Catch Up

I told you I'd be bad at writing blog posts. It's been a week! And in my life, a lot happens in a week. The highlights are as follows:

HAMMOCKS: We took Ely and Chely down one evening and had them chill in the hammock and hang out with us for a while. We drank hot chocolate, listened to country music, talked, and generally had an awesome time! It was so special for them, and the next day when they saw us their smiles were HUGE! I love these girls!

BANANA BOATS: We had some of the kids over one night for banana boats. Pyromaniac chaos mixed with marshmallows ensued. It was great :) The kids loved the banana boats, and who can resist a roaring fire? Culture note: It's almost impossible to find plain marshmallows down here. Nearly all they have contain both regular AND strawberry marshmallows. Weird.

HOT COCOA: The next night we had a picnic with some of the kids who couldn't come to make banana boats with us. Instead, we enjoyed hot chocolate, Belgium chocolate, and Nature Valley granola bars (Thanks, Mom). It was fun once you got past ALL of the boys making fun of me for eating spicy candy and nearly crying. It's their favorite joke. They also made a mess EVERYWHERE. Melted chocolate on their faces, crumbs on their pants, hot chocolate spilled on the blankets. The good stuff. 

MOTHERS' DAY: We made a banner with the kids (they each got to color a letter) that said "Se amamos mamas", and on Saturday we had a small party with lots and lots of food. I was so stuffed I could hardly walk afterwards. We also took the boys to buy flowers for the mamas. Seriously, these women work SO hard. I'd never be able to do their job. Same goes to all you moms out there! During the week, the little school that runs here put on a party. Teddy and Alex were dressed up like cowboys, there was a whole lot of music, and gifts for all the mamas! 

And so that's the past week. Needless to say, I'm exhausted. The past few days have been nearly 100 degrees so that doesn't help at all. The heat is one of the most physically draining things I've dealt with. Literally the only plus is we get to play water games with some of the kids. I've never heard so much laughing from that group! Most of them were just breaking the water balloons over themselves 'cause it was funny! I've never been so wet in my life! The only downside is you can only play with the water for so long before it's time to go back to work! Thankfully, the therapy room is one of the whopping two rooms that has air conditioning. Today I hid in the working with the kids for the whole morning. Speaking of physical therapy, I have some news regarding that. My PT friend, Johana, has left to work in one of the girls' rooms, and a new employee, Aracely, is taking her place. Unfortunately, Aracely knows less about physical therapy than even I do, so today I got to train here in things I know nothing about. I tried to explain (as we working on some kids), that these were the kids that Johana had worked with, so I didn't really know what we should be doing. But, alas, Aracely doesn't understand my broken Spanglish like Johana did, either. So between the blind-man-leading-a-blind-man situation and the fact that we can't understand each other AT ALL, the next two weeks are going to be interesting. Just as I was getting comfortable. Heaven forbid life ever be easy!

Speaking of life being easy, Carly and I ran out of drinking water. So this evening, we traipsed out to Callimax, which took about 30 minutes. There we picked up the essentials (milk, yogurt, cereal, bananas, and avocados) and two 5-gallon jugs of water. We then proceeded to look like fools lugging around nearly 50 pounds of water in really awkward containers. You would think they'd make them easier to carry. We took the bus back, and then walked down the side street (Which was suddenly miles long) with our water. I could hardly pick anything up for the rest of the night. But hey! No need to work out tonight! 

And so that's that. I now rely on drinking lots of water, taking cold showers, and sleeping every chance I get!

Until I find the energy to write again...