August 14th, 2011 - And Now There Were Two

This morning we said goodbye to Jacki and Julie.  After they were long-gone, we realized that Jacki left her camera behind.  I will try to get her address from Katja, so that when I get back to the States I can mail it to her.

When we headed to church, I saw the Maryland group for the last time.  They could’ve used my help with painting faces for the children today, and I was hoping to join them later.

The service today was on forgiveness.  It’s amazing how each day that I’m here, God speaks to me in His own way – and His chats are just what I need…refreshment for my soul. 

After church, I spoke briefly with Kari and God must’ve put checking up on her later into my heart because as I was moving into my new freshly-painted room, I found a phone with a charger (and she does not yet have one).  I quickly took it over to her apartment with the intention of also inviting her to the tienda to each lunch with us later – and I found her with bloodshot eyes.  She missed home.  Her husband was out working and she had the day off and it hit her that she’d be here for 9 months.  I was glad to be able to have the opportunity to share with her that most volunteers go through a little homesickness the first week or two that they’re here. It’s an adjustment since you don’t really understand what the needs are yet or how to keep yourself busy. Gradually you realize that there’s more work to do than hours in the day and that alone-time to reflect on those you’ve left behind lessens.

When I got back to the volunteer house, I decided to head to the yard and have Karla check my head. Karla only found one, which was very tiny or just hatched, and she told me that she was pretty confident that she had gotten all of them!  Sometime over this past weekend, Julie, Jacki and I googled the life cycle of lice (I know…gross).  Anyway, I discovered that the best thing to do is to give myself another treatment 9 days after the first treatment in order to kill off any newly hatched lice (the treatment generally doesn’t take care of killing what’s inside the eggs) – so I’ll have to look back and see when I gave myself the first treatment. Between that and what Karla’s done for me, I should be good to go!  Of course, I’ll still have her periodically check me from now until my return home.

We headed to the tienda for hamburgers (no tacos today).  I showed Kari and her husband how to manage their phone…simple things like putting Lemps ($$$, payment in advance for usage) on the phone, texting a special code before calling the U.S. to get a discount rate, how to check how many Lemps are left on the phone, etc.  Daniel showed up to eat with us, which was nice because Daysha and I realized we hadn’t extended the invitation to him while in church…it completely slipped our minds.  We chatted and ate for about 2 hours before realizing that the time had flown by and we still had not yet painted today.

When we headed back, Daysha needed to catch up with a girl, so I headed to the house to do some cleaning. I swept the bathroom and cleaning the bathroom sinks.  Daysha & I have an agreement that I’ll take care of the floor sweeping/mopping and the sinks/showers and she takes care of the toilets.  After having worked at McDonald’s and cleaning those bathrooms on the night shift, I never care to clean a toilet again.  I also swept and mopped the hallway, living room and kitchen since Daysha cleaned the kitchen cupboards and did the dishes (there were a lot of dishes).  Laundry was an all-day, ongoing thing – as usual.

Sam (David & Lydia’s niece) came over to help us finish painting.  She’s going to be a junior in high school out in California & is such a sweetheart!  She was here for 5 hours this afternoon and although it only took us 2 hours to finish the room, it was nice to chat with her for another three!  When we were done, I cleaned up our brushes and the painting jars.  Cleaning the floor and getting the furniture back in place will have to wait until tomorrow.  I’m also planning on getting into the last 2 bedrooms and getting all furniture into the center of each room, so that we can begin them sometime this week.  I’d like to have them all done before leaving Daysha here alone.

Today was cooler than normal.  I’m actually closing the windows and turning my bed-side fan off this evening to prevent it from getting too cool in here.  Generally around week 2, I begin to adjust to the climate here – which is not much different than a typical Wisconsin August, there’s just no air  conditioning…so no escape from the heat/humidity.  Good night to all, I know I won’t be sweating tonight!

August 13th, 2011 - I LOVE YOU

I LOVE YOU.  Three simple words that to many people are “just words”, but with the children down
here mean SO much more.  Three words that a husband and wife may say in passing each other in the house or to end a conversation on the phone, or a child may say when they want to prolong going to bed, that many times is just a common phrase.  They’re 3 words that get shared verbally, yet many times do not truly come from the heart. Doris says these words to me at least once a day and they generally either accompany (or are followed by) one of the strongest hugs I’ve gotten in a long time. Yesterday I had to remind her of my weak stomach, to which she was very respective. 

 

Although Blanca doesn’t say it as often as Doris, she constantly looks for me…to take my hand wherever she goes (generally in between the little girls’ house & their dining hall).  She’s always giving me hugs…perhaps not as “strong” as those from Doris, but they last a long time – as if she just wants to curl up in my arms forever.  I can’t imagine being in a better, more loving place right now.

My first stop this morning was to the kitchen (there was no circle this morning).  The very first thing I saw was a tarantula.  Although it had recently died, it’s the first WHOLE one that I’ve seen in the 4 years I’ve been here…since generally the ants and other bugs come and carry pieces of it away.  It was pretty large, and would’ve scared the daylights out of me if I’d have found it in our house!  There was great comfort in knowing that it was dead and I wouldn’t have to worry about it coming over by me or bothering me while I had to do dishes.

When I headed over to the clinic to take over the morning shift (Jacki had spent the night), Gerson and Karelia decided to send the 2 boys home.  Better yet, no new kids came in – which meant I could get back to the house to help with painting.  Karelia also brought some girls over to fully clean the clinic so that I could get back to those other chores.  I deeply appreciated this.

I spent the rest of the morning painting before heading back for lunch to do dishes.  I can’t really
remember how it started (I would probably blame Doris), but there ended up being a water fight in the kitchen.  Doris and I got soaked – but it was fun!

 

The afternoon was spent painting some more (I cannot believe how long it takes to paint a single room!), and then after supper I headed to the medium girls’ house to help Julie and Jacki say their goodbyes.  They threw a little party for the girls and because their Spanish is limited, Julie asked that I be there for translation into Spanish.  She played a few games to start and then got into some bible versus that she’d like the girls to focus on as she leaves.  After the bible study, I headed back to the house to paint some more while Julie and Jacki gave out cookies and gifts.  Julie and I are different in our ways – she needs long conversations and to show affection when saying goodbye, whereas I would just rather slip away unnoticed.  But we got along well as roommates for this week and a half.

 

The AWESOME news is that 2 of the bedrooms in the house are done!  They have been painted and cleaned and are set-up and ready to go.  Tomorrow Daysha and I will be moving into these two rooms to free up the other bedrooms.  The 3^rd bedroom we had started is mostly done, but needs a 2^nd coat and touch-ups, which hopefully we can get finished up in the next couple of days.  I’d like to have all the bedrooms done before I leave.  If I think of it, I’ll take a picture of the bedroom I’ll be staying in before moving my stuff into there.  Although to most Americans it probably won’t look like anything spectacular, Daysha and I celebrated last night about having accomplished the painting of these two rooms and WE think they look great!!!

August 12th, 2011 - Ice Cream with the Girls

Well, I was hoping for a better day, but I woke up at about 11:30pm (last night) and had probably the worst night of my life.  Aside from being extremely sick, another tragedy happened that will probably greatly affect my life for a long time and I’m really not ready to deal with it – and cannot even bring myself to talk about it yet.  I hope that God’s love & grace shines brightly throughout these tough moments because I want to be able to use these last two weeks to work with these little kids and love them so much!  I was so glad to hear Veronica’s words at big circle.  I’ve known her since the 1^st year I came down here and she is such a sweetheart.  That woman has been through so much – I feel that we have a lot in common.  It’s amazing how God can put those words on her heart to share and they
are so applicable to many…that no matter what struggles we go through in life (big or small), it is Him to whom we have to look and only Him that will get us through.

This morning (after my daily duties at the little girls’ house) I tried to paint a little more, but the fumes got to me and made my sickness worse.  My brain was swarming, so I was unable to rest.  I had some
plain white rice and took a lot of “heat” from the little girls’ about how gross that must’ve tasted…just plain, no chicken broth, no butter.

I found a team member to help Kari with the lunch dishes so that I could surprise Blanca & Yenci and take them in to town for some ice cream cones (Julie accompanied me and brought 2 older girls).  We ended up getting permission from Papi, which I was really excited about.

Neither Blanca nor Yenci had been outside of Emmanuel…EVER!  Blanca clung to my hand, and sometimes Yenci had my hand – sometimes she followed quietly behind, but the entire time she looked scared.  When we got in to town, I stopped at the little bakery and bought some banana bread.  They were amazed at the little bakery (again, having never seen one before).  Then we headed through the central park to the ice cream shop.  It wasn’t a 32 flavors or anything…I think they had 10-12 flavors, but they each chose one and got their cone.  It was their first ice cream cone as well.  I was so nice to enjoy how appreciative they were and amazed at this new “thing” that tasted so great!

We stopped at the supermarket on the way home and Blanca pulled the cart around as I picked out supplies.  They grabbed at least 5-10 items from each aisle (like toothpaste, noodles, Glade, etc) and asked if I needed it.  Again, another moment for me to just absorb!  When we got to the front, I let them each pick out a juice box and small pack of cookies.  We also shared a Sprite on the way home.

On the way home they saw a few shoe stores and just about begged for shoes as we passed EVERY store, lifting their up which were getting pretty old. This is definitely not something my own children beg for. I may have to think about sending them some for Christmas, now that they’ve been sized.  Our final shopping stop was at Glenda’s, where I bought a bunch of bananas (to help soothe my stomach issues) and let them each get a banana and another tiny fruit that I didn’t even recognize…which only cost 5 cents for three of them!

When we got back in to Emmanuel, we ate some of the goodies/snacks at the tienda before taking them back up for their ensenanza (bible study).  We chatted a bit and had fun.  It was a WONDERFULLY FULFILLING day!!!

Then it was back to serving supper and clinic duty before I turn in for the night.  I may do a little bit of painting, but perhaps I should grab a face mask from the clinic so I’m not inhaling so many fumes and putting myself at greater risk of getting sick.  We have 3 bedrooms just about finished and most likely should get them done and perhaps a little more on Saturday – provided no kids are at the clinic.  This evening there was only 1 boy at first, but justifiably so, because he came in with 103 degree fever.  Later in the evening, Gerson brought another boy in to spend the night.  There was a pretty good storm outside, so I showed them how to count the seconds between the lightning and the thunder to know the distance away from them the lightning struck.  We sat back and did this for about an hour.

The Maryland group is heading home on Monday, so they are throwing a small party for the staff/volunteers which I will miss due to being in the clinic, but Daysha promised she’d make a plate up for me & bring it back to the house.  I didn’t get to spend as much time with them as I did the first year, but more than I did last year (they were coming as I was leaving).  After Sunday, it’ll just be Daysha & me in the volunteer house.

August 11th, 2011 - Sickness Strikes!

It was a little sad to see Joy leave this morning, since I had worked so closely with her at the little girls’ house, but we all sent her our love and saw her off before heading to our respective circles to begin the day.

Kari (the new volunteer that will be helping me with the little girls’ house) was at circle and we chatted as we washed dishes.  She seems very quiet, and most likely it’s because she’s new…but I reassured her that as she becomes more familiar with things around here, she’ll have more than enough to do. 

When I got back to our volunteer house, Jacki and I began painting.  We began with one of the back
bedrooms and she took care of the roller brush while I did the detail painting around doors and windows and then along the baseboards and corners.  We worked together for almost 3 hours until I
had to go back to the little girls’ house for lunch.  At lunch I asked Kari to take my afternoon shift at the clinic so that I could spend the afternoon painting.  I did more small detail painting while Daysha
and Jacki worked on a 2^nd coat of paint in the room that we had started and then began painting the next bedroom across the hall.  I worked straight through until it was time to head to the little girls’ house for their night time bath.  After bathing the girls, I headed back home to eat and then paint some more…and THEN it hit – getting sick!  I have never before gotten so sick while down here and I felt terrible that I had to ask Julie to take the overnight shift at the clinic for me, but I felt a small fever coming on as well as…we’ll just say “other symptoms” that I knew I wouldn’t be effective in the clinic and it would probably be better for the 2 that were spending the night if I didn’t share my
illness with them.

 

I’m heading to bed now, feeling horrible and hoping that tomorrow will be a new and better day!

August 10th, 2011 - God Gives when We Most Need

I woke up this morning and headed to the little girls’ circle once again with Joy.  This will be
Joy’s last morning circle since her last day it tomorrow.  We washed dishes together and then I headed
to the school to do measurements with the team from Maryland.  We whipped through the elementary school very fast (I think they started that yesterday) and completed it by lunch, at which time I headed back to the little girls’ dining area.

God works in wonders here at Emmanuel.  Joy was amazed at His works and blessings when I arrived, because it would have been the very first day she would have had to do dishes on her own.  Today at
lunch (realizing that this was the last time I would do dishes with Joy), a new volunteer arrived named Kari that said she was sent to this house to help out!  What a blessing.

After lunch, we went to tackle the measurements at the high school and completed them within 30 minutes.  There was another little boy (Brayan) at the clinic, so at 2pm I headed there to relieve Julie.  I was with him until 5pm and then, under Gerson’s direction, returned him to the little boys’ house before heading to church.  What a wonderful testimony Joanne (from the Maryland group) gave!  I did not realize that just 3 years ago when I first met her that it was her very first time here.

After church, Julie, Joy & I headed to the little girls’ house, the medium girls’ house, and finally to the toddler house in order for Joy to say goodbye to all.  We chatted a bit at the volunteer house and decided tomorrow is the day that begins painting…I know, good luck to me!

August 9th, 2011 - Mosquito Bites from Day 1

My body was completely exhausted this morning when I woke up in the clinic, although after bathing the girls and stripping/remaking the beds in the clinic…my brain was more awake, so that when I got back to the volunteer house I could not nap.  Because my body was so exhausted, I knew that going out into the hot sun would really not be good, so I decided that rather than help the children…I’d help the volunteers by cleaning up.  I swept & mopped the common area (hall, living room, dining room, kitchen), washed dishes and 2 loads of laundry from the clinic.  I began washing laundry from our house (bedding from those volunteers who had left – yep, not done yet), and finally sent one of my own loads through.  I sprayed my bed down with lice control aerosol and then made my bed with new sheets since the discovery of the lice.

I headed to the little girls kitchen (which is still flooded) with Joy to help serve lunch and do dishes. When we finished I headed again to the clinic.  Fortunately I didn’t have to spend tonight as well because Evelin was sent home this morning and Erika headed home just after supper.  I changed bed sheets there and swept…Karelia said she would mop since there was a doctor in the clinic today doing exams and I didn’t want to keep interrupting him by running around with a mop. I took the sheets back to our volunteer house to wash and will get them back tomorrow.

I’ve been here a week now and I still have the 14 mosquito bites from day 1 of arriving at Emmanuel, however they are now about the size of a standard Wisconsin mosquito bite once it turns into a red bump, so hoping that tomorrow or Thursday will be the last day of the appearance of all of these bites on my legs.  These mosquitoes seem to rip off your flesh and dive down deep (hence the drops of blood on my legs the first day).

Also, I got to see a boy who was about to have the little worms come out of him from having been chosen to be a “host body” by one of those bright green flies (you’ll have to ask Andres or me more about this).  The boys arm was very swollen and he cried terribly.  Unfortunately the worms did not come out today, so hopefully tomorrow.

Joy and Julie invited me to hear them practice with the music team for tomorrow’s evening service. They’ll be singing Power of Your Love which was one of the songs Bob & I chose to be played at our wedding. I’m pretty excited to listen to that. 

After an full day, it’s finally time to turn in…I really need the recuperation time for an active day tomorrow!

August 8th, 2011 - LICE !!!

The girls’ kitchen still has not been fixed (as far as the flooding goes), so we found ourselves hauling dirty dishes once again up to the lavanderia. While we were up there preparing the dishes to be washed, Doris found a louse in my hair! UGH…that’s a first for me in my 4 trips down here. Now I’ll need to get my hair checked out to see if that was a loner or if there’s more. We have shampoo treatments down here, so hoping that if I do have lice – it’ll get taken care of before I get home. My roommate (Julie) had it yesterday and had to give herself a treatment last night. They sure are ugly little things!

I worked at the clinic again with Erika from 8-11am, and while there made sure she bathed once again (kids in the clinic bathe in the morning after waking and again before heading to bed), ate, and then I washed dishes, swept & mopped and cleaned up a little.

After this, Katja had told me that the Maryland group was over at the toddler house sizing the babies. When I got over that way, they had already finished and were headed elsewhere. Because lunch was quickly approaching, I decided to just meet them back at their volunteer house for a quick update before heading to the little girls’ kitchen again for the lunch hour and dish duty.

After lunch, I caught up with John in the yards & gave him some paletas con chile (suckers/lollipops coated with hot pepper). It seems that most of the children & staff here at Emmanuel really like the Mexican treat – and it’s not really available to them in town. I headed to the tienda out front with Julie so that she could get some more saldo, and on our way back I decided to have Karla (who was out in the yards) check my hair for lice. Julie highly recommended her. Of course she found quite a few…okay, MANY. She said that she did not see any eggs/nits though, so when she finished pulling all she found out of my hair, I washed my hair with a lice treatment and Daysha checked me afterwards and didn’t find anything. I’m going to go back to Karla tomorrow to make sure I’m clear. From what I’ve heard from the volunteers – the lice must be really terrible this year because in the 4 years I’ve been here, this is the first year I’ve gotten it (and many other volunteers have gotten it more than once…some 4-5 times in the summer they’ve been here). Although I realize if it’s going to happen – it’s going to happen, I just want to be CLEAR by the time I come home so that when I hug my kids, they are not exposed to it right before school starts.

I had to be at the little girls’ house at 5pm to help with bathing. After all were settled in, the older girls who stay with and watch over the little ones headed to the gymnasium (Monday nights are their nights to go)…so I went along. I played soccer with them out on the court, which didn’t go so well at first. They put me at goalie – and I had never played soccer before in my life (so they scored quite a bit on me, but I did block a few). Then they decided to switch my position with someone else, which went a lot better for our team!

Afterwards Esperanza served noodles with hot dogs and a bottle of Coke to the girls. I ran up to the volunteer house to get them some paletas. They were surprised by how hot they were! When playtime was over, I had to head to the clinic to spend the night. There are now two girls in the clinic, Erika and Evelin, but they should be going home tomorrow (hooray)! As I entered the clinic, I was greeted by thousands (literally) of ants who were heading into the building in search of the 3 noodles that had been dropped on the floor during supper time. That brought back many memories of living in Mexico and the necessity of keeping the floors completely clean…sweeping and mopping multiple times daily in order for the insects to not find the inside of your house pleasant. Any hint of food & they will come! I swept them all out into the grass (perhaps there would be some enticing meal there?) and mopped the clinic for the evening. Joy brought me some household insect-killing spray to get the ones that were hiding underneath the wall.

I haven’t really gotten to spend any time helping the Maryland group with measurements, so hoping to do that tomorrow.