Supper with Elizabeth's Parents

Alina and I headed back to the toddler house this morning to cut veggies and serve breakfast.  After breakfast, some toddlers go to Kindergarten while the others hang back and play either at their playground/park or in the enclosed play Pavilion.  Alina stayed back with the toddlers, but my assistance was needed in measuring some children that were not measured last week while the Maryland team was here.  Here at Emmanuel there are actually 2 medium girls houses, but the team had only gotten to 1 house.  So I headed to the school (where most of the girls were) and began measuring there.  Andi sent 2 of the Alabama team members over to help me out with the measuring and that made the process go even more smoothly.  We got all of the girls from Zue's medium house measured by lunch time and then I met up with Alina at the Tienda (Emmanuel's snack shop).

The Tienda was serving tostadas.  Elizabeth is a staff member here who is in charge of the Little Girls House.  I believe she's been here for about 2 years now.  I worked with her last summer for the first time and while I was down here last summer, her parents came down for a visit, so I got to know them a little bit.  They were at the Tienda today during lunch, so Alina and I sat with them.  We had a great chat and found out that we have quite a bit in common.  At the end of lunch, they invited us for supper where they are staying, which is attached to the Dental Clinic.

We headed back to the Toddler House at 2:15 for the normal afternoon routine of waking them up, playing for an hour, feeding them supper, and then showering them and doing the supper dishes.  On the way back to our room, we stopped by the Little Girls House to check in with Elizabeth about supper.  She let us know that she'd pick us up when she was finished, around 6pm to head up to where her parents were staying.

Supper was wonderful!  Elizabeth's younger brother, Joey, made the salad with cucumbers and tomatoes (and I commented on nice it looked because all the pieces were laid out on top of the salad in a symmetrical manner...the math nerd in me!).  Her mom, Kim, made spaghetti with alfredo sauce and garlic bread.  For dessert they purchased a gallon bucket of ice cream from the Tienda and had toppings to put on it as well.  We had a great time chatting with them and Kim reminded me to head to the office this week to reserve a spot for next year as the housing here is getting slim for volunteers since the orphanage is growing.  She let me know the dates they'd be back and I wanted to get as close of a time frame to that as possible so that we could catch up again next year.  We were at their house eating and chatting for about 2 hours when we realized that it was coming up on curfew time...Emmanuel has a curfew of 8:30 due to town people trying to break in after dark and Emmanuel's night security guards would not be able to tell from a distance if we were volunteers or unauthorized people on the premises.  Elizabeth gave us a ride home and we quickly went to bed.

Alina and Invisible (Pamela)

The Toddler House

So now rather than team members, Alina and I are volunteers.  The roles are very different, although it may be too much to get in to here.  Our assignment this year is at the Toddler House since they had so many volunteers from there leave this weekend.  For the past 6 years I've been at the Little Girls House, and in all honesty the 2 houses I least cared to be at were the Baby House and the Toddler House (closely followed by the Power Toddlers)...I'm just not a baby person.  But God does have a sense of humor.

Alina and I arrived to the Toddler House this morning at 6:15 (Andi's recommended time) to find a mother and her 2 daughters cutting vegetables in the kitchen.  They arrived as a family of 5 on Thursday evening and were also assigned to the toddler house.  The mom's name is Laurie and the daughters are Rachel and Rebekah.  It took about an hour to cut all the veggies for the house and then we served breakfast.  When breakfast was finished, I walked with the teen moms to the school to talk to Vero Castro and Karen about assisting in Karen's teaching of the Spanish classes to 3rd-5th grade.  These are pull-out remedial classes for children who may not yet know how to read, write, or even keep their letters straight (like switching a b for a d, or a p for a q).  Karen let me know that she has classes on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 1:00-2:30, so we decided that I'd meet up with her on Wednesday for her class.

Since we are now in the hotel, we need to either eat with the children or provide our own meals.  In the past, there have been times when food ran out at the children's houses, so we didn't eat.  Here at Emmanuel, Mondays and Thursdays are now the designated days for volunteers to go in to town if they are in need of groceries.  Since I wanted to get a few items to have on hand "just in case", Alina and I headed in to town with Laurie for some groceries.  We purchased bread, juice, milk, 3 meals of pasta with sauce, an instant ramen meal, green beans, potatoes, avocadoes, onions, tomatoes, banana bread, margarine (since butter is extremely rare down here), and snacks like chips and crackers and cookies.  We stopped on the way back to visit Glenda who has her own veggie stand.  I've gotten to know her more and more over the past 7 years and she always has a smile on her face.  We bought some veggies from her and also 2 charamuscas, which are basically homemade fruit popsicles in a bag.

We returned to Emmanuel about 2pm, put the groceries away and then headed right back to the Toddler House since they would be just waking up from their nap.  We let them play for an hour, fed them supper and then Alina, Laurie, and her daughters worked to shower them while I washed the supper dishes.  After showers and dishes are done, we are free to go as they settle down for the night, about 5pm.  Keep in mind that it gets pretty dark by 6pm here.  Alina and I usually head to bed about 7pm so that we can be up early.

Goodbye Wisconsin

This morning Alina & I said goodbye to our Wisconsin team members: Bob, Nate, Kelsey, Mark, Bekah, Erin, and Lane.  I found out later that they met up with the Maryland team at the airport since the Maryland team's plane was cancelled yesterday.  I also found out that the son of the Maryland team's leader had a tarantula in his carry on!  Oh the fun of being in a 3rd world country.  Alina and I decided that it's rougher on us for Bob to come at the beginning of the trip and leave without us.  We let him know later that we'd prefer in future trips that we come down first and Bob join us for the last leg of the trip, so that we can all go home together.

After church, we spent the afternoon socializing with the Alabama group and then headed to the big girls yard to chat with Doris and Michell.  Around supper time we moved from the Team House into the Hotel.  The room has a couch, love seat, chair, double bed and twin bed...as well as a private bath.  There is a kitchen that is shared between the 3 rooms here.

LoriAnn with Doris

Doris, LoriAnn, and Michell

Goodbye Maryland

Due to a "goof-up" on my part, the Wisconsin team is headed out one day later than the Maryland team...who left this morning about 7:30am.  The BONUS for us is that we have one more day here and it should be more of a "down-time" day where the team members can spend more time with the kids or take them to the store, etc.  We saw the Maryland team off on the bus, then went to do KP (kitchen patrol)...washing dishes and cleaning up the dining area.  We made sure that the courtyard was back to normal and all decorations were taken down.

After all cleaning was done, we took a walk down to the farm to check out the cement that the men had been working on yesterday.  They got 1/2 of the greenhouse done and asked me to take a picture of it now and then after the Alabama team (who was coming in later this afternoon) finished their half to see which one ended up better.

The MD/WVA/WI half of cement work for the greenhouse.

From Left to right: Bekah, Kelsey, Alina, Bob, Nate, Lane, and Mark examining the cement job

 Since the hydroponics area is right next to the greenhouse, we went there next so that Lane could explain to us how it all worked.  Basically the waste from the tilapia farm is sent to these hydroponics raceways which will fertilize the plants that float on them.  I believe Trey made the first few floating pods, but as we were walking to the farm, we passed by Wade with his 2 daughters who had just planted another pod of 72 carrots!

Lane next to the hydroponics raceway

The plants in the raceway

Wade with his 2 daughters and John Will (a male volunteer) carrying carrots to the raceway

Mark took quite a few boys to the store today for some snacks and was surprised by the boys who didn't open their bag of chips because they wanted to take them back to all of the boys to share.

Later this afternoon the Alabama team came in.  They seem so nice, although their accent is SO STRONG.  This particular group comes from the same town as Wade, so he knew many of the members on this team.  He let them know that they had some hard work ahead of them with laying cement and trying to do as good of a job as the MD/WVA/WI team did. 

2014 Honduras HoeDown

Today's the day of the HoeDown!  There's a lot of things that need to get done in terms of decorating and food preparation before this can happen (lights, food, a banner, making kiddie bags, planning kids activities, sweeping the courtyard, and table decorations).  I woke up very early this morning and since I didn't have internet access, began right away on making up the kiddie gift bags.  We found out pretty early that it's also the day that cement needs to get poured at the greenhouse, so just about all of the men are needed that way.  A handful of women stayed back to help Bob in the kitchen and I needed to be at school at 8:30 to translate for John's math lesson.

The math lesson was a continuation of what John had done on Wednesday - Algebra word problems.  We put the students into groups, just like in my classroom back in Wisconsin (it's a CPM math, feel free to ask me about it sometime), and assigned each group a problem to set up.  The class went fairly smoothly and John did a great job explaining the problems.  At the end of the class, Profe Ramon mentioned to the students that there are various ways to solve the algebra problems and even though he would've taken a different route than John, the answers came out the same each and every time.  He let the students know that it's the practice that's necessary in order to solve problems.

John teaching Algebra

After school, I headed back to the team house to work some more on preparations for the HoeDown before lunch.  After lunch, I was needed to help size the grandecitos boys.  They are the boys that are in between the medium boys and the large boys, about ages 13-15 who had a house built for them last summer.  I had a plaque made for them with the verses that were read during the ribbon-cutting ceremony last summer which come from Psalm 133 - How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!  It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.  It is as if the dew of Mount Zion.   For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.  What fitting words for these boys of this age!  The plaque is now hung above the door to their house.

At the grandecitos house, I had to help measure the boys.  Luis David (who I've known for the past 7 years of coming down here, and who also has a crush on Alina as of this year) helped me get the boys through as quickly as possible so that I could return to the Team House for more HoeDown preparations.  I was very thankful to him for this!

Back at the Team House, we had about 2 hours before the HoeDown began.  The men and teen boys came back from doing cement and Nate and Lane (as well as a few others) got to work putting up the Christmas lights so that we'd have nice lighting around the courtyard.  Bob was still in the kitchen finishing up the mini-apple pies, and I was decorating the tables with the tablecloths and balloons that Alina worked with others to blow up in the morning.  Everything came together pretty nicely and by the grace of God (because I felt the time-crunch) it was finished just as the HoeDown would begin at 6pm.

Our decorated courtyard

Alina and Lori with John doing a photo-bomb

Kelsey, LoriAnn, and Nate ready for the HoeDown

As people came up to the Team House, they were guided to the gazebo where Erin took their picture in front of a beautiful sunset backdrop that Rita had spent the day painting.  Then they chatted out front for a while before being escorted to their tables.  We found out the container had come, so the men wouldn't be joining us until way later because it needed to be emptied immediately.  Their wives were instructed to make a plate up for them and to have it ready.  Kelsey did a wonderful job getting our teens together during the week to learn a line dance that would be performed with a select few Emmanuel staff and volunteers.  Erin created a beautiful devotion to read before the meal, and Mark finished the devotion with a prayer to bless our food.  The meal included Texas toast, pulled pork, chicken, cole slaw, baked beans, watermelon and mini-apple pies.  We even had an unexpected, uninvited guest (see below)!!! All-in-all it was a nice time!

LoriAnn and Katja

Seating of our guests 

Katja chosen to line dance...was that random?

Erin's devotion about the Shepherd and the sheep

Our unexpected, uninvited guest appearance!

English Classes with Mr. Moran

This morning I headed to the medium girls house for circle, then our team had breakfast and we had a brief team meeting about what was going on today.  I headed to school with Mark Moran, who will be one of Alina's 6th grade teachers next year to work with him in the English classes.  His lesson reinforced English words through the teaching of drawing in 3-D.  It was very interesting for the students and most participated.

Mark teaching English through a drawing demonstration

After the first class, the students in the elementary school were released for recess, so we headed over to the high school where the students in Bachillerato 2 (last year of high school) were selling food to raise funds for their graduation.  These students need to pay for their clothing for graduation as well as all of the decorations, the graduation dinner and all other expenses that are included with this.  Since our breakfasts are so big at the team house, I wasn't hungry...but instead used money to buy each of the high school teachers a meal.  Doris helped me to deliver each of the meals.

After recess, we headed to the next class where Mark gave the same English lesson.  The students were so engaged!  After lunch, Mark's daughter Bekah and I spent the entire afternoon delivering invitations for the 2014 Honduras HoeDown.  I think that we pretty much circled the orphanage twice in the hot sun in order to track everyone down.

After classes were finished, about 3:30pm, I headed over to the farm where Justin and his grandmother Cindy had planned activities for the boys which included origami.  I translated for Justin, who showed the boys how to make a crane out of paper.  One of the boys already had experience with origami so he worked ahead, which was neat to see.

Our team left for La Chiquita (a restaurant in Guaimaca) with David & Lydia around 4:45.  It was nice and sort of a buffet style.  Since it was Lydia's birthday, we all sang happy birthday to her.  I also purchased a gift for my dad and the owner of the restaurant and gift shop (who was in her early 80s) laughed when I told her how my dad would use it...she said that her dad did the exact same thing and she had NEVER met anyone else who used this particular gift in this way.  I'm sorry if I can't give more details, but if my dad reads this, I don't want to give away the gift!  You can ask me for more info if you're curious.

From left to right: Michelle, Audrey, Kelsey, Heather, and Bekah at La Chiquita

We finished the evening by adding some color to the place mats that Erin had created for the HoeDown tomorrow.  I think we might have broken curfew by about 4 minutes in order to finish them all!!!

Orphans No More

This morning we headed to the medium girls' house.  Again, since I had my Bible, I was asked to do the devotions for the morning.  I talked more about last night's sermon which was about living in harmony.  I had noticed that the girls were wearing the T-Shirts that Kelsey's family had sent down from their church.  The Bible verse had been misprinted on the bottom, so the church couldn't use the T-Shirts.  When Kelsey saw them, she asked the church if she could have them to ship down to Emmanuel.  The girls now wear them as part of their school uniform, which is what they tend to do when they get shirts in bulk, since they have to match.

Kelsey with the medium girls wearing the 'Orphans No More' t-shirts.

After circle, we headed to eat breakfast and then John and I went to Profe Ramon's class for John to teach math.  He taught an algebra lesson on word problems, converting them into equations (with fractions) and solving them.  It went well and at the end, the students asked if Profe Ramon would let him come back on Friday to teach.  They did not have math class on Friday, but the students begged that the schedule be changed, so Profe Ramon said he'd talk to the principal to see if this would be okay and he'd get back to us...he later let us know that John should come back on Friday.

After lunch, Matt and Ellen took people from the team into town (Guaimaca) to see what living outside the orphanage is like.  Because of the new highways from Tegucigalpa to Guaimaca, the city is becoming more and more dangerous, so the team had to go in 'shifts' into town, rather than one big group.

While they were gone, I went with Rita to the elementary school (6th grade) where she taught the kids the words to the song: The Wheels on the Bus.  Our teenagers looked a little "less than excited" to be singing this in front of the class, but I reminded them that when they are in Spanish 1 or Spanish 2, they are singing the same types of songs (which would most likely get the same reaction from a native speaker).

After school I headed to the Arts and Crafts house (La Casita) where Kelsey and Bekah had some special needs children who were decorating crosses for the HoeDown.  We finished up with time to get ready for church this evening.  When I got to church, Doris informed me that Michell had left the orphanage with 2 other girls and there were people out looking for her.  This had me worried during the entire service.  I prayed quietly to myself for her safety and return throughout the service.  When we were walking Doris back to her house, another girl ran to us to let us know they had found the 3 girls and that they were back in their houses.  Michell didn't want to talk to Bob and me since she thought we'd be upset with her.  All we wanted to let her know was that we were glad she was back safe.

We ended the day with supper and another team meeting.