Scavenger Hunt!!

Have I mentioned I have the best interns ever! 

Even if they did make me wear this goofy crown all over Tegucigalpa.

They planned a huge city wide treasure hunt for my birthday.  We ran all over town collecting clues and "completing tasks".  I had a blast and I was incredibly impressed with some of the things they remembered from our time together in order to put together the clues.

My first clue and I´m off to the park

After running all over the park for a good half our it´s time to get in the car...

You want me to do WHAT!?!?!?!

They made me tell the chef at our favorite crepe place that he was the best chef in the whole world. 

Needless to say it was WAY out of my comfort zone.

But I did it and continued on with the hunt

About halfway through the hunt we found fake mustaches.

Who knew they would attract so much attention? If you ever need to find a date in Honduras you should invest in some really bad fake mustaches. You won´t have any trouble.

Tess had some technical difficulties with hers that were quite comical

But the real prize was an absolutely delicious cupcake filled with Nutella at a new restaurant in town we´ve been wanting to try out.

Mackenzie even splurged from her healthy eating habits to have a cupcake AND frozen yogurt. 

We love you Mackenzie.

We now know that if you bring your own $5 bottle of Welch´s sparkling grape juice to the cute cupcake place they are going to slap a "DESCORCHE" on you.

Evidently it costs $10 to open your own drink in the restaurant.  We´ll know better next time.

The cupcakes were so good it didn´t matter though.  We´re going to try and come back on my real birthday for lunch panini´s and one more cupcake.

We had a wonderful day. 

I´m going to miss these girls.

Some More Pictures from the Boys´ Home

We let a couple of the older boys use our cameras at the boys home.  And amidst a bunch of crazy pics there were a few good ones.  You´ll notice that in most of the pictures only half of the people are looking at the camera. That´s because it was like papparazzi shots in there for a while.

The game carnage.  The kids LOVE to play games with us.

Carlos and Mackenzie

Wilson and I

I realize that technically this is a terrible picture.  But I love it.  Everyone looks so sweet.

Boys will be boys. 

This Jeffy on my right, Josue on my left and Joel in front

Mackenzie and Jason, I LOVE this kid.

I´m not sure the name of the kid on the left.  Joel is on the right.  They love peace signs.

I don´t know the names of the first two boys but the boy in the grey T-shirt is Julio Cesar.  The boy I´ve talked so much about from the homeless ministry and whom I almost brought home.  He continues to struggle with his past and we are working to find a place for him that will help him leave those temptations behind.

This is Jose Geovany and I.  I´ve really grown to love this kid, who initially made me a little nervous. 

He´s the oldest kid at the home and has had a really rough life but I´ve talked to him and a couple of the counselors and he seems to have really turned his life around.  Abuse is such a standard thing in the lives of most of these kids and hearing them talk about it breaks my heart but Geovany seems to be overcoming it. 

At the home all of the counselors seem to count on him for help with the little ones, though you wouldn´t know it unless you really watched.  He keeps an eye on them and plays with them often but only when it won´t tarnish the tough guy personna he tries so hard to display.

He is scheduled to be released back home next week and has already lined up a job in Olancho, far from the gangs and temptations to return to the street. 

I pray that he is able to succeed.

Early Birthday Celebration

For over a month the girls have been trying to find a safe place that they can go sing karaoke and go dancing, and I have been very skeptical of the existance of such a place in Honduras.  But the girls were right.  After talking to Darwin and Arnold, they convinced me that at least one of 3 available options should be okay.  And so began plans for my birthday party extravaganza. 

Starting on Friday night when we put rags in my hair so it would be curly, down to yesterday afternoon after shopping for the perfect outfit and putting on all kinds of crazy makeup the girls played dressup the Amber.  It was a lot of fun to watch them get so excited about it. 

Mid Eyeshadow/Eye Brow Plucking/Pedicure

They were all three going at me at once at this point.  We kept cracking up

All dressed up and ready to head out

Yes, folks that is a dress I´m wearing, these girls really did a number on me :)

I love these girls

So karaoke was an interesting event.  Evidently only loud obnoxious Americans stand in front of the entire restaurant and sing.  Everyone else stayed at their table, but we were first and didn´t know that. 

We wondered what all the strange looks were about :)

Then we figured it out.  Unfortunately my eyes are closed in this picture but it´s cute anyway

My sweet boy and I.  He was our designated body guard for the night...

Even though we were pretty much the only ones there. 

Dancing was considerably less exciting than it appears in this picture, but we cracked up all night

And went a little crazy.  Hello World, evidently this is my gangsta face.

More excitement to come today as the girls are preparing a treasure hunt. 

I¨m soo excited, quite a bit more excited than karaoke and dancing if I´m honest. 

I´m so blessed.

Giving Back

During Holy Week, the kids were off of school and we decided it would be a great time to introduce them to lives of service that we hope will spill over into all aspects of their life.

So we decided to make cookies for the fire and police men of Tegucigalpa

The kids had a great time making cookies

And were really excited about visiting police and firemen

Our first stop was the main fire station for the city. The kids were really shy at first.

But the firemen loved it.

Climbing up into the fire truck at the fire station in La Vega (right next to Baxter)

They were sooo excited to be in the big truck

Fireman Jose, The girls were afraid to wear the clothes.

The kids with the head fireman. He had lots of fun showing them around

Fireman Darwin saving Escarleth

The police can´t have their picture taken in Honduras but here they are with the police truck.

In total we visited three different places and put a lot of smiles on a lot of faces. The kids also got an up close and personal look at some of the people serving in their communities. We hope to do this once a month from now on and show appreciation for a very under appreciated profession in Honduras.

Another New Family Member

Meet Randy El Padrino (that´s right, Godfather Randy is the car´s name)

Darwin´s new car

In exchange for doing all of the Shine! transportation Darwin has the opportunity to have his own car. 

He is so proud and is working very hard at his new job.

Possible the Most Random Hilarious Picture I Have Ever Seen

Imagine you are eating a lovely dinner at a local pizza place with some of your closest friends. You decide you need to take a little visit to the ladies room, which also happens to be the men´s room.  You walk in, do your business, and as your washing your hands you happen to look around the room.  And hanging over the toilet is this..........................

Trust me, the longer you look at it the more disturbing it becomes. 

I realilze it´s probably not super blog appropriate but seriously,

how could I not share this gem with the world.

Easter Egg Hunt!

The kids were absolutely exhausted

But they really got into searching for their eggs, except Claudy,

I´m not real sure what that little dance she´s doing is.

Sometimes I dabble in artistic photography

Jose won the hunt with 9 eggs!

Escarleth came in second. Her hair cracks me up.

She had it in pigtails the day before and didn´t want to put it in a pony tail.

Sweet Dayana was about to fall asleep she was so exhausted

And Claudy could hardly hide her disappointment at not winning

Trying not to spill the eggs on the way home.

Everyone showing off their winnings