Feb 23, 2011 "t-u-e-s-d-a-y."

t-u-e-s-d-a-y.

This blog will be short, because I’m tired. Everything went super duper awesome at the orphanage today. We beat all the teams there, so we had plenty of time to drink some coffee and chat. I noticed some of the kids outside. I hate to say orphans, because after they come to Casa Angelina, they are anything but orphans. They are a part of a beautiful family. Anyways, the kids were all hanging out outside, and I went to see them. I found a few that I had been playing with yesterday, so we hugged and exchanged some greetings, and all of a sudden, from the other side of the crowd, one girl started RUNNING towards me! I immediately recognized her and opened my arms. She ran in full speed and latched on so tight! I just couldn’t let go! I looked her in her beautiful, big, brown eyes and asked, “Julissa?!” She nodded. I just couldn’t let go! I asked her how old she was, and of course I can’t remember now. Something like thirteen or fourteen. Once the other teams arrived, we all moved inside and bonded. They are all so precious, and a LOT happier than any children I’ve ever seen. It just made my day.
Ivan was here today, the founder of the orphanage, so that was really special. He did the morning devotion after the children were sent back to their houses. I am not sure if I explained this before, but instead of a normal orphanage setting, the children are separated into home-like settings, with brothers and sisters and house parents. They go to school in a school building every day, where they learn all the normal things we do in the states, plus they all learn English. After devotions, we were given a tour of the orphanage by Ivan and his daughter (whose name I can’t remember. Surprised? You shouldn’t be.). It was very interesting to see the inside of the homes, and how the children react with one another. Ivan told a few stories about a couple of the children and their backgrounds, which was cool to hear. They just got a new child, a young girl, just walking, with gorgeous caramel curls and round cocoa eyes. Her name is Blondie. She was being abused by her parents and had to be taken away for her own safety. It just breaks my heart that anyone would even think about laying a hurtful hand on these children.
Ivan explained that a lot of these children have a tough recovery. Some are so malnourished that they are unable to walk or grow hair. Some don’t know how to interact with people because they’ve grown up in the dump. Some won’t allow people to touch them because they’ve been physically and sexually abused. But by looking in these children’s eyes, you would never ever ever guess such a thing. They are the most beautiful, happy, carefree children on the face of this earth.
After the tour, I didn’t hesitate to be put to work. A few of us went up to the Faith Family House and were assigned the job of making mortar. Now if you read yesterday’s blog you will realize that I am pretty much a failure at making mortar, because I wasn’t even allowed to mix, I was just the water girl. And that’s the most experience I’ve had with it. One of the Guatemalans taught me the equation. Four buckets of sand, two bags of lime, and half a bag of concrete. I was confident in my ability to do it, until I actually started doing it. My team consisted of me, Kaley (sp?), Barb, Toni, and Kent. If you didn’t know, we are all females, except Kent, and were unaware of the complete “mortar making process”. But we got it down! It was quite enjoyable. Steve commented that it was like baking. Then it clicked! We needed to mix the dry ingredients BEFORE we added the wet! And we did that ALL morning. My arms are quite sore now. Oh, and please note that there is no such thing as a cement mixer or anything like that. It’s a pile on the ground and shovels and buckets of water. Let’s just say, doing ALL of this kind of work by hand with limited tools and technology and taught me to appreciate a lot of what we have and what we do.
Then lunch rolled around, and I broke out the cards. After Kent attempted to teach me a super awesome card trick, Rayann and I got serious with an intense game of Egyptian Run (our rules). I think that hurt my hand more than anything this week! I kind of get super into that game. I think Kent is afraid of me. After Rayann BEAT ME, yes. Beat me. First time EVER (she admitted), we dealt a bunch of people in, and I lost. Again. Lunch was good, but I’m not sure what it was.
During lunch, they announced that they needed many more painters to finish painting the school. The kids took school off today JUST so that we could get it painted. I headed right up there and took my place painting trim. On my way there, some girls were outside playing, one of them being Julissa. She saw me and RAN over, with a folded up piece of paper in her hands. She gave me a big hug and handed it to me. I put it my pocket for a later reading. Before I got started painting, I couldn’t wait any longer and had to open it. It was a super cool picture that she had sketched of Noah it looked like, hearding sheep. On the bottom was a little note that I have yet to translate. For hours. And note, this is OIL based paint, in a hot, stuffy school building, second floor. But I did it, and didn’t complain, because I’m working in God’s glory, not my own. We painted ALL afternoon, right up until it was time to leave.
I caught my breath and we loaded up the bus. I sat behind Grandma and Grandpa on the bus ride home, and Grandma and I watched Grandpa get in some serious debates about pick up trucks. Right when we got through these doors, and right after Jennie got out of the shower, I got in there. I cannot get this yellow cement color off of my skin, nor can I get this tan colored paint off of my skin either! Oh well! I ran back to supper and found a spot next to Grandma. Supper was good, we had chicken and rice, a common meal down here. After supper, before dessert, Grandpa went to bed. I think these long days are really catching up to him!
After supper, Alejandro sat next to me and asked me to assist him on getting his phone to facebook, again. But first, I always have to change it to English. It’s quite comical. Then after I ate, Kaley asked me if we could talk, and you know me, I’m ALWAYS up for talking! After our girlly heart to heart, I went up to devotions. Mike Delp (sp?) from the…Virginia? Team and his wife joined us for devotions, and they were a blast. Even though like HALF of our team is sick (WE NEED PRAYERS) it was still very enjoyable. Mike shared a lot, which made me cry, but he also shared a story about serving in Honduras, which made me laugh so hard I couldn’t breathe. Mike is probably THE hardest working man I know on the face of this earth. He is always giving 200%. But that man has the biggest heart, I really look up to him.
When devotions were done, I went into my room, took a sleeping pill, and here I am now. Keep the prayers coming! We need a lot of them this week! I love you all so! Sweet dreams!