Hula Hoop Contest!!!

The boys were so cute!!! We brought up 3 hula hoops and they spent one full afternoon having hula hoop contests.  Turns out they make their own hula hoops out of pieces of hose and sticks.  Very inventive.  I had so much fun watching them and they got a big kick out of the fun too.

The Hula Hoop champion of Izopo.  7-year-old Chito, this kid could hula hoop for 30 minutes at a time.  Absolutely precious!

Around and About Izopo

Simply Beautiful

As I mentioned before, this past week we worked up in Izopo helping them develop ways to get better production on their corn.  Everyone involved thinks it was a very successful trip.  Since I haven't blogged all week and I took a bunch of pictures you guys are about to get a whole truck load of blogs all at once (provided the internet cooperates).  As I was going through deciding what pictures to use I came up with so many that they are now divided into categories rather than days.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them. 

The puppies weren't real sure what to think about this week but they definitely enjoyed the freedom of running around in Izopo.  This is Toby playing soccer with all the boys in their rubber boots.  They are impressive players especially considering their footware. 

Molly was so good with the kids.  She did some pretty impressive sketches of their precious faces and really made an effort to connect with them.  They responded with all the love they have.

Darwin helping the kids fix the kite.  This was a very short lived activity due to some gale force winds that were blowing that day.  Side note: Darwin was amazing this week finding ways to help out.  The amount he's grown up over the past year continues to suprise me on a regular basis.

Bubbles!!! Nancy once again charming crowds of shy quiet kids into screaming, laughing, bundles of joy.

Doug and Jim utilizing Doug's spanish skills to make some new friends.

Washing clothes by hand.  Such a beautiful picture of an incredibly hard job.

The result of a day's work.

Another beautiful Izopo picture as we walked down the road to see some more corn.

North Central Corn Brigade Arrives :)

Today 4 members from North Central Church of Christ arrived.  They joined Glenn Davis from TN (I think) who arrived yesterday.  Together they will be continuing a project started last year to help improve corn production in Izopo in order to help the people of Izopo.  Today was arrival day so we spent the day shopping for necessities then they joined me at the homeless feeding.  Alli and Tess were also with us.  They have taken a year off before college and are devoting that time to missions.  Currently they are teaching computers and English in Mateo.

Darwin was taking pics from on top of the car but this is Doug, Jim, me, Nancy, Molly, and Claudi.

Alli and Tess entertaining some of the kids.  They did a great job finding something to do when we had an overabundance of people.

This is just a cute pic of Hector, one of the kids that always comes. 

Afterwards we went to Casa Mexicana for dinner.  It was delicious and a lot of fun.  Now I'm probably going to head to bed because tomorrow is going to be a long day that starts early. 

Jon and Emily

(I stole this pic from their facebook because strangely I have no pictures of them)

Our good friends Jon and Emily Odom moved back to the states last Saturday.  I was definitely sad to see them go.  Regular friends are hard to come by here.  We had lots of good times playing Trivial Pursuit and being trounced by the boys (thanks to Jon's crazy random knowledge and a WHOLE lot of luck) and enjoying good food and laughs.  When they left they brought over some stuff that they weren't able to take with them.  Here are a few of the highlights (I know you're interested :) ). 

Nice little bookshelf that hasn't quite been filled yet but is a great place for all the miscellainia I've acquired for the puppies.

Great set of drawers.  You have no idea how much this has helped my silverware drawer out.

And now for my two favorite acquisitions:

A cake pan with a lid :)

And this wonderful bowl.  I think I might have a bowl fetish.  I love big bowls!!!

Thanks Jon and Emily for the great friendship and all the nice additions to my house.  Most of the pots and a few other things are headed to the kitchen at church.  I hope to see you guys again soon. 

It's been so long

Sorry guys, I got out of the habit and stopped writing.  I can't believe almost a week has gone by already.  I'm picking up a small group today so this week will probably be slow too.  We're going to be working up in Izopo helping them develop new ways to get better production on their corn. 

On Saturday, Will and Rachel had a birthday party at their house for little Samuel.  It's hard to believe he's already turning 1.  We had a great time with a lot of Xiomara's family, despite the rain.  Toby wasn't sure what to think of how cold it was at their house but it was a good glimpse of what this week will be like in Izopo.

The kids LOVED the swingset. 

They played out there in the rain most of the time we were at the house.

All the women in the kitchen making a delicious lunch.

All the men on the porch talking shop. 

Totally different culture, same lunch time activities :)

I have always found these head pinatas with the red streamers at the bottom a little disturbing.

All the little girls in the hammock

Toby hiding out from the cold

And there's the birthday boy!!!

Darwin and I had to go before the cake and pinata time but we had fun while we were there. 

BONUS PHOTO:

Yes that's Mr. and Mrs. Claus at our mall.  It's been Christmas time here since about October 1st.

Just one of the many things I love about Hondurans:
Today I was trying to get ahold of an acquaintance from Izopo who I hadn't called in a long time.  So I make the call and it's not the guy I'm looking for at all.  The guy that answered was so nice and accomodating, he kept calling me angel and my love and apologizing for not being who I was looking for (without being nearly as creepy as that sounds as I reread it).  Let me tell you I am less than pleased with wrong numbers, it's a problem :).  So I was very impressed with this kind man on the other end of the line.

Cute Story:

A few weeks ago I issued a challenge to my Bible class, if they could invite enough friends to have 40 kids in our class two weeks in a row we would have a big pizza party and watch a movie.  This isn't nearly as unattainable as it sounds.  We regularly have close to 30 kids.  And then I said if they were able to get 80 kids in our class two weeks in a row we would rent a bus and go to the national park for the day.  They are SOOO excited to go to the park.  It's adorable.  Anyway that's all lead in to the actual story.  Tonight Selvin was asking me about the trip to the park and said, "What if we only have 80 kids once, and 50 kids the second time?" I begin to smile and he gets down on his knees, looks up at me sweetly and said, "Couldn't you have grace on us?"  It was adorable and hilarious.  He is such an ornery lovable kid.

And then there's these two.  Aren't they precious.  This is Mariela and Alejandra.  Mariela and her mom and Alejandra and her two older sisters walk an hour to come to church.  I am so impressed with Alejandra's oldest sister.  Every time we have church service this 19 year old girl brings her 12 yr old and 5 yr old little sisters the 1 hour walk to church and then they pay a taxi half the way home and walk the rest in the dark.  They are such a neat family.  Nicol, the 12 yr old, is the smartest kid in my class and always knows her memory verse and often teaches it to Alejandra.  They are just a precious, precious family. 

Diego's House

This is Nelson.  He was our self appointed body guard. 

Through these crazy, creepy alleys

To Diego, Armando, Ana, Nicole, and 5 other people's house

Diego has been asking us for several days to go down and look at his house.  He would like us to build him a new one.  Well if anyone needs a new house it's this family.  There are 9 people living in a house I could barely walk through it was so small.  There are only 3 beds in this tiny home and they usually have extra people crashing on the rocky dirt floor.  Here are some of the pictures I took.  There is no part of their house that isn't in these pictures.

This was my first time to go down into this neighborhood.  I had no idea how many houses there were.  The opportunity to reach out to this community is even greater than I thought. 

Two beautiful kittens that were at Diego's house. 

Tonight was a good night.  Just hanging out with our friends.  I talked to Noe (18) for a long time tonight, which we do about once a month, and he promised that he was going to turn his life around, which he does about once a month.  He even gave me the last of his Vodka to prove it :).  He's such a sweet kid that is in way over his head with addictions.  I pray that each time we talk it goes a little deeper and maybe one day he really will be able to turn his life around.  But either way at least he knows someone cares.  I also met a new kid tonight, Moises. He is 15 years old and has been living on the streets since he was 9.   Moises had nasty, nasty scabs all over one side of his face that I asked him if I could clean off.  He came at the very beginning, disappeared the whole time, then came back right at the end so I could clean his face.  It took me almost half an hour to get his face clean but the result was a very very small sore that just needed the chance to heal.  I never feel closer to these kids than when I'm working on a wound.  They rarely show that vulnerability and when they do it's like a window into their hearts.  I pray that they will allow God to fill the emptiness that is so obvious in their lives.

At La Chimbomba one of the girls asked me to help her get off of the streets.  I told her about our plan for a facility and I hope that we are able to make that dream come true for her.

And finally this beautiful picture.  One of the guys at the park where we go when we have left over food was trying to sell this for $5.  I didn't have $5 on me (on purpose) so he sold it to me for $1.50.  We are pretty sure he painted it himself.  I love it, I love the symbolism of it, I love the colors, and mostly I love where it came from. Even in the darkest of places, truly the place we are most hesitant to go, there is beauty and hope. 

Some days are like that, even in Honduras....

What could this picture mean?  What is this a picture of?  Oh, just wait and see.  It has been quite the bust of a weekend.  Saturday morning I woke up feeling fine but then a couple of hours later some intense nausea hit me and stayed around all day.  So most of Saturday was spend sleeping except for stumbling around every once in a while to cook the food for Breaking Chains.  When we finally headed out to feed it was POURING down rain and I was still feeling pretty sick, but it was just Darwin and I so I pulled up my boot straps and headed out.  At the stadium it wasn't too bad because we could stay out of the rain at the bus stop but at La Chimbomba we are basically standing in the rain handing out food.  But the people came.  Rain doesn't stop hunger so we handed out almost all of the food there then headed down to the park.  Darwin finished up at the park for me because I was pretty well done by then.  He was such a helpful kid on Saturday.  I went home and immediately went to bed for the night.  Leaving Darwin in charge of the puppies, cue ominous music....

So Sunday morning I got up quite early since I'd been sleeping for the past 24 hours and surveyed by house.  Oh my goodness, I had slept in Darwin's room because it's a lot darker than mine and Darwin had slept in my room with the puppies.  The puppies had pooped and peed IN MY BED.  There was pee all over my house.  So most of Sunday morning was spent cleaning house and washing linens. 

I've been debating whether or not I have lice for over a week, but I tend to be a little paranoid about it so I let it go.  I finally decided since I had to wash all my bedding anyway I would go ahead and treat just in case.  Cue ominous music once again and refer to the above picture.  Lice shampoo here comes in these tiny tiny packages that are impossible to open.  I needed 5 of them for my hair.  So I'm in the kitchen, don't ask me why I'm in the kitchen I have no idea, putting lice shampoo 1 package at a time onto my head.  I can't find the scissors so I'm using this lovely knife to cut them open.  Well on package number 4 the knife slips and I stab myself in the finger down to the bone.  Initially I am running on adrenaline.  Darwin is outside washing the car so I call him in and he thinks I've cut my hand off.  I tend to be a little over dramatic.  So while I'm holding pressure on my finger he puts the rest of the lice shampoo into my hair, such a good kid.  Then the adrenaline wears off as does Darwin's patience with his crazy mother.  I sit down in a chair because waves of nausea are once again washing over me and I'm thinking I might pass out.  Darwin goes back to washing the car, he can't handle the fact that his mother is such a wimp.  I then proceed to lay flat out in the middle of the living room floor with lice shampoo all over my head for about 20 minutes until my equilibrium comes back.  Then I have to figure out how to wash all this junk out of my hair without using my left hand, but I get it done and move on. 

I realize this is a pathetic picture of a pathetic wound but I'm pretty pathetic when it comes to pain.  I don't do pain at all.  If I'm ever in a torture situation I will probably fold pretty early on. :)

So from there we proceed to grocery shopping, food levels in this house were at critical level on Friday before I got sick.  Roving teenager pretty much wiped out any remaining food, so we stocked up and are good to go now for a while.  I came home put away groceries and then remembered I hadn't listen to Mitch's sermon from Park Plaza yet.  This has become one of my favorite weekly activities so I sat down to do that between keeping the laundry going and getting ready for church.  By the time I finished with that it was time to head out to church. 

This is a picture of the rain coming across the mountains towards the church building. 

I love watching it come towards us.

On the way to church Darwin turned on the headlights and smoke began to fill our truck.  I'm telling you this was a crazy day.  So we open up the hood to see what's going on and all is normal.  Turns out the issue is in the dashboard.  So we turn the lights off, it's light outside, I don't know why he turned the lights on in the first place but I'm glad he did so we could fix it in the daylight.  Do you like that we?  "We" fixed it.  I sat there and offered encouragement once we got to the church building while Darwin switched some wires around and got our headlights working without smoke.  Diego is at the shop right now getting fixed so that it doesn't happen again. 

Then that rain from the above picture arrived.  This is a bad picture but it gives you some idea of the road conditions we drove home in.  Basically it was a river. 

But never one to end on a bad note, we had a delicious dinner last night with Will and Rachel at Chili's and here are a couple of cute pics to leave you with a smile.

This is Kimberly.  She just started coming to bible class with a couple of her friends.  Kimberly can't read and I'm wondering if it's just because she can't see well, she's a little crosseyed, or if she has a learning disability.  She's definitely a little socially awkward but an absolute sweetheart.  I'm going to try and find out some more about her situation to see if we can help her out. 

Look at these hilarious ears!!! They should be standing completely up soon. 

P.S. Today is already going much, much better.

P.P.S. Does anyone know what children's book the title line is from?  Clue: Originally it is even in Australia :)