The Container

Today, I got to sleep in until 8. It was so nice. I had cheerios for breakfast. So, no granola bar today. I played with the younger girls on the playground today. They get so bored out their everyday. They are so cute. It is always a challenge remembering every girls' name, but I am getting there. I had to work the store for a little while around lunch time. We got a new shipment in of drinks, ice cream, and chips, so we are good to go. I ate at the restaurant today, and had great baked chicken, potato salad, rice, and a tortilla. Dunia made the tortilla especially for me, since we only had corn tortillas today, and those are not my favorite. I like the flour ones better. The stars here at night are amazing. You see different stars here than in the states because we are closer to the equator. I have seen two shooting stars and the big dipper. It has been clear at night. Today was very pretty, and windy. It was a beautiful day. I got to take a nap this afternoon. With the wind blowing in my windows and my fan, it was a super nap. We were told yesterday that the container was being held in customs for a week, because there were two pallets of rice that were expired. However, rice does not go bad. There is a food shortage in Honduras, so customs is being particularly picky. Normally, we would have put the food at the back of the container, but got the rice after the whole container was packed and no one want to repack the whole truck. Customs doesn't check through everything, but normally the stuff at the front. Today the truck showed up, with the rice. The man from customs who drove the truck here has to stay here with the container until Monday, when other custom officials will be here to make sure the rice is burned. It is quite ridiculous considering the rice is perfectly fine to eat, there are children starving everywhere on the streets, and it is a third world country. Poppy tried to offer to pay them for the rice, but they said no. All of the custom officials said it was fine, but one, who is coming here to the orphanage on Monday to watch it be burned. The rice is from Covenant Presbyterian Church. The church sent it down because there was a shortage of it here, and now customs is doing this. It is very discouraging. Also, nothing can be unloaded from the container until Monday, when the customs officials get here. They have to make sure we burn the rice first, and then they are going to go through every box on the container. They are being very hard to get along with. Tonight, the staff had a dinner for all of us volunteers. It was so nice, and the food was delicious. Hot dogs to chicken to brownies to ice cream. Everything you could imagine. I caught lightning bugs with all of the staff children for about an hour and a half. They are much harder to catch here than in the states and like to bury in the ground. Every kid wanted to have one, and then it would fly away, and they would want another one. I think more died while we were trying to catch them, than we actually caught. The kids had fun, though. Gabriel, Katja and Max's son, named me Cuckoo. I have no idea why, but that is what he calls me now. We have church in the morning, which I am so excited about, especially since we didn't have church on Wednesday night, just girl's and boy's Bible study. Pastor Herman is great. I love to hear his sermons. Hopefully, it will rain here soon. The weather here is very weird for the rainy season. I love and miss you all!