El Dia de Niño

Today we celebrated El Dia de Niño (The Day of the Child) although the actual holiday was yesterday.  The church celebrated on Sunday, the schools celebrated yesterday, the First Lady's sister threw a party for the Breakfast Program today and we will have our own party for the kids on Thursday.  Can you tell this is an important holiday here?  At the time this photo was taken, there were 89 kids.  More came as morning classes let out.

Before the First Lady's sister arrived we had a time of prayer.  The kids prayed for Pat and K2, as they always do.  They also gave thanks for the special party they are having today.  They don't know we are doing another party Thursday.  They will be so surprised!  But this way we don't have to worry about having the whole neighborhood show up.  Today there were about 7 kids whom we've never seen before, which was less than I expected.  Lourdes talked to the kids about their attendance, going around the whole circle to address each of them individually.  She explained that the party is a gift for them, for the kids who are here every day participating in the program.  Why should they give their gift to someone who never participates any other day, but shows up for the party?

The kids prayed for the boys from El Sembrador.  The boys all stood up and received the prayer as well as advice from the kids.  They talked to the group about how hard they have to study and that they have to be well behaved because they represent the church.  Next year Lourdes intends to send five additional boys to the private school if they can pass the entrance exam.  It is very expensive, but it gets them away from Los Pinos and for some, away from unhealthy family situations.  For all of them it is their greatest chance to have a productive life.

Then the fancy trucks began to arrive.  Lourdes kept the kids busy singing while they hung piñatas.  They even had a jumping contest!  Memo (far left) is tiny, but he can jump!

Finally three piñatas were hung across the church rafters.

I didn't know that they would be replaced with three more piñatas which were waiting in the wings!

The First Lady's sister went around the circle and gave everyone a high five.  Of course there were a few, like Lorenzo and Daniel, who disregarded protocol and jumped into her arms for a hug.

The First Lady's Sister introduced three young ladies who painted the kids faces, and three more ladies who braided hair and painted fingernails.  (The girls got some nice pampering!)

The hair and nail painting station

Beautiful Vanessa

There was a Superman piñata, Hello Kitty, a Smurf, Mickey Mouse, Scooby Doo and Snow White.  I had never been to a piñata party before and I was in charge of all of the younger kids!  Luckily I had the help of a lady who had clearly done this before and Marlin too, since she didn't have to cook anything today.

She took Memo and Carlos under her wing

Belkis got some good swings in

Violet is smiling!  (Not crying)  Misael waited patiently.

Go Violet!

Good job Memo!

We had some near misses with the big stick but nobody in my group was hit

They gathered the candy in their shirts

And then we lined up for lunch.

Little ones first!  These are the kids in preschool class:

All of the kids until you get to the black shirts attend preschool with me

They ate subs, chips, and pineapple turnover.  They each got a box of toys, a box of food and a cup of coke.  They really wanted to take the food home to their family.  We had to really push them to eat their food.  Some had never had a sandwich before and really didn't know how to eat a sandwich.  The held it like an ice cream cone and nibbled on the end.  I had to show them how to eat the sandwich.  When the food was mostly eaten, the did a really good job cleaning up.  I noticed that our circle was the cleanest of all the age groups!  I'll tell them tomorrow I was proud of how clean they left our area and also how good most of their manners were.

The First Lady's sister came over and said goodbye.  She talked to each of them individually and asked some of their names.  She was really sweet to them and they seemed to like her.

Here are some cute photos for you to enjoy ~

Lorenzo :)

Upside down Meylin

Violet asleep on the ground.  Again.

Big sister always takes good care of little brother

Silly boys

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Afterward we were all a little slap happy with the success of the party.
Jairo pretended to preach in his special jacket to entertain the adults.

In the evening I did some errands with Jose and Karla.  Karla took me to a store called STOCK.  It has everything you could ever want from underwear to furniture to toolboxes and food!  We found some meds at the pharmacy that I've been paying big bucks for my Mom to send from the US.  Here they are over the counter and waaaaaay cheaper.  That was an exciting find and saved me a trip to the Dr. for the migraines I've been getting lately.

When I got home I let Estrella out of the front house.  She ran to my doorstep where we both found this:

on my doorstep!  I was in a sticky situation.  The cat was trying to get out, so I couldn't open the door, but the dog kept lying down on top of the spider, begging me to pet her tummy!  What a pickle!!  Finally I picked up the dog, stepped over the spider, threw open the door and ran inside.  That was when I realized the gate wasn't locked and I had to go back out there.  Needless to say I'm still alive.  The gate is locked.  And last I checked, the spider was still there.  I think it's a tarantula.