Making Up For Lost Time

Part of me is planning and preparing for coming home to Michigan, but another part of me is still trying to play catch-up from being away from the ranch. This past week I have been spending as much time as possible with my girls and the other kids on the ranch. Reality is setting in that my time is almost up and I am realizing how much I am going to miss the ranch and Honduras.

Last Wednesday all the therapists had to turn in our biannual informes/reports. Seeing as how I am the only speech-language pathologist right now, I had to write all the reports for what normally is a two-person job. I wrote 25 informes all in Spanish. Now that I have finished and turned them in I feel so great! I feel like the rest of my time here is going to be easy sailing and the hard part of my job is over.
Also on Wednesday in hogar we began a “Campeonato de Blackjack”/Blackjack Tournament. Normally every Wednesday is Blackjack night. However, for the month of July we are doing a Blackjack tournament where the girls will have the chance to compete for prizes. Each Wednesday a new group of girls will play. The top three players for each Wednesday will advance to the final round where they will get to play for cool prizes like shampoo, soap, lotion, hair ties, school supplies, etc. I am using some of the donations that my aunt Mo’s fourth grade students sent from Saint Monica Elementary School in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Thanks so much for all the fun gifts you sent! The first round was a success. We have a poster hanging on the wall with all the brackets and strategies. The girls are really into it and taking it pretty seriously. I’ll keep you posted as to the results!

On Thursday after school I went to compras/shopping in Tegucigalpa with all the kids who celebrate their birthdays in the months of March and April. The ranch loads up a school bus with all the kids and takes them out to lunch in the city. This time we went to a pupusería for pupusas and tacos. The ranch distributes the kids’ birthday money – 150 lempiras each (about $8.00) – and the kids get a few hours to peruse the city and use their money for whatever purchases they want. I took a group of girls from my hogar (Glenda, Diana, Suyapa, and Yamileth). It can be pretty stressful being the chaperone of the kids in a city like Tegucigalpa. The kids are so sheltered on the ranch that they have no clue what to do, where to go, or how to act in the city. They don’t know how to hide their money, they don’t know what the money is worth, and they don’t know what items cost. So, it’s my job to make sure they hide their money well, budget their money for the things they want to buy, and also have fun. I took the girls to La Isla first. La Isla is like a big flea market. We bought things like hair clips, bras, sandals, an alarm clock, and socks. Then we headed to the supermarket, which is where all the kids love to go to buy chucherrías/snacks. I advised the girls to grab a basket to do their shopping, but they didn’t pay any attention. Off they went in search of hair gel, peanut butter, chips, cookies, and gum. The supermarket was jammed. The girls were asking all sorts of questions as to how much things cost, how much money they had left, and comparing items. Some of us got split up for a while and when I caught up to Diana and Yamileth, their arms were full of goodies. All of a sudden when Diana went to reach for a bag of chips, she dropped everything that was in her arms; including a jar of hair gel that splattered all over the floor. A store clerk, who saw what happened, came up to Diana and told her that she would have to pay for the hair gel. I told Diana not to worry about it and that we would go and find another jar of hair gel. When we got to the check-out line the store clerk who saw what happened came over to the cashier and told her to charge Diana for the broken hair gel. I couldn’t let this happen. I asked to speak to the manager and explained that these kids are orphans, they only get to come to the city and go shopping once a year, and they only get a little bit of money. It would be such a shame if Diana would have to pay for this hair gel and would be a really sad memory for her and blah, blah, blah. The manager made a phone call and a few minutes later told us that it’s okay and that Diana wouldn’t have to pay for the hair gel. Phew! Well, as Diana continued to check-out she went over her budget and had to return some of her items. What did one of her items include that she returned?? The hair gel! God! When we were leaving I told Diana to say “gracias”/thank you to the manager as we passed. Instead of smiling and saying “gracias”, Diana stuck her nose up in the air, looked the other way and kept on walking by. Man, this pissed me off! Maybe I should have made her pay for the hair gel to make her learn a lesson, and a little humility. Oh well.

On Friday I went into the city again to make some phone calls, walk around, do some shopping, and enjoy some non-ranch food.

On Saturday I did “turno”/slept over in hogar. We listened to music, hung out, looked at pictures, and later on I showed them the movie Bend It Like Beckham. The girls loved it.

On Sunday I went on a long hike, did some yoga, at lunch with Daniel and his hogar, did some emailing, and at night we had a volunteer dinner and bonfire.

It was a nice week. It brought me back to the basics of why I’m here. It allowed me to stop stressing out and enjoy all that the ranch life has to offer. I need to enjoy it for this last month before I return to the hustle and bustle of life in the States.