Big changes and so quickly!!!

Sean left Honduras this morning. Yeah, I know, kind of sudden, huh? Wow, have the last two weeks been a whirlwind! The reason why we went back to the States recently was because Sean had an interview with the Mesa Fire Department. Two days after the interview he found out that he had made it on to the next round (Yay!!!) and that the next round starts on October 2nd (What?!?!) The next round is an internship for 4 consecutive Saturdays. We fairly quickly realized that he can't pass up this opportunity, so he has to leave, and I'm doing too much for the organization to leave without much notice (and I'm having a hard enough time thinking about leaving these kids in November much less NOW), so I have to stay. I can safely say that never in our wildest dreams did we think that we would be spending the last month and a half of this experience apart from each other. =(

And for anyone who is worried about me being alone...

a) We just finished moving me to one of the apartments behind our office that is surrounded by a fence topped with barbed wire and we have a watchman with a gun.

b) I am going to be driving to San Pedro by myself sometimes, but I'm going to be staying with some friends for a few days a week so it will actually lessen the number of times that I'm driving by myself.

c) Our car windows are very tinted and I only drive on main roads during the day with all doors locked. =)

Please be praying that Sean will continue to be moving on to the next round until he is a full-fledged fireman!

We've been talking for quite a while about bringing Chamaco to Nueva Esperanza to meet all the kids. (Especially since I showed a bunch of the boys videos that we have of him and they got really excited about a dog.) We knew it was probably going to be pretty chaotic so we decided to bring him on Monday so Sean and I could be together and help each to keep him protected. It was a really wonderful day! The pictures might be overkill but I think they're so funny!

Richar romping around with Maco.

He's great with kids. He doesn't bite. I promise!

Now we're at Nueva and the fun begins! They were pretty impressed that they could put their hands in his mouth and nothing happens.

Give up Chamaco. It's futile to try and escape!

Please pay special attention to Noel, with his hand in Chamaco's mouth and the delighted look on his face and the kid in the background holding on to Chamaco's tail.

They really wanted him to look at the camera.

Blurry, but funny nonetheless. I imagine Maco thinking something along the lines of "Is this ever going to stop??"

Sean realized that if he walked Chamaco around then at least the kids didn't sit on him quite so much. I was talking to some other kids for a lot of this and ever few minutes a pack of kids would walk by lead by Sean and everyone shouting "Chamaco! Chamaco!"

This one's my favorite. Please note that the same kid (in the white and blue striped shirt is, once again, putting his hand in Chamaco's mouth.)

He was such a good sport!

And here's a picture of us with Richar right before Sean had to say goodbye. So sad. I'm taking him to a psychologist on Monday. We don't actually have an appointment, but we're hoping they can fit him in. I've been talking to his teachers and employees at Pronino a lot about him. They all agree that he has some serious anger problems and they don't know what to do with him. BUT they also ALL talk about what a good kid he is and that he's so smart with lots of potential. It's so encouraging to me that he's at least in a place where everyone can see the good in him regardless of his behavior problems. And his teacher said that he never ever has explosions in class. He just focuses on his work. So it seems to happen only during down time when they don't have much to do. Please keep praying for him! I'm off to Pronino right now. I have a Spiderman puzzle that keep a bunch of them entertained for a least a little while!