Sunday was really nice, Monday was a good day and today was "super bien" (really good)! All three days have been 12-14 hour days, so the fact that I am tired like a normal person rather than exhausted like I was for the past 3 weeks tells me I must be getting over the flu.
Sunday I got to see Fany, my former neighbor and friend, at church with her family. It was great to spend time with Fany's baby, Laura. It took her a few minutes to warm up to me, but then she crawled into my lap. She is walking on her own. She was taking a few steps last time I saw her, but now she is steady on her feet. I was so happy to see them!
After church I made a huge lunch. I lost a lot of weight when I was sick and my clothes were all baggy, so I have been trying to eat a lot. My landlords invited me to dinner with their extended family. We walked together to Hermida's sister's house which is farther up the mountain into the rain forest. It was a beautiful walk. We were on top of one mountain, looking down into the tops of trees below us. Across the valley was another mountain with a few white clouds at eye level. It was cool. Carlos told me about all of the paths he knows that wind through the mountains and where the paths go. He has lived here for a long time - before it was populated. He knows these mountains like the back of his hand. But he is disappointed as he sees fences go up so he can no longer walk the trails he has enjoyed over the years.
Yesterday was out first day back at the Breakfast Program. It takes time for word to get around after an extended vacation. We only had 41 kids. But it was so nice to see them! There were lots of hugs and we made goals for the new year.
Also, four boys got accepted at El Sembrador! I was so excited when Lourdes told me the news. That means four more boys from Los Pinos will have a chance for a better education and even college if they choose! It is really a life changing opportunity for them. We already have 6 boys enrolled in El Sembrador, which is a private, Christian school. One will not return when this vacation ends in February. But the other five will return along with the four new students. We have a lot of work to do in the meantime. The boys need to have a sufficient amount of presentable clothes, financial sponsorship, and emotional preparation. Once they leave they won't return or see their families for months at a time. It is difficult for them to be so far away. But they know this is a tremendous opportunity and an honor.
On Monday night Lourdes and Jairo had a big barbecue at their house. A lot of teachers from Pinares, Aaron's school, and some people from church were there. Lourdes asked me to be the translator for her when she spoke to the teachers. I'm not sure why since her English is superb.
I spent the rest of my time with Josselyn and Marcela. We had an evening of girl talk. I enjoyed it a lot. Part of me is so grateful that I do not have to deal with the struggles of being 20 years old. Another part of me wonders where all of the years went. How did I get to be this old? I feel a lot closer to 20 than my birth date says I am. I think they expected me to have some answers for their quandaries. But, despite the fact that I am more than twice their age, I still don't understand men and why they do the things they do, so I wasn't much help. We had some good laughs though. They are strong girls with their heads on straight.
Today we had over 70 kids at the breakfast program. We arrived to find the kitchen full of teenage boys making pupusas with the help of Marlin and Yareli. Since the kitchen was packed I re-arranged the preschool classroom. Lourdes has a new approach. In the past the older kids used to leave the Breakfast Program soon after they became teenagers. But if they are not at the church, they are in the streets and that is not safe or healthy. So we have been encouraging the teens to stick around. Lourdes decided that she wants to divide the kids into 3 groups. I work with the 2-6 year olds. Then Lourdes separates the 7-12 year olds and has them do a different activity than the teens. On Tuesdays and Thursdays Chayito, a psychologist, has classes with the teens. So far they have worked on self esteem and sex ed. We have seen a big difference in the way the boys and girls interact. They boys don't punch the girls for attention anymore. We overhear them talking about their personal space. It is really nice.
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| The boys took over the kitchen! They even cleaned up afterward. |
The preschool class has grown from 7-12 kids every day to now over 20 kids every day. Today there were three new kids whom I've never seen before. I was looking at pictures of the first day of preschool class. Only one boy has left. The rest all come consistently, which means they understand the expectations and things run smoothly.
Today we played outside. When they are at home many of them don't have a safe place to play outside. We had relay races and played a game where one kid is the wolf. They sing a song to the wolf and in the end the wolf says he is going to eat them. Then the wolf chases them and tries to "eat" them all. I never realized what a big hit the relay races would be. I have a helper, Jorjito. The relay races where his idea. He is about 11 years old. I have gone through a lot of helpers. Jorjito is the best. He is not too bossy, but he keeps everything organized. He could probably run the class without me. Today Jorjito challenged me to a race. I accepted. And lost. The kids cheered for us and loved watching us run. It was really fun. Memo had on his big old rubber boots but he is still a fast little guy. Micol got hit by a car and his parents never took him to the hospital, so one leg doesn't run very well, but he had fun. At one point I told them the food is ready, let's pray and go eat. For the first time ever, they said no, they wanted to have more races. Since they are still on vacation from school we had time for a few more races before we prayed.
Prayer was interesting today. Jarvin said he wanted to pray for his sister and her new baby, who are both doing well. Then Memo, who is three, said he wanted to pray. First he said he would pray for the Breakfast Program, then he said he would pray for K2 the Church. By the time he prayed he was praying for half the world. I was so proud of him. He covered his eyes with his hands and had a good, long talk with God. When I told Lourdes she reminded me that when I first got here Memo was almost non-verbal. If you asked him a question he would grunt instead of saying yes or no. Now he is praying in front of the whole group! What amazing progress.
Lourdes and I had to run some errands. We ended up getting back to the church really late. Jairo was sitting on the sidewalk in front of Eunice's office waiting for us. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home. I ran in with Jairo to grab a few things for myself. At the check out Jairo said he was going to make a new invention for dinner. I looked at his ingredients and said, "You need broccoli." A minute later Jairo said he couldn't stop thinking about the broccoli. He had already paid, but he decided to grab two heads of broccoli and invited me to join them for dinner. Jairo and I cooked. We made a baked pasta dish. It turned out so yummy! Lourdes' sister, Belinda, her two boys and Walter all ate with us. Everyone loved our creation and wanted seconds. We got lots of compliments. Finally, at 10 pm, Jairo dropped me off at home. He still had to go down to the city to run more errands. I was tired, but happy.
I'll end with a funny story. Today as we were walking in our nice line to wash our hands after the races, I noticed one of the preschool kids was limping. I pulled him out of the line and had him sit down. When I asked what was wrong pointed to a spot on his knee. I could see nothing. I asked if he fell down while we were playing. He didn't answer. I asked if he hurt his leg today. No response, just more pointing. Finally he got up and walked with no limp to wash his hands. Later he was sitting on his older brother's lap. I told his older brother to keep an eye on Samuel's knee because there might be something wrong with it. He asked Samuel about his knee. Samuel pointed to the same spot, but said nothing. As we talked Samuel hopped off his brother's lap. He started pulling on the back of his shorts. Then he put his hands inside the back of his shorts and was writhing around and groaning as though he was in pain. I asked if he had ants in his pants. That was the only thing I could think of which would cause him to yank on his shorts and appear to be so uncomfortable. He shook his head no and continued writhing. His brother asked if he had ants in his pants, but again we got a silent no. Finally I told his brother, "Pull down Samuel's pants and see what is wrong!" but the brother threw up his hands and did nothing. So I said okay, sit here and watch me. (In the back of my head I was thinking, oh boy. In the US this would be a lawsuit.) I pulled down Samuel's shorts to find that the back side of his underpants were completely wedged into the crack of his butt! So I straightened them out and immediately he relaxed. I asked if he felt better and he nodded yes. His brother and I laughed. Then I pulled Samuel's shorts back up and buttoned them around his big belly. I said, "Wow! Your tummy is full!" because his shorts would barely snap. He smiled and shook his head yes. Then he ran off to play.
Jairo said he had a stressful day today. I told Jairo the story about my most stressful event of the day - unwedging Samuel's tremendous wedgy. Jairo laughed off and on for over an hour.
Lourdes and I are thinking we will have 90-100 kids tomorrow as word continues to spread that The Breakfast Program has resumed.
