Another Day in Honduras

Time is going quickly here in Honduras and while there are so many seemingly hopeless situations here there is some awesome things taking place. The children here as Casa take for granted that Karen gets up at 5:30am each day to begin the day. This morning Dorian got up and left at 6am to take Rosie and Reina to town for Teleton. Lots of people put in long days with little or no pay to make these Casa kid's lives a little better.
Take Sunday for example, a man from around Teguc. came to gate here at Casa because his house was falling over the mountain in a mud slide. He came to Casa because he knew that people associated with Mark C. were here at Casa. This man has worked with Mark before but Mark is currently in US. so he showed up here after a several hour bus ride. The message was passed along and hopefully with donations, help will come. The people know that Mark C. helps people. No he does more than help people, he cares deeply about people and the people know that.
The people at the dump know that Marc T has began a ministry there and know that every Wednesday, there will be food.
And the children that i have seen grow and mature, it is so awesome to see those who could barely walk when they came to live here, now run and jump and attend kindergarten. And another who was quite a problem with throwing fits and biting and kicking, is now much calmer and no longer shows her anger through striking out with violence. Yes they misbehave still but not like they did when they first came. And the little one, Josue, Karen said that he was barely alive when the state took him. Today he sat on my lap and gave me kisses as I threatened to chew his toes. He runs everywhere and is possible getting spoiled. I am thankful that I have the awesome opportunity to glimpse these awesome examples of love. Please pray that God will continue to use Casa as an instrument of His love.

Labor Day

Different kinda day. There is one inspector in Honduras that inspects all 400 childrens' homes and today he came to Casa de Esperanza. They do not show up unannounced, he calls and tells you that you have to come and get him and take him to your childrens home. So Dorian went to Tegucigalpa to get him. I helped Karen a little by cleaning her office and going through their meds to make sure there were no expired meds, The sad part is that the ones that were expired we sent to the local clinic where they can use them. The inspector and his assistant were here for hours and he talked and he talked and he talked. Karen introduced me to him and she told him about my job with the elderly and he had lots of questions for me. I think he talked with Karen more than he inspected. They had some boxed of expired cheerios and the inspector asked if he could have them.
For lunch had rice and from scratch french fries. Only ate 3 fries as I figured it would be a carb overload.
Dorian has asked for his old room mate at Baxter to come and help him with his job as minister. Dorian feels that when he is in school, he does not have the time needed to minister as he should. So he offered his friend part of his salary ($300 monthly) to assist him. So the friend arrived and Dorian was not here, he was on the long drive taking the inspector back to city.
I hung up a few clothes on clothesline only to have Karen scold me for not hanging them correctly. I admit to being out of practice in hanging out clothes. I finished my book today that I had from library and tried to clean Karen and Dorian's apartment a little to help them out as they only had one cook/cleaner working today. I had plans for roasted turkey breast with mashed potatoes and rolls that I brought in my carry on. Well the stove temperture was set and I marked the time. It was supposed to take around 2 hours to cook. I even had the potatoes cut and sitting in pan of water ready to turn on. Karen came to apartment and told me the oven was not on! I did not turn on the propane to the stove so it had set in a cold oven for 1 1/2 hours. so plan B was called for.
Dorian had got a bag of frozen seafood at PriceMart, so decided that this was plan B. Decided to try alfredo sauce on it and cooked some noodles. Also added a can of corn for veggies. The seafood had octopus, squid, mussels, shrimp and snow crab. And the squid and octopus were not chopped fine but very evident with tentacles going everywhere. Well I couldn't eat the noodles but had some on a tostada. The octopus and squid tasted like fishy rubber and you could chew and chew and chew and eventually you just gave up and swallow it. To make it funnier, Dorian's friend ate with us and was very polite but declined seconds. He kept asking, " What is this?" Poor guy.
I got ahead of myself. While I was preparing the turkey breast, Karen was beginning to help the children with homework. There are two local ladies who also help with homework. I do not know how Karen does it. I would have shock collars on them all:) Fernando got a bunch of word wrong at school and he had to write each one correctly several times. Well he was writing several times but not correctly. Ana was working on multiplication tables and kept trying to look back for the answers. So at any one time there are probably 10-12 children trying to complete homework in the kitchen area.
Oh and I forgot about lunch. Doris came from school but never ended up at table to eat. so I went to check on her. She was sitting on commode and told me she had to "poo poo" so I went back to kitchen. A little later one of the girls told Karen that Doris needed more toilet paper. Karen went to check and sure enough, Doris was just beginning her "time of the month" but kept sitting there on the commode unsure what to do. Poor girl. She later was sitting on my lap and kept giggling, I soon knew what the giggling was about. Doris was expelling gas and giggling. But Doris is hard to get upset with.
I took little Josue outside which they were working on homework and Rosie came along. She picked dandelions and gave them to Josue to blow away. It was cute. Now they are saying that all schools are closed tomorrow and Karen is trying to figure out about an appointment tomorrow at hospital secuela.
It was another wonderful day in Honduras

Worship Day

It is a beautiful morning in Honduras and I am alone in the apartment trying to wake up and get ready for worship. God is good, I say that a lot but that is such an understatement. My God is so magnificent it is truly beyond my comprehension. His unfailing love sets a standard that we as humans come up so short on. He loves me without reservation, no matter how many times I screw up. The fact that he sacrificed his son for me is incomprehensible. The fact that I sacrifice so little for Him is truly pitiful. But for today I will be thankful for this awesome, tremendous gift and be honored to be called His.

The rain returns

It rained off and on all night, sort of a comforting sound on the metal roof. Towards morning I did hear the "lizards" that Karen told me about. It still worries me that Dorian calls them scorpions but he insists that it is not scorpions like I think? Right before bed karen told me not to worry that they stay on ceiling, the only problem is they sometimes find droppings on bed in the room I am sleeping. Talk about focusing on keeping my mouth closed while sleeping:). So when i heard them, I just pulled sheet over my head and went back to sleep. The children were already at school when I go up. Just Josue, Marjorie and Nohemy were here. and the girls went to kindergarten at noon. School here is over at 12:30 for others, unsure how much they can learn is such a short time. Wish there were funds to send them all to private school. Karen and the three were "sorting" beans. Looking for worms in the beans actually. I can't see well enough that close up to tell the good from the bad but the children enjoyed it. Marjorie sat on my lap and let me love on her a lot today.
Josue lost one of his shoes and Karen was looking for it. She looked behind the tv and yelled mouse. Those of you who know Karen know that snakes, spiders, etc do not scare her but mice, she screams like a girl and runs! The mouse was dead so I got it and took it out and threw it in dumpster area. I came back and moved tv to clean up it's nest and yep, there were five babies under the tv. Reina and me were trying to sweep up the babies into a dustpan but a couple decided they could run and would run under the tv and we would move it again and off they would run. Well Dorian came to see what was going on and he took care of the babies in a somewhat violent matter. Then it was discovered that something had a small nest in bottom of tv and Dorian had to take off covering of tv and we cleaned it off.
I got to go with Dorian to pick up the children at school and then we had lunch. Rice, beans, and a shredded sort of barbequed meat. It was good and I cleaned my plate. I then came back to Karen & Dorian's apartment to check email and lay down on couch and fell asleep. We later ran into town to pick up a few items. I was desperate for caffeine and in search of tea. It was so foggy, it was hard to see the road and the dozens of people walking the roads. No regular tea bags were to be found where we went but found some other goodies. Returned home and Karen and Dorian went to church. Stacy, a lady who is staying here and helping at Casa, must have heard me moaning as she came to door and offered me some Liption tea bags. Life is good once again and I have a new best friend!
I think Karen is getting off tomorrow and we will go to market. We got some bananas today but cant wait for more fresh fruit. Karen gave me a piece of a fruit here today that might be guava? It was good. Always an experience here. Saw some of the OSU Marshall game, and although it is only 8pm here my body feels like it is 10p like at home. Can't wait for another day of adventure tomorrow.

It was the best of days, it was the worst of days.

I woke up really excited to be on my way to visit Karen and Dorian. Beautiful day, wonderful flights and Dorian was there at airport to meet me. He told me that Karen still had no idea I was coming. that was a really good day
Dorian and a minister from Ojojona and his wife were on their way to the the tegucigalpa dump where hundreds work digging through garbage for plastic bottles and other things to recycle. Some actually live at the dump. Oh and you see men, buzzards and cattle all fighting for scraps of food that have been thrown away and are rotting. To get to the dump was a lengthy process. The road that is usually taken is washed out due to all the rains. On the road up mountain to dump, there were numerous places where hillsides have slipped into the road. The trash seemed to be everywhere as the rain had washed all down to the bottom and it lie in ditches where some were setting it on fire to get rid of it. There were people everwhere working, trying to shore up the foundations of their home, their hillsides, etc. and mud everywhere.
We eventually reached the dump and the smell seemed much worse than ever before. There was two to three inches of mud that smelled like poop everywhere. Dorian had me take off my watch and leave camera so it would not be taken from me. As soon as we pulled in the crowds started coming to the vehicles. I was privileged to be allowed to place tortillas on top of bowl of rice and beans and insert a plastic spoon and hand to those gathered there. Dorian was also passing out water. they kept coming, mostly men but lots of boys and women also wanting some food. There seemed to be so much more trash there, and oh the stench. Dorian had brought me his boots to wear to keep me somewhat clean. The food was all gone and I found myself really sad that just this morning I was in a society where we throw away everything and at noon, I was amongst seemingly "throw a way people" I simply cannot fathom what it would take for me to rummage through rotting garbage, trash and dead animals to find plastic bottles that I could turn in for a few pennies. And if it was a good day, maybe find some lunch amongst the debris? There was a lady with a baby there and another one who is very pregnant. There are little boys that should be in school and having hugs and kisses from loving parents that instead jockey for position amongst the men. We left and made our way slowly back down the mountain. It was the worst of days..........
Then Dorian and I finally made it to Santa Ana and he took me over to the clinic and walked in the back way and hid in their apartment. He then went back out and entered the other way and called karen (who was with the children) to tell her he needed something from their apartment asap. Well I was standing in their bedroom when she came through the dcor and I scared the poor girl half to death. It was priceless as I hung onto her and hugged and hugged. It was the best of days.............
OH and Karen said if i hear anything during the night it is just these little lizard like things crawling around eating mosquitos and such. Welcome to Honduras!