Week Numero Cuatro

Monday, August 3, 2009 (Day 24):

Today was somewhat chaotic, but fun! A little background information on this home: It was started by this man that was never able to have children of his own. He would pass by this orphan everyday and give him food. Everyday, the boy would ask for the man to take him home and everyday, the man said no. Finally, the man decided to take the boy home with him. He then came up with the idea to open an orphanage. This man has to have a heart of gold to just take in any and every child. The home has over 700 kids living there. Since it is privately funded, it is probably the most run down/poorest home we have visited. Kelli kept warning us about it so that we wouldn't be in complete shock when we got there. It was actually in a lot better shape than I was expecting. There was a home that we visited in Honduras that I think was worse and it didn't have near the number of children. After some long errands, we finally arrived at the home around 11:30. The 4-6 year olds were outside on the basketball court doing something with their teacher. We of course interrupted and all had children climbing on us. They were the most precious things. Boys and girls would just run and jump in your arms. I wanted to stay there and play with them for the rest of the day! One of the workers took us on a little tour and we got to see where the 4-6 year olds go to school. Apparently the roof fell in one of the rooms this week. We did not see that room, but just hearing about it made me think that this home really does need Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to come in and do some renovation. When we went into the school, the kids started singing some of the songs the team had taught them in June. It was so cute and cool to hear them singing the songs!

As has been the case this entire trip, we of course had to be flexible again today! Our original plans were to work with the 8-12 year old girls in the morning and then the 4-6 year old girls and boys in the afternoon. However, when we got there, we found out that the older girls go to school in the morning. So, we changed everything around and we'll be with the younger kids (4-6 year olds) in the mornings and the older girls (5th and 6th grade girls) in the afternoon.

After lunch, we went and played with the babies for a little while. There were about 20 babies to 1 adult. Lots of smelly diapers too. That poor woman definitely has her hands full with all those little ones running around. I blew bubbles for quite a while and had a little crowd surrounding me. One little boy decided to completely dominate the bubbles and kept the little stick to himself. I finally got Julie over there to tell him he needed to share. After I got the bubbles passed off to some little ones, a little 4 year old came up and latched herself to me. We played for a long time and she pointed out the colors on the wall and told me the colors in Spanish. I then told her the colors in English. When it was time for us to leave, she did not want to let me go. I told her that I would see her tomorrow and she let go and ran off..haha!

Now it was time for songs and the story with the 5th and 6th grade girls. So we thought. The boys were included too. Wow Lord, you must really want these boys to hear about Esther too!! During the story, I went and helped Kelli set up for the crafts. It is so cool how the Lord totally works little things out that we really don't think about. Today for the craft, the kids were decorating foam rectangles and writing the Bible verse. Just so happens that when we packed our craft bag last night, we had put the rest of the little foam stickers in and the last box consisted of sporty stickers. Perfect for little boys! We had a table for girls and a table for boys. After the first group finished, we noticed quite a few supplies were missing, such as glitter glue. Kelli informed me that we have to really watch out for the stuff because the kids steal at this home. Yes we are trying to get rid of everything, but we also need some of those supplies to last the rest of the week. The kids can take everything on Thursday. Fortunately, we don't need glitter glue anymore. Craft time was a little chaotic, but all in all, it was a great day!

Tomorrow we are going to de-lice the girls and boys. We've got our gloves and shampoo ready!!

On our way there this morning, I was praying that I wouldn't let the thought of lice, ringworm and filthiness get in the way of me loving on these children. The Lord provided!! I just hugged and loved on those kids today. I never thought twice about the fact they could be carrying lice. I could tell they really wanted to be hugged, picked up, and held. That is more important to me. Making sure they feel loved and they know God loves them. Another cool thing is that there were a bunch of the teenagers walking around and most of them stopped to say hello to us. Even though there are very few adults working at the home, the kids I encountered know how to be respectful. All the kids at the home seem very happy and joyful. Even though my Spanish is still bad, I still had little kids sitting next to me trying to carry on conversations. Honestly, this home may turn out to be one of my favorites on this trip. We'll just have to wait and see!

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

In Him,
Dawn

Side note: Everyone was making fun of me at the beginning of the trip for the amount of Wet Ones I brought and guess what?!? They are now thanking me. We are putting using those things to good use now. I kept telling them they hadn't just spent two weeks in Africa!