One Month and a Tribute to Our Boys!

Well, as of Wednesday we have officially been here for four weeks...so this marks our one month anniversary!  And what an amazing four weeks it has been.  We have learned so much about ourselves and about God and the way He works.  He has spoken so clearly to Laura and I since we have been here, especially the last few days.  So for this post I want to write about the boys that we have spent so much time with.  I won't get through all of them today but I want to start sharing some specific things about each boy that have made them so very special to Laura and I.

Where to start...

• Eduardo - Probably one of the most shy boys in Casa Rosada.  My first impression of him was..."I don't know if I will ever get this sweet little boy to open up".  But it didn't even take a week before he was hugging us goodnight and giving us the sweetest smile every time he saw us.  He probably gives the longest hugs and just has the biggest heart, and if I ever need to calm down and get away from the craziness...I try to find him.

On the left

• José Alexander - He is a precious little stinker.  He definitely tries our patience at times (especially when we are trying to do English homework with him), but then he flashes us his huge smile and we can't help but smile back.  If you have ever been to Jovenes you have probably met José.  He loves when the Gringos come and, since he speaks English, most of the group members take to him quickly.  

• Noé - This kid likes to pretend that he is really tough, by sometimes "ignoring" us (which ignoring to him is making sure that we see him looking giving us a smile and then turning his head really quick).  But even though he pretends to be tough, we know he has a soft spot for us, especially when he is sitting next to Laura and she is rubbing his back and he is nodding off.  We can also tell that he loves us when he made us bracelets while pretending the whole time he was making them that they weren't for us.

• Samael - The oldest boy in Casa Rosada (14).  Probably one of the sweetest teenager boys I have ever known with his two little dimples that are always showing because he is always smiling.  Because he is older, it took him a little longer to get close to us, but now 2 hours don't go by without him coming up to me and saying "HHHannah" (it took them awhile to realize that my name wasn't Anna).  But now he lets us rub his back and never misses a good night hug, we have found his soft spot. 

• Jorgé - One of our friends from Casa Verde.  Another boy that just wants to be our friend and his way of being friendly is picking on us.  But it's ok because we pick on him too...all the time.  Jorge is also amazing at carpentry, he works many hours of the day in the workshop building chairs, doors, dressers and all sorts of other things.  Very impressive.  He is a very hard worker and it definitely shows. 

• Norman - One of the third graders at Alison (the bilingual school).  For about two weeks now they have been our of school and I have been working one on one with Norman on his English.  This boy is one of the most diligent students I have ever met.  He pesters me all morning asking when we are going to start our homework for the day.  He loves reading and writing and he is good at it.  I love teaching him because he is eager to learn and loves learning and I can relate with him. 

Well I think that's all for today.  It takes a lot of focus to write a blog these days.  The boys have figured out that we come to the office every morning with our computers and so there is always a boy in here listening to music with us or just looking through the pictures we have on facebook or watching us type.  God is blessing us so much everyday with these wonderful relationships that I fully intend on keeping the rest of my life.  We continue to thank God for giving us this opportunity and we also want to continue to thank each of you that were an integral part of helping us get here whether it was with your money, your prayers, or your continued support and encouragement.  Having the support of our friends and family is one of the biggest gifts you could give us.  Thank you all again. We have had an incredible first month here in the beautiful country of Honduras. 

Hannah and LauraBeth  

Motorcross anyone?

This weekend was definitely filled with new adventures.  We were excited to have a group from Nashville here for Friday and Saturday.  They came to visit with the boys and brought lots of fun activities with them including ready to make birdhouses.  The boys loved this, and I became a professional carpenter.  (Pa Joe - you would be proud of me, although there were several times I thought "If Pa were here he would know what to do").  Thankfully the group also brought drills and hammers with them because doing all of that with screwdrivers would have been quite the experience.  After we got them built, the boys got to paint them.  One of them is already up on one of the houses.  They were very proud.

The group that came also wanted to put on an employee luncheon for all of the people that work here at Jovenes in Camino.  This was something that was really needed.  The people that work here pour their hearts out all the time for this place and for the boys.  They are on the job 24/7.  But for them this is not just a job but like having a family with 55 boys.  They need to know they are appreciated and we were so excited that this group recognized that.  Food was brought in and the boys helped to make little gift bags so that they were part in thanking the staff as well.

Hannah and I were also very blessed to get to be a part of a dedication of a wall mural to Ty Osman II.  Ty's family was in this group along with several of his close friends.  Ty made quite the impression here with the boys when he came to visit, playing soccer and just being there for the boys.  At the dedication, several of the boys from Jovenes told of their memories with Ty and how much of an impact he had on their lives.  Nelson (one of the boys at the bilingual school) lead a beautiful, heartfelt prayer thanking God for the time Ty got to spend with them.  Oh that we could all shine Christ's love so much!

Sunday, the boys of Casa Rosada lead their last church service for a little while (each house is in charge of it for a month).  To finish out their month, they decided to put on a skit.  Absolutely precious!  They practiced several times the night before and got their outfits ready.  Pictures say more than words could...

After church and lunch, we were surprised to find out that Zamarano was hosting a motorcross event down the street.  Ronald told the boys they were welcome to go, so of course here Hannah and I go down the street with them (picture me in a wheelchair going down a gravel road - it was quite the sight!)  People came from everywhere to ride their 4-wheelers and motorcross bikes through this Honduran obstacle course.  One of the boys became the "cameraman" for this event so we have lots of funny video and pictures.

Well, we are about to go work with the boys from the bilingual school.  Hope you all are having a blessed week! (Also as a side note, I go back to the doctor in 5 days to get my stitches out and hopefully get out of my cast.  Prayers for that would be great!)

From Work-Outs to Making Bracelets...

Well it has become increasingly more difficult to keep a study update on the blog with every passing day.  At this point, a lot of the new experiences have passed and everyday is beginning to feel like this is just how our life is now.  The one thing that has been new is processing our feelings and thoughts about our time here.  At least once a day, Laura and I have to go sit in our room and just talk about how we are feeling.  The hot topic lately is just about our purpose here and what God is calling us to do and be.  Versus about missions and God's calling for our lives would be much appreciated as we are working through what God wants our life to be.

Also, new on the agenda is teaching the bilingual boys that go to Alison during their summer break.  We started with our lessons this week and are having so much fun with it.  There are six boys so Laura and I have split the boys to where we each work individually with three of the boys.  I never thought I would have an inclination to teach kids and especially teach them bilingually until this week.  I have learned so much from them and I am very much enjoying being a teacher and getting to see the light bulbs in their eyes when they get something. We have been having such a great time coming up with fun projects, crafts and activities that will help them with their English.  I might just want to be a teacher now :).

Well it only took us 2 1/2 weeks, but the walls in Casa Verde are finally coming down.  Not sure if this is a good thing or not but almost as soon as they get back from school at 4, they immediately find us and start picking on us.  Their favorite thing to do right now is laugh about how "un-muscular" we are.  So now they have made us a work out schedule using their one work-out machine.  I have been told several time already that I need to be up at 4 to start my work-outs (Haha...yeah right).  Also, all the boys just got a huge new batch of yarn to make more bracelets...and that is literally all they did yesterday.  There were some boys that made 6 or 7 bracelets in one day!  I got taught how to make one of the easiest designs, and in the time it took me to make 1, some of the youngest boys had made 3.  It is incredible.  It is also such a great idea to sell the bracelets and give the boys a percentage of the money made from each bracelet.  The boys love making them and the Gringos love buying them.  It is a perfect system!

Another great thing that happened this week was seeing my brother and sister and all the Smyrna Brigade people here at Jovenes!  They came here on Monday and then a few of them came back on Tuesday.  It was just refreshing to see familiar faces and get to share a bit of the joy from this place with them.  All of the boys had been asking me for several days when they were going to get to meet my brother and sister.  So that was a joy, getting to introduce my family from home to my family here in Honduras.  It was refreshing.

Well, we will try to be more punctual when it comes to posting, but another group is about to get here so we have to go do our job.  We love you all and hope to continue hearing from you.

Hannah and LauraBeth

The blessing is in the seed.

Thursday's games were a great success!  After all the boys got in their teams and finished coming up with their cheers and skits, the games started off with an egg hunt.  Each team had 7 eggs hidden all over the Jovenes property.  My favorite hiding place for one of the team's eggs was in the swimming pool!  One of the boys just jumped right in, clothes on and everything.  The next game was a game of getting water from one bucket to another using a towel.  Best part - the floor between the buckets was soaped up (aka lots of slipping).  A game of charades, a bike race, some sort of tug of war, and an army crawl followed.  The boys were so excited with every game.  It was really cool to see the older boys stepping up and leading their teams.  For each game, the winners of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place received tickets that they were told could be used to buy prizes later.  After a short break for dinner, we all gathered around a bonfire (I didn't realize how much I missed this until we got to have one - reminded me of camping).  The rain that started falling quickly rushed us all into the cafeteria for the remainder of the day's activities.  Each team had prepared a bible story skit and a cheer.  Just imagine VBS skits in Spanish done by a bunch of boys.  Hannah and I laughed so much!  All the winners were announced, tickets were dispersed, and prizes were awarded - coke, chips and candy: what could be a better prize?

Friday, I decided to try out walking up the stairs in the pink house.  We have felt so welcome at Casa Verde and were so thankful to have a first floor room, but we missed our Casa Rosada boys!  Casa Rosada has become our home, so after successfully being able to get up to the second floor, we moved back in to our room!  As we moved our things back over, we were greeted at the gate to the house with huge smiles, hugs, “Are you moving back here?!” and without waiting for the answer boys grabbing our bags to carry them up to our room for us.  We love those boys with all of our hearts!!!

Since there has been so much that has gone on the past few days, and in an attempt to not jump all over the place with my stories, we just wanted everyone to point out some of the things that we really want to remember and share:

• Juan running up to us one night during a movie Hannah and I were sneaking out of to go to bed and telling us goodnight...we are becoming grandma's with our bed time.
• Watching the boys from Casa Rosada dance outside the window of the office to the music we are playing.
• Johan and Junior (brothers) sitting and talking together.
• Learning how to make chocolate covered bananas and frozen chocolate milk - not as easy as it sounds.
• Swimming with Jorge, Adonay, William, and Gomez and having a conversation about bodily functions (boys will be boys no matter what country you are in).
• Isaac sitting in my lap during church (not just sitting in my lap, he wanted to be held).
• Picking at all the boys just like Hannah and I would with our own brothers (Parker, Gavin, and Graeme - thanks for the practice).
• Talking to Walter, Juan Carlos, and Samael through the wall...Hola!
• Asking Kelsin, Ochoa, and Gomez what their dream was...Ochoa wants to be a surgeon so next time I break my leg, he can fix it (I told him there better not be a next time). 

Johan and Junior having a brother moment :)

What a goober!!!

Today we are really excited to have the Smyrna group come!  We are anxiously waiting their arrival in about an hour!  It will be really nice to see familiar faces (and family for Hannah).  Have a blessed day!

LauraBeth and Hannah 

Our new normal...

It's amazing how much peace and joy can be felt during a time that might seem miserable and difficult and in a place that most people would only want to visit.  Laura and I were talking this morning and we wish we could just transfer all the amazing lessons and feelings of peace and contentment we have experienced here.  This place feels like home; we are content here; we are more content here than we are with all the luxuries back at home.  Life here is simple and happy.  I mean, we haven't looked at a calendar yet and we are doing just fine!  I wish that everyone could live this way, or at least understand how wonderful it is to live this way.  We can already tell that going home and adjusting to our old lives is going to be quite the challenge.

Ok...so what has been going on since the surgery you might ask?  Well, the first night after staying over night in the hospital, we went and stayed at Ronald's house.  It was really great to be able to stay there and be taken care of in such a loving, hospitable way, but, of course, we were missing our boys...a lot.  So the next morning, we packed up all of the stuff we had collected since leaving Jovenes on Saturday and made our way back to our favorite place on the earth.  Since Laura was on crutches and had had surgery just 2 days before, we couldn't exactly move back into our room on the second floor in Casa Rosada, so Ronald and the house parents of Casa Verde got a room cleared out for us on the first floor of Casa Verde.  We have been very thankful for this the past few days.  It has made things very easy and convenient for us.  If Laura needs to go and lay down for a while, she can; if I want to get out and play with the boys I don't have to walk down the street anymore, but if I want to sit in the room with Laura so she doesn't get bored I can do that too.  It has also made it easier for us to get to know some of the older boys.  They have been much more difficult to get to know.  A lot of them had walls built up (and rightly so considering where they are and how they got here), but we have been able to tear down those walls and joke around with them and have a good time.  As nice as it has been to be living on the first floor with a bathroom inside our room, Laura and I are about ready to see how she does hobbling up the stairs to our original room...we miss our Casa Rosada boys!!

Since moving back to Jovenes, Laura and I have never felt better!  She is sleeping completely through the night now (last night she even set her alarm to wake up to take her pain meds...and didn't even wake up!).  She is getting a good amount of rest and playtime which is helping her spirits a lot.  The best part of this story that God is writing happened yesterday when we went to visit the doctor for her check-up.  We prayed and prayed the whole way to Tegucigalpa that there would be no infection and that everything was healing correctly.  When we finally got to see the doctor...surprise, on the 30th of this month, she gets the stitches out and gets the cast off and gets to start physical therapy.  Praise God!  It is amazing how much He has been with us the past few days.  Our lives will never be the same, that's for sure.  Laura's scars will forever be a reminder of the ultimate healer and that His presence is always with us.  The scars are only an outward sign of all the work He has done on the inside the past few days.  We feel so blessed to be a part of this wonderful story of healing and redemption.

Today is going to be a fun day.  The boys have a break in school this week so there have been games and activities every day.  Last night, they were all split up into seven different groups each with a color and a different fruit of the spirit as their team name.  Today they will compete in several different games and challenges and earn tickets all along the way.  I have already gotten some really fun pictures of the different groups and all the hard work they are already doing to ensure their victories.

Hannah and LauraBeth

P.S. We will put pictures from the actual tragic day soon (they are on Laura's camera and we keep forgetting to grab it.)

A Plate and 8 Screws Later...

Well...we are both alive which is a blessing.  It's a good thing we have such a great support system here and back at home.

Phase 1: the break.  Our biggest adventure thus far began Saturday morning as we left Jovenes to go on a trip to Playa Blanca (I guess you could call it a water resort).  We were really excited because this was our chance to spend some time getting to know the older boys.  Surprise...20 min into swimming, Laura, trying to get to know the older boys by playing copy cat, jumped off a six foot wall into about 2 feet of water.  Little did we know, American bones are not quite as flexible as Honduran ones (to be fair, several of the other boys, who are taller than Laura, had jumped off this wall several times each).  I, being the "smart" chicken, sat and watched.  I knew that something wasn't right as soon as she came out of the water.  On one end of the pool, Laura was telling me "Hannah my foot is broken" while Jonny was at the other end telling me to jump (he had no idea what had happened, poor thing only speaks Spanish; Laura was speaking English).  Since then we have learned how to say 'broken' in Spanish (cascado).  It took about 3 minutes for it to register in my head (after she finally had to stick her foot out of the water to show me the damage) that her foot really was broken.  So I ran for the doctors (thank the Lord they came with us).  We really couldn't have asked for better people to have been present.  So as Laura was being wheeled away in a wheel-barrel, I was asking the doctors just how bad they thought the break was.  Our conversation was about this short and went something like this, Me: "Is it bad?", Doctor: "Yeah it's bad".  Of course we didn't tell Laura this right away because we knew that would only make things worse.

Phase 2: the drive.  Now, begins the next adventure of driving on the bumpy Honduran roads with Laura in a splint made out of the back of a chair that Chelsea (one of Ronald's daughters) beat on the ground to break, several t-shirts, and one of Ronald's shoe laces.  I was covered in mud from my knees down but I jumped in the back of the our first vehicle of transportation, the SUV.  The drive back to Jovenes was probably the worst of all the drives just because it was a dirt road with very large pot holes.  Of course this part of the story is still kind of a blur to me (and especially to Laura) since we were both still in shock.  We got to Jovenes and found out that news travels very quickly despite being in the middle of no where.  I jumped out of the car and ran back to my room to change clothes and to get some more things to prop Laura's leg up with.  I was greeted by a swarm of kids that I am afraid I was not very attentive to.  Except for one conversation that I remember with Adonay.  He asked me why I was back (apparently he was the only one who didn't get the memo) so I told him (using mostly body language) that Laura's foot was broken.  His eyes got big but then he smirked and said "un poqueto?", my reply, "umm...no".  That wiped the smirk off his face as his eyes got even bigger and he asked where she was.  2 minutes later he was over by the truck.  We finally got her into the back of the truck as comfortably as was possible and headed into Tegucigalpa with Noella (one of the doctors) and I holding her splint as steady as we could.

Smiling the whole way!

Phase 3: the Tegucigalpa public hospital.  At this point we had no real idea the extent of the break.  Luckily we were with two doctor's who knew the doctor's at the hospital and were able to get us in with really no wait at all.  Before we knew it, she was in the system and getting an X-Ray.  The first look at the X-Ray made it very obvious that there was definitely a clean break right through her fibula.  And it wasn't until this point that the word 'surgery' was mentioned.  Upon hearing that word, Laura said, "no way, get me to a private hospital, I have insurance".  So, we loaded up the truck and drove in a few circles to find our home for the rest of the adventure...TraumaCentro.  Good news...this was the first place recommended by all the doctors for Orthopedics.  The doctor specializing in Orthopedics met us at the door after awaiting our arrival.  We were so relived at how clean the building looked and how professional the people working there were.  We showed him the X-Rays and, to our surprise, there were to breaks...one in her fibula (the only we could see plainly on the X-Ray) and another break in her tibia.  And this is when it was officially determined that surgery was the only option.

Waiting...having a splint was so much better!

Phase 4: the wait.  According to Laura, this was the worst part of all.  At this point we were pretty trusting of the doctor's and the facility but the fact that she was going to need an epidural instead of anesthesia probably added to the long, miserable wait.  At least we had the Jovenes doctors with us who were trying their best to keep calm and crack jokes the whole time.  So after a lot of phone calls and also let it be noted that Laura still has not shed a tear, she was rolled back into the operating room.  They let me ride downstairs with her so I am living proof of how clean and sanitized the operating room smelled like.  If only I had known while I was sitting in the hospital room waiting that Laura was carrying on a perfectly civil conversation with her nurse and anesthesiologist about all sorts of things (in Spanish I might proudly add) while they were sticking a needle in her back and prepping her for surgery.  During the 2 hours of waiting I just hung out in the room finally eating dinner after 8 that morning and watching the only thing I could find that was in English...The Producers. So I halfway watched that and during the other half I was talking to all sorts of different people on the phone.  News definitely traveled fast.  By the time she went back to surgery, just about everyone from back at home knew what was going on.

This was our lovely window view

Phase 5: the first night and recovery.  Well...in case you haven't already heard, the surgery was very successful!  No problems whatsoever and it went by pretty quickly.  Once everyone knew that she was going to be okay and got to talk to her, they all cleared out for the night which left us all by ourselves in the middle of Tegucigalpa.  Normally this would be a terrifying thought, but the whole time we felt completely safe and taken care of in this hospital.  We slept pretty soundly, except for the few times Laura needed me to get up and adjust her leg or the pillows propping her leg up.  Although the night did seem to drag on, it was finally morning and she was finally feeling better...the pain medicines were kicking in and working!  We both got a shower, we ate some breakfast, and even got around to laughing.  The rest of the morning was spent at McDonald's while Ronald went to the pharmacy to get all of Laura's meds.  We had a pretty pleasant drive back, and even had a few laughs when it started raining and Israel, Jésus, and Adonay got covered in rain water from sitting in the back of the truck. Currently we are at Ronald's house in the recovery stage which hopefully should only last about 3 days.  Laura is eagerly awaiting seeing all the boys as they are eagerly awaiting seeing her.  I have been over to Jovenes a few times since we got to Ronald's and all the boys swarm me with questions about Laura.  It is precious really.  I just keep falling more and more in love with the boys everyday...they really do feel like family to me.

After surgery...a little out of it...

Continue praying.  Spirits go up and down like a roller coaster so just pray for positive spirits and a pain free recovery.  Considering the circumstances, we are doing great, so we don't want anyone worrying too much about us.  The Jovenes community and our new family here has been more than we could ever imagine. We have been more than taken care of, we have been loved and that's all that we could ever ask for.  We love you all back at home and will keep you updated!

Hannah and LauraBeth

P.S. Pictures soon to come when my internet connection is better!

Juliet, Juliet, where for art thou, Juliet

But really every time we say something in English, they want to know what we are saying, or what it means in Spanish and they repeat everything we say!  This includes the older boys who are finally beginning to warm up to us.  Funny boys just wanted to admire from afar for a while I guess, but believe me, now they are coming out of their shells.  Hannah got to help one of the older boys, Christian, with his English homework in the morning forming past tense verbs from the present tense. (flashback to 3rd grade!)  As we were in the office a steady flow of older boys made their appearance including my favorite, Merlin. Why is he my favorite, you ask?  Well his entrance into the room greeted us with a creepy smile (there is a lack of words to describe this smile), then condensed with a hug for Hannah with his head on her shoulder (pause 20 seconds), pinch my arm 3 times, and leave.  No words.  Priceless!  

After a while, Ronald came into the room to check on us and see how everything was going and, to our surprise, tell us that we would be driving the next day... for those of you who have been to Honduras before you know what I mean when I said we were surprised.  (Mom - before you freak out, remember I am alive and writing this)  We were thoroughly excited and nervous at the same time.   It turns out, driving in Honduras is very similar to driving in the US minus driving all over the road because of potholes, not having lines, cows crossing the road at any moment, and people on bikes who can ride faster than you are driving. Nothing to worry about!  Thankfully, the normal driver rode with us to give us lessons on how to drive in Honduras although we still haven't quite grasped the honking concept. (Honking in Honduras can mean anything from hola to get out of my way silly gringa!)  Funniest part of driving with him was trying to understand his instructions in Spanish.... evidently there are 3 more words for "stop" in the Spanish language than just "alto".



When we finally got back to Jovenes at about 2:00 from an afternoon of picking up lots of boys from different schools, we went to the kitchen to grab some lunch.  As we came out of the cafeteria, one of the 5th graders, Pancho, ran up and pulled his quiz out of his pocket... 20/20!!!  I have never seen such a proud smile!  Over the next few minutes, 3 more of the boys ran up to us to show their perfect scores.  (Proud mamas!)  We praised them with high fives and hugs.

The rest of the afternoon was spent playing corn-hole (such a classic).  I realized, after the older boys got back from high school and started playing, that I am going to need a lot more practice in order to not get slaughtered every time.  At this point, playing a game with me is quite the boost to their egos.  After a while, Hannah and I realized that almost all of the older boys had made their way out to the square (main area in front of the kitchen).  After about 20 minutes of pokes and every boy trying to get our attention, we decided it was time to retire for the night.  But of course at dinner, we had to tell Tio Marvin and Tia Sarai about the days adventures which resulted in lots of laughs that led to tears.  Upon heading to bed, we had a Romeo and Juliet moment with almost all of green house standing outside the house telling us goodnight as we stood on the balcony.  This resulted in more laughter from Marvin and Sarai.  All in all, a very productive and funny day.  


LauraBeth and Hannah

And Now I Speak in Spanish

First of all, if you didn't see on Facebook we finally have an address!  Please send us some mail, we would really love it!

Asociación Jovenes en Camino
Apdo. postal 30004, correo de Toncontin
Tegucigalpa - Honduras C.A.

Well, Wednesday morning we experienced our first unforeseen power outage!  We were literally in the middle of typing up a blog when everything shut off.  As frustrating as this would be in the States, the only people it affected here was us.  Life went on normally without electricity.  It's such a good feeling to not be tied down to the luxury of electricity.  But this gave us a good time to catch up on our journaling.


At 11:30, and after watching several games of corn-hole, we made our way down the road to pick up the boys from school.  Boys, get ready for this, we had an entire conversation about sports...in Spanish!!!  We talked about our favorite baseball teams, basketball teams, and which team Peyton Manning is now playing for and whether or not we thought it was a good thing (this part of the conversation was slightly confusing at times).  We were really thankful for our chapter on sports from this past semester.  Then, on the way back we talked with the boys about school and their classes.  One of the boys even dug a paper out of his backpack to boast on his 20/20 on a quiz.  I felt like a proud mother; I even had to show Laura and brag on him some more!  It is so great to be able to have so many different kinds of conversations now.  We have already begun learning enough new words to talk about things other than "Hola, ¿cómo estás?".  


At lunch, we really felt like part of the Jovenes family.  We found out that if you don't finish ALL of your food...you have to stay and clean the kitchen.  Laura and I both were the laughing stock as all the boys in Casa Rosada called us out while handing us brooms and staying to watch the show.  It was good though to know that everyone (including the cooks) are feeling comfortable enough with us to call us out on something like that. This is a problem though, because they eat their biggest meal at lunch time and we can never finish all our food. Looks like we will be cleaning the kitchen a lot.  


Elbin saved us from having another long conversation with Adonay about girls and facebook to tell us that we were having a meeting in the office.  Come to find out when we got there, we were having a "fiesta" to say goodbye to the doctors (they are on a rotation and their time here is finished).  We were really excited to have chips and spinach dip...it reminded us of home!  Then, completely unlike home, was the cake.  For some reason they make their cakes with jelly and some sort of pudding in between the layers and fruit on the top.  It wasn't terrible, but definitely not the kind of cake I would want for my birthday.  The doctors also invited Laura and I on a trip with Casa Verde on Saturday to some sort of water park.  We are really excited about this because it will give us an opportunity to spend some time with the older boys who are harder to get to know.  


The fifth graders have a quiz today, so last night was all about studying!  Laura went over the same 5 questions with them at least 50 times.  Don't worry...they will (or they should) all get 100's on their quizzes.  We even created a game show to make the studying more fun for the boys...and for us as well!  
The brigade from Monday is coming back  in about 30 minutes so we have to go get ready for them but we will post about the rest of our day later! 


 "Buen Dia!"


Hannah and LauraBeth

"For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

The walk to school was very successful!  In the US walking 35 kids to school would be a nightmare, but here it's a great time to practice our Spanish skills and get plenty of stares.  Apparently they don't see many Gringas here.  The boys were ready backpacks in hand by 6:30 looking very precious in their school uniforms.  We were told that walking them to school was better than them taking the bus from Jovenes because they wanted the boys to feel like they were part of the community.  He was so right:  as we walked down the road, many of the people would stop and say hello to the boys.  We are looking forward to also feeling like part of the community someday.

Picking the boys up from Alison (the Bilingual School in Zamarano)

Playing Corn-hole in Casa Rosada

Monday, a Brigade from Torch came to help with one of the worker's house just down the road from Jovenes in Zamarano.  They had a group of about 40 people so 30 went to work at the house while about 10 of the women stayed at Jovenes.  Ronald had told us that part of our job was to speak with people that came with the brigades since we are really the only ones that can fluently speak English here and most of the people in brigades don't speak Spanish.  Little did we know, translating for such a large group of people was a great challenge.  We later realized that it was really difficult to switch back in forth from Spanish to English so quickly.  We had gotten into such a habit of speaking Spanish (we even speak Spanish to each other some times) so to be asked so many questions in English was more difficult than you would think.  It was great, though, to get to share our stories with the brigade and give them some insight on the boys and some of their situations.  One of the highlights of our week so far was lunch...PIZZA!  We have never been more excited to eat pizza and drink coke.  It was nice to get a little taste of food from back home.  The rest of the afternoon was full of games, water fights and a lot of sun.  The boys had a great time but the most interesting part of the day came when the brigade was getting ready to go.  As the boys were saying bye to everyone they jokingly came up to us and starting giving us goodbye hugs.  It was such a great feeling to know that we weren't leaving and that they will see many brigades come and go this summer but we will always be there.  Brigades are a wonderful thing for the boys to give them something new and exciting to look forward to.  It really brightens their day to have a new group of people to play with but we think believe that because their lives are full of things that change, it is also good for them to have something that remains the same.

Just a normal day in Casa Rosada.

Sweet little Anthony - youngest one in Casa Amarilla

Our next adventure came when Gustava decided to catch a bird (with his hands) and chase us around the dorm.  Once we finally thought he was done and had gotten rid of the poor bird...he pulled it out of his pocket (yes, you heard me right, his pocket!). Pobre pájaro!  And let's be clear...I do not like birds! It was quite the experience.  Dinner, was so great.  Marvin was in the library working on the computers so Hannah and I got eat dinner with Sarai.  Get ready for this...we had an entire dinner conversation with her in Spanish!  It really is amazing all that we have learned in just under a week.

Issac and Guity love to play with the Gringas!

Today was, from what we can gather, our first basically normal day at Jovenes.  They went to school, they came back from school, the played soccer, it rained, and then they ate dinner.  Of course, there are always funny stories that happened in between all these events, it is just hard to write about every one of them.  But one of our favorites was a water gun fight (and by gun we mean spray bottles) that we had with Bayron, Pancho, Noe, and occasionally Johan when he wasn't running around with a trash bag on his head.  He is definitely one of the most unique children we have met.  Even though we can't always remember everything we have a few things that we definitely don't want to forget, so here goes:

• Telling Adonay that he didn't need to know how to ask someone to be his wife in English
• Fernando wants to be a painter
• Alex really loves to clean and organize things just so, when someone asks, he knows where it is
• My bracelet that says "I Love Ti" (Spanglish)
• Bayron running around acting like Captain America and trying to repeat what we say in English
• Fernando saying "Buen Provecho" (Bon Appetite) even when we aren't eating
• Sarai telling us her observations about the boys loving Gringas
• Nery puffing out his chest and strutting every time he walks by us
• Selvin trying to hold my hand every time I am near him
• Eduardo beaming with pride when we gave him a hug last night after calling him out for not giving us a hug after devo
• Samuel being so proud of himself for matching pictures of animals to the English word even when he put a picture of a Flamingo for an Ostrich.
• Johan attempting to tell Hannah ghost stories in Spanish
• Tio Santos speaking to us in English and all of the older boys cheering every time we understood what he was saying

Well these are just a few of the great things we get to experience every day.  We hope that you can experience some of that joy with us.  Looking forward to hearing from you all!

LauraBeth and Hannah

Studying our English with a baseball bat :)

Loves to be held!