kind of a regular day

Today has been interesting... Sigh.

I feel mean and I don't like it lol. To be honest, the kids are kind of annoying me, and I think it's just because they aren't in school anymore. I'm noticing a lot of things that are very different than I expected, but I think they are rather normal. 

Today most of the "adults" were not here. The mom of the home came to Mel and me right before lunch to let us know that she had to go to a meeting. Her sister, Nelson (the Man!) and Edwin (Mr. Fix It) were all away today as well... so she asked us to kind of hold the fort and said nothing should happen (hehe!) until she gets back. We watched movies, played with bubbles, ate dinner and a little tickle party took place with Yesica and me lol she is too funny. 

Besides that, nothing really happened today. Kind of just a normal, uneventful day.

A couple of the other missionaries went to San Pedro Sula and got to "American-Food-Shop," so I'm sure they enjoyed that and I'm looking forward to checking out what they got hehe especially because they picked up some things for our Thanksgiving dinner!!! 

I've been homesick lately, but doing fine. I opened my bottle of Welches grape juice and was in my Nana's kitchen for a second today. That almost brought me to tears, but I'm happy to have that kind of flashback. So, I'm just praying for strength and patience, kindness and more love, especially when the kids aren't being lovable, it's probably the most important to love them in those moments.

Stay tuned!!! <3

Yojaira on her last day of Kindergarten :D

Fotos!!!

Here are just a few pictures of the children and me! (:

 Say hola to Elias, Yojaira, and part of Nicole

 David

 Maryury

 Mel and Dario

 Chayli 

 Juansito

 and Dionisio!

(August-November)

Stay tuned!!!

A Snapshot of Week One.

Hey family!

How's everyone? 

Sooooo, I’ve been journaling everyday, with the exception of maybe 5 days. Since this is a lot of journaling I will try to limit myself to only listing highlights of each day. You can probably imagine, or maybe I should say you probably can't imagine, how busy my days have been. HAH! So, here I go!

31 July 2011, Sunday

Day 1

Left home today. Mom and sister picked me up from Nana and Popa’s at 4 am and we drove to BWI. It was harder to say goodbye to Nana and Popa than I imagined, since I have to do it a lot. This time it was different.

Mom got stopped for speeding, haha, but police just gave her a warning. Good times.

The airport was crazy… only delta was open and hundreds of confused and frustrated people were waiting to be checked in.  Of course, there were a lot of nice people too. So I finally got to security and said bye to Mommy and Mo. Hard as well. Had a great morning with them! They are so funny. I think we make a great team! Hehe.

Once I landed in TEGUCIGALPA (4 hours away from airport in which I was supposed to be flown into) the man who helped me with my bags kept bothering me for money (he worked in the airport) and I gave him a tip but he wanted more…ugh! 

oops! took picture with phone...

To make an extremely long story short, I spent 8 hours in the airport waiting for people that didn’t show up. Mel’s plane landed 4 hours late, which was supposed to land 4 hours later than mine… and the amazingly wonderful people in the Migration office helped me figure out I had been flown into the wrong airport. The director of security took great care of us while we waited for Nelson’s friend to come to our rescue. When he came he and his friend took us to the mall where we ate Honduran Subway! It was raining a lot and I stepped in a wet dirty diaper… with my freshly washed Toms (thanks anyway, Nana...) Gross! Afterward we went to a motel where we showered and slept ASAP. Quite a fun day.

All airport photos taken by Liz Medina Chiomenti (aka mommy)

1 August 2011, Monday

Day 2

Wake at 4:50am

Travel on bus for 4 hours. Bus driver is a crazy driver and I thought I was going to die!

Slept a lot on that trip. Something about vehicles either makes me sick or sleepy. 

Nelson meets us at gas station and takes us to the home.

Andrew Peterson shows us around (:

We meet the kids (well, mostly reunite with them) and help chop veggies for pizza dinner

Visit school and kindergarten classroom

2 August 2011, Tuesday

Day 3

Had first meeting with other volunteers (Aron, Mel, Andrew, myself) and Begonia, Txus and Maria Jose

Make crafts for girls

Chill, get to know the kids, and unpack.

3 August 2011, Wednesday

Day 4

First day of working with little girls. Look after 7: wake them up, wash their hair, dress them, style hair, and make sure morning chores are done. 2 other girls live with their older sisters but we watch after them too (with everything but waking them up and putting them to bed).

Catch a 6-inch cricket in room and put it in bag. Release it but it flies back into room.

Next there is a 3-inch roach that Mel kills. More show up, Gross.

Fail at hanging mosquito net, so I just sleep inside it, hehe!

Funny night.

4 August 2011, Thursday

Day 5

Wake at 4:40 to shower and get ready. Wake girls at 5:15 and do the normal morning routine... see them off to school.

Go to center of town to do some shopping for the home with Edwin (our Mr. Fix-it), Andrew (his faithful helper), and Meliscia (just felt like writing in parenthesis for her too).

5 August 2011, Friday

Day 6

Actually wake up automatically at 4:35...???

Hard to wake girls today and they aren't listening well. 

Sandra climbs to the very top (literally) of a very tall and strong tree; one that I've always wanted to climb. 

6 August 2011, Sabbath

Day 7

Unfortunately I forgot to journal about this day. I'm sure if I try really hard to remember I may be able to but given it was over 2 months ago, I might be kidding myself. All I wrote is that I fell asleep watching Yogi Bear that night.

Okay. That's all I'll write for now. I hope everyone is doing well! Please keep us in your prayers.

God bless and stay tuned!!! 

HOLA AMIGOS!

i will start with an apology! super sorry! i have only been able to get online once since i´ve been here because it doesn´t really work. i´m working on it though! so, just kidding about blogging often hehe! i´ll do it when it´s possible.
next, i´ll tell you a little bit about what i do. so i came here prepaired to teach english to anyone from kindergarten to college age (which i learned is actually high school age because they call high school colegio haha). when i got here i was told my friend and i will be looking after 10 little girls. this was a little disappointing but very exciting all at once. this job is exhausting but i love it too. during the week, i wake at 4 45 and get ready. at 5 15 we wake the girls, they make their beds, shower, brush their teeth, and dress for school. a few of them have morning chores such as cleaning up the sink, the room and taking the bathroom trash and laundry to their correct places. next we do everyones hair and try to finish before the bell rings for devotion at 6. of course, devotion follows and after devotion we go to breakfast at around 6 20. getting the girls to finish their food on time is quite an experience in itself  =)
afterward, the messy eaters change into their uniform shirts, and if they were late in getting ready they finish after they eat and head to school at 7.
Now it´s break time! if i do not take a nap, i usually wash some clothes by hand from the previous day, unless i´ve slacked and aquired too much for my liking, then i just put them in the washer at the end of the week. washing by hand is so much more fun, and a good workout too, just so ya know (=
a few days out of the week we will go to the elementry school at 9 to help the first grade teacher. she has a very... energetic class and can use the help. this is so much fun because when the kids see us, they all run out of the classroom to hug us. i´m sure their teacher loves that! oops!!! heh...
4 of our girls return from grade k so we go back at 10 30 or 11 and start homework with them. our break ends at 11. they take about 20 minutes to change their clothes and get their homework and start, because they just want to play haha...
we do homework, play and by lunch time the rest of our girls return and eat with us. mel and i have our designated tables in which 5 girls sit and eat with us. these are great times! when we finish eating it´s chore time. after chores we do homework with the eldest of our girls, and a little boy who just loves doing his homework with me. girls and boys swim seporately because the boys are too rough so if the pool is not green we go swimming.i´ve been teaching mel to swim and she actually jumped off into the deep end of the pool and swam across it multiple times! YAY MEL!!! at 4 30 we have another break where we spend time with the older kids or play with the younger ones. dinner is at 6 and after dinner we get the girls ready for bed. this includes getting them showered, teeth brushed, pj´s on and ready for devotion. after devotion, at 8 30 we put them in bed. this is probably my favorite time of day because they love to be loved!!! and they each call my name wanting me to kiss them and hug them and tickle them goodnight. no matter what has happened during the day, with an exception of a few times, they always want hugs and kisses. it takes me about 15 minutes to say goodnight hahaha they are very strong, and do this thing where they lock my head in their arms and try as best as they can not to let go. they all do it! oh and two of our girls live in a different room with their sisters, so we wake and put to bed only 7 out of our 9. we had 10 but one girl left. she went back with her fam which i found out is not the best thing. so please pray for our Nicole. she is a darling little 7 year old, big eyed, curly haird, bundle of love and joy. i really miss her.
i have been journaling on my iphone almost every day. i think i´ve missed 3 days all together, but i will try to get some of those thoughts on this blog to make up for the 44 day i haven´t been on my blog.
thank you so much for your prayers and thoughts. i miss all of you and hope you are doing well.
i´m thinking of staying here longer... HEHE! but we shall see how i feel about that once this year comes to an end. i just love these kids so much already and i can´t imagine leaving them... but no need to bring that up now.
love you all!

6 of our 9 girls

Photo by Andrew Pedersen 

God bless and stay tunned...

Got It!

as of last night, i finally have a ticket to honduras! Yay! (:
i still have over $3,000 i need to raise.
help!!!
the Lord will make a way somehow.
Happy Sabbath

erm...

family, please pray for me!
i don't have all the money i need in order to go to Honduras on Sunday.
i feel so... ill-prepared!
i have yet to claim a plane ticket.
trying not to worry, because God is in control.
but i'm starting to get a little antsy!!!
thanks for your prayers (:
and please keep my missions family in your prayers as well.

Stay tuned!!!