Re cap of the last week and my return to the Hogar

So I made it back safe and sound and now finally have time for an update here! The internet still isn’t working at the Hogar so I’m writing this on my new laptop and then going to save it onto a flash drive and put it up later tonight when I borrow one of the computers here. We left a message with the computer guy today so hopefully he will call back soon and then come look at it- I really hope it’s fixed by the end of the week so I can have skype and stuff for the weekend.

It was so so sad saying goodbye to everyone yesterday L I did not want to come back and was feeling really depressed at the thought of being all alone again. I met so many new people during the mission trip that I was leaving behind more friends than I had originally planned on- they were all so nice, giving me lots of stuff to take back and money to help with things while I’m down here as well. Bob, the leader of the group, and the local pastor here now want me to go teach at the pastor’s school down here for a year! But I kindly turned that offer down.

I shared my story a bit about my time here in Honduras for dinner one night and talked about how hard it has been for me. I told them how Tori (my college roommate) had sent down a stack of letters for me to open on different days and how Pablo had been so good with emailing me every single day with lots of encouragement. At the end I shared a Bible verse that Tori had sent me from 2^nd Corinthians 4:16-18. I suggest you all look it up, but it talks about not giving up since this time on earth is only temporary. At the end I went to sit back down and Bob’s wife stopped me telling she had 2 pieces of advice: I thought they were going to be about how to live down here but instead she said first, keep that girlfriend of your’s close to heart always and second, marry that boy! I told her I plan to do both J

I came back with some great presents including movies I had bought for the kids, tons of pb and j, Spanish Bibles and asthma meds for little Oscarlitos who has super bad asthma. That’s nowhere near everything, but that’s at least a start haha. God is good because as soon as I got back the kids at the Hogar all ran to me with hugs and wanted to see the presents of course. And I then found out that we have 4 kids from the IHNFA now living here at the Hogar- Oscarito and his 3 sisters!!!! One of the girls has been wanting a Spanish Bible so that worked out great and now Oscarito is living here so we can make sure he gets enough meds when he needs it. I’m so happy to have them all living here cause they were some of my favorite kids from the IHNFA but I’m disappointed I won’t be seeing them all day anymore. I asked them today about why they were here now and they said their mom had taken off to San Pedro and they don’t know why. Their dad left them too and is now with another woman- this woman has her own kids and doesn’t like these little ones so they have been on their own for a month!!! I couldn’t believe it, the oldest girl is only 10 years old. She said they haven´t had any food besides what they were getting at the IHNFA.

This morning their dad came to the IHNFA to work things out for them to live at the Hogar permanently and the kids are so excited. I went with them this afternoon to their house to get all their stuff.  It was so sad seeing it- everything was a mess, someone had broken in and stolen their mattresses so they had nowhere to sleep. They had no bathroom and when Oscarito had to poop they just took him outside and pulled his pants off while he squatted and out came tons of dyherrea. We gathered up their clothes and books and left- I don’t know what will happen to their house at all cause there’s a bunch of random things still there.

Well that’s a big update for today, sorry everyone. No worries if you don’t get through it all. I have a little over 8 weeks left now! I hope I can make it. The time in Choluteca was so wonderful, I am so so happy I was able to go and stay for so long. And now I just need to keep positive here at the Hogar. I love you all and miss you as always.

Quick pics update

Babies!! While translating at the clinic

After another long and successful day at the construction site

Medical team! Stacey, Stacie, me, Kristina, and a couple pathfinders

Our awesome helpers- Erwin and Samuel

More updates later! That's just some quick pics before I lose this awesome internet. I'm heading back to the orphanage in the morning

Translating at the clinic

Today they needed me to help translate at the medical clinic since the translator they had couldn't make it. I had no idea how it would be with my Spanish not being all that great, and especially since I don't know any medical terms! But I was working in the dental area with Dr. Turner so it wasn't too bad, he knows some of the very specific dental Spanish words like "root canal". It ended up being really fun actually and I'm starting to think in Spanish a lot more automatically now!!!

This was the view out of the bus when we pulled up this morning- people had been waiting since 2 am for us to arrive at 8:30am.

There were sooo many people there, but we only gave out numbers for 250 people to come through. It was so hard at the end too cause I was the one that had to tell people we couldn't see any more, it was time for us to go. And they were telling me that they had been there waiting since 5:30 that morning! They weren't happy, but we just couldn't get to everyone sadly :-(

Dental crew hard at work. Funniest part of today was when they yelled for me to come in and were like "what does this lady want us to do? She has no teeth." Haha! She must've been at least 70 years old and I think she just wanted them to look at her mouth cause she didn't have a single tooth in there!

Me in my scrubs outfit for today :-) Eddie and I are going to switch off days of translating and construction all this week so tomorrow I'll have the hard hat and gloves back again.

Picture Updates

Sweet tan lines from wearing gloves on the construction site all day.

Exhausted by the end of the day- you can't see just how dirty I am from this pic!

Ahhhhh :-) I love being with good friends!! We recorded a video to update everyone in our Foxboro church family on what we've been up to. Israel is missing from this photo though.

Other than that, no big news. I'm just happy :-)

Choluteca

I'm safely here in Choluteca with Eddie and the Turners and the Maranatha group!! The bus ride to Tegucilgalpa was long, but uneventful and i didn't get taken or anything. As soon as I got to the airport i crossed the street and made a pit stop at Pizza Hut. It was wonderful!!! The airport had free wifi so I hung out there and waited for everyone to arrive- Stacie found me and was like Kelly?! I didn't know you were going to be here! So that was funny and we waited for the rest of everyone else to show up. It was awesome to see them, though the first thing Grandma Turner said to me was "What happened to you? You're so skinny! Are you ok?" But her next words were oh it's so great to see you! i'm so glad you're here!

Anyway though it has been awesome to be here with a group of volunteers, especially good friends! It's so much better than being alone all the time. And they are eating american food too! I've had spaghetti, mac and cheese and even french toast! plus pizza hut again yesterday :-) i've been in heaven basically.

and it's felt like christmas! my family sent down a sweet care package with some awesome snacks that will last me a while, the people here heard about what i'm doing and they gave me a huge jar of peanut butter and 2 things of jelly- which is great since that stuff is really expensive down here. then another couple gave me some children's books in spanish to take back to the kids and the big huge surprise was that mrs. turner has given me her laptop to have!!! She hardly ever uses it and heard about how mine has been dying and not working so well so she brought hers to give to me :-) I was so shocked when she told me and sooo happy to have a computer again!

it's been fun here working on the construction site. I've never done cement block pouring before so i'm learning tons of new stuff, including Spanish construction words because i'm one of the few who knows some Spanish down here so I help with translating. But when they ask me to get a hack saw i'm just like well i have no idea what that is in english so i have no idea where to even start with trying to translate that to spanish haha. It's soooo hot here, over 100 everyday, and that's in teh shade, so I've drinking gallons of water each day and have a great farmers tan going on now. But overall it's been good and i may even end up staying here longer! they asked if i would stay next week to help out some with VBS too. and i really hope i can cause it's so much more fun here than being alone in santa barbara!

well that's about all for now. these days are really physically exhausting so i'm gonna get some sleep now. happy sabbath!

ARGH!!!!!! KIDS!!!!!!

So yesterday was an extremely awful day at the IHNFA. Idk what was wrong with the kids but they just would not listen at all. It was raining so they couldn´t run around outside and definitely does not help matters. But SERIOUSLY I was ready to kill someone! I had to take snack away from like 10 kids, we told one of them she was suspended for a day, and at one point we had 4 of the boys sitting and facing at all 4 walls in the eating area. Cristian and Hector were not listening at all. They woud just laugh at me everytime I told them to do something and as soon as I turned by back they would leave their timeouts. It was soooo frustrating! I just don´t know enough Spanish to get them to listen to me. Hector even grabbed his stuff at one point while I was dealing with some other kids and took off down the street! I couldn´t do anything about it. Then today he shows up with a lolipop for me and hugs. Kids.....

Today thankfully they were much better. It´s harder with Jessica not around as much to help me, but it´s also nice that she´s given me the lead there now. I feel more like I´m actually doing stuff now, it´s nice to be involved.

Tomorrow I´m heading to meet the Turners and Eddie in Tegucigalpa!!! The bus ride should be interesting, 5 hours and I need to get there early enough to get a seat otherwise I´m standing the whole time. But there´s pizza hut waiting for me at the end of it!!! after 5 weeks of beans and rice, i´m willing to spend 5 hours to get pizza. and there´s supposed to be a pizza hut not only at the airport where i´m meeting them but also at the hotel that we´ll all be staying at!!! And mom is sending lots of goodies for me with them too so yay!!!

Well that´s about all for now. Extra early morning tomorrow to catch the bus in time. Oh and btw just cause i don´t HAVE TO wake up at 5 am each morning does not mean that i don´t. the kids are sooo loud! and jessica gets up earlier for school now and sets multiple alarms which all wake me up haha. so yeah, sleeping less now but it´s ok.

No Internet

Just a quick update here so that people aren´t alarmed by my lack of posts. My computer got a bad virus here, I´m pretty sure from one of the kids borrowing it even though I didn´t let them use it much. I got it wiped clean last week at a computer repair place for 100 lempiras' about $5! dad told me it would cost about $100'200 back in the states. The place was very reputable, they know Nelson the director of the Hogar here and they helped Jessica when her computer got a virus too.

However getting it wiped means I lost the network internet password that was a huge ordeal for me to get int he first place. Took days when I first got here for someone to figure it out! THey supposedly wrote it down, but they actually didn´t, they left and are now in Costa Rica. I have spent hours trying a lot of different things, but bottom line is it´s not working. We´re gonna try to get someone to come in and look at it cause no one here knows anything about computers. So for now I just use the computers in the biblioteca after teh kids have gone to bed, but that´s not that often.

Anyway my time is short and this may be the last update for a little while. On weds I´m going to meet up with Eddie and the Turners in Tegulcigalpa and that will be fun! I´ll be gone til Sunday, but I here there´s pizza hut!!!!! I´m planning to eat that every day while I´m there. Hope everything is good back home! Love you guys

Officially been here a month :-)

No early mornings for me! That’s the biggest news I found out today J Another volunteer/staff (we can’t figure out if she’s paid or not) arrived a few days ago and she’s going to take care of getting the kids up here at the hogar! She’s from Honduras so she doesn’t speak English, but her job is basically just to hang out with the kids here, help tutor them with homework, get them up in the morning, etc etc. She won’t be working at the IHNFA where I am at all. So yay! I still get to sleep til 7 each day.

Also I taught my first English class yesterday. I’m not teaching at the local school, but the kids at the IHNFA get out of school at noon and come then. They then have Bible class and English class in the afternoons at the IHNFA and I’m in charge of English. It’s not too bad, probably about 20 kids max (the older ones only) at an average age of maybe 10 or 11. The hard part is that some have already had some English and some none at all. So I’m starting at the beginning, but everyone is at different learning levels. They also don’t listen very well, they’re always talking, and they cheat on assignments. But it’s ok, I’m managing to get across to them what I want them to do with the Spanish that I have and that feels good. It also keeps me busier, and I like the sense of accomplishment.

Other randomness: I’m eating a bit better now! I’ve been cooking some of my own stuff at the IHNFA which they don’t mind at all. So it’s been homefried potatoes with onions, garlic and peppers-yum! I’ve been buying my own potatoes and bringing those, but Hermana Gloria doesn’t want me to do that, she’ll just buy extra of the stuff I want when she does the food schopping for the IHNFA. So that’s even better! Today she sent me and Jessica home with horchata (which I don’t like but Jessica does) and cantaloupe juice (which Jessica doesn’t like but I do) along with some grapes. Yum again! I haven’t had grapes once since I’ve been here.

The bus was super slow yesterday. It took us forever to get back, I have no idea why. But it was so bad that the next bus that left after ours actually passed us- and they kept going! We never caught up or saw them again haha. Gotta love Honduras time……

Flat Tires and Christina Aguilera

Another weekend passed by quickly down here. I was looking forward to a bunch of sleep on Saturday, and after church headed for my room to crash. Next thing I knew I was being recruited to be in some skit, we had 5 mins to run through it and then we were off on a 2 hour bus ride to present it at a home for boys. It turned out ok, was just very crazy all the last minute running around- then again i'm learning that's just how things go here. On the way back, one of the tires on the bus blew out! And I was sitting right above it, it was so loud I thought it was a gunshot. We pulled over, decided there were 2 tires there so it was ok to keep going......until the second one went out as well. It's very dangerous to be stuck on the side of the road in honduras at night since anyone can come along and shoot you and steal your stuff. So the girls were all freaking out and I was praying like crazy. Thankfully we were only 30 mins from the Hogar so they came to pick us up with the other bus. And we arrived back safe and sound, though tired and hungry.

Sunday was not too exciting- we watched solo en casa (home alone) and just hung around here since jessica wasn't feeling well. I thought of you all watching the super bowl and heard that Christina Aguilera messed up the National Anthem! I found that both embarrassing and funny since here the kids can't pass 6th grade until they can recite, sing, and direct the Honduras national anthem. And keep in mind that it has 9 verses, each about as long as the entire star spangled banner. Maybe Christina should have had some of that kind of teaching in school :-)

Anyway most of the kids at the IHNFA started their classes today at public school, so there were hardly any kids there this morning and it was soooo nice. So much quieter and peaceful- i think i now understand why parents look forward to their kids going back to school so much! The hogar kids start school thurs and that's when my 5 am schedule kicks in supposedly. we'll see how it goes......

Another day in the life of an SM

Today was far less exciting than yesterday. The part that sticks out most in my mind is sitting in a photo shop for an hour waiting for "instant" digital pics to be developed. It's the kodak machines like we have in the states, but it took forever. Anyway while I was waiting for Jessica and Tania there was a mom with her little toddler sitting a couple seats away from me. And I thought it was kinda gross cause she was letting her daughter sit on the ground in the store and it was probably dirty. That thought was definitely confirmed when the next time i looked over the little girl had pooped all over the floor!!!!! It was everywhere!!! It was sooo disgusting and the mom was taking out changes of clothes from her bag and using that to wipe it up and clean off the baby. Omg it was just nasty.

Other than that some people from the government came to check out the IHNFA today. They only stayed like 15 mins and just looked around and left. So it didn't seem like a big deal at all. The kids were pretty good today actually- huge difference from yesterday. They were being mean to David though because they know how he's so in love with me and like to tease him. So whenever he would wander away from me they would jump all over me and tell him look look kelly's mine! And that would start him crying. I got a little upset today too because I found out a bit of his background story. He has a big scar down the center of his lip and I've wondered about it. His cousin told us today that his mom used to beat him when he was little, shove him into the cement wall all the time. She said she didn't love him at all. One day she hit him so hard it split his lip wide open and that's what the mark is from. I think that could also explain why he seems a little mentally and physically behind the other kids and why he crys a lot too.

I try not to think too much about the stories i've learned of all the kids here cause it's just so upsetting. I picture my little cousins being treated like that and I just get so angry- I would NEVER stand it for anyone to treat Jules, Ry or the boys like that. And yet I have to not allow myself to get really upset when I'm holding these kids who I know are going through so many awful things. It's just discouraging sometimes, especially when I found out about David since he's the one that clings to me the most. Good news that he is living with his grandmother now at least.

Well happy sabbath! Hope you're all doing well. Wish me luck to feel happy about going to church. It's so hard when I don't understand anything and it's soooo long.

Murderers, Thieves and Witchcraft

It’s actually been an exciting past couple of days! I’ll start with yesterday.

We got another girl at the Hogar now! She’s really sweet, and her sister is already living here, the one who helps out at the IHNFA. Anyway I got a bit of the background story on the family and found out that the girl who helps me at the IHNFA is actually only her half sister. Her father was murdered with a machete by the man that is now her step father. Her step father sells hammocks, which is not a stable job. And when he does sell, the money is spent on alcohol. From the things that they’ve told Jessica, it’s pretty certain there’s some sexual abuse happening so we’re really glad it’s finally worked out that her sister can move here now too. The first girl came here at 12 years old after her parents sold her for a night to some guy for about $25.

So yesterday we went to help her move, it was a quite a hike to get there. Can you imagine if everything you had in life fit in just 2 backpacks? And these aren’t even my backpacking backpack- we’re talking regular little kid school back packs. It was crazy. We also met her dad, and he seemed totally normal and nice actually.

Then today lots of the kids were getting in trouble at the IHNFA. We suspended 2 boys from the IHNFA for 3 days after they threw rocks at neighbor’s water pipe and broke it. Ugh. Jessica went to explain to the lady what happened though the whole time the boys were protesting their innocence blaming it on Jarol who’s 6 years old. How he could throw a rock hard enough to break the pipe and even get it up high enough (about 30 feet in the air) I have no idea. So we just took his snack away for a couple days, that was it.

Next up  Leila’s watch disappeared (a girl at the IHNFA) and we knew it was one of 2 girls who had stolen it. They were told they had an hour for it to turn up or they both kicked out for a week. Leila marched into the office with a  candle and piece of paper, demanding the list of names of kids at the IHNFA. She intended to write them all around the paper, light the candle and leave the room. When it burned down, whichever name it fell on would be the person who stole it. Jessica was like um no, Leila that’s witch craft. So instead we prayed. And the watch did get turned it, the girl who stole it was hysterical for a while about getting in trouble. So that was quite an ordeal to handle, but she was only suspended for a day since she turned it in. Then Hermana Gloria, a lady working at the IHNFA, gave the kids a fire and brimstone devotional asking them if they wanted to burn in the lake of fire someday and telling them the evils of lying and stealing. Oh my.

It's Februrary?

Wow, it's weird to think that January is already gone. Without having winter weather here my dates are just all messed up. The kids all tell me it gets awful awful hot in April- and I'm already sweating now!

Just a side note as one random thought I had today- I called all my fam up in NH this weekend when everyone was together for dinner. It's the annual tradition for everyone to go to the Mexican restaurant, because every Vogler likes Mexican food except me. Anyway, I always still had to eat the food there- and this weekend I hear that my cousin David got to bring waffles to eat instead?!?! What's up with that? I don't see the fairness in that situation. Hmph. I'm a tad bitter :-)

Anyway though, not a whole lot of excitment at the IHNFA. I'm still battling the kids trying to get them to listen to me. Being new, they don't want to follow what I say, but Jessica gave them all a lecture today so that they understood they have to listen to both of us. Hopefully that will help.

Little David still clings to me all the time, I'm pretty sure he has some kind of mental problems. He hardly talks at all, he's smaller than the other kids, even ones younger than him and he just looks kinda lost. But he's super cute :-) Orvin is another little boy (4 years old) there who i'll need to take a picture of at some point. He's one of my favorites for sure! He reminds me so much of Ryan, my cousin! He looks like a hispanic version of him, he's always running around, super tough and very athletic.

Anyway that's all for now. I miss baked potatoes and pizza like crazy. 3 more months....