drama, Drama, DRAMA!

well...benny, pam, and charlie left yesterday. and i can say there was more drama in that week than i care to repeat ever again!...the first of the week started off fine. the saturday they got here, we had our thanksgiving party for all the kids that have been to the united states along with their families. all the moms got up and shared their story of what was wrong with their child and how they are healthy now.
...charlie and benny did alot of work around the house while they were here. benny made a ramp for wheelchair access into the house. funny thing though, someone had thrown a bag of beans into the rocks that were used to make the concrete and so now we have beans that have surfaced in the ramp! hope we don't grow beanstalks on our ramp! :) Benny also fixed the ceiling in my room. there were a few panels hanging down and so now it's fixed and i can sleep with the light off. what if i'm scared of the dark!?! :) Benny also put some screws in the door to my shower. i'll have to take a picture to show you how it's set up (oh wait, i can't. more on that story down below). anyways, there are two doors to my bathroom. and from one you walk right into the shower. well, there wasn't a very good lock on the door and so it could've opened at any time while i was in there. a little nerve racking, especially when someone is walking by the bathroom and says hello to me!!! LOL. that's quite a feeling too. me in the shower and chico or cheryl walking by and says "hey brooke". oh well, guess that's nicaraguan life! :) but at least now there are screws that keep the door closed. but i guess i have to live with the cracks in the door and the people walking by!!!!
...Charlie took one of the walls off the kitchen and pushed it out a little more to give more room for the cabinets he built. that way we don't have to use the freezer as a storage place...Pam, Cheryl, and i painted half of the house. we used a beige, taupe color. i was a little worried on the first coat b/c it looked a little pink-ish. but after the second coat, it looks like a new place. it actually looks like a house now (at least where we have painted). we ran out of paint and the paint store didn't have anymore of that color. and didn't know when they would have it again. but we found another paint store that looks to have the same color so i think we're gonna try that one. i can't wait to get the rest painted and the trim finished. we're gonna paint the bottom trim of the walls a rust color, along with the doors. once we get everything finished, i think it's gonna look really nice!
...let's see what else good happened before i get to the drama...we went to a village one day to show benny and pam what it's like outside the city. we sang some songs, benny gave a little devotional message, and then we had a pinata. while we were there, cheryl found a little girl that she recognized. i don't remember her real name, but the name she wanted it to be was Jennifer so that's what we call her. about 3 years ago, Jennifer came to live with Cheryl for a week b/c her grandfather was abusing her and the Ministry of the Family asked Cheryl to take her and give her the medicine she needed. the medicine was only for a week and then the Ministry of the Family came and took her back...and now it looks like they have put her back in the same situation. because she is back at the village, her grandfather is still there, and the scared look (Cheryl showed me a picture of her 3 yrs. ago) is the exact same look that her little sister has now! we're really worried that these little girls (and possibly their mom) are in an abusive environment. please pray for them. Cheryl is thinking about going to the Ministry of the Family to ask them what happened to the little girl to see what they tell her.
...wednesday was Pam's birthday. and so Cheryl got the Mariache band to come by and play 10 songs! that was fun!! everyone was dancing and having fun. then we had cake and ice cream, and the adults got to have the pinata. actually just pam, cheryl, and me. i was the one that knocked it down. but we were blindfolded. that's an embarrassing feeling, swinging at thin air most of the time. after that, we walked to central park and walked around for a little while.
...another cool God story...karla (mario's mom) asked Cheryl to go look at a house. and Cheryl said to be open, she would go look at it. so me, her, and charlie went. but the house was smaller than the one we're in and they wanted $10,000 more dollars. BUT, while we were there, they were telling us about a little boy that couldn't talk. and while we were there, he just happened to come by. and so we look at him and the little dangly thing in the back of your throat, he has two. well, it looks like two. we've read up on it and while you are in the womb, it starts as two and meets to form one in the middle. but his never met, so he has two. it's sorta in the same family as a cleft palate, but different. it causes him problems eating and he can barely talk, and has a hard time hearing. so we're currently trying to get a doctor that can look at him and determine if there can be a surgery or not, and what else could be done for it. i told Cheryl, we thought we were going to look at a house, but instead God had planned for another child to come into our hands.
...today, we went to the promotion (aka graduation) of karla's oldest son, Jose. he graduated from primary school (6th grade) and afterward, she took us to the house of a child who has cerebral palsy. he's 9 years old and probably weighs around 25-30 lbs. i need to put the picture up that cheyrl took, b/c he is seriously skin and bones. they haven't kept up with his hygiene b/c all his teeth are rotten and need to be taken out. they don't feed him food, only formula (hence why he weighs what he does). he doesn't even have a mattress to sleep on, the frame of the bed is made up of the stuff like the back of rocking chairs (at least the ones down here) and that's what he lays on all day long. they never get him up. he wets himself and since there's no mattress or anything to catch it, it hits the floor and makes the place stink. it really is a pitiful situation. but the problem here with medical conditions is ignorance. they have no clue what to do for these children. and they don't take them to get the help they need, not saying they could get it here, but they don't even try. Magaly was in the same way when Cheryl found her. her family did nothing, they actually crippled her by not helping her learn to take care of herself. before she came, she couldn't eat by herself, dress herself, etc. but now she does all that and more! ....so please just pray for all these that i've mentioned. pray that God gives us wisdom, that his will be done and that we merely join him where he is already working!
...so now for the drama of the week....let's see...in the middle of the week...Eli lit a mattress on fire right outside my bedroom. while benny and pam were putting the panels up in the ceiling, i caught sight of a redish-orangish glow on my door and i go out my door to find Eli with a look of shock while the top of a pile of mattress is on fire. i start panicking and trying to go get some water, and meanwhile, benny got the mattress and got it outside to the yard and stomped it out. if i hadn't caught sight of it when i did, the whole part where my room is could have been on fire!!! needless to say, Eli spent most of that day in his bed. along with Gabby, who apparently told him to flicker the end of the lighter (she had gotten it out of my purse and gave it to Eli).
....then the next night, Cheryl, Pam and I were in the kitchen getting dinner together. the bread had been in the refrigerator and was almost frozen so Cheryl put it into the microwave for a few seconds. well, people down here don't know how to use twist-ties and the bag had been torn and then tied into a knot to close it. so Cheryl didn't think to look for a twist-tie. well, there was one on there and it caught fire in the microwave. who caught sight of it in the microwave? none other than yours truly! everyone is trying to burn the place down and i keep saving it!!! lol :)
...and then the personal drama for me, when we were taking benny, pam, and charlie back to the airport yesterday to go home, we stopped at a On the Run gas station and ate in the little restaurant place on the side. so there are 5 people sitting at my table, and i put my purse on the side of my chair, which was right against me and right beside Luis who was sitting beside me. well, we get up, ready to leave and i go to get a purse that is no longer there! someone stole my purse. if that weren't enough that someone took my wallet, along with that, they got my camera and mp3 player that were also in the purse. i am a little sad when i think about it, just b/c it was my stuff. but, in the end, it was just "stuff". but please pray that whoever it was does not somehow steal my identity! that would be bad...but hopefully i can replace the camera sometime b/c that is my way of showing you all life in nicaragua.
guess that's enough for one very long blog!! i'll try to get some pictures off cheryl's computer of the ones i've mentioned in the blog and get them put up in the next day or so.
much love!