Baptism, Milk Horse, and Baby

(L-R) Mario, Martin, Roxina, Reina, and Leobardo.
Roxina.
"Big brother" and "little sister."
Actual size difference: Mariana vs. Chuy.

Sunday. I saw so many people today. Too many people. I’m exhausted and I didn’t even do much. In the morning we went to the orphanage with a very full load of chairs, stools, and tables and nearly everything else in the house…at least it felt like it. Mario and Marlen came along too. We cut up the ingredients for the baptism meal. I smelled like garlic for the rest of the day. We got home in time to chow down on some leftovers. Then I had some time alone when everyone else left. I enjoyed the solitude that I knew I would look back on in silent reverence within two hours. Loren came by the house with a load of people and Reina came flying in to borrow my flip-flops. Tons of people were already waiting at the river. There were so many people that I just stood around, too intimidated to talk to any of them, even the ones I knew. Roxina, Rosalina, and I took a walk along the river before the baptism started. Roxina said she was hot (it was so hot!!!) but she didn’t want to go home until she was baptized. Finally everyone had arrived. We started the service in the shade of the trees, but the distraction of passing cars inspired us to move to the river edge. Immediately, the children kicked off their shoes and waded into the river. The five waded into the water with Julian and Loren. Martin, Reina, Mario, Roxina, and Leobardo. I admit that I almost cried watching the procession. It was such a huge blessing to watch commitments to the Lord being made public. After the baptisms, we had to wait around for rides back to the orphanage. I was with the last load which happened to be filled with kids who’d passed the time swimming. I got wet from being in such close quarters with them. At the orphanage, I helped with serving and cleaning up. More chips! Cilantro! More chips! More chips! Onion! Spoons! More chips! I got the first ride into Choix and had the house to myself again. Whew!

Monday. Today was another madhouse. Some of the people in and out of the house not including me or the Yoder family were: Reina, Emanuel, Aile, Lupita, David, Mario, Marlen, Lenn, Ian, Sam, Vanessa, Gabi, Doña Cuca, and Marta. Anyway, my morning started quietly with tea. And then I studied verbs after breakfast and made an amazing link to a strange “hubiese” tense I found in the Bible. I walked to Vanessa’s house and had a short visit. Vanessa and Gabi walked back with me to use our phone. I started working on invitations for the special activity. We ate lunch around a very crowded table. It was chaos. I hid out in my room and relatively away from all of the noise. David tried sneaking into the room whenever the door opened. I did laundry and worked on invitations. Eventually everyone left and I was completely alone again. I’m beginning to wonder if there is a happy medium somewhere… We had “Tricia cleaned out the frig again” for dinner. With all of us moving out to the orphanage tomorrow, we had to do something! After dinner I finished my laundry and packed and read a book about David Livingstone.

Tuesday. We ate breakfast, finished packing, and cleaned up the house before we headed out to the orphanage. The day was surprisingly beautiful, maybe because the sun was shying behind a cloud. Once we got out to the orphanage, I did laundry and baked prison cookies and unpacked. By then, it was lunchtime. During lunch all of the girls gushed adoringly over Donna who barely had time to eat for the sake of answering all of their questions! I did lunch clean up with Janessa and Roxina. During my time off, the wind picked up and the air cooled down. The girls and Donna had brought in the rest of the laundry and we had a giant laundry-folding party. I entertained Chuy outside; we visited Rhonda through the window when she was supposed to be studying Spanish. I worked on some verse posters. Donna managed dinner by herself, amazing lady. Rhonda played football with the kids after dinner. I talked with Teo and he made fun of me when I accidentally substituted the word “highway” for “race.” (In Spanish they sound very similar, at least to me: carretera and carrera). We had a meeting with the kids before bedtime. During the meeting, Roxina listed off her new morning schedule in English. It sounded like this: “Morning shower… milk horse.” I think she meant: “Morning: shower, milk, and horse.” I put my kids to bed and showered and headed to bed.

Wednesday. Rhonda got my kids up so I could sleep in for my day off. I didn’t really sleep in, but I hung out in my room for a while anyway. I went with Loren and Caleb when they went into town for groceries. I hung out in my room in town almost all day. I took a trip uptown and then to the store to buy “lunch” (heh heh). I studied Spanish, drew a picture (inspiration of Ana), wrote, and talked with my family. It was a fabulous day off. When the orphanage crew arrived to set up for church, Rhonda and I walked up to JLR. We brought Chuy with us. I was carrying him when we walked through the door. He looked up at the high ceiling and around at the aisles and aisles of merchandise and was suddenly burst into terrified crying. Poor kid; he needs to get out more! Rhonda and I laughed at him. Prayer meeting was small and short with not so many prayer requests. I grabbed my kids and we left with the first load back to the orphanage. Loren gave us a tour of Mochiqui, since Rhonda had never been there. We had a little party for the kids downstairs. They played games, ate cookies, and drank soda.

Thursday. I was in charge. I don’t like being in charge, but I managed somehow. I got all of the kids up and moving so Rhonda could lay in bed and relax for her day off. We ran out of cold milk at breakfast. I asked Roxina: “What’s the matter, didn’t the horse give enough milk this morning?” Donna made lunch so all I did was supervise and help Maria made vanilla crumb pie for dessert. Other than that, I hung out with Chuy and worked on writing out verses on posterboard. After lunch, I did clean up. Diego described what the guys were planning to eat for their camp-out that night. When he found out that I was jealous, he rubbed it in all the more: “Mmmm… Hamburgers! Hot dogs! Chips! Marshmallows!” I hung out with Rhonda in the bodega for my time off. I finished verse posters and keep a careful eye on the mischievous Chuy. I tried to fry up some zucchini, but found out I don’t have the zucchini-frying knack. The kids loved them anyway. With the guys gone, we had a fun little group. I heated up leftovers and the kids cleaned up almost everything. I did dinner clean up, gave Chuy a bath, and got the others ready for bed. After the nightly meeting with the kids, Rhonda and I sat and talked… for a long time.

Friday. And we both felt it in the morning. I slept in as long as I dared. I started laundry before breakfast in between getting my kids up and ready for the day. Rosalina and Maria hung out all of the laundry for me after breakfast and I was soon out of a job. I saved the burning beans then Rhonda forced me to sit and read my book. Oh, and I broke my flip-flop and had to go barefoot for the rest of the day. Before lunch, rain began to sprinkle down, so I rushed most of the drying clothes inside and draped them over the beds. After lunch, all that Fernando could talk about was going swimming with the boys in the afternoon. I showed the kids some of the pictures on my computer. As I showed them pictures of home, they freaked out about how totally flat Illinois is! They couldn’t believe that there were no mountains in sight! I can’t really either, for that matter. I took my time off, during which three ladies from social services came to drop off a 3-day-old baby girl. Rhonda was afraid that I would want to take care of her until she realized that newborns terrify me. I helped her get the room ready. Chuy watched on like an excited big brother. He soon found out that the rules were hands-off when it came to “baby sister.” The girls came up with the name Mariana since she had arrived nameless. The rest of the afternoon revolved around this new addition to our family. The girls made pizza with Donna. When the boys got back from swimming, we ate pizza. Once the kids were in bed, Rhonda and I stayed up a bit to talk…again.

Saturday. Rhonda had a better night of sleep than I did, despite her having a baby and a toddler in her room. Fernando was up once and Roxina twice, once because an “animal” was “on her leg and biting her.” It was a huge bug that had climbed inside her PJ pants. I stayed with Rhonda at the house. We had fun with the quiet, alone time (minus Chuy and Mariana). After so much quiet time, the kids coming home was a bit of a harsh noise level. We got lunch around in time despite the fact that the cheese for the quesadillas arrived unshredded at 12:00 p.m. After lunch, my kitchen help hid from me until I told them they’d better come if they wanted the leftover quesadillas. After clean up, I cut up cilantro and sat and listened to music with the kids. I watched Rosalina draw and then woke Chuy up. After my time off, I got the kids showered and helped finish up dinner. We sat around outside and talked after dinner while watching the kids play American football. I gave Chuy a bath and cleaned out his belly button. Rhonda and I hung out with a movie and ahem… slices of leftover pie. While Rhonda was showering, Mariana started crying. I was not impressed. I tried talking to her and patting her. “Please stop crying! I don’t want to hold you!” But I eventually had to pick her up, floppy head and all. I was still sitting anxiously when Rhonda emerged. And she had the nerve to laugh at me.

This is Chuy on his "time-out" chair just before naptime.