September 22

The president of Honduras has sneaked his way back into the country. Tarynn and I don’t really know too much about it, but he was kicked out of the country because of corruption and he was trying to stay president for longer. Someone told me that he is hiding in the Brazilian embassy now. I don’t know all the details… but this means that curfews are back in place now. Before this, there were just check points. There were Honduran soldiers or police… I’m not sure… but they would stand random places in the streets and stop trucks if they were suspicious. They worried me at first because they’ve got some pretty big guns on them, but I was assured that they’re there for our safety and to protect us against those people who are on the ex president’s side and are looking to cause trouble. Now no one is allowed in the streets between a certain time. Maria Jose is worried about riots and such so she said that we couldn’t go to the Infa today. She wants to see what happens and see if things clear up. She says there are mostly problems in a bigger city called Tegucigalpa, but she doesn’t want to risk anything.

School was also cancelled because of this and so all the kids stayed at the Hogar for the day. The kids had to do a massive cleaning in the morning because their rooms smelled like pee. It really was terrible. I had a hard time being in there and waking them up and putting them to bed on Sunday. I’m glad she had them do that. She had everything taken out of their rooms. I walked out into the courtyard and beds and shelves were everywhere. This was not so exciting… but after that, the kids made baleadas!! These did not have eggs or chicken, but they were still really good. After that, we all played water balloon volleyball. There were six people on a side. It was pretty sad because there wasn’t even a real net. There were two poles and then two lines of string for a “net.” The kids didn’t mind a bit because it worked. On each team, there were groups of two and those groups had a towel. We were supposed to catch the water balloon in the towel and fling it over the net with our partner. It was a lot of fun… but it was soooooo hot! I felt like fainting… until some of the boys took a big cooking pan and filled it with water and dumped it on me. Usually, I wouldn’t have wanted this to happen, but it felt so good after being in the hot sun. After volleyball, we went to the river again. This was a different place from the last time we went. This one had a little river pool. It was super deep and the kids were swinging on ropes and jumping in the water. It was also very dirty, but the other volunteers and I jumped in it anyway. The kids had a lot of fun and I’m glad we got to go.

I have to mention some other thing that bugs me like no other. There were creepers at the river… there were some at the water park too. They were just a bunch of older guys just kind of standing there in the water and watching the kids. The volunteers and I talked about punching them in the face, but instead, we decided to just watch our kids more carefully. Haha, we’re not really fond of the idea of dying in Honduras. I freaked out when I didn’t see two of the girls. I started asking all the volunteers where they were and one of them said they could see them under the bridge. I had a small heart attack. I’m becoming more and more protective of these kids. Even though I really miss home, it’s weird to think that when I do go home, the kids will still be here. I wish I could give them some of the stuff we have at home. I want to be able to take them to Disneyland or take them to a lake to go wake boarding or something like that.

Anyways, I feel like i’m a constant chaperone or school sponsor. I never realized how tiring it would be. I also feel like an old lady because even though it’s 9 (it’s 8 back at home), I’m about to pass out. Buenas noches.