February 15, 2016

False start and good news.  We were planning to start teaching at the school this morning. Just before leaving, we got a call that Danielito had gotten a good report that his platelets were rising from Dengue Fever and he could leave the hospital.  We had planned to start English classes this week, but it looked like we had time to at least go by the school and say that would have to start next week.  We arrived a few minutes after 9 and class was supposed to start at 9:15.  The hallway was not packed with students like the previous week. So, we were uncertain as to what changed.  Iris, the teacher rounded the corner about 9:10 and said the schedule had changed and there was a teacher's meeting.  With this, the class would not meet today and we could start next week.  While this worked out good, we had one problem.  Iris had gotten permission from the director that we could invite this class to our youth movie event in our home on Saturday.  If we did not have contact with the class, we would not have an opportunity for a large group to come.  We asked Iris about this and she said the class was still in math and we could ask the teacher if we could come in for 10 minutes to see if anyone wanted a ticket.  She was very agreeable.  Dwaine made the presentation and later he said that we experienced a ‘Dobson moment.’  I easily remembered the story when he had gone as the only man to an orientation meeting for a hospital.  The speaker was quite driven and when it came time to offer coffee and doughnuts, she took a different approach.  She directly asked the first lady and the lady assessed the situation and decided she did not want to walk across the room to the piping hot coffee and stack of doughnuts.  With this peer pressure, Dobson said that she had spoken for the entire room and subsequently, every lady declined to make this trip across the room.  Dobson was last and he jumped up and headed to the pot when asked.  However, he was almost knocked down by a room full of ladies that followed.  So, for just a moment, there was this silence and pressure in the room if anyone would take a ticket.  Finally, a young girl that I had spoken to last week took a ticket.  And yes, we were almost bowled over after she took a ticket with additional takers.  What an answer to prayer and relief it was.  It seemed we just had the right number of tickets for all that wanted one….25.  We kept out a couple for one boy we are studying with.  It was great.  We left and headed out.  Regina called again and said we could leave at 11.  We went by and picked up Kenia and Elizabeth.  This was the same hospital in Ahuachapan that Wendy stayed at for her delivery on her son.  We had deja vu of waiting in the hot car for over an hour, but in the end it wasn’t quite as long as waiting for Wendy.   Danielito was smiling, but his legs were still swollen and a little bluish.  Poor Suleyma was overcome with exhaustion and relief.  She had been sick herself, but had carried the burden of staying with Danielito 24/7 for almost a full week in the hospital.  Only one person could visit for 2 hours a day and this had been Elizabeth.  They are very strict about this.  It was good for her to go home and rest while her family helps with Danielito.  We got home about 1:30.  I had a meeting with the ladies to plan some of the lessons for the ladies at 2.  I had called from the hospital, while in the car, to reschedule for 3 since we were uncertain of our timing.  Everyone arrived about that time and we worked until about 5.  We planned a program and topics for the ladies’ events in July.  Afterwards, I worked on an email to get this out to Rodney and Dwaine and I worked on blogs.  I started coming down with a cold, so I called it quits about 10ish.