Adios Honduras!

After spending 2 months in the orphanage, I'm surprised I haven't decided to bring home 45 kids with me.  I definitely wanted to shove them in my bags, but figured if I brought them back, they would probably miss their beans and tortillas.

I wouldn't say that my working out there was the best, but it was definitely entertaining.  I had no choice but to run on the long driveway there, so of course all the kids always wanted to join me.  There were times I would be running holding hands with two kids on each side of me, one kid in front of me, and one kid pulling on my shirt behind me.  I finally had to tell the little 4 year old with asthma he needed to take a rest before I needed to find his inhaler for him.

My running partner for the day..Kimberly :)

Little 4yr old Darwin taking his asthma meds

 Every time I walked into the dining hall for a meal, all of the kids at the little kid table would shout for me, and would want a high five, a kiss, a hug, or something.  I'll be honest, I kind of felt like a celebrity. Which was great, because for the three meals everyday, I felt like I was super famous or something.  :)

Little kid table

One of the last Saturdays I was there, 36 of the kids got baptized.  The dining hall had soon turned into the church and 2 hours later all the kids were baptized.  They were SOOOOO dressed up.  One of the girls had on such a snazzy dress I thought it was her wedding day.  Needless to say, the kids were so excited and couldn't stop smiling.  Afterwards I went to the real church with the teacher who needed to pay for the baptism.  I was a little confused about why they needed to pay to have the kids baptized...found out later they didn't NEED to pay, but were making an offering and sending money to the Pope.  I was told that since the Pope helps the poor, the poor people of Honduras are paying him back for his kindness towards them. Ironic hey?

ummmm....wedding day?

The 4yr olds during their baptism

All the kids dressed up for their big day

One of my last nights there I was invited to spend a night at one of the teacher's houses with three of the girls.  We got to her house and instantly took off to go walk somewhere.  Of course I had no clue what we were doing or where we were going.  I quickly found out once we landed on a person's front porch with about 20 other people that I was now part of a group of people singing Christmas carols.  Or so I thought...turns out we were partaking in a posada.  This was the same night I shared a bed with a 7 year old orphan...I have never been with someone so excited to have a sleepover.  Needless to say, she was up at 5am too excited to sleep. :)

A night at the teacher's house

The last week I was there, I set up a little store for all the kids to come in and do some shopping.  I'm pretty sure this was the first time a lot of them actually got to pick out their own clothes so it wuz funny to see how long it took some of them.

Jose doing some shopping :)

My favorites :)

Anywho, it feels great to be back here in the States....although I already miss the beans, tortillas, and cockroaches.  :)

Until next time Honduras...

Just Hangin Around

I'll be the first to admit that sometimes the days here at the orphanage do get a bit long.  BUT, there is NEVER a dull moment.  For the first weeks I was here, my room didn't have curtains, so every morning at 5:30 the kids were looking in my room, shouting for me to get up.  I may or may not have pretended to hear them.  :)  There are of course other great things about my room which I'm sure ur wondering about.  I  ran into a cockroach in my shower the other morning....although I guess I didn't mind considering I would choose him over a tarantula any day. He must have thought we were friends bcuz he later decided to pop out of the drain while I was brushing my teeth...which scared the shi* out of me.  And of course my favorite was when he woke me up in the middle of the night and decided he wanted to share my pillow.  We shared some words and I haven't seen him since.

Oh and itz official, I have lice.  After itching my head for who knows how long, I finally had them check me for the little bugs.  I'll just leave it at..... it wasn't good.  Hopefully I don't bring them home with me....I wonder if they allow lice through customs at the airport?  :)

My $2 lice shampoo...yep pretty sure this will NOT do the trick

My BFF wanted to paint my nails the other day and ended up getting the nail polish all over the floor.  I told her to go get some toilet paper or something to clean it up.  She came back with a leaf.  I guess that works too.  :)

Kimberly letting me know a leaf works just as well :)

At night after dinner, the kids are able to play around for an hour or so...and this is usually when they are most hyper.  A few nights ago I was wondering where all the kids were....turns out.they were playing dodgeball.... with sandals!  The oldest kid was whipping the sandals at the youngest kids...but they seemed to all like it?

The kids lined up waiting to "dodge" the sandals

Everyday after school the kids are put into a room for 3 hours to do their homework.  And by this I mean they do SOME homework, do each other's hair, fight over pencils and erasers, color, take naps, play jacks, fight, clean, and of course play soccer.

Maybe doing homework

Clearly Not doing homework....

The other night one of the lady's rented a bus for all of us to go to San Pedro Sula so all the kids could see the Xmas lights.  It was pretty cute because all of the kids were sooooooo dressed up, wearing jeans, nice shoes and even some collared shirts.  I could tell they all felt pretty cool.  Long story short, we never made it to see the Xmas lights.  There was an accident and the traffic was absolutely ridiculous. 

All lined up for the bus :)

Ericka and Pepe

  What should have been a total drive of an hour turned into 3.5 hours.  So 3.5 hours later, we saw some lights on the side of the road which the kids did love, had a ton of thirsty kids begging for water and 3.5 hours of Spanish music videos. At least we tried though right?

The last Saturday in November the older kids had an end of year ceremony at their high school.  It was really well put together and one of our girls received an award for her grades.  She was super nervous and excited... so I'm glad I could be there to give her a hard time about being a lil study bug. 

Chao!!  

Graciella, Pepe, Ericka

 

Thanksgiving!

So it looks as though I seem to have writer's block these past few days...which is probably due to the fact that I started writing this on a Friday night and I haven't had a beer in who knows how long.
Anyways!  While Tiff was here, we were also able to go to a nearby village and hand out some of the other items we were able to bring.  We were lucky enough to do some door to door deliveries on our own...which reminded me of my pizza delivery days....although I felt a lil bit safer here in the villages.  :) 

The most patient kids ever

 
Again, a huge thank you to Melody of Life for their generous donation to Copprome.  The kids were ecstatic and loved the t-shirts...even if some of them were a lil too big for their tiny little bodies :)

Harry pretending to be a ghost :)

Los ninos

Although they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here, they sure did this year! Thank you to my parents who were able to give the kids an amazing Thanksgiving dinner.  We picked up some KFC for them and they went nuts when they found out what we were having for dinner.  I also made them all go around the table and say what they were grateful for....which was not only the cutest thing ever, it wuz also the slowest thing ever.  :)   I only heard one kid say they were thankful for me, not sure what's up with that but I guess I'll take it :)
 

Never thought I would be so happy to have KFC for Thanksgiving :)

 

Thanksgiving art project :)

I think they're getting hungry

These past few weeks have entailed a lot of nail painting, bingo games, and possums.  The other night, I'm not quite sure how it happened, but at one point there were two kids giving me a pedicure and one girl giving me a manicure.  I seriously felt like I was at a spa...except for the fact that there were 15 kids running around screaming my name, it was about 90 degrees, and my head wuz itching bcuz i think i might have lice ....but hey a free manicure and pedicure?  I'll take it. :)

The other free, not so hot item, was a possum that we found in the boy's bathroom!  Long story short, it wuz super creepy and that poor little thing didn't last too long.  RIP little guy. 

 I finally brought out a Halloween bingo game for the kids, and of course (since I'm so popular) they wanted me to play and call out the cards.  Which I was more than happy to do until I realized I didn't know what any of the pictures were in Spanish.  Needless to say, after 3 hours of standing up calling out bingo cards, I now know. :)                            

Longest bingo game of my life

 Not sure what this says about my relationships here, but my BFF here is a 5 year old. :)
She doesn't speak English, repaints my nails EVERYDAY, and sneaks into my room when I'm not looking, but she's my little shadow and I love it.  :)

Me and Kimberly