Noodles and Toothpaste

Feels like I have a million things to remember to write!

We have had a really busy week.  I keep thinking I'll be able to do laundry tomorrow, but we keep getting home right as it gets dark.  This morning was exciting.  All of the hard work by the men on Tuesday and Wednesday paid off.  The front entrance was wide enough and we received our first big container of donations.  It is a box carried on the back of a tractor trailer.  I wasn't able to see how they got the container off the truck, but I did hear it land with a thud that sounded like a plane breaking the sound barrier.  Lourdes and I both hoped everyone was safe after hearing that sound!

No school again today and rumor has it no school on Monday either.  Ugh!  These kids are missing out on so much of the education they are entitled to!  But the Breakfast Program continues to grow.  This week we gave out girls underwear sets on Tuesday and clothes for boys on Wednesday.  Tuesday and Thursday the psychologist came.  She has finished the section on self esteem and is now talking about the basics of sexuality.  Lourdes encouraged her to speak very strongly to the kids when she gets into more detail.  Right now a couple of the teens are going a little loco.  We have some raging hormones at the Breakfast Program. Lourdes is talking with them individually.  Usually the talks go well.  Some of the girls end up mad.  We have our hands full.  Thank God for Lourdes!

Jairo has been working on my residency.  I have to meet with a lawyer Monday about it.  They need my birth certificate and social security card.  I am VERY nervous about the idea of mailing those documents.  I've been checking into costs to cross the border into Costa Rica to get my passport stamped.  Then I'll be all set until I fly back to the US in December for Christmas.

I have been worried about $ lately.  I have to buy a ticket to get back to Honduras after Christmas.  Everything I found was close to $800.  I do not have $800 to buy a ticket to come back here after Christmas.  I know somehow I will come up with it, and I am praying about it, but since I am not fully funded, I was not able to set aside the money I need to come back.  So I have a ticket home on December 20th and I am praying God will provide me with a ticket to come back!

I do have faith.  This week God has done some cool things.  On Wednesday we had 83 kids and it was almost straight from the bible, how that pot of spaghetti with meat sauce stretched to feed those kids.  We still don't know how that happened from a human perspective.  Then yesterday I told Lourdes that we are almost out of toothpaste.  She said don't worry, God provides for the Breakfast Program.  She was right.  We were cleaning a few hours later and found toothpaste!  I have never been so thrilled to see a tube of toothpaste in my life :)

Monday and Tuesday will be long days, but I am looking forward to it.  Jairo invited me to join a group small group of women for a conference on those days from 4-8pm.  I am excited to go.  It is about how to provide spiritual healing to others.  I studied how to help people receive God's healing while I lived in Salt Lake.  It will be interesting to learn a new perspective.  Apparently the teacher is from the US.  I am so grateful for these opportunities to learn.  I also am grateful that Jairo allows me the time to take advantage of the opportunities.  In the US I had to say no to a lot of interesting things because they conflicted with my work schedule.  Now, learning these interesting things is part of my work.  Pretty awesome.

This weekend I Lourdes assigned me some homework.  I'm a little stressed about it because I don't have a car, but I hope Karla or Jose can help me.  I have to price out and take photos of swing sets.  A church in the US wants to donate money for a swing set.  Since it will be for the preschool kids, I am in charge of researching it.  My neighbors suggested so places to check, but I still have to beg rides from someone.

I baked broccoli and garlic Wednesday night with olive oil, salt and pepper.  It was so yummy and my house smelled like home.  I haven't filled my house with the smell of garlic since I got here.  Shame on me for waiting so long.  Now all I can think about is that broccoli.  It will be the first thing I buy tomorrow.

October marks the 30th anniversary for the church.  We are doing special activities all month.  They know that I am athletic.  Today they asked me to join a soccer team for the church.  I can't play soccer.  Especially not like Central Americans play soccer.  They were born playing soccer and have played all of their lives.  I know I should just play, but I am so competitive!  I don't want to do something if I can't do it well.  Plus there's a talent show.  I can't think of anything to do for a talent.  I know I need to be a part of these things.  I think it is important to take part in church activities.  But I am afraid I will embarrass myself!

I was talking with my neighbor Fany and her sister tonight.  I told them how my hair is falling out, but that I may have found the solution by using bottled water.  The sister kind of giggled.  I said, "I know, I am a very special gringa."  She said, "No, you are an expensive gringa."  I told her if I have to wash my hair with drinking water forever, she is right.  Another thing I could have never thought to include in my budget.

Pat Pike, my friend in the US, is still on a crazy roller coaster ride with health problems.  He has not been doing well for the past three days.  The kids are writing cards for him and they say they are praying for him at home, as well as at the Breakfast Program.  Yesterday, Lourdes said that for the first time she feels really worried.  Pat was supposed to be almost completely recuperated by now and instead he is getting weaker and weaker.

It has been nice to get to know some people from K2 a little better through this whole experience with Pat.  The other day I told one of them the story about how God made sure there were exactly enough noodles of spaghetti to feed each of the 83 kids at the Breakfast Program.  I said if God cares about the number of noodles in a pot, he certainly cares immensely for Pat.  God's even looking out for our toothpaste.