Got my new license! It was uneventful. The line was short and the computers were working so I breezed right through. At the very end I learned something sad. I wondered why the workers at each phase kept being surprised that my license was lost. I never thought about the fact that I could either check the box for "lost" or "stolen".
Everyone else in line with me had their licenses stolen because they were robbed. The guy next to me was robbed on a bus. He said armed men took everything valuable from every person on the bus. I told him that a girl from my church have been robbed twice in one week in collectivo taxis. He said that his female cousin was robbed twice in one DAY in a bus. He said it is getting worse and worse. Sad. Now you can understand why I am not allowed to use buses or taxis.
Last night I realized that I misunderstood the women's book club assignment. People were discussing chapters far beyond where I had read. This morning I learned I am supposed to be done with chapter 6. I was purposely waiting on chapter one so it would be fresh in my brain. Ooops! I have some catching up to do. My goal was to read it in English AND Spanish. Not sure I'll make it thru the Spanish by Sunday.
Today we made pupusas at the Plentiful Life Program. My buddy Louis and the boy who went to the soccer game with me, Fabricio, cooked while the ladies did food prep. The boys are good about helping out wherever they are needed. After they cooked they helped me get Samuel to eat.
Samuel, one of the boys in my class is a very picky eater. Every single day he makes a horrible face and says, "I don't like this," holding up some piece of food as though what he is holding is the most disgusting thing in the world. Then everyone else in the class starts picking things out of their food and it becomes the cool thing to do. Today he refused to eat his salad.
I am tired of trying to get him to eat, so I told him to take his plate to show his mother. Bad. I know. She told him to go back and sit down and eat. Usually he eats the parts he likes, then is hungry an hour later, asking for more food. I was happy she had him finish his plate today. Except he didn't. He cried.
Samuel used to cry every single day. Now he only cries when he doesn't get his way. Yesterday he didn't cry at all.
Finally I told him that his baby sister (who is 6 months old) is going to be bigger and stronger than he is. He said no, she is a baby. I told him yes, but she eats all of her food. Well, he couldn't argue with that. So he picked tiny slivers of carrot out of the salad to eat. It was a lot of work picking out those carrots and it wasn't really getting him anywhere. So he cried some more.
Finally an hour later he was tired of crying and picking out carrots. He had tried pretending he was gagging and going to vomit, dropped some on the floor, went to the bathroom twice, and realized everyone else was playing while he was sitting there.
Then I thought of distraction. I asked if he would like a fork. (Pupusas are normally eaten with your fingers.) He said yes, so I shoveled the food into his mouth with my fork. He did the fake gag a few times. Pretty sure that works for him at home. He also asked for more water. Fair enough. With me feeding him on my fork he finished every bite. We showed everyone his clean plate and I told him I thought it was possible his muscles might be getting bigger already. I hope Samuel likes whatever we serve for lunch tomorrow.
I'm supposed to drop my car off with the mechanic one of these days when the parts are in. I'm eager to get the work done and have all of my major expenses behind me. For now.
