A Day in the Life

One thing that people often ask me is "what is an average day like for you?" or "what is your schedule like everyday?". Well, as a social worker at a children's home in Honduras, I think it's safe to say, I don't have an average day. My "typical" day is waking up every morning and knowing that my day will probably be anything but "typical" and definitely will not go as planned. For example, last night, I was planning on going to the office after dinner and working on case notes and some other paperwork while listening to my Friday Night Country playlist (because nothing says Friday night like sitting in your office doing paperwork), but then one of the girls in one of my houses asked me if I would come help here with her division homework (and you just can't say no to a kid who wants to do their homework on a Friday night) and then one of the other girls asked me to bring a game so that we could play afterwards (we ended up playing Disney princess addition flash cards, classic), so at the end of the day I could safely say that I'm still behind on office work (as always) but what I did with my time was probably way more important in the long run. So, in order to answer the question "what exactly are you doing in Honduras anyway?", I've decided to start a new blog series called "A Day in the Life," which will be sporadic like all of my blogs, and will capture some of my "typical," or not so typical, days at the Finca. Here I go... 

A Day in the Life, mid-January, 2013

2:30 am- I wake up to the sound of rain pounding on the "techo" (rooftop)

3:00 am- I wake up to the same sound thinking it's a few hours later

5:45 am- it's raining really hard again

6:13 am- I wake up to my alarm clock, it's still raining really hard

6:17 am- I get out of bed even though I know if it's been raining this hard we probably won't have morning prayer

6:21 am- I look outside, these are the biggest waves I've ever seen here, there's no morning prayer, but I decide to stay up and write a letter instead of going back to bed

8:30 am- today would be a "rain day," [the Central American equivalent of a snow day (go ahead and smirk, I used to smirk at it too but (1) we can't make it to town to pick up our vegetables or go to the bank because the rivers are too high and (2) even if you don't have to drive through a river there is no way to walk anywhere without getting wet,  unless you own a rain suit, which most of us don't] except that there is a psychologist visiting and giving training for all of the staff and we need to "aprovechar" his time here, so I put on every bit of rain protection gear that I own (and make sure to wear my Christmas socks under my rain boots  because when else are you going to wear socks in Honduras?, thanks mom!), and I walk to house 3, the youngest boys house, to cover so that their tía can go to the charla. We also don't have electricity or water because of the storm (but that's nothing unusual here, it doesn't take a storm to lose either of those things)

8:30- 9:30 am- Things ten-year-old boys say: "El mar es furioso hoy" (the sea is furious today), "Hay un posa atras de nuestra casa" (there's a swimming hole behind our house), "¿Puedo traer Lolo a escuela del invierno?"-no, you can't bring your pet baby squirrel to winter school with you 

9:30 am- we run across the Finca to winter school during a slight break in the downpour, I tell the boy's we're playing a game: whoever gets to the bibilioteca the least wet wins. My game doesn't stop two boys from running into the pond that has formed next to the school, I arrive when they're already up to their knees in agua, luckily I stop them before they get their shorts wet. 

1:00 pm- during lunch the missionary coordinator informs us that we are "abajo de un aviso verde" for the next 48 hours, which means it will probably keep raining but there's no danger

5:30 pm- still no water, or electricity, good thing a "montón" of water is falling from the sky, we set up tambos in the courtyard and I start writing my journal by candlelight 

7:45 pm- HAY LUZ (we have electricity)

A "typical" day in the life of a Finca social worker...