Easter Sunday!

    Happy Easter to all!  This is the first major holiday I have spent down here at Orphanage Emmanuel.  My goal is to spend a Christmas here, but that may be a few years down the road yet...and this was just by happenstance, since Noah is down here.  This morning I headed to the toddler house to pick up Brithany.  I had bought her 3 dresses on Facebook Marketplace for a total of $8, since I wasn't sure how much she had grown since last fall's sizing charts came out.  Turns out the smallest size fit her perfectly and the other 2 dresses were able to be shared with girls who are a little bit bigger.  She was excited to head to church and behaved perfectly, with a little nap on the church pews after a while.  

   After church, Noah said he would treat us all at the Tienda.  He invited his friends Maycol, Olvin and Alejandro and I brought Brithany and had Noah go pick up Dilver.  Each kid got some chips (called churros here) and either a soda, chocolate milk or juice.  There was a volunteer who had stayed very short term with Noah in the Volunteer House who left 3 pairs of shoes, so Noah gave them to his friends.  Unfortunately Alejandro has extremely tiny feet (size 6), so even the smallest pair was way too big on him.  Noah's 3 friends kept stealing his chocolate milk and his Chokis (chocolate chip cookies like Chips Ahoy, but my kids say they're better) and hiding them.  It was fun to watch the boys be boys.  Dilver (who is 6 years old) kept telling me that they were going to fight, but I knew better.  And each time that Dilver saw which boy took Noah's snacks, he would point to that boy so Noah would know.  Before heading to lunch, we took a picture of Noah and his friends...had to get the silly shots in too!

Left to Right: Olvin, Maycol, Alejandro, Noah

Me and Dilver

Brithany in her new dress with chips

Maycol, Olvin, Noah, Alejandro

   After lunch, Noah made arrangements for us to go visit Moncho, his wife Ana Yanci and their 2 boys Jonathan and Santiago.  It was fun seeing their new house and taking time to catch up from the past bunch of months.  On the way back to Emmanuel, Moncho stopped at Tia Gladis' house.  She asked for me to stop by to visit since she had remembered Alina really well quite a few years ago, when Alina was invited to stay overnight in the girls dorm by Michell.  Tia Gladis was in charge of the night watch of that house that year, so each evening when Alina would go that way to watch TV with the girls and then the night she spent there, Gladis remember very well.  We then stopped by Glenda's on the way back as well and chatted for a quick moment.  Glenda mentioned she liked my earrings, so I just gave them to her under the condition that the next time Noah went into town, she had them on and he would take a picture of the two of them with the earrings on!  I have known Glenda since my first trip down in 2008.  Along with only a few others here, she is definitely a staple to my visits.

   Noah and I had supper in the Comedor and then spent the rest of the night in the house checking vacation spots for him when his 90 day visa is up.  Right now he is leaning towards Cancun, Mexico.

Seeing Familiar Faces

    This morning I woke, showered and had some oatmeal for breakfast.  I decided to clean the bathroom which was extremely dirty...not because Noah made it dirty but because he didn't have time to clean it from the storm last Sunday night when water came through the window and splattered dirt everywhere, including on the toilets and walls.  I got everything cleaned up fairly well (although noticed later in the day that I missed one wall), so Noah shouldn't have to worry about cleaning the bathroom for another week or more.  It is a fairly large bathroom with 3 showers, 3 sinks and 3 toilets.

The kitchen of the Volunteer House

The living room of the Volunteer House (with Noah)

Long hall with 3 bedrooms on left and 1 bedroom + bathroom on right

My room for the week

   Noah and I spent about an hour researching and discussing possible places for him to visit in May.  His 90-day visa expires then and he will have to leave the country for at least 72 hours.  Right now on his list are Costa Rica, Panama, and Cancun (Isla Mujeres).  We will be looking at plane ticket prices, hotel prices as well as things to do in each of those locations and hopefully get him set up with his plans before I leave.  We will also need to move his flight home to the States until later in July.  We did some of our research in the Volunteer House, but then moved to the Tienda a little later to research some more.  I saw Lourdes, Brenda and Julissa at the tienda and said "hi" to them all.

   When we went back to the Volunteer House, I gathered up the 3 little girl dresses I had bought back in the States as well as a plush stuffed bunny and headed to the Toddler House to find Brithany.  She ran at me and gave me a big hug.  I showed her the dresses and asked her if she would like to go to church with me tomorrow and if she wanted to wear one of the dresses.  She shook her head "yes" eagerly with a huge smile.  Then I gave her the bunny and I am not sure she stopped smiling in all the time I was with her!  She was on the playground when I found her, but they moved the toddlers back to their house to play on the trampoline a bit before lunch.

   After lunch, Noah went out and I decided I needed to take a little nap.  Although I slept really well last night, I got a bit confused because my watch was still on Wisconsin time and my phone was still on Miami time...neither of which is Honduras time!  So I woke multiple times but in my semi-sleeping state, never really knew what time it was.  But the bed itself, even though a twin size, was very comfortable for me.

   When Noah came back we walked to the Team House and I chatted with Mirna for a bit before Noah and I had to head to the Big Girls House.  We had to head there because the Grandecito Boys asked Noah to ask Graciela if they could use the school's soccer field (La Cancha) after supper to play.  They said Noah has a way with words and generally when he asks for something, can get whoever he asks to say "yes" (doesn't work that way at home, haha).  Of course, Graciela said "yes".

   From the Big Girls House we headed to the Comedor to supper.  Oscar and Julissa have been setting a plate out for me and Noah to eat together, which has been nice.  From the Comedor we headed back to the Team House since Noah's data plan needed to get reloaded.  For whatever reason, his app to reload his phone's data plan is not working, so I had to do it for him but since I don't have a Honduran SIM card this time around, we had to head to a Wifi spot so I could take care of that for him.

   When we got back to our house, Noah headed to the Cancha to play soccer with the boys and went down just a little bit later.  When I headed down, the toddlers were walking past the Volunteer House so I got to say "good night" to Brithany before she headed back to the Toddler House for the night.  Noah used the new tennis shoes to play soccer with the Grandecitos and scored a goal.  Unfortunately I didn't see it because another boy was chatting with me at the time, but I did take some pictures of them playing.  After the soccer game, we walked back to the Volunteer House and decided we were in for the night, so I was able to finish up Day 1 of my blog down here.

Honduras for Easter 2024

    This is going to be a special blog as I am heading down to Honduras to spend Easter with Noah, who has decided to be a long term volunteer at Emmanuel.  He has also started a blog about being down here, but since he is a long term volunteer, he is only writing weekly...if you are interested in reading what is going on with Noah at Emmanuel, click HERE to access his blog.

So I only slept for about 2-2.5 hours last night because I had to wake at about 2am to take the rental vehicle to the Milwaukee airport to catch my 6:30am flight.  Since I will be flying back into Appleton, it didn't make sense to take my car down to Milwaukee.  So in order not to inconvenience anyone at such an hour, I found a one-way rental vehicle for just $40...a true blessing.  When I went to pick up what I thought was going to be a tiny SUV/crossover (like a Nissan Kicks is what the website said), the employee looked through what they had and said that I seemed to be more of a Jeep type of person and gave me a Jeep Gladiator.  Quite the large vehicle for just me heading to Honduras.

Jeep Gladiator

Me running on 2 hours of sleep, no makeup

   Anyway, I woke at 2am to get dressed and make sure my passport, money and essentials were in the backpack carry-on I would be taking.  I had already packed the 2 suitcases with gifts for some of the kids, quite a few items Noah had requested I brought down and then some other essentials for Noah like a new pair of shoes and a new pair of sandals.  He had requested the sandals because his had broken and he can't get any down here due to being a size 14!!!  The tennis shoes Noah took down were in SO BAD of a condition prior to heading to Honduras, that I couldn't help but go shopping to a couple of spots with my bestie, Cheryl (thanks for driving me Cheryl) to see if I could find some new shoes in a size 14 that he could wear instead of his roughed up hole-filled Addidas shoes.  We found a pair of Nikes on sale for about $30 at Rogans (thank GOD), so that would get included in as his Easter gift.  

Shoes Noah took to Honduras

Old vs New

   When I got to Milwaukee, returned the rental, checked my 2 suitcases, got through security, and got to the gate, I found out that the plane was delayed by roughly an hour and a half.  There were quite a few people upset since they had connections they were going to miss, so they formed a huge line to try to figure something else out and thus the plane wasn't as full as it was originally supposed to be.  I wasn't too terribly concerned at that point, because I still had an hour between when the new landing time was and when my 2nd flight would take off, and the gates were right next to each other, so I wouldn't have to run around the airport trying to get to the next gate.  On the first flight to Miami, I sat by 2 boys from the Milwaukee area that were headed to Costa Rica with their soccer team to play 3 games down there.  They were very excited and we chatted until takeoff when I just really needed to get some sleep.

   When I got to Miami, I saw that the flight there got delayed as well (by about an hour), so I sat down in a quiet area and charged my phone while I worked on hammering out a "version 2" to the version 1 geometry test that our team had discussed and approved earlier in the week.  We have tables in our classroom, not desks, so it is crucial to have multiple versions to the test to try to eliminate easy access to cheating.

Goodbye Miami

   My flight from Miami to Honduras (Comayagua) went well.  I sat by a grandmother and her very young toddler age grandson who was very well behaved.  I decided to watch a movie on this flight and watched "Still Alice" which is a movie about a lady who gets early onset of alzheimers and goes through the rapid progression.  Although it was fiction, it was very informational.

Flying over Honduras, about to land

First afternoon arrival to Comayagua (no planes in sight)

The crew directing the plane in

   When I got through customs in Honduras, the taxi driver was waiting to pick me up and take me to Orphanage Emmanuel.  The last hour of the ride, I was feeling my eyes get heavy but just didn't want to nap again at that point because I knew I would get in around 5:30ish to the orphanage and it would be an early night for me where I could sleep some extended hours in order to recuperate from the almost all-nighter I had stayed away just the night before.

   Noah came up from the Cancha where he was playing soccer with the boys, and met me at the Girls Volunteer House (that is where he is currently living, by himself) and we chatted for a bit, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open so was definitely in bed and sleeping by just before 7pm.

Heading Home...Photo Dump

   I had completely forgotten to post about our travels home, which is pretty typical of me each year.  Although I don't remember the travels overall, I did realize (June of 2024) that I still had photos of the travels home, so will put them here for all to see...

Fun to wake up to...at least it was dead

Leaving Emmanuel

Our ride back to the airport in Comayagua

Very common to see trucks stacked like this!

What's up with Kaylyn?

Jaden taking in the scenery on the way back

Arrival to the Airport in Comayagua

Kaylyn in Minor Migration

Kaylyn and Jaden in Minor Migration

Our choice of restaurant at the airport in Comayagua

Ended up buying these pagers for my new students at the new NHS (so they could work out in the pods)

What is up with Kaylyn?

Now she's playing along!

Do they ever get it right?

Our Last Full Day Volunteering at Emmanuel 2023

    This morning Jaden and I woke up to our typical morning view here at Emmanuel.  Then we headed to the Comedor for him to get his last breakfast for this trip, which was oatmeal.  Jaden headed out with Alexander after breakfast to do weed whacking, whereas I headed back to our room to pick up Kaylyn to head to the Chosa.  Usually on Monday mornings, I would hang back and wrap up lesson plans or homework since class is at 8:20am...but since it would just be Kaylyn and Eva in the Chosa today with the toddlers, I decided to go with her right up until class started and then return pretty much immediately after class.

   In today's 10th grade class, I had prepared a Jeopardy game to play with the students which reviewed each of the 6 functions they had learned about (quadratics, rational expressions, absolute value, greatest integer, exponential, logarithmic).  The 16 students were divided into 4 teams of 4 and absolutely loved the game and really got into it!  I am hoping that they learned something along the way, but it really seems to me that their math skills are extremely weak.  Each student got a paleta for participating and for the winning team, each member received a pack of gum.

Drawing maps in school (trace, color and label)

9th Grade class, unfortunately I forgot to get a pic of 10th Grade

   When I got back to the Chosa, Kaylyn told me that she took Mateo to the clinic while Eva hung back and watched the rest of the toddlers.  Also, before and after class in the Chosa, Brithany was fairly clingy.  I don't believe she knew that this was my last day, perhaps she "felt" it somehow?  But either way, she would not leave my side (or my lap which she definitely hung out on most of the time).  For almost the entirety of this trip, she has called me mama, and all of the toddlers when I would come to the door would call Brithany's name and tell her that her "mama" was here.    Kaylyn has been pushing for us to adopt her for the past 5 weeks, even saying that she would share her bedroom...but as I wrote a week-ish ago, I don't feel called to do that.  Although, if I were to adopt a child, she would be up there on the list!!!

   Kaylyn worked through Brithany's hair and found a louse (singular of lice?) as well as pulled out a fair amount of nits.  Lice is pretty common here among the younger girls, both toddlers and small girls.  It is an orphanage.  And unlike many Americans who get freaked out about them, that is not the case here.  You just tackle it on a day-by-day basis until it's gone.  Since we are on that topic, Kaylyn and I headed to the Medium Boys house after lunch so that the tia Berta (who was with the toddlers last year) could go through our hair thoroughly and check for lice.  Kaylyn, who had some dried up nits last week, was clear.  I had 3 dried up nits in my hair.  After checking us and pulling the nits out, Berta put both of our hair up in a french braid.  On our way to get our hair checked, I stopped at the Tienda to buy both Invisible and tia Berta a bag of chips and a soda, and then there was around $100L left of our in the Tienda, which I just told Brenda (who works the tienda most days) that she could put the rest in her name.

Kaylyn checking Brithany for lice and nits

Marbella

Mateo

Brithany pointing to her teeth when I was asking her if she knew each body part...she did!

   I took Invisible all of the lotion, shampoo, soap, conditioner, detangling spray, and toothpaste that we had left over.  And we also gave her Kaylyn's pair of sandals and my tennis shoes, as well as one of our flashlights.  I typically leave my tennis shoes with her as her feet are larger than most females at Emmanuel.  She has been nothing but kind to me ever since I first met her back in 2008...and this is only a snippet of how I try to repay that kindness.

   This afternoon while we were with Invisible and tia Berta, Jaden was working with the pigs (feeding them and cleaning their pens) and also fed the cows with Herlan.  We all walked to the Comedor together for supper, where they had beans, rice, and crema; as well as a really sweet bread that was made in the Panaderia (bread shop) at Emmanuel.

   After supper, we put the last load of laundry in and then packed our suitcases.  We COULD fit everything in just 2 suitcases (we came down with 4), but if Noah is truly coming down here as a volunteer, we need all of our suitcases at home.  So we put the smallest suitcase inside of the largest suitcase, and then loaded them.  There was definitely extra room in each one.  We decided to hit the hay early and not watch a movie since we were planning on getting up around 3:30am to make sure the rooms were all clean and everything was ready to go before breakfast.

Jaden Gets a Haircut

    Our time is winding down here, as I told my 2 kiddos...one more free day, one day of work, then we head home.  I let Jaden head to the Comedor by himself for breakfast this morning since I had a bunch of things to pack up to give away today and we also needed to get ready for church.  He said that they had the Corn Flakes again this morning.   David and Lydia headed to Tegus (Tegucigalpa, capitol of Honduras) early this morning with Milton for a few days to themselves and to prepare for the group that is coming in September.  Milton told me this last night and let me know I would not see him until I returned, so we gave each other a big hug.

   Rollie did the service in church today and asked about the 5 questions we need to be prepared to answer if someone who either doesn't know about God or someone who adamantly doesn't believe in God would most likely ask.  Questions such as: Who is God?  Who created God?  Why does God let bad things happen to people?  Why does God allow people to suffer when He could stop it?  It was a very good last sermon for being down here and hard to believe that when we head to church next Sunday, it will be in the United States in English, and completely different.

   After church, we did some lighter than normal cleaning (since we had cleaned a bit yesterday as well), and then we packed many items up to give away to those who live here.  We packed all of Jaden's items up except for the clothes he would wear today through Wednesday, from socks to underwear (both of which we had purchased new before coming down here) to shorts to shirts.  I will just need to do a load of laundry later today and then on Monday evening for last minute things to give away.  Then I got the blog done for Saturday, as well as finished up my last lesson plans for Monday's 10th grade class (a review game...more to come on that tomorrow).

   At lunch, we gave a huge bag of Jaden's things to Cristian for the special needs boys.  I am not sure how often they get clothing, but it seems like many of Jaden's clothes would fit them fairly well.  And sure enough, when supper rolled around, many of them walked by in new socks and shirts and pointed at them, telling me and Jaden, "Thank You!!!"

   About mid-afternoon when today's laundry was done, we headed to the Toddler House to give Graciela the last of Kaylyn and my items.  She said thank you once again and said she would be sure to get them distributed among the girls, junior staff and staff that needed/wanted them.  We also had 4 pairs of wired ear phones which we had gotten on the way down from the airlines, that Graciela was eager to take off of my hands, so I was glad we had picked them up.  We then headed to the store, where I just had Jaden and Kaylyn with me and Ellie met up with us so we could spend the remainder of the time before supper there.

   At 2:45pm, Jaden left the Tienda to go searching for Eliberto, because we had heard that he was the best at Emmanuel for cutting the boys' hair, and although Jaden's hair was still fairly short from me cutting it that way prior to coming down here...I saw what Eliberto had done with the other boys' hair at Emmanuel and thought that Jaden could really use a new back-to-school style.  So, I would just have to wait until supper in the Comedor to see how that turned out.

Jaden's new back-to-school cut

   Kaylyn and I headed back to our room quickly before supper began to get some paletas for Oscar and the kitchen crew, and for Invisible to share with Berta as well.  Then we headed down to the Comedor.  Jaden came in and I felt his haircut looked AWESOME.  He let me know that Hector gave him a freshly cut coconut and cracked it and put a hole in the top so Jaden could drink the coconut water and then eat the coconut.  Hector also invited Jaden to go on a walk after supper with the grandecitos.  While Jaden was gone, Kaylyn and I did our 1/2 hour of reading and when Jaden got back, we ended up watching a movie to wind down the evening.  Although I thought we'd be watching back to back nights of Mission Impossible, Kaylyn didn't really care to watch it, so they settled on an animated movie called "The Monkey King"...it was unique (weird) to say the least.