in them (queen bed as well as some chairs and a table).  The living room area has 3 leather couches that Noah said electrically recline.  He also said they will be getting a TV to mount on the wall in that room.  There is a bathroom in the living room area as well, so you don't have to go all the way back to your bedroom to use the bathroom should you need it.  The kitchen was locked, so I didn't get to see it, but John told me that they had covered the brick walls with paneling and that it looked very nice.  The dining room is open to the courtyard and has 2 large dining room tables, one is brand new!  I asked Noah if they were planning to close off the dining room so nobody would come to steal the tables or chairs in the middle of the night, but he said not that he didn't believe they would be closing it off.  I am excited to have the opportunity to stay at the hotel in future trips here.

   Before supper, I headed to the tienda...mainly just to have good conversation with those that were there.  Noah stopped by, Milton was there, Lydia stopped by and asked who was hosting the "party" at the tienda.  Although I wasn't really planning on buying anything, I ended up getting a package of red Chokis (similar to Chips Ahoy cookies), and a bag of Cheetos.  Since Invisible (Pamela) was there, I bought her a bag of Cheetos as well.  I took these items to the Comedor with me as I had no intention of eating all 6 Chokis myself, not because I couldn't but more because I didn't was to start up my system of wanting chocolate on a daily basis like my kids would do each year they were here (they are addicted to Chokis, LOL).  In the Comedor, I gave a Choki to Oscar, one to Julissa, and two to Juan Carlos.  When Josecito saw me eat the remaining two, he said "I thought you were on a diet!"  I looked at him, then looked at the bag of Cheetos, and decided it would be best for me not to eat the bag of Cheetos...so I gave it to him.

   When I came back to the house from supper, I got into my pajamas, did a few things around the house and pretty much went to bed about 6pm because I was tired, probably from all the rain today (and it was STILL raining).

My Struggle with Translation

    This morning I swept the bathroom (again).  With white ceramic tile floors throughout the house, they floors tend to show absolutely everything that is on them (dirt, grass, bugs, hair, etc) very easily.  When I had lived in Mexico, it was the same.  Most Mexicans would sweep multiple times during the day and mop daily.  Many of us in the United States are not used to this kind of "culture", so we either live in filth (yuck) or we find "work-arounds".  My work-around that I used in Mexico and also continued to use ever since coming here in 2008 was to put a towel at each entrance.  When we entered, we would immediately take off our shoes and put them on the towel so as not to track mud/dirt/grass throughout the house.  If food spilled on the floor, it was picked up immediately and wiped down with a damp cloth so as not to attract bugs.  As the girls brushed their hair, they were supposed to collect it in their brush/comb and empty it directly into the garbage.  All of these little things added up to not having to mop on the daily.  When we were in the hotel, because it was such a small space, I still pretty much swept daily, but we could mop just about weekly.  Because I am not living with my kids this summer, I have to be a little more flexible with a little more grace to those that are not used to this kind of culture/environment.  It's okay. They leave the house each morning at 5am because of their house responsibilities.  I am mostly in the house that early in the morning due to prepping for the math classes, and I do need breaks from time to time, to process what I have just planned, and what still needs to be planned.  So sweeping is a nice break.

   The 10th grade math class began at 7am this morning.  We did review of trigonometry today, reviewing SOH CAH TOA (which I had taught them back in April and they have been using), the other 3 trigonometric functions (cosecant, secant, cotangent), angles in the cartesian plane as well as their reference angles, and converting angles to radians and vice versa.  Profe Jorge told me that their exam will be Friday and today was the last day of math until Friday.  Before leaving the 10th grade classroom, I left all of my notes from Monday and today with Profe Jorge, since a part of the overall course grade is their note-taking in class.

   After the 10th grade math class, I had a little bit of a break, so I headed back to the house, debating whether to tackle upcoming lessons or translate a note from Josecito that he had given me on Monday.  I believe he wrote it for a person who is on the team, so it would need to be translated fairly soon, before that person heads back to the United States.  I settled on translating the note.  What I didn't realize (because I hadn't read it back when he gave it to me) was that it was a song.  And since I am not a musician, this was going to be difficult for me.  The song was very beautifully written in Spanish.  Unfortunately, without the gift of being a true musician or poet...it didn't sound nearly as well translated through me to English.  When I walked back to the school and found Josecito, I gave him both his version and the translation and told him...never again would I translate a song or any poetry from Spanish to English for him.  Never again.

   After recess was the 8th grade class that I had prepared for.  Just like on Monday, I prepared lessons on multiplying polynomials, however when I got there, the teacher told me that the 8th graders would also have their test on Friday and she needed me to do a review of some of the concepts that would be on the test.  Multiplying polynomials was on the test, so that was okay...but then she needed a review of statistics, specifically histograms, mean, median and mode.  I knew I could do all of that, but the problem with teaching geometry and statistics in Spanish is NOT the fact that it can tend to be more difficult mathematical material, but that I need time to go over some of the key content words in Spanish in order to be more effective in Spanish.  Also, anyone who knows me knows that I do not do well being put on the spot with surprises.  So coming into a classroom with everything planned for the class period, and then to be asked to add in to the lesson something all together different?  It is a total shock to my system.  We got through it though, by the grace of God.

Our histogram with mean, median and mode example

   When the 8th grade class was done, it was the boys turn to clean the classroom (the classroom gets swept and mopped at the end of each day) and then we headed to the Comedor for lunch.  Oscar and the women in the kitchen had prepared spaghetti with vegetables and tortillas.  After eating, I headed to the Baby House to work with Danielle's two 10th grade girls that had requested an extra review for the math test coming up on Friday.  We went into the small chosa that is usually reserved for early childhood education for the 2 and 3 year olds.  Karen used to do this, but her and Mike have since moved back to the United States.  I believe when I left last summer, April took it over...but she too, went back to the U.S. after Christmas and has not been back down since.  We sat at a table on little preschool chairs and worked through different questions the girls had on the 3 topics that would be covered on Friday's test: Trigonometry, Vectors, and Matrices.  When we were done working together, I headed back to the Girls Volunteer House to get ready for supper...we were served rice, beans and tortillas.

   Wednesday nights are church nights.  Patrick (the husband I sat next to when the Team invited Staff and Volunteers to supper earlier this week) gave the sermon and his testimony.  Raleigh translated from the English to Spanish.  After church ended, I chatted with some kids, staff and volunteers outside the church before heading back up to the house, chatting with my friend Cheryl through Facebook Messenger about her mom's surgery that day and the upcoming one tomorrow, and then turning in for the night.

Fitbit Issues and a Call for Volunteers

    My insurance has "incentives" for both Bob and I to wear our Fitbits, so each year I tend to wear my Fitbit down here to both be able to tell the time as well as for it to count the number of steps I have each day (to report back to the insurance company for the "incentives").  In 2022, my Fitbit wristband broke from being in the house with the toddlers and them playing with it all day long...pulling on it, constantly turning it on and grabbing at it.  This year, I came prepared.  I ordered extra wristbands to pack just in case this were to happen again.  My wristband has not broken yet.  However, I did notice last night that my end-of-the-day sync from my Fitbit watch to the Fitbit app on my phone was not working.  I didn't think much of it, just went to bed and figured I would sync in the morning.  Well, this morning the watch didn't want to sync with the app either.  So I googled what to do if my model of watch wouldn't sync with the app.  The first suggestion in my Google search didn't work.  Neither did the second, third or fourth suggestion.  The fifth suggestion has a sequence of instructions that looked like it was going to take a long time, as well as 2 links embedded within the instructions of processes that I would need to do.  After over an hour of working through each Google suggestion on how to sync my Fitbit watch to my Fitbit app on my phone, it was this 5th suggestion and it's extremely long process that finally worked.  So my Fitbit is now back in business.  Thank God!

   I used the rest of the morning to wrap up the 9th grade lesson on geometry polygons (types, interior angles and their sums, exterior angle measurements, central angle measurements) before heading to the school to teach that class that began at 8:20am.  I was surprised to see there were only 6 students in this class!  What a small class, but definitely more one-on-one attention for them.  They said that although there were a lot of notes to take, they thought I made the lesson really easy for them!  YAY!

   After the 9th grade geometry class, the students were released for recess.  I went over to ask Profe Jorge when the tests were and he said that all high school students would be taking their test this Thursday and Friday.  So then I asked him whether the 10th graders needed more review with trigonometry or with vectors because with only one class left before the test, I would only be able to review one of those concepts as BOTH got quite in depth.  Trigonometry covered all 6 trig functions from in introduction to trigonometry through degrees and radians.  Vectors covered an introduction to vectors through working with vectors using polar coordinates (something I haven't done in over 20 years).  Profe Jorge said to review the trigonometry since that was the oldest.  

   While chatting with Profe Jorge, one of the 10th graders came up to me to ask if I could bring him a calculator.  I had brought 5 scientific calculators down here that I had picked up at either garage sales or thrift stores over the past years for nickels on the dollar, for students in the upper grades that did not have their own.  So I told him I would run (not literally) up to the house and grab one for him in order for him to be able to more efficiently do his homework.  I brought the others down as well for the 2 other students who said they didn't have their own and let them choose which they preferred, as there were 4 different makes/models of calculators that I had.

   When I got back to the Girls Volunteer House, I used the rest of the morning to prep for the Trigonometry that I would be reviewing tomorrow.  After about an hour of prep time, my mind needed a break to sort out a logical route to review from where I had left off, so I used that time to sweep the kitchen, dining room, and living room areas here in the Girls Volunteer House.  The areas are all open concept and it is a LARGE room.  Back when I first started coming, there would be over 20 girls sharing this 4 bedroom house, and often they would have to turn the front room (which was used sort of as just an extra room) into a 5th bedroom just to house all of the volunteers that would come.  Now, it is just Anna, Olivia, me and Nora.  Anna and Olivia leave on Monday, and Nora was told by Danielle that she will be the last volunteer of the summer.  I pray that Emmanuel can get back to those huge numbers of volunteers that came years ago, to help alleviate some of the staff members from the burden of responsibilities they must now have due to an extremely low number of volunteers in these most recent years.  If you feel led to come down here and volunteer, if even just for a week, please do get in contact with me and I will get you all of the information you need!

   As I walked to the Comedor for lunch, a boy came up to me to tell me that Brithany had misbehaved in school and that she wouldn't be able to go to the store today.  I let the boy know that I wasn't planning on taking her to the store today anyway, but thanked him for letting me know.  As I entered the Comedor, another girl came up to me to let me know that Brithany was "naughty" in school today.  It is amazing how fast word travels here at the orphanage...definitely as fast as gossip passes in middle schools in the United States, if not moreso!  I decided not to head over to the toddler section to chat with Brithany or to offer her my flavored water today (like I have done every day since I've been here) because of her behavior in school.  Perhaps my absence from that area would set something off in her to remember to behave a little better for the teacher in school tomorrow.

   By the afternoon, I had finished the trigonometry review and began working on the 8th grade lessons, wrapping up with multiplying binomials.  The book teaches special rules, however I am just going to stick with the FOIL method so that the students can become as proficient in that as possible.  

   We were served beans, rice, cheese and tortillas for supper and in the Comedor Noah let me know that Danielle was trying to get a hold of me because some of the older girls in the Baby House that she is in charge of needed help reviewing for their math tests.  So after supper, I headed to the Baby House to check in with them and set up a day/time that would work for me to go there to work with them.  By the time I got to the Team House, Danielle was driving past and stopped to let me know that she had girls that needed help...so I told her I was just headed that way to check in on a good day/time to help them.  She offered a ride and since it had been raining most of the day, I took it (although that meant I would have to make up the steps for my Fitbit some other way).  The girls and I settled on meeting tomorrow after lunch when the babies would be napping.

   After arranging the tutoring session, I walked over to the Toddler House which is just across the "street" from the Baby House and I spent a little time with Brithany before heading back to the Girls Volunteer House.  When she saw me, she came running to tell me she had behaved badly in school, and I let her know I had already heard and that it was important that she listened to the teacher and did what the teacher wanted her to do in class each day.  She was one of the only children who had not yet finished supper, so I took her back over by Dunia who was feeding her.  Some team members came over to the Toddler House to do activities with the children, so when Brithany's name was called, then I decided it would be time to head back to the Girls Volunteer House for the night.

   I had a great chat with Nora before heading to bed, while Olivia and Anna headed to the church to practice the music that would be played in church tomorrow after supper.

Teaching Begins - Summer 2024

   I headed down to the school at 6:40am today (since classes start at 7:00), and met the new director of the school, Rony, who was very welcoming and kind.  Profe Jorge had not yet come in however there were quite a few other teachers who had recently arrived and greeted me.  When Profe Jorge came, he knew immediately what I was there for (to see if they could use help in math at the high school level), so he let me know that he would make out a schedule for me and get me the books to teach those classes.  For the next 3 weeks, I will have 8th grade through 11th grade.  The 10th and 11th grades had finished their units, so I just need to create and work through reviews with the students prior to them taking their big test.  The topics for 11th grade consist of Limits and Statistics (Probability, Factorials, Permutations, Combinations, Standard Deviation), and the topics for 10th grade consist of Matrices, Trigonometry (all 6 trig functions, degrees/radians, etc), and Vectors. I will definitely have my work cut out for me since Limits and Vectors are definitely outside of my comfort zone, and I will need to brush up on Spanish vocabulary in order to review anything regarding Statistics and Trigonometry.  Profe Jorge did have me teach 2 classes right away this morning, so I began with a review of matrices in the 10th grade and then introduced the lesson on multiplying binomials with the 8th grade. 

My teaching schedule while I am here

   Part way through teaching matrices with the 10th graders, we were told that there would be an "event" out in the main area of the high school.  So all students headed to this area where they had a presentation on Francisco Morazan and what he did for Honduras.  Then they sang the national hymn as well as a song special for their department of Honduras (think of these as counties in our U.S. States).  Then the Director Rony talked about the teachers' time in the capital on Friday and winning awards for the school, and shortly after 2 teachers presented special awards to the students.

Presentation on Fidelity

Presentation on Francisco Morazan

Student awards given out

   After teaching the 2 classes, I headed back to the house to write up the lessons I just taught.  Profe Jorge had asked me 2 years ago if I could fill out official lesson plans to submit, however I thought it best to just turn over all the pages of lessons I had taught to him and Profe Dayana so that they can more formally and correctly fill out these lesson plans to be submitted as I have never filled out the proper paperwork for Honduran lesson plans.  Nora helped me to find 4 folders (one for each level and each in a different color) in order to keep the lessons organized better.  The right side of the folder is labeled "Para hacer" (To Do), which is where I will keep the lessons until they are taught, and then I will move them over to the left side of the folder, which is labeled "Ya hecho" (Already Done).  The lessons themselves are labeled with the topic at the top of the page as well as the date taught, and containing many notes and examples as well as homework for the students.

   I had to head back to the school prior to lunch to pick up the 9th grade and 11th grade textbooks so that I could start prepping for 9th grade tomorrow...they will be beginning geometry, one of my favorites.  But there will be a lot of vocabulary, so it will take me some time to prep.  I worked all afternoon on finishing up the lessons from today as well as beginning prep for tomorrow's geometry lesson, which took me up to the supper hour.  When I got to the Comedor, Noah let me know that the Team from Georgia that is here was planning a dinner for staff and volunteers, so I gave my food to Noe to give to the special needs boys, because I knew I wouldn't be able to eat 2 suppers.  I chatted for a bit with Invisible and then walked Clara to the Toddler House after supper.

   The team dinner was at 6pm...there was socialization beforehand and then David (Papi) said the prayer prior to everyone lining up to get their plate.  The team served pork, beans, rice, pico de gallo, cantaloupe, pineapple, watermelon and cake.  Oscar motioned for me to go over and sit by him once I had my plate of food, and I got to meet 2 team members, Susan and her husband Pat(?).  We chatted for a bit, mostly Oscar as he likes to practice his English.  When supper was over, I found Noah chatting out in the gazebo with Anna, Olivia and John as well as some of the girls who help Mirna in the Team House kitchen.  So I stayed and chatted for a bit before heading home for the night.

Happy Father's Day

   After my typical morning routine (waking, showering, drinking my proffee and writing yesterday's blog), I messaged Kaylyn letting her know that I wanted to do a videochat with the family back home and while Bob opened his Father's Day gift(s) from me.  Kaylyn was scheduled to work both jobs today (Tom's and Melting Pot) and it sounded like Jaden was starting a job at Tom's today too and Kaylyn was training him.  

   Olivia and Ana sang during the offering while Juan Carlos kept a beat on a drum that looks like a simple box (not sure what that is called as I am not a musician).  Morgan did the sermon while Raleigh translated what she said to Spanish for the children.  Morgan mentioned that she spent 9 years at Emmanuel which definitely helped her grow as a person of God.

From left to right: Ana, Juan Carlos, Olivia 

Morgan and Raleigh

   I headed to the Comedor to eat lunch and then after lunch went back to the Girls Volunteer House to wait for Kaylyn to tell me that she was back at home from work and we could do the videochat.  When I got her text, I messaged her that I'd be headed to the store and would let Noah know that I was going there, and she should let Bob know to get his WhatsApp ready to do the videochat.  When we were all online, I saw Alina was at home as well and she had given Bob a pair of crocs for Father's Day.  Jaden had made Bob a clock that made reference to the movie Deadpool (which I know nothing about).  I didn't hear if Kaylyn had given Bob the gift she had planned for him, but Noah let Bob know that his gift was in the mail.  I had gotten Bob 2 shirts, the first was a Hawaiian shirt with the 2 dogs on it and the 2nd was a t-shirt with Bella and Mindy.  We chatted for a bit and Invisible (Pamela) and Oscar also said hello to Bob and wished him a Happy Father's Day...and they got to see Alina as well.

   After our conversation, I headed to the yard where the small girls were and sat with Noah there for a little over an hour.  One of the small girls decided to run around really fast and trip and fall, hitting her head on a rock or something hard and it swelled up to the size of a baseball.  They had to have a bag of ice on it for over 2 hours and the swelling mostly came down, but I am sure it will be black and blue for a while.  We showed her Noah's scar from when he was about the same age and did the same thing.  The calcification of the bone underneath the skin in that spot is still there, so there is still a bump on his forehead where it happened.

   I ended the day with heading to the Comedor for supper, where we ate spaghetti, beans, and tortillas.  I always take my water bottle down with me, but since plain water without ice is so difficult for me to drink down here and I do need to drink as much water as possible, I always buy flavor packets back in the States to add to the water so that I can drink quite a bit.  I do share what I have in the Comedor as the kids really like it.  So while there, I hype myself up to drink my glass of plain water (that I was served) in order to share most of my bottle of flavored water with the kids.  When I am out and about and not in the Comedor, then I drink the flavored water as I don't care for plain room temperature water.