Not Again!!

We had a bit of excitement here this morning. We had the husband/wife team of Carlos and Suyapa working here, as they have been doing every Wednesday since December when I hurt my back and needed help with housework, and when our former gardener, Oscar, disappeared. Suyapa is a wonderful housekeeper, and her husband has proved to be a very hard-working yardman. They needed the income, so we kept Suyapa coming every week even after my back had healed up.

This morning, Suyapa was sweeping the concrete stairs and moved the small bag of trash that she had placed at the base of the steps. As she did so, she saw a rat!! Carlos was thinning out a bed of heliconia where the rat had been hiding, and the rat ran towards the stairs and ducked into a hole under the first step. Don jumped into action, ran into the house, grabbed the can of Mace (police grade, no less!), ran back out and sprayed into the hole. Unfortunately, both he and Carlos made the mistake of breathing and immediately began coughing. I ran to the kitchen door to see what was going on and caught a little whiff which caused me to cough. Don's hoping he sprayed enough of it to kill the rat. I hope so, too!

I did remind Don that he had sworn to not spray that again unless an actual intruder (human) was threatening us, after that unfortunate incident last year involving the howling cat and the pepper spray. He felt this was justified. For good measure, he tossed a handful of D-Con rat poison into the hole.

And, as if that isn't enough excitement, we still have a mouse in our house. It ate a hole in a corner of our screen door and got into the guest quarters/kitchen part of the house. We put out the tray of D-Con but cannot tell that he has eaten any. I haven't found any evidence that he has eaten anything in the kitchen either. Then Suyapa discovered lots of mouse poopoo behind the futon when she was sweeping. She suggested that I put the D-Con there and add some bits of cheese to the tray. She also told me how a mouse/rat had gotten into her house and had eaten the insulation in her stove. Her oven no longer works. Her mouse also had five babies in the walls of the oven. Suyapa took care of that by pouring boiling water on them and then got a cat who killed the mama mouse/rat.

I cannot tell you how wonderful it has been to have Suyapa working here one morning a week. I am so spoiled! She will clean anything I ask her to - windows, screens, cabinets, wood doors - all in addition to the regular dusting, sweeping, mopping,  bathroom and kitchen cleaning. I don't ask her to clean all of these things each week, of course, usually just one extra thing. Whatever seems most in need. She will also clean things that she observes are in need of a cleaning - like the ceiling fans, without my asking. She generally works four hours; Carlos works eight. We pay them both more than the minimum wage here, which is about $15 for a day's labor. Can you imagine getting a maid in the United States to clean, even the most basic cleaning, for $15? I once had to have a cleaning lady in the U.S. and I think I paid her $50. for two hours work.

As an added bonus, Suyapa gets to practice her English and I learn more Spanish. She helps me communicate with Carlos who understand some English but doesn't speak it. It's been win/win for us.

Now I just need to be rodent-free.

The Crochet Girls

I began with three students, now I have six learning to crochet. Just recently I met with Jessie and her mom, Maria, for our first lesson. Maria has been very eager to learn to make a purse like mine. As it turns out, she learned to crochet when she was a school girl on the mainland (Honduras) but has not tried it since. She picked it back up very quickly and only needed help from me with adding the tab tops to start a new row the first time or two. Jessie was also a quick student; she needed very little instruction.

                                                               Helping Jessie.

If you're thinking that I look rather sweaty, you are so right! It was very hot this day. Every room at the church and inn was full with other activities, so we went into one of the smaller rooms, opened the windows and turned on the ceiling fan. I was suddenly aware of being really hot when I realized that the power had gone out and the fan had stopped. So, we sweated our way through the lesson.

Since the church was so busy, we didn't have afternoon tutoring sessions. Leidy came down to visit while Jessie and Maria worked. Karla came with her.

Leidy took this photo of me with Jessie and Karla. Leidy really doesn't like to have her photo taken and will seldom smile for one, but she liked being the photographer. The kids love to borrow my camera and run around taking photos of anything and everything.

It was still pretty hot at the beginning of this week, and the church was also quite busy, so I brought  Jessie and Maria back to our house for their second lesson. It was immediately apparent that they didn't need any help from me with the body of the purse. I sent them both home with the materials to work on their own. They will let me know when they are ready to finish the purse bottom and strap. They loved coming to our house to work. Maria commented on how quiet it was up on our hill. She has five children in her house and close neighbors; quiet is a novelty to her.

Here are my "regulars" who come every Thursday. They were enjoying chocolate chip cookies and cokes while working. Leidy has the laryngitis that is going around and had very little to say. Karla made up for it! Karla and Leidy are working at about the same pace and are about halfway finished. Concepción is very slow but doing a nice job. Julissa, in the background above, is completing the last row on her purse. Karla reported that Jessie was also finished with the body of her purse after only two days!! I asked Leidy, Concepción and Karla if they wanted to take their purses home to work on them in their spare time. They all said yes, except for Karla. She would rather come here to work.

Julissa was very proud of her workmanship, and rightly so! She's done a good job. I showed her how to finish the bottom of the purse in our remaining time. We will make the strap next week. Maybe Leidy will be ready to finish hers.

Maria was very excited when I told her she and Jessie were doing such good work and that we would find a market for her to sell these purses if she was interested - boy, was she!! I think Julissa could also sell them and earn some money for her family. Concepción will have to get faster if she hopes to sell them.

I bought more yarn in Coxen Hole earlier in the week. All they had was acrylic baby yarn, but it was varigated pastels and looks nice in Jessie's purse. The shop did not have any crochet hooks. I looked at some other tab top crocheted purses at a shop in French Harbor. They are made by a group of single moms on the mainland and were very nicely done with nylon yarn. They were even lined and had zipper closures. Reasonably priced, too.

I have decided that I will need to bring back better quality yarn, probably nylon, to make the purses to sell. My purse is made from acrylic yarn and is already beginning to get fuzzy and balled up. I don't want to sell anything that deteriorates so quickly.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that Karla is not a fan of Don's old rock 'n roll music. I tried country, but they didn't care for that either. I asked what they liked and they said "Christian", so I pulled up my Christian playlist and they loved it! They knew many of the songs and were soon singing along.
Don brought Nick up to the house this week for his algebra lesson (still noisy at church) and Nick loved Don's rock 'n roll!! Of course, he's an American teen who plays guitar, so that probably accounts for the difference in taste. Don said that Nick actually concentrated better on his math with the music playing! Our house has been hopping this week.

Some Doin's Around Church Today

Today was a very busy day at church, and it will be busy and crazy there for the next couple of weeks.
Here are some of the things that were happening today:

 Ladies' Bible Study was action packed today. Following a time of worship and Susan's short lesson, the women made bracelets to celebrate God's gift of creativity in each of us. Marlene, who is part of the mission team that's here, passed out packets of beads to each woman and gave brief instructions. See the woman on the right holding that cute baby? I offered to hold the baby so that mom could work on her bracelet.

                                    I had the best job! Ashley is such a good baby.

                                    Here are three of the finished bracelets. Lovely!

 Today was also the day that the women who participate in the Food Ministry receive their bags of food. They are required to attend church and to give a couple of hours of work each month.

 Angela and two of her eight children relaxing before the little girl goes to afternoon Kinder at the school down the road. Angela did not want to make the long walk up the steep hill to her house in the colonia only to have to turn right around and walk back down to the school. She makes that trip at least twice a day everyday.

 The eye doctors did come with this team after all. These are some of the glasses waiting to be prescribed.

               Claire, our lovely translator, is letting the waiting women know the eye exam procedure.

Brenda, who can no longer read her Bible, is the first up. She will be receiving reading glasses.
Several other women were waiting their turn. Eye exams will be given several times this week. Some of the men and children also need to be screened. Susan and I want all our school kids to be tested. What a blessing this is!! These families cannot afford to see an eye doctor nor to buy glasses.

And just outside in the church's courtyard, the work on the new worship center continues. The team is busy building the trusses for the roof. The wood workers were also hard at work on their small wooden creations that will be sold through various outlets.

And adding to the joyful noise, children of some of the women waiting for eye exams were busy playing tag and chasing each other around the building. This cute little boy was happy to pause long enough to pose for a photo. The kids always love to look at the camera and see the photo that was just taken. He had a big grin when he saw himself.

And that's a recap of 10 a.m. - noon. Busy times.

The Potter

We had a repeat performance of Pastor Chuck's powerful Potter and Clay sermon Sunday which was presented to a packed house. This was the third time that we have seen his presentation, and each time it is so powerful. Here is a photo from this Sunday's sermon, and a link to my blog of April 5, 2009 when I described each step and the correlation to our relationship with God:
http://jeanettegartner.blogspot.com/2009/04/potter-and-clay.html
Rather than repeat myself, I encourage you to read the April 5th blog, and it's worth re-reading even if you saw it the first time.

 Isaiah 64:8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

                                                             

                                                     

How Did They Do It?

Oh my goodness! I have so much respect for teachers of days gone by who taught in one room schools, and this includes my grandmother. How did they survive?

Today's tutoring session was boisterous to say the least. The kids were all excited about their field trip today. Apparently the plumbing/septic problem at school was not completely resolved so they were treated to another field trip. They talked over one another as they joyfully told me about their visit to the Blue Harbor Arboretum today. They saw tomatoes growing, said Oscar!! And lettuce, said Victor! They saw ducks, a waterfall, parrots, pretty flowers, a tree that was 100 years old (after considerable quizzing, we agreed that it was a hog plum tree). They are getting such a wonderful enrichment to their education and learning more about their island. Their enthusiasm delights me!!

Susan wisely chose to work with the four 8th graders which left the the rest to me... four sixth graders, two using 5th grade books, and a brand new 7th-grade student who spoke no English (she got slighted and I'm so sorry about that!). Honduran kids do not know the meaning of "just a minute" or "wait until I finish here;" they just kept calling me. Sigh. They were working on their English workbooks, reading stories and then answering questions. So many questions. One story involved using a map and writing sentences with prepositions - a hard concept for them. I did the best I could, but you all know that I am NOT a teacher. At least I didn't lose my cool.

It was difficult to hear because the workshop men were hard at it just outside our classroom. It will only get worse as the team from up north begins work on the church building roof. This is why we will not be having extra classes for the next two weeks. Leidy and Tanya asked about homework help, and I said that Miss Susan might be able to help just a few at her house.

Julissa was wearing her new glasses, and I saw her showing them to the 8th graders and explaining their purpose. She looks adorable and reports that they do make her eyes feel better. Hurrah!

Regular classes will begin tomorrow. Hurrah! Leidy said the 6th graders needed their Spanish books. I told her that if they had been delivered to the store, then we would pick them up and pass them out, but if they were not there....there was nothing we could do. We had NO control. Hard for me to understand as well. These books were ordered a couple of weeks ago and still have not arrived. Such is life here.

Today was Nelson's 11th birthday. We can't believe he's that old! He's so small! Susan baked cupcakes for the kids and had a candle on Nelson's. She took a photo for Nelson's Canadian sponsor. After the cupcakes, Susan invited all the kids to come down and play soccer on the beach below her condo. Girls and boys love this game, and they need the physical outlet. They just don't have open areas in the Colonia where they can play. I went and watched them play for awhile but then needed to get home for a Skype visit with my little grandson. Awesome day!!! Thank you, Lord!!

A Great Week

This has been a busy week, a fun week, a productive week, and a week full of blessings. Here are some highlights:
Our sponsored kids only had one day of school due to continued plumbing problems at the school. On the one day they attended, they didn't have classes but went on a field trip - something that is normal in the United States but pretty unusual here. They went to Mayan Eden Park in Spanish Town where they saw all kinds of animals and birds and some got to have a boa constrictor draped around their neck! They all loved the white-faced monkeys and spider monkeys.

 Susan took advantage of this adventure and had the kids write sentences in English about their experience during our tutoring session on Wednesday. They practiced reading English and answering questions. We had math drills with the flash cards which became rather raucous with laughter when I kept holding up the wrong side of the card. Tanya gets so embarrassed when called on, but she usually knows the answer. Karla likes to shout out the answer for everyone but gets really mad when someone else answers for her! Jessie is so smart and so quick with double-digit multiplication but will argue with me if I tell her that her answer is wrong! She is certainly confident of her math skills! They always want to play Uno, but Susan has limited that to Fridays only; yesterday we had a wild, cut-throat game and they loved it! They have to add up the points they were caught with - more math practice.

Karla, Leidy and Julissa came up to our house for their second crochet session. Leidy had taken some yarn and a hook home to practice, and she had really improved. Leidy's mom, Concepción, came for her first lesson. She was having a difficult time, largely because her stitches were too loose, so I sent her home with materials to practice. Julissa has twice as much work done on her purse, and it looks really good. Leidy and Karla are doing better but still need some help, so it was a challenge to help them and work with Concepción, who needed constant attention. The girls were cracking up over Don's choice of music. He was playing a playlist of real oldies - late 50s and early 60s songs - with hits such as "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", "Shimmy Shimmy Ko Ko Bop", "Surfer Bird", "Rock Around The Clock", "Da Doo Ron Ron", "Rama Lama Ding Dong." Karla said "this music is just crazy!" They did know a couple of the songs because they had heard them in a movie, so those were ok.

Bob and Debi came over to play 500
 and watch the sunset last night. Unfortunately, it was not one the better sunsets, but they enjoyed the view from up here on the hill anyway, and we had a great card game.

Today was Girls' Group at church. We had 27 girls today!! After prayer time and worship, they made bookmarks with supplies donated by a woman who usually comes with the team that just arrived. (This team will be building the roof of our new worship center. This is just outside our classroom, and because we anticipate much noise, we won't be have tutoring sessions at the church for two weeks.)

Creativity at work.

 Some of the completed bookmarks. They loved using the fancy scrapbooking scissors.

                                                               Clean-up time.

                                            Our fabulous kitchen crew preparing lunch.

After lunch, I took Julissa into Coxen Hole to pick up her new glasses and get her wear & care instructions. Then we went shopping! We bought green mango slices with salt and hot sauce to snack on, nail polish, and yarn. (I will begin teaching Maria to crochet next week.) As we walked back to the car, I decided to take Julissa into the big used clothing store for some "new" skirts or dresses. We found several cute things, and she was very pleased. On the way home, I told her that the glasses and clothes were not from us; they were a gift from God, that a friend from our church in the U.S. had heard about Julissa's needs and felt lead to send a donation which EXACTLY covered the cost of both glasses and clothes!! I asked her "isn't God good?" and she agreed that He was. (And thank you, dear friend, for this donation!) I forgot to take a photo of her wearing the new glasses...I will do that next time I see her.

Crochet Lesson #1

Ever since the girls saw my tab-top purse, they've been dying to make one and ask every time they see me "when can we come to your house to make the purse?" Today was the first lesson. I picked them up at 1:30. Leidy brought a huge bag of tab-tops that her mom has been saving for me! Huge. We can make a lot of purses!

I was honestly amazed at how quickly they caught on. I had planned to just teach them a couple of basic crochet stitches, how to hold the hook and yarn, how to maintain even tension, and then practice crocheting with the tab-tops. Julissa just went to town! Karla casually said "oh, she learned how to crochet in La Ceiba." Julissa said yes, her sister had taught her before they came to the island.

Leidy also did well once she figured out how to pull the yarn through the tabs without losing it. Karla had the most trouble, and I really didn't think she would get the hang of it, but suddenly, she got it. She still struggled a bit with loose stitches but knew what to do.

                                                          Leidy, in deep concentration.

We worked until 3:00, taking a little break for a snack - a brownie and a soda (nutritious, huh?). While Don was tutoring Nick early this morning, I made a pan of brownies from scratch for Valentine's day, icing and all. They loved them. When they went back to work, Leidy was clearly getting tired and kept pulling out her stitches and starting the row again. She was getting more and more frustrated, a sure sign that it is time to quit! I let her take some yarn and a hook home to practice, if she wants to.

By the time I dropped the girls off in the colonia, Leidy's smile had returned. They can't wait to come back next week!