Freely You Have Received, Freely GIVE

This past week has gone by so quick! I can’t believe that I have been here 10 days already, only 109 left to go J There is always so much going on each day that it is hard to know where to begin! Towards the beginning of the week, I spent a lot of time shadowing my roommates Carol and Jessica and getting to see what they do at Orphanage Emmanuel. Towards the end of the week I got my permanent assignment! Each volunteer is assigned to a children’s house to eat meals with and help clean up after, and I was assigned to help with the older teenage girls. This is going to be somewhat of a challenge, because the girls here come from rough backgrounds and have a hard time trusting new people, understandably so. Also, one of the staff told Jessica that close to 60% of all the teenage girls are considered “special needs” for one reason or another.  After a few days some of them are starting to get used to me helping out and I am sure the longer I am with them the more comfortable they will be around me. Before I was assigned to their house I was eating meals with the 5-8 year old boys and I loved spending that time with them! They are so funny and love being hugged and held. My assignment during the day time is also to help out with the Infant and Toddler House, which I am really excited about! Throughout my time here there is a medical clinic that is primarily run by the volunteers. There are two nurses on staff who take care of diagnosing and prescribing medication, but the volunteers stay at the clinic 24/7 to help bathe and feed the kids and distribute their medication. I stayed a few nights last week with some of the other volunteers, and there is one sweet baby in the medical clinic that I have fallen in love with. Her name is Maria, and she is in the clinic because she has had diarrhea for over two weeks L Jessica and I talked with the nurse this morning, and he agreed to let us put her on a BRAT (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast) diet for a few days if we were able to supply the food. In hopes that he would allow us to change her diet, I had googled how to make homemade applesauce last night and took my first attempt at making it! It was a lot easier than I expected and it turned out good! There are also mashed bananas and bland oatmeal ready for her whenever she will eat them! Please pray that Maria will take well to this adjustment and her diarrhea will go away!!

Down time at Orphanage Emmanuel is rare, but it is always so relaxing when it is here! During my down time I have spent time on the farm (which is always an adventure), hung out with the other volunteers, and enjoyed reading in the hammock. I have finished Donald Miller’s To Own A Dragon and Ron Hall and Denver Moore’s Same Kind of Different As Me. Both are great reads! I loved the final thought  in Same Kind of Different As Me: “The truth about it is, whether we is rich or poor or something in between, this earth ain’t no final restin place. So in a way, we us all homeless- just workin our way towards home.”  It was a great reminder!

I continue to see God through the life (and love) of the children here, the other volunteers, and the staff. Every day I am blessed to be here! I also continue to be encouraged from my family and friends back home and I got to read a letter from “Mamma Lisa Day” on Sunday before church J Also on Sunday during church I was able to sing “Might to Save” in Spanish with hundreds of orphans, and that song will never be the same to me! I already loved this song so much, but it was incredible to sing it with children who no longer have parents to take care of them, some who were abused, singing about the One who loves them and was mighty to save them! Another day last week I was helping Carol at her office job find children and give them birthday gifts that their sponsor sent and then helping them write a thank you letter. I was amazed by one of the 14 year old boys here. I gave him his birthday present which included candy and some outdoor toys. This is probably one of the only gifts that he will get this year, and he insisted on sharing the candy with all the kids and volunteers at the table. As we were walking back past one of the playgrounds he noticed his friend who was mowing the lawn. Suddenly he stopped, opened his box, took out a whole bag of candy (not just one piece), and threw it over the fence to his friend. This boy probably has few things to call his own, and he was freely passing them out to everybody so they could also appreciate it. I was amazed!