Rosy

Rosy has to get up before any of the other kids.  She gets up around 4:00 and leaves for school with Elena at 5:00.  They don´t return of an afternoon until around 4:00.  It is a very long day for her.  Then she still has her homework to do.

Last week Rosy had finals.  Today was the end of school program.  She got home this afternoon and she told us she was so glad school was over for this year.  She said she was going to go to sleep and not get up until next year.  We laughed.  But I think, at the time she said it, she was serious.

Josue

Josue continues to have appointments and tests.  Yesterday he saw the ear, nose and throat specialist.  This doctor is giving him one more month to see if the fluid in ears can clear up.  Then, it will be tubes for him.  He has only been off the meds for sinus infection a couple of days and already had another one.  More meds.

Today he saw the immunologist for the second time.  The doctor ordered tests two weeks ago.  Two of those tests were outside the normal range.  One was extremely out of the normal range.  As we suspected, more tests were ordered today. 

Right now, he has more appointments scheduled on the 12th, 13th, and 19th of November and the 2nd of December, as well as getting the tests done. 

This sometimes get weary, but we feel like knowing what is wrong and being able to treat it correctly is better than not knowing.

Please keep this little guy in your prayers.


Terri

Medicine Time

Around here, someone is always needs medicine.  We created a schedule so it is given three or four times a day, not every hour. 

I think Baby Josue, Olman and Yair are on medicine most of the time.  I do the medicine at 6:00 in the morning.  These three are nearly always in a good mood at that hour of the day.  So am I if I have had my coffee.

Olman cries about nearly everything.  But, he is such a big boy when it comes to medicine.  He gets up in my lap and allows me to give medicine.  He smiles big and sometimes I get a hug from him.

Yair loves the one on one attention he gets when receiving medicine.  One morning he drank his 5 ccs of medicine like he was dying of thirst.  That medicine may not have quenched his thirst.

Josue may be smiling when I walk in, but it does not last long when he sees the med cups and nasal sprays .  He screams and kicks and flails his arms.  One morning he bit me.  I thought he was just doing this for me.  I soon found out I am not that special.  He acts like that for everyone.  To do the nasal sprays, Mirian holds his arms and legs and I hold his face with one hand and quickly spray with the other hand.  He throws a fit the whole time.  As soon as all the medicine is done, he starts smiling again.    Josue may be on meds forever.  I really hope he outgrows this some day.

I Am On A Soap Box Tonight

I came to here to help these kids.  I love these kids and I love what I do.  I want what is best for the kids.  We decided, even though it was expensive, that the kids should have milk everyday.  We buy enough milk for all the kids to have milk everyday.  Or, let me rephrase that.  We order and pay for enough milk for the kids to have it everyday.  But the milkman has been cheating us.  Karen and I count the order.  There are a couple of employees  that count the order.  If, for some reason, none of us available, then an employee that did not know to count the order accepts it.  When the milkman realized she didn't count it, he was making sure he brought it to that employee every week.  I don't know how many cases of milk he has stolen from us, but it makes me really mad. 

Then, we try to hire enough employees to take care of these kids.  To get them to school and doctor's appointments and everything they need.  The labor laws in this country stink.  They always favor the employee.  We always follow the law and pay the employee what the law says, but some of the things I have to pay for, make me angry.  Can you tell? 

While I am on my soapbox, perhaps, there is a few other things about which I could vent.

Terri

Barbecue Grill

Last week while the Oklahoma group was here, they built a barbecue grill at one end of the pavilion.  A good hard day's work and a very nice grill was made.  Of course, the group had to try it out before they left.  The kids and the staff were treated to hot dogs last Saturday night. 

Feeling Lucky

Today is one of those "hope-we-can-get-it-all-done" days.  But, we knew it was going to be and I had made plans for that. 

Rosy had to have a cake for school that was big enough to serve 50.  Elena said she did not think she and Rosy could get a cake that big to school on the bus.  I agreed.   I was going to take the cake in to Manos Felices.  Rosy had to have a gift for the teacher, too.  Most things, I got ready last night.  I did get up a bit earlier to get the gift ready to go. 

I left here at 7:30 and took Karla to school.  With the cake seat belted in the front seat beside me, I left for Tegucigalpa.  There are construction projects on every major road, and some minor ones, in town.  Traffic is getting worse every day.  I was hoping to be at Manos Felices by 9:30.  I was on the tail end of the morning rush, so I had no idea how long it would take this morning.  I arrived at Manos Felices at 9:00.  And, the cake was still fairly intact.  I was feeling so lucky.  And confident. 

I went by the mailbox to get my mail and stopped at the pharmacy.  I had quite a list of medicines to buy.  The pharmacy at which I stopped had the whole list of medicines.  What a rarity to get everything in one stop.  Again, I was feeling luck and confident.  Since I was feeling so lucky, I stopped out by the airport for a granita for the road.

I sipped on my granita as I drove up the mountain.  Traffic was slow, but moving.  I arrived home at 10:30.  This was just too good to be true.

I went to the office to put the medicine away and just as I opened the office door, the little plastic handle on the bag broke and I dropped the whole bag.  All of the medicine was in boxes.  Most were in plastic bottles inside the box.  Only one was in a glass bottle.  And only one broke.  It was a medicine called dayamineral.  It has the consistency and stickiness of a really good pancake syrup.  It might be even more sticky than that.  There was dayamineral every where.  And, I mean every where.  The chair.  The table.  The medicine charts.  The floor.  My purse.  My glasses case.  My keys. 

I went to get some rags.  Nothing goes to waste here.  When clothes can no longer be worn, they are cut up for rags.  But no one really believes in cutting them in a size large enough to use for anything.  It took dozens of rags.  The child whose job it is to wash the rags on the pila today is going to hate me.

I cleaned the medicine charts first.  Then my purse.  I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned.  The rags, though wet, would not hold very much of the sticky dayamineral.  I went for more rags.  And cleaned and cleaned.  And went for more rags.  Just when I thought I had everything clean and destickied, I found it inside my purse.  I came down here to my house to tackle that mess. 

I ate lunch and was trying to do something significant in my office.  It was then I accidentally discovered it was in my hair.  I tried to brush it out and then comb it out.  That was something akin to trying to comb cotton candy.

Oh well, it is only 1:00 in the afternoon, I can still be productive in the office this afternoon because, after all,  I am feeling lucky today.

Trick Or Treat

Trick or treat nor Halloween is not acknowledged in Honduras. 

Because of Emma's sickness, Matt and Nicole were in the States last year.  Haley got to trick-or-treat.  And, she liked it.  Before the Ada group came, we asked them if the girls could trick-or-treat them.  And, did they ever reply with a resounding yes. 

Jami brought costumes, a pink bunny for Emmy and a lady pirate for Haley.  Someone else brought trick-or-treat bags and everyone brought candy.

We decided to trick-or-treat before dinner.  Everyone got off of the bus and went straight to their rooms.  Nicole brought Haley and Emma down all dressed up.


Emma had no idea what was going on but she laughed and giggled the whole time.

Some were waiting at their door for the girls and others shut their door and Haley had to knock on it.

 

Haley, and eventually, Emmy made  their way to the store to trick-or-treat.  Grammy quickly purchased something to put in their bags.

Haley went outside the store, sat down and began eating her candy.

It was one of those evenings where it was hard to tell who had the most fun, the girls, the group, or Nicole and I.

Thank you team Ada for bringing a little bit of an American custom into the girls' lives.