Tuesday, June 30, 2009

P.S.


Ends up "pan de pan" is bread pudding. We are making it with pineapple. Mine was the top one. Karla was shocked at how much mine rose. I told her it rose higher because it was made with love ; )

I also wanted Dina to know that since there has been no school this week Karla has been working hard with Valery to use the signs. Yesterday evening Valery knew almost all of them! There are only about 5 that she doesn't do consistently. Now we are teaching the family and her sister so everyone can use the signs. When school resumes we will ask the teacher if she is willing to integrate signs for Valery. That would be so awesome.

Valery looooves to talk, but you can't understand anything she says so these signs are great for her. And they are also great to show her parents how quickly Valery can learn things. The only down note is that with so much use, the cards are not in the best shape anymore. Last night Valery curled up on the couch with her mom and me and went through them all. She'd look at the pictures, then make the sign and we'd clap for her. It's exciting to watch her learn so much so quickly! Right now they are having their third "class" for the day.

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

Today I got up and watched the news. They said that the borders are closed and that you can't travel from city to city. That accounts for the milk shortage my cab driver was speaking of yesterday. And Karla's father is stuck with a lot of fresh cheese that he can't sell because it can't be transported from Olancho, where her family lives.

We hear planes flying overhead sometimes, but not too much.

I made it to the breakfast program and back just fine, and found plenty of milk at the big supermercado Karla suggested. My cab driver was very happy to get some for himself as well.

I bought 5 gallons and that ended up to barely be enough! Lots of kids showed up today. Since they don't have school they expected to just wander in at any time, but I told them that I need them to come promptly at 10 am tomorrow and we will all leave at 11 am. They were super about praying today - 2 kids volunteered before we were even circled up! That was really great! And when it was time to go they all saw my cab outside waiting for me and hurried out so that I could leave. In the meantime we ate and played games like normal. It was fun to be around them again. I haven't seen them for breakfast since last Wednesday.

I came home and registered with the US Embassy, mostly to please my Aunt and y mother. Then we had a nice big lunch. And now Karla is going to teach me to make "pan de pan", which interests me mostly because of the name - bread of bread. I'll let you know what it's like.

Oh, and I should add, the streets from home to the church were perfectly normal. It's only downtown where there are huge crowds.

I know my family and friends are worried. I wish there were some way they could be here to see that the situation for me as an individual is fine as long as I stay away from downtown. I have really great friends and smart people around me here who would never allow me to be in a dangerous situation. And I am really trying to be conservative and wise in my decisions. My concerns are more for the well being of this country as a whole, than for myself right now. It will be interesting to see what happens when good old Mel returns.

Time to start dinner - well, I think pan de pan is dinner. Maybe it's desert? I'll keep you updated on the pan de pan situation, maybe even take some photos.