The gang eating dinner
Our time here at the Rancho is starting to feel short now – we leave on January 31st, so only a couple of more days here. The bridge project is coming along – the bridge group split into a couple of teams this morning – one team sawing planks to length up by the bodega area (sort of a general resource area for the Rancho), and a team down at the bridge.
Someone's work commute vehicle
A group of Rancho boys came by today to help smooth out the terrain leading right up to the bridge and to help add the planking there.
View from the opposite side of the bridge
Much of the planking on the center span has been screwed down, but the new planks are thicker than the old ones, so the whole mass of planking is starting to make the logs bend under their weight, so DaddyFrog and Carl are working on implementing a couple of tensioned wires under the logs to solve the problem.
Rancho kids helping offload planks from the truck
In the photo with the view of the opposite side of the bridge, you can see that the guys also had to figure out how to keep the current water piping intact while they worked on the bridge, rigging up a system of ropes to hold up the bendy PVC pipes. Without these pipes, the folks on the other side of the bridge would have not water.
MonkeyWrench enjoying the sun
Picklebee had a bit of a rough night with her fever, but napped well. Because of her being sick, I’ve kept her, (which means me, too, since she won’t let me out of her sight) and to a large extent MonkeyWrench as well, away from the other kids so as to not spread her sickness. I wonder if it isn’t futile, since she probably got it from another kid at the Rancho, and it is already spreading, but it feels like the responsible thing to do. It’s been sad to see the kids, like Sarai, want to play with Picklebee, but be unable to do so, and I’ve been sad to be unable to interact much with the kids either.
Putting in planks on the repaired bridge
Anyhow, due to our self-imposed quarantine, we’ve spent most of our time down at the bridge and at the guesthouse, although MonkeyWrench is currently down watching the still-ongoing soccer matches with the girls from the Hermanas de Jesus house. The soccer matches are such a big deal that the last couple of nights the kitchen has sent the food down to the kids at the soccer fields, and they eat there. Alice spent time with the Hermanas de Jesus girls last night too, and gleefully arrived afterwards showing off her blue-painted fingernails the girls had done for her.
Dishing up food down by the soccer game
During our time at the Rancho, Picklebee has gotten picked up by so many different kids, all wanting to play with her. I think it’s a good thing, and at the beginning, she was fine with that, but after a day or two, she seemed to get overwhelmed. Now the moment anyone but me tries to pick her up, (including DaddyFrog), she yells “no!” and turns her face away and struggles. I’m not quite sure what to do about it, and am hoping it will go away when she feels less overwhelmed, not to mention sick.
Turkey vulture
When Picklebee got up from her nap, she had a fever of 103.7, so I gave her some more children’s tylenol, then headed down to the bridge to get DaddyFrog. We went to the clinic here at the Rancho. They took her tempature again, and it was still quite high, so they called the Rancho doctor, who was in Tegucigalpa. They gave us more Tylenol and prescribed her an antibiotic. She seems more comfortable at the moment. We’re actually pretty lucky to have such easy access to decent medical care here in Honduras.
Medical clinic at the Rancho
So, New Years is only a few days away, which makes me think about some resolutions. Planning on implementing any resolutions of your own?
The Rancho even has an ambulance!
