Earth Day at Iglesia en Transformación

So far two people have given me ideas about things they'd like to see in the blog.  Both asked for more pictures of the surroundings here.  Perfect timing because Lourdes and I plan to go to Los Pinos tomorrow to take pictures of the homes and families of the 6 kids who are away at El Sembrador, a Christian school in Olancho.  I will try to get a lot of photos tomorrow of the homes of families we serve.  If you haven't been here before, you will be surprised.  I am quite sure most people have never seen anything like the way that people in Los Pinos live.  But as I have said before, somehow it is beautiful to me.

Today Lourdes did come to the breakfast program.  She said she has not slept well or very much in 5 nights.  This is worrisome to me because sleep used to be a big problem for Lourdes.  She has slept better for the past few months.  I hope it will not become a problem again.  The good news is she said she is not lacking for energy this time.  She said she never gets tired, that's why she can't sleep.  Last time she was exhausted all of the time.  Fibromyalgia is such a difficult disease!

When I got into the car Lourdes handed me the most beautiful necklace!  It it totally my style.  I love it.  It didn't match anything that I was wearing but I put it on and got many compliments on it.  Tomorrow I'll find an outfit that matches so I can wear it right!

Vanessa's collection of garbage

Marlin had the pancakes all made by the time we got there.  Lourdes had the kids each take a small garbage bag and search for garbage all over the church property.  The 3 teams who got the most garbage won a prize.  Then everyone else got a toy from a box of donations.  Lourdes had set some aside that she thought would be useful in my classroom too!

The whole group and their "basura" (garbage).

We got a lot of microwave popcorn from the "garbage" that the supermarket was throwing away, so Lourdes had all of the kids take home a bag of freshly popped popcorn.  They left feeling like they won the lottery with a new toy and a bag of popcorn!

As the second group came heavy clouds blew in and we could hear thunder in the distance.  Some of the kids walk a long way to get to the church, so we fed them quickly and told them to be careful in the street, but hurry home fast.  They didn't seem to care about the impending downpour.  No matter how much we encouraged them to rush they moved with no urgency.  Lourdes even told Marlin to go home early to avoid the storm.  I didn't mind cleaning the kitchen alone because along with the storm came cool air, so it was much easier to work in there.  Usually that kitchen is absurdly hot.

Lately it has been so hot, this is Jetty's new sleeping position.  (I know, she is a strange cat.)

Later we all sat down for lunch.  Lourdes made rice in a rice cooker that belongs to the church.  She said she would love one for her home.  It looked like a crockpot to me.  She also made a spaghetti with meat sauce.  She said she knew I was not going to eat something with all of that meat so she set aside some beans and cheese and eggs for me from earlier.  I am well taken care of!

We sliced up some cucumber and tomatoes, our daily staple for lunch, and had a feast.  Then Jairo had a meeting with a journalist.  I think it may have been one of the journalists he has been counseling fir post traumatic stress since the kidnapping of journalists has been popular.  But I'm not sure.

Lourdes and I worked some more on our project.  It is going to be so great!  It is for a family of 3 kids whose mother died recently, and for their father as well.  Every single one of the kids in the breakfast program contributed.  Now Lourdes and I are working to put it all together.  For me, the coolest part is seeing how well the kids in the program know God.  Even the little ones!  The things that they say and the advice they are giving to this family shows their deep faith and their knowledge of who God is.  I am proud of them and honored to be able to work with them.  It is hard to know what to say to someone when they lose a loved one.  But God has put His hand on this project and is working through these kids.  I believe their words will be healing to this family who lost their mother.

Another really cool thing that happened today is that Jairo asked me if I would like to attend a seminar about how to preach!  I was surprised.  My immediate response was, "I don't want to be a preacher."  Jairo said, "You never know when God might call you."  My mind went to the kids in the preschool class.  This seminar might help me to be a better teacher.  Although I don't want to be a preacher, and (at least so far) do not feel called to be a preacher, I am very excited and honored to be invited to a seminar about how to preach.  I realized later that this also means that Jairo has confidence that I will be able to understand the seminar, and maybe preach, in Spanish.  I can't wait!

I got home and figured out how to take the faucet off my pila.  I even figured out how to turn the water off first.  I didn't realize that turning off the water to the pila also turned off the water to the whole house, so I went inside and put soap all over my hands then had no way to rinse them.  When I got outside I had a choice, scoop water out of the pila with my soapy hands and contaminate the pila with soap, which is a BIG no-no.  Or try to screw the faucet back on with soapy hands.  I chose the latter.  It worked.  Afterword I felt quite accomplished.  I'll leave the faucet screwed on for tonight, then turn off the water and take it off in the morning before I leave for the day.