Our work also shifted for day three. We would not be doing construction, but would be spending the day with the children of Casa De Luz's Zambrano branch. We would be doing some activities together, such as a music time and craft/snack supervision, but the team would also be breaking into small groups and leading the kids in different activities, two groups were involved in English exercises and one was focused on play. Rachel Bickel and I worked together, teaching the kids English terms for numbers (1-10), colors, and shapes. The children who benefit from this daycare program are younger than those in the English program I was involved with briefly yesterday. The first group proved to be the smaller of the two, but Rachel and I had a good time helping them learn English through flashcards. Once again, I admired the sharpness of some of the children. They also helped us with our Spanish. As the children left, they each got a hug from every team member. So few of these children get much positive affection, particularly from men, but I hope they felt loved. I know that we did.
We walked the short distance to the Schubert's house for lunch (would you believe subs, chips, and Gatorade?) with the welcome addition of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Mmmm...mmmm good! The afternoon class was twice the size (35 or so) of the morning group, but they were still fairly cooperative. Sometimes we barely got through our material in the time allotted, other times we would finish up with several minutes to spare. That's when things got complicated, because I didn't know how to communicate much beyond what was on the flash cards and asking, "How do you say... in English? en Espanol? I commented to Val (who is fluent) that I had never used as much Spanish as I did that day. I wonder if I made sense to the kids? We managed the extra time as best we could. After the kids were gone we spent about an hour giving Casa de Luz a good cleaning. While the mopping was being completed, several of us chatted outside. I got to know I nice older couple from North Carolina who decided that rather than making repeated short-term trips they would just move to Honduras. Now they make short-term trips to their family in the States!
Our work for the day completed, and what satisfying work it was, we walked back to the Schubert's to relax for a bit. The Schubert's have a wonderfully large blue and white hammock. It could have been a napper's paradise, but it was hard to enjoy it for too long because Blake Lewis (somehow never far away) would quickly come harass you. The Schubert's also have a big brown dog called Duke who was great fun to play with. That evening, we had pizza (some homemade and some from Free the Oppressed's restaurant), fabulous Coca-Cola, and more of those delicious cookies. In truth, I could have eat all of them, and in my passive aggressive way, I tried to. I learned some Honduran geography by studying a wall map and plying Ed with questions. Up til then, I'd had no idea that by landing in San Pedro Sula, we basically drove halfway across the country to get to Zambrano. Also of note, if you travel East from Zambrano you will eventually reach a province called Gracia De Dios, or Grace of God, which has virtually no roads. The main way to travel is via river. In some way, pre-colonial Honduras is preserved there. We chattered around the table, shared stories, laughed, and generally had a good time. Having given up my seat at the table, I spent some time flipping through magazines in the living room. National Geographic is full of pictures of a beautiful world I would like to see more of. A Doctor friend of the Schubert's was also visiting that day, and she was reading a Tolkien book. I chatted to her a bit about that. Amazingly she was just starting the Children of Hurin, and had completed it by Sunday. Wish I could read like that. Our evening at the Schubert's ended in the outdoor gazebo, with a small fire to keep us warm. We traveled home, had devotions, and then off to bed. Back to work tomorrow!
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