We made it to Honduras safely (I am sure you already know from Mary Elizabeth and Caitlin's blog.) I immediately felt a little overwhelmed as soon I stepped off the plane. I had been praying and anticipating being in Honduras since last fall, and to finally be here was exciting and surreal. Going through customs, I was a tad nervous. For some reason I always think I look guilty and convince myself that I am going to be stopped. Well.... I was stopped. My supply bag full of toothpaste, toothbrushes, sidewalk chalk, etc must have looked a little shady because they wanted to search it. The man inspecting my bag could not have been nicer and I actually got to share what we would be doing this month. After getting through customs we ate at a little outdoor food market, and attracted a good many looks. We were the only Americans there. :) On Friday afternoon we went on a tour at the orphanage. I thought I had mentally prepared myself for what I was going to see, but as soon as I saw the children it hit me pretty hard. Meeting the older girls was especially hard. Many of them have been picked up off the street, taken out of prostitution or they have come to the orphanage to protect themselves from abusive situations. It was hard not to feel guilty. I have never gone without a house to live in and have never had to deal with not feeling safe or protected. I am hoping that we will be able to work with these girls and share with them the only true hope and joy we have in this world, the hope that is found in Christ.
Saturday, we arrived at the orphanage and were greeted by children with sticky mango kisses and a ton of hugs. One of my fellow interns Kimberly and I were placed in the baby room with 7 babies from 0 to 2 years old. The orphanage director had not told us where we would be the day before, so we weren't really prepared with supplies for babies. I had crayons, puzzles, stickers and construction paper in my book bag so we decided we had to make those work. The first activity we tried to attempt was playing with stickers. This was definitely interesting. I am pretty sure the babies had never seen stickers before, and some loved them and others were not so sure about them. There was one common thing: they all wanted to eat them. I quickly found out that "no" is a universal word. Crayons were also a popular item to eat and we all had a great time attempting to color haha. The director told us on Saturday that the baby and toddler rooms are where we would be working a good majority of the time. I ask that you all would be in prayer for our health, especially when working in the baby room. Two babies have the chickenpox and the others have terrible coughs and runny noses ( I never knew that being sneezed on and wiping snotty noses could be so sweet ). The lady working at the orphanage said that sickness is pretty much always present due to the fact that all the babies share cups and spoons. I also ask that you all be in prayer for these children and their health. Please pray for us as we love on these sweet babies this month, it was so evident how much they need love and affection.
This morning we woke up and went to church. We were told that the pastor was from the United States, so I was expecting the sermon to be in english or at least bilingual. I was mistaken, the whole service (music and preaching) was in spanish. Out of the four interns, I am by far the one who understands the least amount of Spanish. Although, I have no clue what the pastor was preaching on this morning or what the songs were saying, I do know that no matter what language they were speaking they were worshipping the same God as I do. How cool is that? We serve such a big God.
Tomorrow, we will be going to Buckner's Community Transformation Center in the morning and the orphanage in the afternoon. We will be doing this all week. I am not really sure what we will be doing at the CTC, but I am so excited to actually start serving and building relationships with the children and the people of Tegucigalpa.
