Christmas!

I decided to stay longer for the kids and also because I didn´t really want to have to deal with being home around Christmas time... This weekend I am alone at the Hogar because my current roommates are traveling. I spent yesterday from 9 am to 9 pm and 5 hours this morning in town walking around shopping for 20 kids, 2 cooks, our cleaning lady and her son, and our main tia and her son. This is the most shopping I have ever done for Christmas! I had to take the bus back yesterday with 5 huge bags full of gifts for the kids! It was crazy but also SO much fun! I asked each kid what they wanted for Christmas one morning in our circle group and wrote it down. Basically all of the boys wanted remote control cars or marbles and all of the girls wanted dolls and a couple of them wanted make-up.

Luckily I have been here long enough to know where some of the deals are. There is a outlet store downtown near the central market and I went there yesterday and spent about 3 hours in this store. Thanks to money donated we were able to get each kid the gift that they requested as well as stocking-stuffers. I am going to take SO many pictures of the kids opening their gifts and on Christmas I cannot wait! I got to hand pick outfits, shoes, sandals, dolls, cars, jewelry, etc. And since I have lived with these kids for so long I have a decent idea of what they like.

This organization is seriously dysfunctional but the kids have made it a worth it experience. The 5 volunteers that live at the Hogar will be running Christmas. The head couple that lives there are taking the week off, leaving Monday and returning hopefully next Friday. So us volunteers will be doing everything. Bethany and I made the grocery list and picked out the menu and we will be doing the cooking for all 35 people. We are so excited. We found some really funky Christmas dresses that we are going to wear and braid our hair and do a little Christmas dance for the kids. We are going to make sure the kids sit in their chairs and we will serve their food rather than just ringing a bell and having them run and get their food like usual. We are going to have popcorn, root beer floats, Disney movies in Spanish (that the kids have never seen-the little mermaid, cinderella, the lion king, peter pan and beauty and the beast). We are going to dance and stay up all night. In Honduras Christmas is celebrated at midnight. That is when you open gifts and eat dinner so it will be a late night.

Our Menu:
24th
Lunch-tomales with help from the cooks on the 23rd
Dinner-shrimp with garlic and butter, pasta with mushroom sauce and garlic, salad-tomatoes and avocado with lime, chile and salt.

25th
Breakfast-french toast with real syrup, fruit salad-pineapple, apples, grapes and banana and bacon.
Dinner-chicken with broccoli, cheese, rice and gravy aka chicken devon

We will also have popcorn, root beer floats and be baking cookies all day on the 25th! And the kids will get to have real milk with breakfast on the 25th. This is huge. All they ever have is hot powdered milk with tons of added sugar.

Reina, the girl that I de-loused, wanted clothes for Christmas so I got to pick out a nice outfit for her with some matching sandals. Ruth broke her only sandals so I got her a pair or orange crcok-like sandals (orange is her favorite color). I got 5 pairs of sandals-shoes for kids and got up early this morning to trace their feet so I could get the right size. I got the oldest girls real hairbrushes so they wouldn´t have to use lice combs. I cannot wait for Christmas!!!

I still have to get stuff for the kitchen-cooks and figure out where I can buy wrapping paper... I have not found wrapping paper in any store. I may have to just find a newspaper stand and get tons of news paper. The stores will wrap gifts if you pay but don´t sell rolls of wrapping paper. It makes me almost want to cry thinking of how happy hopefully the kids will be on Christmas. Sometimes when they get gifts they are not very appreciative. For this I talked with the other volunteers and suggested the idea that we each wrap something and open it in front of the kids so they could see how we react when getting gifts. I wanted to do a name draw with a $5 limit but I got outvoted. Instead each volunteer is to wrap something they currently own, or buy themselves a gift and wrap it to open in front of everyone and the gifts are to be from the other volunteers. I bought myself the earrings I have been eyeing since my first week. I am so excited to wear them. I may also get myself a pair of pajamas if I have time. That is my Christmas tradition at home, getting new pjs every year from my Grandma. Ugh, I am going to be sad to leave... I know on my last day I will cry. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. I have been watching volunteers come and go and I get teary eyed for their last day so I cannot imagine how I will be at mine. I have about 4 weeks left before I leave and start traveling down to Panama!

Sorry these posts are all over the place. It is chaotic here with volunteer transitions, Christmas, the organization, etc.

I hope that everyone back home is well and staying safe and warm through the Winter Storm 2008!!! Is that what the news is saying? I can only imagine.

All of the Christmas gifts were made possible by donations from churches, volunteers, family/friends of volunteers-Greg and Diane Dunbar, THANK YOU!

I miss everyone and hope that you all have a happy and safe Christmas. Sunday I plan on posting all of the pictures from Christmas and updating the blog to let you all know how it turns out!!!