Hello everyone! It's been eight days since I took off on this new adventure. I am currently in Guaimaca, Honduras volunteering at Orphanage Immanuel. It's been pretty random and crazy, but when is my life not this way? Haha! We were finally given our ''duties'' on Tuesday. Mine are:
1. To hang out with the special needs children from 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM. Along with the twenty or so special needs kids, there are about forty seven new kids that joined the Orphanage about two weeks ago. These kids came too late to be put into the school here, so they have to wait for the next semester to begin - which is in January. (School just ended last Thursday, but students are still taking exams this week)
2. From 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM myself, Hillary and Laura help our new friend Kate in the school library - organizing, cataloging etc ... I have a feeling that this job will be quickly finished, so we'll see what the next project will be.
3. Helping with Christmas cards around four o'clock. This is where we go to specific kids houses and make Christmas cards with them for their Sponsers. They all have their picture on it and then they can write a note, draw a picture, or both.
That is it for my specific duties, but since I sometimes feel like I have nothing to do I've been helping out in other places if needed. A couple of nights a week I go to the Toddler's House and help put the "babies" to sleep. There are about six of them ... boy, let me tell you ... they do not want to fall asleep sometimes. And then a few afternoons a week I've been going to the Toddler's House to help feed all the toddler's (there's probably around forty of them), then help Stephany clean up in the kitchen, and then help shower and clothe the kids. And then I play with them for a bit, and it's darling because they call me Tia Ericka (aunt in spanish)!
The Orphanage is pretty big, Honduras is greener than I expected and there is a semi-farm here. With the special needs kids, we often take walks around the farm to look at the cows, chickens and pigs - it's a riot. I live in the volunteer girl's staff house which has ... twelve girls in it currently. Apparently we will be getting two more volunteers in a couple of weeks.
Because I am sort of on a time limit, I won't get into the details of the Orphanage quite yet, and I'll tell you all about the girls in my house later. I hope this brief blog will let you all into my life a little bit. I hope to write more later!
Oh, and PS: I play soccer with the twelve year old boys (twelve of them) pretty much every other day and it is THEE highlight of my day - these kids have TALENT!
Also, if you could, I know all of us here would appreciate prayer - specifically for strength, joy and energy (and for me, the ability to sleep) Thanks and love you all!
1. To hang out with the special needs children from 8:30 AM - 11:30 AM. Along with the twenty or so special needs kids, there are about forty seven new kids that joined the Orphanage about two weeks ago. These kids came too late to be put into the school here, so they have to wait for the next semester to begin - which is in January. (School just ended last Thursday, but students are still taking exams this week)
2. From 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM myself, Hillary and Laura help our new friend Kate in the school library - organizing, cataloging etc ... I have a feeling that this job will be quickly finished, so we'll see what the next project will be.
3. Helping with Christmas cards around four o'clock. This is where we go to specific kids houses and make Christmas cards with them for their Sponsers. They all have their picture on it and then they can write a note, draw a picture, or both.
That is it for my specific duties, but since I sometimes feel like I have nothing to do I've been helping out in other places if needed. A couple of nights a week I go to the Toddler's House and help put the "babies" to sleep. There are about six of them ... boy, let me tell you ... they do not want to fall asleep sometimes. And then a few afternoons a week I've been going to the Toddler's House to help feed all the toddler's (there's probably around forty of them), then help Stephany clean up in the kitchen, and then help shower and clothe the kids. And then I play with them for a bit, and it's darling because they call me Tia Ericka (aunt in spanish)!
The Orphanage is pretty big, Honduras is greener than I expected and there is a semi-farm here. With the special needs kids, we often take walks around the farm to look at the cows, chickens and pigs - it's a riot. I live in the volunteer girl's staff house which has ... twelve girls in it currently. Apparently we will be getting two more volunteers in a couple of weeks.
Because I am sort of on a time limit, I won't get into the details of the Orphanage quite yet, and I'll tell you all about the girls in my house later. I hope this brief blog will let you all into my life a little bit. I hope to write more later!
Oh, and PS: I play soccer with the twelve year old boys (twelve of them) pretty much every other day and it is THEE highlight of my day - these kids have TALENT!
Also, if you could, I know all of us here would appreciate prayer - specifically for strength, joy and energy (and for me, the ability to sleep) Thanks and love you all!
