Day 3-5

                I've spent the past couple of days taking kids to the beach, getting a crash-course in physical therapy, and failing epically at Spanish. Allow me to expand a little more:

Beach time:

Monday we took the boys (Jose, Alex, Antonio, Teddy, Sergio, Marcos, and Jaime [more on ALL of them later]) to the beach for the afternoon. It was a blast, but exhausting. My charge was Jaime, so I spent most of the trip sprinting around the beach pushing him in his heavy-duty (And I mean heavy. My arms still hurt.) wheelchair or sitting with him in the sand as he threw seaweed at me and laughed. The boys had a secret contest to see who could get the most sandy, and they all won, so they all got showers after we hauled them back to the beach house. We also tried to get the sand off and out of the wheelchairs, with limited success. To complete the day, we grilled hamburgers and roasted marshmallows in the fireplace. Happy kids? Check. Tuesday we took the "higher maintenance" kids to the beach. It was super windy and a little too cold, so we only stayed for an hour, but that was still plenty of time for Ezme to get sand in her mouth and eyes. But on the plus side, we gave only two showers and cleaned two wheelchairs, so it was a little bit of an easier clean-up.

Fun fact about the beach: There are hot springs ON the beach, so if you go during low tide, you can just dig yourself your own personal hot-tub! Guess what I'll be doing in my free time ...

Physical Therapy:

Sooo ... I told most of you know that I'd just be down here helping wherever help was needed, and that's still somewhat true. Only it turns out that they need help in the physical therapy department, so that's actually what I'll be doing. Too bad I have no idea what I'm doing, but, you know, I'm sure it'll be fine. Actually, I've been working with 3 physical therapists that are here for the week, and I'll do a little more training as the weeks progress. I'm responsible for 10 kids, and I'm super excited to help them. Some of the therapy involves just me sitting on the floor playing games with Oziel or cuddling Luis. So I'm set for life.

Spanish:

We have a team from Cabo San Lucas here with us for the week, so I'm surrounded by Spanish speakers. I understand less than I thought I would but more than a few days ago, so I guess you could say I am making SOME progress. I also learned all the important words and phrases needed to work at the Gabriel House. Things like "What are you doing?" and "What do you want?" and "Why are you so cute?" That last one is really important. On my arm I have a list of useful words I just learned today: horario (schedule), tragar (swallow) te dueles? (Do you hurt?), and ayuda (help). So we're getting there, slowly but surely. At least the kids understand what I'm saying most of the time as I stumble around in a poorly-spoken mix of the languages. The current house supervisor has an 8-year old daughter named Lupita. Living proof that language is not a barrier for children. From the first say she 's been running up and giving me giant hugs and walking around holding my hand.

Peace.