The last 4 days the internet has been out and I realized just how much I depend on it to not feel totally in the middle of nowhere. How much I depend on it to get word to my loved ones that I am ok, and of course get pictures of my Charlito on Facebook!!
So much has happened the last few days I dont know where to start...lets start with my favorite topic right now-Charlie!!
Charlito had worms so that is what was causing the extended belly and the bad diapers but he chewed a pill and hopefully the pill will fix that soon! He is so happy now as you can see from the pictures, I am trying to get him on a schedule which is kind of a joke here since I can't even keep a schedule and if you know me then you know how hard it is for me to have last minute changes. We went and took Charlie to see his mom and of course she was a mess, we even took one of his sisters back with us-Mia. She has such pain and anger in her eyes but I finally got her to smile and that moment was straight from heaven!!! Mia is 4 and looks about 2 and her 4 top teeth have rotted off. She will be loved, fed and changed just like my Charlito was. Charlie is eating solid food with his 2 bottom teeth only. He still loves his bottle and doesnt care for the sippy cup. Charlito loves his sock monkey, his hot wheel cars and mostly being read to at bedtime. Speaking bedtime he loves going to bed but staying asleep is a different story...pray for me please.
The worksite-well no more trench digging!!! Now shoveling rock,cement and sand-mix it with water you get your foundation. I havent been going to work there every morning much between Charlito waking up in the night for a bottle and a change and the rainy season starting it's a little hard to get much done.
Mama Tara's is going well with the tutoring, the kids are a bit more guarded then the House of Hope kids but I like a challenge. Also please pray for Mama Tara she is having some health issues-pray we can get a doctor out there or get her to the hospital...she is a real mosquito woman so going to the doctor is unheard of.
Ok now Me-I am doing well, I feel blessed everyday by a hug, a smile or a hand hold. My stomach is still adjusting to the food but it's nothing I cant handle, I have a little bump on my leg that doesnt seem to want to heal but you know what?? I am looking tan, we have pasta twice a week and I always have a child to love on so I am a happy missionary!!!
Friday, July 27, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Charlie slept thru the night!!
Around 7:30 I give Charlie a bottle and lay him down next to me and I should be trying to sleep as well but I cant so I look at him, rub his tummy and trace his eyebrows. Charlie has really bad diarrhea right now and even worse diaper rash. I stay on top of it when I have him but when I give him to the nanny's while I am digging, with the older kids or at Mama Tara's I know he is not being change regularly. I know I am not here to judge, I know I am in a 3 rd world country but it makes me so upset!!! Anyway so normally I'd be up 5 times during the night to change him and also give him a bottle 2 of those times because he is still small. But...not last night!!! He slept thru the night and only had diarrhea once. Yay!!
Today Charlie was strong enough to pull himself up which is supper exciting because it means he should walk any day now which will make life so much easier. Charlie was so under weight he didn't have any teeth but as soon as the nutrients started going in him out popped 2 teeth on the bottom so he ate carrots, rice and bread fruit for the first time. I started him on Soy milk and it seems to be helping and of course I give him plenty of liquids so he isn't dehydrating. Today he laughed for the first time and I almost cried because he's just been so serious. He got new dinosaur toys from the group that just left and he loves them!!
Anyway I start going back to the school site tomorrow morning now that Charlie is going to let me get some sleep. I am super excited about it too because I love working with my hands and talking with my new friend William he is learning English and I am learning Spanish so we are a perfect pair to hangout lol William is a hard worker and he likes to show me how to do stuff because I am a woman and couldn't possible know but it's sweet so I smile and say thank you.
Today at Mama Tara's someone did my eyebrows-I swear Mosquito woman are stronger then the men!! This woman was not playing around it brought tears to my eyes and I love to get my eyebrows waxed.
It's Thursday and most of you know I play darts on Thursday and I have missed it badly...the gringo's play scrabble on Thursdays but tonight we are not so I am really sad no darts no scrabble. At least I have Charlie who is getting hungry so I have to go.
Today Charlie was strong enough to pull himself up which is supper exciting because it means he should walk any day now which will make life so much easier. Charlie was so under weight he didn't have any teeth but as soon as the nutrients started going in him out popped 2 teeth on the bottom so he ate carrots, rice and bread fruit for the first time. I started him on Soy milk and it seems to be helping and of course I give him plenty of liquids so he isn't dehydrating. Today he laughed for the first time and I almost cried because he's just been so serious. He got new dinosaur toys from the group that just left and he loves them!!
Anyway I start going back to the school site tomorrow morning now that Charlie is going to let me get some sleep. I am super excited about it too because I love working with my hands and talking with my new friend William he is learning English and I am learning Spanish so we are a perfect pair to hangout lol William is a hard worker and he likes to show me how to do stuff because I am a woman and couldn't possible know but it's sweet so I smile and say thank you.
Today at Mama Tara's someone did my eyebrows-I swear Mosquito woman are stronger then the men!! This woman was not playing around it brought tears to my eyes and I love to get my eyebrows waxed.
It's Thursday and most of you know I play darts on Thursday and I have missed it badly...the gringo's play scrabble on Thursdays but tonight we are not so I am really sad no darts no scrabble. At least I have Charlie who is getting hungry so I have to go.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
It's totally crazy how early the sun comes up here!! 5am bam it's in your face!!! The power goes off for the night around midnight and comes back on around 8am so its so hot when the sun comes up, I have to get up and open the door because the windows alone are not bringing enough air in my little hot box room. Between the heat, roosters and children playing outside and calling out to anyone who will pay them attention-I am not going back to sleep.
I go down stairs and there's breakfast which has been not bad but it's not Denny's either...
I go get on my sunscreen, bug spray and hat, fill up my water bottle and play on email and FB until my ride comes. I have been helping with building a school, well actually I've been digging trenches 18 inches deep, 14 inches wide and 36 feet long for the foundation. We just found out we need to go down and out 4 more inches!!! We have dug in the sun, the rain and in sunny rain shower- that is my favorite. My back, legs and arms hurt but I love it!!! I love the sweating, the burn and mostly the saticfaction of getting something down in just a few hours. Its so hot here thats all you can do is a few hours in the morning of work.
We come back to the house for lunch-always rice, beans and some kind of meat. I have a new appreciation for water and by the time I come back in Dec. I just might hate it!!! I shower and its cold water alone here but it feels good!! After lunch here you take a rest but if you know me you know I have a hard time resting but not here!!! Between going to bed late and waking up early and digging, I sometimes look forward to my hour and 30 min nap before I go to Mama Tara's house. It's amazing to me the difference between the kids that live in Mama Tara's house and the one that live in House of Hope. Mama Tara raises her children the true Mosquito way and of course H of H is American ran so it uses stoves, it's more developed and it's cleaner but children are the same anywhere you go-hungry...hungry for your love, your attention and your smile. And so thats what I do here- I love, hug, high five and look them in the eyes and smile for as long as I can before the sun starts to go. Then I go- I have to remember I am still an American and this is still a 3rd world country...well "rest time" is over and I have children waiting to be loved on!!!
I go down stairs and there's breakfast which has been not bad but it's not Denny's either...
I go get on my sunscreen, bug spray and hat, fill up my water bottle and play on email and FB until my ride comes. I have been helping with building a school, well actually I've been digging trenches 18 inches deep, 14 inches wide and 36 feet long for the foundation. We just found out we need to go down and out 4 more inches!!! We have dug in the sun, the rain and in sunny rain shower- that is my favorite. My back, legs and arms hurt but I love it!!! I love the sweating, the burn and mostly the saticfaction of getting something down in just a few hours. Its so hot here thats all you can do is a few hours in the morning of work.
We come back to the house for lunch-always rice, beans and some kind of meat. I have a new appreciation for water and by the time I come back in Dec. I just might hate it!!! I shower and its cold water alone here but it feels good!! After lunch here you take a rest but if you know me you know I have a hard time resting but not here!!! Between going to bed late and waking up early and digging, I sometimes look forward to my hour and 30 min nap before I go to Mama Tara's house. It's amazing to me the difference between the kids that live in Mama Tara's house and the one that live in House of Hope. Mama Tara raises her children the true Mosquito way and of course H of H is American ran so it uses stoves, it's more developed and it's cleaner but children are the same anywhere you go-hungry...hungry for your love, your attention and your smile. And so thats what I do here- I love, hug, high five and look them in the eyes and smile for as long as I can before the sun starts to go. Then I go- I have to remember I am still an American and this is still a 3rd world country...well "rest time" is over and I have children waiting to be loved on!!!
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
My adventure started at 4:30 am getting ready to go the bus station, got to the bus station and it wasnt bad at all I had a waiting room with air and a tv. Got on the bus and off we went speeding down the road. It was a awesome bus ride-air, comfortable seat and a tv...then I had to go to the restroom and it got not so awesome. The bathroom was pretty much a hole in the bottom of the bus and the door gets stuck sometimes but at least there was a door. Three hours fly by and I am in Ceiba waiting for my ride to take me to the small airport here. He gets there in 30 mins and he says I have to take you to my house and I hope to be back in time to take you but if not someone will. Well I was not ready to miss my flight so he left and I caught a taxi. The airport is small but not too bad, I had a Honduran brown paper bag lunch so I was pretty hungry. A few hours went by and it was time to fly in my 19 passenger plane!! It felt just like a roller coaster...it was fun, scary and makes you pray everytime you feel your stomach jump.
Well this airport is a dirt road with a shack where you pick up your bags and of course one of my bags didnt come on with me. I hop in the rino with Laura and her kids and they take me to House of Hope to drop my stuff. I like the compound and its full of kids playing so it's a perfect place for me!!! But my room is a different story...it's small and not room for my stuff and I share with a girl from the states and a little boy she has taken in as her own and he has CP. I soon find out my roommate has lice after she invites me to sit on her bed for a minute!!! She says everyone gets it and has it until they leave, I said not me and stood up-real fast!!
We left for Mama Tara's house and the rino ride was another roller coast and I am so glad I started doing roller coasters again at Seaworld so I was prepared but no seatbelt this time...
Mama Tara's house is a very Mosqito ran childrens home so it has no power or clean water and it was nothing I have ever seen. It's one of those moments you thank God for everything he has blessed you with and everything he has protected you from beacuse you are from the states. The one thing I love about these homes is the busy part, I wont be bored!! The thing that worries me is everyone even the volunteers have lice and in the states its like the plague and here its like something you just live with.
I've now have had more beans and tortillas in the last week than I've had my whole life!! So have pasta and Honduras sause for lunch I was supper excited!!! I start helping build a school house tomorrow and start a schedule of spending time at Mama Tara's so please pray my first real day of Honduran hard work goes well.
Well this airport is a dirt road with a shack where you pick up your bags and of course one of my bags didnt come on with me. I hop in the rino with Laura and her kids and they take me to House of Hope to drop my stuff. I like the compound and its full of kids playing so it's a perfect place for me!!! But my room is a different story...it's small and not room for my stuff and I share with a girl from the states and a little boy she has taken in as her own and he has CP. I soon find out my roommate has lice after she invites me to sit on her bed for a minute!!! She says everyone gets it and has it until they leave, I said not me and stood up-real fast!!
We left for Mama Tara's house and the rino ride was another roller coast and I am so glad I started doing roller coasters again at Seaworld so I was prepared but no seatbelt this time...
Mama Tara's house is a very Mosqito ran childrens home so it has no power or clean water and it was nothing I have ever seen. It's one of those moments you thank God for everything he has blessed you with and everything he has protected you from beacuse you are from the states. The one thing I love about these homes is the busy part, I wont be bored!! The thing that worries me is everyone even the volunteers have lice and in the states its like the plague and here its like something you just live with.
I've now have had more beans and tortillas in the last week than I've had my whole life!! So have pasta and Honduras sause for lunch I was supper excited!!! I start helping build a school house tomorrow and start a schedule of spending time at Mama Tara's so please pray my first real day of Honduran hard work goes well.
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