Continuing To Settle In
Hi all! Things have been busy as usual. Here is what we have been up to this past week….
Kellan is going to be taking over the maintenance while the main guy in charge is on vacation for 6 weeks. It is a big job to keep up the maintenance on a campus this size. This will be a great opportunity for him to gain some handy man skills. He has started with fixing all the toilets this week. Kari has been continuing to work with the toddlers. There has been an outbreak of boils with the toddlers this week. Two thirds of them are infected and each day more and more kids are getting them. The puss from the boil is contagious so it is very easily spread to other parts of their bodies as well as to other children. Some of the children have it everywhere including their face, ears, and scalp…it is so sad. We have been trying to keep the infected children separated as much as possible.
We are thinking of starting volunteer meetings every other week. We felt so lost when we got here and hope that it will be helpful to others feeling the same way. With that said we are finally starting to feel a bit more comfortable here and are adjusting to our new life. We have more of an idea of what we are doing and definitely know more Spanish than when we arrived (yet still have a very long way to go). We are getting a bit of a daily routine down, but still have to be ready for the unexpected things that happen daily.
We usually go into town once or twice a week to get groceries, which mainly includes rice, beans, pasta, eggs, oatmeal, bread, and vegetables. We were able to find peanut butter at the bakery this week, which has been a special treat. There is a lady that sells fruit and vegetables from her home that is on the way into town. We only get fruit that can be peeled and vegetables that can be cooked. We also wash our vegetables with bleach before cooking them. We eat with the children at times, but there is only so much rice that we can handle. We are pretty much on a vegetarian diet here because we don’t trust the meat at the markets. Next week we are hoping to take a trip to the capital to go to Walmart and will hopefully be able to find more of a selection of food there.
The main town square is about a 10-15 minute walk and includes a bank, grocery store, and lots of street vendors trying to sell food. Guaimaca has a population of about 13,000 and is extremely poor. Once you step outside the gates of the orphanage it is like you are stepping into a different world. The orphanage campus is beautiful as are the views. Everywhere you look there are mountains covered in greenery for as far as you can see. However the town is extremely poor and dirty. There is no work in this town, so we aren’t really sure how people make a living. Sickly looking dogs roam the streets. Guns shots are heard around the clock. We aren’t sure what people are shooting, especially at 3am. Someone said they shoot dogs but there is no way there can be that many dogs.
There has been lots of rain the past few days, mostly in the evenings. We have never seen rain like this before. It is sunny and then all of a sudden the wind starts blowing and the next thing you know it is raining so loud you that you have to yell so the person standing beside you can hear. There are also lots of lightening and thunderstorms. The days are very hot and humid. Sometimes we wonder why we even bother to shower. This past week there has also been a lot of power and water outages. It is quite a challenge to keep all the kids clean with no running water for showers or laundry, but they make it work.
We switched rooms this week. We are the first couple in a set of three rooms that share a kitchen so we got to choose which room we wanted. We picked the one at the end because the walls are extremely thin. So we figured it would be less noisy instead of being in the middle room. The new room also has a really good fan and a little more storage space. The only draw back is there is no hot water, but the fan is worth it.
Kellan came down with a fever last night so he is resting in bed today. We are hoping it is nothing more than the flu. Lots of kids have been sick with the flu and cold so it is no surprise that we got sick. Kari started getting a cold a couple days ago, which is normal when she doesn’t get enough sleep (the sound of gun shots keeps her up most nights).
Please pray for our health and safety (especially if we go to the capital next week). Pray for strength to work lots of long hours and our patience to work with some of the more defiant children.
Love and miss you all!
P.S. Some of you have asked us about our address. We actually still don’t know our physical address here. We found out that there is a shipment that comes here from the states once a month. We can receive letters and packages on this shipment. For the most part it is a safe way to send stuff, however occasionally things will go missing if it is searched at the port. The next shipment gets loaded on Sept 12 and takes about 16 days to arrive if everything goes smoothly.
Kellan and Kari Lancaster at Orphanage Emmanuel
c/o Dr. Don Reynolds
4611 Hixson Pike
Hixson, TN 37343
Kellan is going to be taking over the maintenance while the main guy in charge is on vacation for 6 weeks. It is a big job to keep up the maintenance on a campus this size. This will be a great opportunity for him to gain some handy man skills. He has started with fixing all the toilets this week. Kari has been continuing to work with the toddlers. There has been an outbreak of boils with the toddlers this week. Two thirds of them are infected and each day more and more kids are getting them. The puss from the boil is contagious so it is very easily spread to other parts of their bodies as well as to other children. Some of the children have it everywhere including their face, ears, and scalp…it is so sad. We have been trying to keep the infected children separated as much as possible.
We are thinking of starting volunteer meetings every other week. We felt so lost when we got here and hope that it will be helpful to others feeling the same way. With that said we are finally starting to feel a bit more comfortable here and are adjusting to our new life. We have more of an idea of what we are doing and definitely know more Spanish than when we arrived (yet still have a very long way to go). We are getting a bit of a daily routine down, but still have to be ready for the unexpected things that happen daily.
We usually go into town once or twice a week to get groceries, which mainly includes rice, beans, pasta, eggs, oatmeal, bread, and vegetables. We were able to find peanut butter at the bakery this week, which has been a special treat. There is a lady that sells fruit and vegetables from her home that is on the way into town. We only get fruit that can be peeled and vegetables that can be cooked. We also wash our vegetables with bleach before cooking them. We eat with the children at times, but there is only so much rice that we can handle. We are pretty much on a vegetarian diet here because we don’t trust the meat at the markets. Next week we are hoping to take a trip to the capital to go to Walmart and will hopefully be able to find more of a selection of food there.
The main town square is about a 10-15 minute walk and includes a bank, grocery store, and lots of street vendors trying to sell food. Guaimaca has a population of about 13,000 and is extremely poor. Once you step outside the gates of the orphanage it is like you are stepping into a different world. The orphanage campus is beautiful as are the views. Everywhere you look there are mountains covered in greenery for as far as you can see. However the town is extremely poor and dirty. There is no work in this town, so we aren’t really sure how people make a living. Sickly looking dogs roam the streets. Guns shots are heard around the clock. We aren’t sure what people are shooting, especially at 3am. Someone said they shoot dogs but there is no way there can be that many dogs.
There has been lots of rain the past few days, mostly in the evenings. We have never seen rain like this before. It is sunny and then all of a sudden the wind starts blowing and the next thing you know it is raining so loud you that you have to yell so the person standing beside you can hear. There are also lots of lightening and thunderstorms. The days are very hot and humid. Sometimes we wonder why we even bother to shower. This past week there has also been a lot of power and water outages. It is quite a challenge to keep all the kids clean with no running water for showers or laundry, but they make it work.
We switched rooms this week. We are the first couple in a set of three rooms that share a kitchen so we got to choose which room we wanted. We picked the one at the end because the walls are extremely thin. So we figured it would be less noisy instead of being in the middle room. The new room also has a really good fan and a little more storage space. The only draw back is there is no hot water, but the fan is worth it.
Kellan came down with a fever last night so he is resting in bed today. We are hoping it is nothing more than the flu. Lots of kids have been sick with the flu and cold so it is no surprise that we got sick. Kari started getting a cold a couple days ago, which is normal when she doesn’t get enough sleep (the sound of gun shots keeps her up most nights).
Please pray for our health and safety (especially if we go to the capital next week). Pray for strength to work lots of long hours and our patience to work with some of the more defiant children.
Love and miss you all!
P.S. Some of you have asked us about our address. We actually still don’t know our physical address here. We found out that there is a shipment that comes here from the states once a month. We can receive letters and packages on this shipment. For the most part it is a safe way to send stuff, however occasionally things will go missing if it is searched at the port. The next shipment gets loaded on Sept 12 and takes about 16 days to arrive if everything goes smoothly.
Kellan and Kari Lancaster at Orphanage Emmanuel
c/o Dr. Don Reynolds
4611 Hixson Pike
Hixson, TN 37343
Hey guys, love reading the blog. Sounds like you guys have your hands full. I feel very grateful while reading the stories of the hardships these people face every day. I'm very proud of your efforts and will keep you in my prayers. Rip it.
ReplyDeleteLance
How much do you weigh? Do you have access to bodybuilding.com?
ReplyDelete