We Need Your Help!

So I haven’t been able to update that often but I just want to say thanks for the emails I’ve received. I usually don’t have much time to respond, but they are greatly appreciated and I look forward to hearing from people in the States. I’ve received several emails from people who want to help but up until this point I haven’t been exactly sure what things were needed. After being here for almost 4 weeks, I’ve finally talked to staff and other volunteers to see where needs are and what opportunities I’ll have to meet some of those needs. More than anything, prayers are needed – for the kids, staff, and volunteers here. But if you feel called to meet some of the physical needs that we have, it would be an absolute blessing. The Lord has been faithful to provide thus far and I am confident that He will continue to do so. Thanks for wanting to be a part of what He’s doing at Orphanage Emmanuel. Please don’t feel like you have to send anything or one of everything. I’m learning more and more every single day here that the Lord works in the hearts of His people to provide for various needs. If there is a specific need listed that you feel called to meet, it will be a blessing to many. Your gifts and donations help the staff and volunteers better serve the children here.

If you decide to send some of the needed things – regardless of who they are for – please send everything to the address listed below. If you don’t put my name on it, it goes in the storehouse here and could easily get lost. When I receive boxes, I can personally deliver things where they need to be. So please make sure to put my name on the box. Thanks so much for being willing to serve

Volunteer Leigh Cooper
c/o Orphanage Emmanuel
Dr. Don Reynolds
4611 Hixson Pike
Hixson TN 37343

NEEDS FOR THE KIDS
In a place with over 400 children there are certain items that are always needed. Please send any of the following at any time:
Diapers, baby wipes, socks and underwear for small boys and girls, sturdy shoes for small boys (boots/tennis shoes) and sandals for small girls, also hairbrushes, and deodorant.

As a volunteer, it is up to us to plan and schedule activities with the children during free time – which is after school some days but mostly weekends. We usually try to take them to the cancha (field/court) to play, the casita (craft house), playing in the yards, or taking groups of siblings to the fields to be together. I’d love to do more structured activities with the kids but I don’t have the resources right now.
The kids also have the opportunity to sell their jewelry in art shows each week a group comes. They get a portion of the money and are allowed to save or spend it at the store or somewhere and they’re taught to tithe 10%. Therefore it would be an awesome opportunity to work with them in jewelry making. Here are some items that are really popular with the kids: hemp string, other string, colorful yarn, colorful beads, colorful bandanas for bracelets/necklaces – any jewelry making items are good.
On weekends the volunteers try to take different sibling groups so they get to spend time with each other. We try to take them to play together and spend time away from all the other kids. We try to have a few crackers or cookies to give them so those items would be good. Also it would be cool if we could have some Kool-aid powder to make a little for them. It gets expensive trying to take them all to the store for a drink and chips.
The kids are constantly playing in the yards and could use the following things: soccer balls, Frisbees, kickballs, big jump ropes (for multiple people), marbles/jacks, spinning tops, and a hand-held air pump to inflate the balls.

The following items are also useful for activities with both boys and girls: bottles of tempera paint for face-painting, small paint brushes, simple craft kits (maybe VBS leftovers or something along those lines), fingernail polish and remover, hair accessories, and Spanish and bilingual children’s books.

NEEDS FOR THE VOLUNTEER HOUSE
Right now there are 21 girls living in the girl volunteer house and 7 boys living in the boy volunteer house. I will be living here for the next year and so I have noticed many things that would be really helpful around here. Some of these items are impossible to buy here and others are only available in Tegucigalpa and therefore are difficult to carry by hand on the bus back to the orphanage. These are some common items that are always needed and appreciated:
Small rubber gloves, trash bags (all sizes big and small), bathroom and kitchen cleaners, dish detergent, Ziploc bags (all sizes), aluminum foil, saran wrap, sharp kitchen knives, Tupperware containers, plastic plates and bowls (not disposable but just cheap plastic), flashlights.
Bathroom items: soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, hair spray, etc.
Medicines: Pepto, ibuprofen, calamine lotion, bug spray, sunscreen, antibiotic cream, cotton balls
Peanut butter is a treasured item around here. Any microwavable food is also nice to have – easy mac, individual packets of oatmeal or grits, etc.

I cannot thank you enough for your help and support. If you have questions about anything, feel free to email me at leighcooper.emmanuel@gmail.com or ask my parents. You're a blessing! Love you all.

Quick Update

Lots of things have happened since I have been at Orphanage Emmanuel. I haven’t been able to blog about anything, but I’ve been doing a pretty good job of journaling each day that I’m here. So many things happen so fast that I’ll forget them if I don’t write things down. I wish that I could share many stories with you but I can’t now for lack of time. I have limited access to the internet here because of time restraints. There are so many things to be done here and not enough hands to do them so I’m lucky if I get 20 minutes a week. Here lately my 20 minute time slot has come on days without power haha. With that being said, I’ll try and update you briefly on a few things going on here. Also if you read the blog entry with a list of needs, you will see some of the other activities that I’m involved in.
This is a really quick summary of the past 3-4 weeks I’ve been here. I’ve really struggled staying well since I’ve been here because of stomach issues and also bug bites. I’ve been attacked by lots of bugs and my legs look terrible. I’ve been able to get some medicines from the clinic so I’m feeling much better. The joke among staff is that you quickly get promoted here and I am finding that statement to be true. I started out working at the toddler house for a couple of days. Then I met with the principal at the school and found out that I will be teaching 4th-6th grade English and so I started writing lesson plans. But many times here you receive a job assignment and it gets changed before you even start. I spent the next week working in the little boys’ kitchen all day every day cooking and cleaning for 3 meals for lots and lots of hungry little boys. It was a challenging week but I learned lots of things. Then the next week I worked in the medical clinic for 1 day while some American doctors were here. That night I found out that I would leave early the next morning to take 20 teenage girls to a Christian camp – Campamento Esperanza (Camp Hope) - outside of Tegucigalpa. So we loaded the girls up on a bus and another volunteer and I took them to camp for this past week. It was an incredibly life changing experience for me – I heard many of the girls’ stories and saw some horrible things in the city that I will never forget. The Lord keeps reminding me of where these kids have come from and what they’ve had to endure before they got to this safe home of Emmanuel, which causes me to love them even more. Every face has a story. In my free time I’ve been playing soccer with the little and medium boys and hanging out with them in their yards getting to know them better. If you know me, I’m sure you’re not surprised that it’s easier for me to form relationships with the little boys through playing soccer than it is to bond with the little girls talking and fixing hair. This has turned out to be a blessing though. There aren’t many boy volunteers and they spend most of their time working; most of the girl volunteers here are drawn to bonding with the little girls. So it just works out perfectly that another girl volunteer and I are drawn to building relationships with the younger boys. Also, I have seen a great need in the little ones to have a mother-figure, someone of compassion – and there is nobody in that role. They have many male role models in their lives to teach and lead and guide them, but they don’t come into contact with any women who can provide that mother role model that is so crucial for boys at this age. The female staff stays so busy even trying to manage the girls, much less minister to the boys. As a volunteer I have that opportunity because of my flexibility of jobs. Many weekends I have spent in the boys’ yard playing all kinds of games and just hanging out.
Now that we’re back from camp I’ve been observing the school today and tomorrow and will begin teaching on Wednesday. I’ll be teaching 4 classes ranging from 11 – 32 students. Each class meets for 45 minutes twice a week. In a few weeks I will be teaching 1st-3rd grade English or a bilingual class in addition to my other classes. My other responsibilities will still continue after the school day is over, but much of my time will now be devoted to preparing for classes. I don’t have my own classroom but instead I travel from class to class to teach. Please pray for me in preparation for this. I am more nervous about this task than I’ve been about anything else so far.
There have been many volunteers here and 10 more arrive today. It makes for much craziness in a house full of 20+ girls but things are good. I am the only new long-term volunteer and so many of the other volunteers will be leaving soon, therefore placing me in the position to receive much responsibility. I’ve met some really cool people here and I will miss the other volunteers when they leave, but I’m sure the quiet will be nice sometimes too! 
My time is up but I just want to say thank you again for your prayers and emails of encouragement over the past few weeks. This place has become my home and it feels like it here, but I enjoy hearing from you. Please continue to pray for me, the other volunteers, and especially the staff here. So much needs to be done but there aren’t enough hands and so the staff members have more responsibility than they can possibly bear. Pray for language learning – as teaching is extremely difficult with this barrier. Pray for healing and wellness. Please pray that I will be willing to step out of the comfortable and to dive in to the uncomfortable willingly and with a joyful heart.

Hola todos!

I´m finally here! This blog may not be long because I am just stopping by an internet cafe in Guaimaca. I just finished buying a few groceries for the first time. It´s going to take a little while to get adjusted to living here, especially without speaking much Spanish. The flight went well and I arrived safely two days ago. I spent the whole day yesterday working in the toddler house. There are 38 kid there now- a few babies and special needs children as well. We had our hands full, but it was a wonderful start to being here. Today I took 14 of the medium boys to la cancha (the court)to play soccer. This afternoon we are planning on doing an activity with the kids called Bread on a Stick - it´s something that the Danish girls here do back home. It´ll be interesting to see how that goes. Right now there are 8 other girls in the team house, but in just a few weeks we will have 22. Pray for us all haha. Last night we had a staff and volunteer dinner and hangout. It was a really great way for me to get to know a few of the volunteers and staff a little bit better.

I was really nervous and uncomfortable once I was unpacking my things my first evening. My thoughts were along the lines of ¨what have I gotten myself into¨...but once I got started working with the kids, I´m really excited and thankful to be here. This is where I´m supposed to be right now. It´s going to be hard (and hot) but I´m preparing daily for what is to come. We are blesed. Gotta run.