A Cockroach Ran Up My Leg!

As I was doing devotions this morning, I felt something on my leg, underneath my pants leg right on the shins.  I figured it was either one of my long pieces of hair that got caught in my clothing after a shower or perhaps a daddy long-legs, so I shook my pants a little bit.  All of a sudden a small cockroach (about an inch and a half) was on the floor.  I didn't see it actually run out of my pants leg, but I'm pretty sure that's what the motion had been.  YUCK!  Bob, Alina and Noah were still sleeping - I didn't scream.  Just startled.

We headed through our normal routine.  Bob's been working with Mike on this technology education building and Alina headed back to the baby house.  They will head home on Saturday for Alina to try out for volleyball at Oshkosh North on Monday.  Noah and I were with the medium boys as usual, and after heading with them to breakfast and dropping the ones in school off at school, Moncha (who's in charge of the special needs yard during the day) decided to take the children into the gymnasium for the day.  The gymnasium got a new set of doors put on it.  The old wooden double-doors with the padlock were replaced by black iron-bar double doors.  They look really good!

I was supposed to head to the high school area for recess to give Luis David his calculator and show him how to use it, but I ended up getting recruited to play soccer in the gymnasium with the children there.  I have never played soccer before, and having been a 3-sport athlete where I am REQUIRED to physically touch the ball with my hands, this made for a very difficult time for me!

After lunch, I headed back to the room to rest for a bit because I would be tutoring 2 students this evening in 2 different houses in 2 different math classes, which would make for a lot of running around.  I headed to the small boys house first at 4:30pm to work with Miguel.  He is in our equivalent of 10th grade and did not pass the math test the first time around.  They are allowed 1 retake to make up their points.  I worked with him for just a bit over an hour on finding intercepts, vertices of parabolas, and also locating the focus and directrix of a parabola.  I showed him an example of each, then we worked through an example, and then I gave him an example to do alone.  He seemed to be catching on.

About quarter to 6pm, I headed to the toddler house (it was a hike) to work with Brenda on her math for her retake tomorrow.  Brenda is the only student in the 11th grade who did not pass the course, so she will be doing a retake tomorrow as well.  The 11th grade is the last grade before graduation here in Honduras (unlike our 12th grade).  I worked with her on derivatives, integrals, and summation notation and calculation.  She had all of the notes that I have given in class, and hopefully with what we went through, she'll be okay.

When I got back to our room, I found Alina writing her 'goodbye' letters to the children she had made connections with.  The children tend to write tons of letters down here, and color quite a few drawings as well and give them to the volunteers and teams as they spend time with them.  So Alina was reciprocating.  She asked if I could hand out 2 letters to 2 boys that she would probably not see tomorrow since she spends her entire days at the baby house.

I began reading Bringing Up Boys by Dr. Dobson a few days ago.  Each night I read a chapter before heading to bed.  I got this book back when Andres was about 9 or 10 and read it back then, but figured with Noah and Jaden - I just may need a refresher!  Bob, Alina and Noah all fell asleep before I finished my chapter, but then it was lights out (just as the hard rains came down) and I fell asleep with the pitter patter of the rain on the roof.

A Scientific Calculator

Our morning began with the normal routine, heading to the medium boys house and then with them to breakfast, then back to their house before walking them to school.  After walking them to school, I checked on Alina (who was still sick with flu-like symptoms) and swept out our room, the kitchen and the front porch.  Sweeping is definitely at least a daily thing down here as the floors are all 12"x12" tiles and dirt gets tracked in fairly easily.

Once the floors were swept, I went to check on Bob.  He's been working with Mike to put up a technology education building.  I got a few pictures (and he took some pictures from the scaffolding as well, so you could see how the building is coming along.

Bob on the scaffolding with a volunteer

Aerial view of building progress

Aerial view of building progress

Ground view of building progress

 After taking a few pictures, I headed to the special needs yard to be with those children all day.  Noah wanted to work with Moncho again today.  Some days I allow him to do it, some days I don't. I often wonder if Noah just wants to ride around in a John Deere Gator all day.  I found out later in the day that they headed to the medium girls house to fix some electrical things.  I'm so glad that Moncho has been so patient with Noah and has made him feel helpful.  I pray that this helps Noah in gaining confidence and learning responsibility.

Moncho with Jordy (Ohio volunteer) and Noah in back

Children playing in the special needs yard

View of the church from the special needs yard

 We headed to the comedor for lunch.  I have a routine now of standing outside the doors to the comedor and holding my hand up to 'high-5' all of the medium boys that enter.  They really enjoy this!  After lunch, we headed to town (Guaimaca) since it was a Wednesday.  Wednesdays are the only days that volunteers  are allowed to head into town, because they seem to be the most 'safe' days to do it.

Luis David had stopped me this morning to see if I had happened to bring a scientific calculator with me down from the States.  I'm not sure if he thought since I was a math major I would have one on me all of the time or what?  Actually I used to bring one down, but since I found an app of a graphing calculator and downloaded it onto my American phone, I haven't had the need to bring an extra calculator along with me.  I told him I would look in town for one.  On the way into town, Chris saw a store that had calculators.  We went in and they had 2 scientific calculators, an off-brand and a Casio.  As a teacher, I definitely have a preference for the TI (Texas Instruments) brand, so I let the man know that I was looking for a particular brand, and if I didn't find it in town, I'd be back to get the Casio.

We stopped at the pharmacy first, since the daughter of the Miller family (right next to us) have been sick longer than Alina.  I helped translate for them to get decongestants and cough medicine.  Then we headed to the first grocery store.  Bob had put a list together for me, and there was so much less to buy than the last 2 weeks, so we got through the store fairly quickly.  Our next stop was the Claro store.  Claro is one of two cell phone companies in Honduras.  A friend of the Miller family who had come down with them ran out of data on the modem we had bought at the airport in Tegucigalpa.  I don't think she realized how much data that face-timing uses up.  She purchased more at the orphanage, but didn't really understand what it meant to activate the phone chip, so that amount disappeared just as quickly and the chip broke...so we had to get this situation fixed.  Then we headed to the second grocery store to buy the remainder of the supplies on our grocery lists.  We've made a habit of stopping at a bakery that has chocolate-covered frozen bananas on the way back from town, so definitely stopped there and I also bought a tres leches cake for a boy whose birthday is tomorrow.

While in town, I didn't find a Texas Instruments calculator for Luis David, so on the way out of town, I stopped once again at the store we had found on the way in to buy the Casio for him.  After walking back (man was it hot today), we got the groceries put away, and although it was just about supper-time, I didn't have the energy to walk to the comedor to eat...I wasn't hungry either.  So we just stayed in our room, rested and waited for church.  It was one of the shortest services ever!...but that was okay because Alina had stayed back to rest.  She feels like she's getting over her sickness, but wanted to be sure.  Many girls from the baby house came up to me after church to say that they hoped Alina was feeling better soon, so I know she's making an impact there.

When we got back from church, we called my parents back to to chat with them and with Kaylyn and Jaden.  It is best down here when making phone calls to buy what's called 'packages'.  There is a sequence of numbers to dial to see what packages are available for phone calls.  In the 2 weeks that we've been here, the best package has been 20 minutes for $15L (means 15 lempiras or approximately 70-75 cents).  We called for 20 minutes and then when that expired, we hung up, bought another package, and called again.  After chatting with family back home, we finished up our game of Phase 10 (that we had started over a week ago) and each read a chapter in our books before heading to bed.  It is dark here by 7pm, and we are very tired around that time, so at the latest we are in bed by 8pm.

Hurricane Franklin

This morning at the medium boys house, Luisito asked Noah to show him some ball-handling skills.  So Noah took Luisito through many of Frank Schade's drills (Head Coach at Oshkosh North for many years, now retired) from the camps he's been attending since kindergarten.  About half way through the drills, Noah stubbed/cut his big toe on the cement.  He was wearing his flip-flops rather than his toe-covered hiking sandals.  He didn't cry and continued to show Luisito drills.  When it was time for Luisito to take some boys to the health clinic, we walked with him so I could use the first aid kit that Bob purchased and brought down due to our request from Noah getting hurt earlier in our trip.  Noah's toe was actually cut worse than it initially looked.  We got the antiseptic wipes out and cleaned it thoroughly.  Put antibiotic cream on it and thena butterfly bandaid with another bandaid over the top and then gauzed it up with tape.

Noah (in red shorts) showing Luisito (in blue) some basketball drills with Nathaniel, Moncho and Chino looking on

Noah and I were in the yard all morning since there wasn't really any work for a 12 year old to do on the technology education building today.  Alina came back sick from the baby house (dizzy, feverish), so I checked in on her every hour and a half or so.  Gave her ibuprofen, saltines and water and told her to rest for the remainder of the day.

Bob, Noah and I had lunch together in the comedor and then it started to rain...well, not really rain but downpour!  And it was nothing but a torrential downpour for over an hour!  Emmanuel is in the mountains, so water was rushing everywhere.  The culvert outside the comedor was about 10 inches tall and completely covered with running water.  We were told that this was the residuals from Tropical Storm (or hurricane) Franklin.  I have actually never seen rain like this.  They ended up cancelling all afternoon classes and work for everyone.

Torrential downfall outside the comedor

The rain coming down from the hills outside the comedor

The rains and flooding passing between the back of the school and the comedor 

When the rain went down to a sprinkle, all of the kids headed for their houses quickly.  We went with the medium boys and I had my movies on me, so we watched Ice Age: Collision Course and then began to watch Zootopia before it was time to head to supper.  After supper, the boys headed back to their house to shower and finish watching Zootopia.  Luis David asked for me to stop by and chat with him for a bit (which turned into about an hour and a half chat).  At 6pm when the big boys had to go inside, I headed to the medium boys house to pick up Noah.  He was sitting with a couple of boys and they asked if they could finish up watching Zootopia, so I let them.  We walked back to our room at about 7pm, cleaned up Noah's toe and turned in for the night.

A Basketball Tournament in Honduras

This morning when we went to the medium boys house, Moncho let Noah know that he'd like to do a basketball tournament later this afternoon with his medium boys.  Noah was all for this!  We did our usual routine of walking the boys to breakfast and then headed back to the house because Noah was going to work with Bob today on a new technology education building that they are constructing.  They are now putting the last side on the structure which should only take a day or two.

I walked the boys to school and found out that the boys in 5B (there's two 5th grade classes, A and B) didn't have school today because their teacher wasn't there, so they would be in the yard with me.  I brought games with me (Connect 4, Checkers, and Dominoes) so that some of the boys could play them.  As we were in the yard, some volunteers came to grab boys to go on a walk, which helped a bit since the yard had more children than usual today.  Even though some children left, a fight still broke out between two of our medium boys.  One boy ended up getting so upset that he ran off and an older boy had to run after him.  They were both told that they would lose their dessert (a moon pie) at lunch time.

Noah and Bob came into the comedor at lunch time and ate with us.  When we headed back to the house, we found that Alina had stayed at the baby house over lunch.  Volunteers are allowed to leave the baby house from 12-2pm, but she generally stays to chat with the older girls and watch movies with them during that time - which is when the babies are napping.

I was in the yard during the afternoon again, and once again, even though I stayed in the shade just about the entire time, I got pretty tan (and a little burnt).  It's amazing how you don't have to be directly in the sun down here to get the effects from it.  When we went to the comedor for supper, Noah didn't come.  I finished eating and decided to search for him because Moncho said he'd like to do the basketball tournament after supper.  He was still working on the building with Bob, so I said that he had to eat all of his supper and return his bowl and then he could come to the gym to play.  Moncho set up 4 teams, he took one and each of the teen boys in the house (Luisito and Chino) took a team, and Noah got a team.  They got to pick the boys on their team, and we set up some brackets for play.  We decided on 7 minute halves (since they only had about an hour and a half to do the tournament).

First up was Moncho and Luisito...Moncho likes to shoot hoops in his spare time (there's a hoop at the medium boys house), so he quickly started building up the points.  When Alina came into the gym, the score was 6-0.  She asked if she could play and I think that Moncho felt sorry for Luisito's team, so he said she could play with them.  I don't think he knew how good Alina was.  Even at playing only around 25-40% (because the floor was slippery and she didn't have her ankle braces down here), she helped to turn the game around and the game ended up tied.  They decided to go into a 2 minute overtime...each scored once, still tied.  So we decided to do a free-throw shoot off.  Each time that a teammate from Luisito's team would miss (or make) a shot, so would the team member from Moncho's team.  To be fair, Alina shot last and she made it.  We told Moncho to shoot against her (even though he had JUST shot against Luisito).  He made it.  So then the boys started shooting against each other again.  Eventually a boys from Luisito's team made it and the one from Moncho's team couldn't match the score.  So Luisito's team was put into the championship game.

The next game was between Noah and Chino.  Noah's team took an early lead 8-0, but then Chino began to score and the game was very close right up until the end.  Noah's team lost by two...so the championship game was between Luisito and Chino.  We told Alina that she could not be in the game while Luisito was in the game otherwise there would be 2 big kids on one team and only one on the other.  Luisito played the 1st half and at the end of the first half, the score was about 10-2.  When Alina went in for him in the 2nd half, I told her to mainly pass the ball to the medium boys to give them opportunities to score, and for her not score unless it got close.  The medium boys wanted her to score as much as possible.  She ended up putting 2 points in, but the entire time, impressing all of the boys with her dribbling abilities, passing abilities and shooting abilities.

Luisito bringing the ball up the court against Chino's team in the championship game

Bob and Salomon

After the tournament was over, we headed back to our rooms.  Alina and Noah's backs were completely full of sweat, so it was shower time before we settled in for the night and read chapters in our books and headed to bed.  All in all it was a good day and the kids had fun!

Alina's Last Sunday

This morning began with church at 8:00am.  I went with Noah to the medium boys house to pick up Jairo (one of the twins) while Alina and Bob went to get Michell.  We met at the entrance to the church and then headed in together as a family to sit down.  When we were seated, Bob asked if Luis David could sit with us as well.  The sermon was led by Pastor German from in town (Guaimaca) and translated to English by David (founder of Orphanage Emmanuel) and revolved around the question, Are you simply a 'believer' or a 'disciple' of Christ?

From front to back: Luis David, Bob, Alina, Michell, LoriAnn, Jairo, Noah

After church, we brought Jairo, Michell and Luis David up to the hotel to eat pancakes with syrup.  Bob made up the rest of the box of pancakes and there were only 3 left, so he packaged them up in aluminum foil to send with Jairo for his twin brother.  We then brought the three to the store for some sodas and also to meet up with Coco since it was her birthday.  I had bought her a tres leches cake back on Wednesday, so we wanted to give it to her.  We sat at the store until all the children came down to the comedor to have lunch, and then we walked Luis David, Michell and Jairo to the comedor so that they could join up with their houses.

Noah and Luis David walking to the store

At the store, clockwise from Bob: Alina, Noah, Luis David, Michell, Jairo

Luis David had told us that there would be a soccer game today, so we walked to our room to rest and get some water and a blanket to take along to the big soccer field at the back of the orphanage.  It is quite the hike and that definitely helped in getting my steps in for the day (which I forgot to sync on time, so they didn't end up showing up in my Fitbit competition against my sister for the weekend).  We had to walk through the farm on the way, so Bob and Alina stopped to pet the calves, who seemed to really enjoy the attention.  There were more calves thank this who were waiting up ahead to be pet as well.

Bob and Alina petting the calves

When we got to the field, we found some shade and sat by some older teen boys from the orphanage and cheered on Emmanuel.  Althought I took my camera, for whatever reason I forgot I had it on me, so sorry that there is no pictures.  They ended up in a tie, so had a kick-off (not sure of the proper word for it)...and it was the longest kick-off I had ever seen (not that I watch a lot of soccer games).  I think they exhausted all of their players and had to begin again!  In the end, we got a kick into the net and then Luis David (who is the goalie) blocked the one that came in for their team.

On the way back to our room, I heard a voice call my name and looked in that direction.  It was my little Alejandra...and she was wearing the blue dress I bought for her!  The first weekend of every month is reserved for family visits, and her mom had come today to visit her.  I walked over that way and got to meet her mom.  What a nice lady.  She said that she hoped Alejandra was behaving for me.  I said (with a smile), "She always does!"

I left them to visit some more and went back to our room.  A little later I say Suyapa walking by and stopped her.  I asked her if it was her birthday (I knew it was) and she absolutely jumped!  She said, "You're not going to throw eggs at me, are you?"  I let her know that I would not throw eggs at a girl, I just had a cake for her.  I went to get her cake, a napkin and a plastic spoon and handed it to her and said Happy Birthday.  She thanked me and went back by the big girls (who she is in charge of).  After a while, I went down there as well to sit and chat with Michell while Bob made supper - rice with garlic, onions and green beans.  After supper, I tutored Durbin in math to prep her for her make-up test tomorrow (she was sick on Friday), while Bob and Alina played Phase 10 with Michell.  When they were called in for the night about 6pm, then we also went in to settle down for the night.

A Honduran Birthday

On Saturdays, we are still volunteering.  Volunteers only have Sundays off, so the morning routine with the medium boys is still the same...walk over at 6am, get them settled down a little when they come out of their rooms, take them to breakfast, and since it was Saturday, we were in the yard all morning.  The tia (lady who is in charge of them during the day) got out coloring pages, so one of the boys gave me a page of a turtle to color.  It was an adult coloring page, so I knew it would take a while.  One of the medium boys, Salomon, came over frequently from playing soccer to check my progress on it, so when I finished the picture, I gave it to him.  It rained a lot this morning.  I think that if they knew it was going to rain this much, they would have kept the boys inside.

On Saturdays, they eat lunch earlier than normal.  Because I was prompted by Luisito (one of the teenage boys who lives with and is helping the medium boys) to celebrate Luis David's birthday "Honduran style", Noah and I concocted a plan to carry through at lunch.  Noah ran up to get the 'necessary supplies'.  I walked the medium boys to lunch, got Noah's and my bowl of food and set them down and waited for Noah.  When Noah came in, I approached Luis David and told him that I'd like to take him to the store for his birthday (Noah was coming around the back), so I asked him who I needed to ask permission for him to be able to go to the store with me.  He said 'Papi', so I asked where David was...he pointed him out.  I said, "ok!" and then officially told him Happy Birthday & gave him a hug.  Noah quick handed me the egg, and I said, "I'm so sorry" and smashed the egg on Luis David's head.  So in the United States we give the number of spankings and then give a 'pinch to grow an inch', down here in Honduras if you are the birthday child, you get eggs thrown at you.  In 10 years of being down here, I have never celebrated their birthdays this way, so Luis David was quite surprised.  I let him know that I wouldn't have done it if it weren't for Luisito.  I found out later that during the day, he had to change his clothes and wash his hair THREE times.

After lunch, we headed back to the room, where we reorganized the room for Bob.  A double bed would be completely too small for me and Bob to share, so we pushed Alina and Noah's twin beds together and shoved a blanket between the 2 mattresses before putting a sheet over the top.  It's now a fairly large bed.  I gave the double bed to Alina and Noah took the bottom bunk of the extra bunk beds that were in our room.

I spent from 1:00-3:00ish with Luis David.  I wanted to take him to the store, but the girl who runs the store had a visit with her mom today, so the store was closed.  The first weekend of every month are allotted to families who wish to visit with their children.  It's a pretty busy time down in front of the orphanage, and it's fun to see the children who have visits sprint down to the gazebo in front of where our room is to see their mom and other relatives.

Luis David and I just sat in the chosa (gazebo-like hut) in the big boys yard chatting).  He shared quite a bit of what's going on with him and his plans for the future and said that when he headed into the capital city of Tegucigalpa a week ago, it was the first time that he had been outside Orphanage Emmanuel (probably aside from the town the orphanage is located in), and it scared him quite a bit.  He thought Tegucigalpa was a pretty ugly and scary place.  As we were chatting, Noah came up the road with Bob!  I was hoping to have been back at the room when Bob was dropped off, but I guess he got in earlier than I had expected, so I quickly said my goodbyes to Luis David and headed with Bob back to our room so that he could put his suitcase away and rest.  I think he slept for the rest of the afternoon, evening, and through the night!

Noah and I met up with the medium boys for supper and then we headed to the cancha (soccer field) for them to play soccer until 6pm when it gets dark and is time to head to their rooms for the evening.  Noah and I headed back to our room and settled in for the night too. 

The Container has Arrived!

Today is Friday which means that in stead of heading to the medium boys house, all of the children will come out in front of our rooms, the big girls house and the health clinic to have 'big circle'.  The small boys and the grandecitos had to recite their bible verses today.  There was a light mist through all of this, but when the boys finished reciting their verses, the downpour came!  So 'big circle' was cut early and everyone headed to breakfast.  Noah decided to trade his arroz con leche for what the children were eating (trigo).  When he traded, Santos grabbed his arroz con leche and quickly began to eat it.  Arroz con leche is a real treat for breakfast for the kids...but every day we've been here so far, they get trigo.

Big Circle

Noah trying the Trigo

After breakfast we headed back to the room so that I could gather up my items for calculus class.  Today the students were taking a test, and Profe Ramon asked me to administer the test while he administered a math test to another class.  There were 2 errors on the test, so I had to prepare what I was going to write on the board to correct those errors and also a few formulas for the students to have.  After the calculus test, a few students came up to me and said, "Thank you" for teaching them the material because they didn't believe they would pass the test without my help.  When I gave the tests to Profe Ramon, he asked if I could correct them as well.  This was the part that was difficult for me because every teacher has their own way of correcting things, especially when it comes to math.  It was also difficult because I didn't really agree with the point system that the government put on each question.  Thankfully, I was able to get all 17 corrected by lunch and returned them to Profe Ramon.  It looks like a few students are going to have to redo the test (I think they are allowed only 1 retake).  I headed to lunch, ate, then headed back to the house to rest for a bit because that was just too much calculus for me this week and my brain really needed a break.

Before supper, I headed to the tienda to chat with Lourdes and get a gatorade, then I headed to the medium boys house for devotions.  Today, Chino (one of the teens in charge of the house) had the medium boys share about how God had worked in their life this week.  After ensenanza (devotions), we headed to supper and then I ran back to our house to grab the movies while the medium boys showered.  The boys decided they wanted to watch Power Rangers, however they didn't get to watch the entire movie due to time.  We watch their movies in the living room, but the boys have to be in their bedrooms by 6pm.  We'll continue the movie later.

When it was time to go, I asked Luisito if the container had arrived, and he said it had...so Noah and I rushed down to the warehouse and they had already had 1/2 of the container emptied.  The container is a semi-trailer that is sent from either Alabama or Tennessee (this one was from Tennessee) loaded with food, clothing, building materials, gifts from sponsors and others, etc.  Alina was hard at work helping to empty the container.  After his experience last year and knowing just what to do, Noah jumped right in too!  Wade told us that with all of the help, the container was emptied in record time - 50 minutes!  This is good, since we were told that the driver is paid by the hour from when he picks up the container at the port in La Ceiba.  There are 2-3 boys that ride on the top of the semi-trailer while it leaves the orphanage because the power lines at the entrance are too low for the semi...so the boys have to lift the power lines up and walk the length of the trailer before letting them go so that the semi can pass under them.  Noah wanted to help out with this, and he was invited to help, but I said that since his father wasn't here to 'okay' it, I wasn't about the let him.  Wade and David thanked all of the staff and volunteers for helping unload the container and then we headed back to our room to turn in for the night.

Alina unloading the container

Noah unloading container

David (Orphanage Emmanuel founder) unloading the container