I woke up early on our first day in country to ensure I was downstairs ready for when the Day Care children arrived. Taking my bibles and reading books, I had everything ready at the table below by 6:30AM, and then just decided to rest, drink my coffee, and study the bible. But the kids never arrived when I thought they would be there. So my goals in country are always to use spanish whenever I can, so I walked over to the kitchen and asked some of the staff when would the children arrive? And while I did not understand the full response, I did hear that they had not returned since the pandemic. Which was sad, but I was told they would return in a couple of months, so perhaps next year. On this first morning, Rachel (one of the cook's daughters) did join me for a bit and read some of the spanish kid's bible for me, which is very helpful for learning pronunciation.
As it is everyone morning in Honduras, there is no real plan, only some ideas at what might happen that day. There was a potential for this being our work day, but some expected rains caused some hesitation, as that does not work well when you are mixing alot of concrete on a workday. So this day became a day at the schools. We would be traveling to Coyo in the morning and Cacao in the afternoon. Because of our late arrival the night before, the Texas group would be taking the lead with the VBS activities on this day, which was good, because we had not had any discussions about specific at school plans.
At the first school at Coyo, we were able to serve the lunch to the children prior to our activities with them. Which is good, but I am pretty sure we probably messed up a really efficient system they normally have as we took their plates and cups individually, then had to find the random child when we had their food and drink. Afterwards, we shared with them the story of Moises with the Texas team (Christina Flores with the group from Texas and spoke spanish well). All of the kids were given necklaces (collars) that they made with a wave (ola) bead in the center to represent the red sea crossing. I was able to get out the bible drill bibles, and it is alway so much fun to gather a group of kids together and play this game that I learned when I was young. We turn to Psalms (Abrir en metia de la biblia), and Matthew (Abrir en metia del segundo parte), and 1 Samuel (Abrir en metia del primero parte). And we have fun with it, racing each other, and trying it with our eyes closed (con los ojos cerrado). Many are familiar with the Bible, but the game gets them engaged, and helps to share just a few snippets about the Bible. It is fun for me to see it engage from the kindergarteners up to the 5th graders in the same manner. There is joy in opening God's word, and I love to see the smiles on their faces when they see it. Haha, that smile is sometimes not there at the beginning when I ask if they want to play the Bible game (jugar un juego da la Biblia?).
At Cacao, we had another good time visiting with the kids. Sam and I liked the way they painted the bottoms of the trees, and I think there is a picture below. We did get a lot of rain here at this school, and had to run for cover. Made for a nice and humid afternoon. Davis was a trooper taking an active part in the picture gifts that Mrs. Dawn Clemons had brought. She brought two portable printers to take pictures of the kids and hand them out. These are true treasures for these children as they don't have really anything at home capturing their images. Many of them ran home to get siblings to come back for a family picture. We had little frames for them that they could color and decorate as well. Davis was the main photographer going to each child saying Sonrisa (Smile). But during the rain, he put his super hot rain coat on, and kept it on the whole time as he delivered pictures to the kids after printing. To see the kids and many of the parents there also light up with smiles to get these photos was really great to watch. I pulled out the Bibles again, and this time Sam came to watch and shadow me working with these kids in my broken spanish. At this school I found a bible drill ringer, she was really good, and kept bringing others to play. She would also help me with the smaller ones open to the right places. I wish I would have gotten a picture of this girl, who was all smiles and so pretty, and loved to help me with the little ones...but I forgot, and thus wrote myself a note to capture more of the children in other days.
I also brought our the blow up flamingo for a memory verse ring toss game, but didn't really implement the memory verse into the game just yet, as it seemed to fit more with our Moises skit and activities that the Chelsea group would implement later in the week. But I still remember one girls laughter as that flamingo kept jumping up and trying to tickle her. We speak a different language, but it is fun to see that the silliness can bring smiles and laughter here in Honduras just as it can in the US.
Besides the Day Care children not being there this week, another difference was that in the evenings, there was not many house visits by the church group to different members in the church at Campamento. It was a little sad, but Honduras seems to be about 6 months to a year behind where the US is with the post COVID activities, and these visits to homes have not started back up as they were before COVID. So back at the Day Care, we really just did not have any activities in the evenings. That evening we were able to practice our Exodus from Egypt skit that Sonja Angell had prepared for the school VBS. It was great, and I could not wait to share with the children. Plus Davis was going to be Pharoah (Faraon) and Sam would be an Israelite.
Maximo (the preacher we support here in Campamento), his wife Daisy, and oldest son Patrick came by that evening, and we had a great time connecting back with them after being away for 3 years. Maximo and I can have pretty good conversations as Sam told me later "He knows as much English, as you know Spanish, so you guys are able to help each other out". It is nice to be able to communicate better with my brothers and sisters here, as was my goal back in 2019. And this year to be able to answer "Como se dice X en Ingles?" (How do you say it in English?) often when last time it was just me always asking "Como se dice X en Espanol?". Maximo was able to tell me about how busy both Patrick and Daisy were going to work 4 days a week, and school on the weekends. Daisy was working on a degree in Teaching Children, and Patrick had changed from Engineering to Business. I also found out Patrick is currently driving a water purification truck as his job during the week. They were able to join us for supper that evening. Beef Brisket taco night...amazing!
I also met a new friend, Briyan Anariba, that was working at the Day Care this week. He was working the front door helping the staff as needed. His Aunt was one of the kitchen staff and the one that told me about the kids not being back at the day care that morning. He helped me alot with my spanish, and was a good teacher helping me with some pronunciations. He was a big NASA fan, so we had some common things to talk about, as he showed me that he followed NASA on facebook. And again, I failed to capture a picture with my new friend Briyan, but I grabbed the picture he shared with me from facebook of him and his girlfriend (novia). I also learned from him, after some laughter on his part, the difference in pronunciation of arena (sand) and harina (flour)...very important the e or the i sound when you tell someone how much you like the tortillas.
That evening I captured some laughs watching sam and davis play Taco Goat Cheese Pizza upstairs with Brandon, Jason, and Kendall. Then we started up some Goat Lords, and we found that when Brandon Rawls is playing cards, the whole city of Campamento hears. Which would cause the Texas group to join in the next night, because all wanted to play whatever game Mr. Brandon was playing. We had a nightly debrief of the events of the day, and ended the briefing in prayer. Each day was a blessing to interact with these kids. There were murmurings of a workday for the next day, but maybe it would get rained out. And there is a pic below of the buildings across the street from the day care...see if you can find the dog on the roof, it was just one of many that start barking every morning at 4:30AM...the roosters are earlier at 3:30AM....I mean like clockwork.
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