Day 2

Hello all,
Well today was our first official full day here at HIS. I must admit that it was a very long day. After breakfast this morning we had devotions. Everyone here at HIS, the kids, staff, missionaries, has devotions twice a day. Bobby and I had devotions with the other men (I was the only girl) in the toolshed. I know it sounds like a funny place, but I suppose that is where the men feel the most comfortable, and I don't think God cares, so that is where they meet. All of the kids have their devotions together in the morning on the playground. The men sang several worship songs together and then had a short lesson (Romans 8:28-36). Bobby and I then went and did some things with a missions team who is currently serving down here for one week. They are a group of 9 ladies from Denver, CO. I think that it will be really cool to work with the various teams that come in. There is also a team coming in next week from the US Naval base. There is a US naval base here in El Salvador, and they visited the orphanage and donated some items as Christmas time. Well, these men want to come back next week and do some construction work. I think that is really awesome and I can't wait to meet them.

Bobby and I also met with the Benner's this afternoon. Don and Rosanne Benner are the founders of HIS. They went over all of the do's and don't of serving as a missionary down here, and they went over our work projects. Our main focus for the next few months will be language training. They want us to take language courses 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. I am not much looking forward to this, but I know that it is essential. Bobby is really not looking forward to it, but he is being a good sport about it. Bobby will mostly be working with the hired men here at the grounds doing various construction and carpentry projects. I am supposed to be training all the childcare workers basic first aid. I have also been assigned the enormous task of teaching the kids and their house mothers the importance of good hygeine - LOL!! Sounds crazy, I know, but I guess there is real problem with them not seeing the importance of daily baths, washing your hands before you eat and after the restroom, brushing you teeth, washing your hair, etc. Oh, and speaking of washing your hair, all of the kids (or at least most of them) have head lice and I have also been assigned the task of delousing them. How do you delouse 76 kids from age 1 to 18? Especially when they handwash all of their linens and clothes? I am going to have to buy a lot of RID! Right now the house mothers think that the solution to head lice is to actually hand pick the full grown lice out of the kids heads when they seem them crawling around. Great - the kids aren't monkeys to be groomed. I have my hands full (or should I say head?). I feel itchy already!! And, Bobby and I also have the joint task of coordinating and working with all the teams that arrive, and also taking over the OASIS program, which is a feeding program that they do. I will write more about that later.

Then, this evening, just as we were setting down, we got a knock on our door from Robin, a fellow missionary serving down here. She was having chest pain and heart palpitations, so we took her to the hospital. This hospital was unlike any other I had ever seen before because it was a private hospital. It was clean, neat, modern, and very expensive. Robin was the only patient in the ER. The guy who drove us to the hospital said that the reason it was empty is because no one goes to the private hospitals because most people cannot afford them. So, most people go the public hospital. They examined Robin, and although everything came back okay so far, they decided to keep her in the hospital overnight. So, if you all could pray for her, that would be great. Well, I must go for now. It is way late and I have another early morning breakfast of fried plantains scheduled. Miss you all bunches.

Lots of love,
Britney