A Great Ending to My Day

This morning the computer just decided not to run the internet.  Really though, I shouldn't blame the computer since it could've been the "internet stick", which I've been calling it around here.  I'm not sure what it's truly called.  I've heard that some people have them in the U.S., but I've never seen them there before.  They look like little flash drives, but are portable USB modems or something.  Because Bob's not here, I can't give you a technical name, which is why I just call them internet sticks.

Anyway, I use the internet to do my daily devotions (Proverbs31.org on the weekdays), and I like to do devotions while the house is still peaceful and quiet (AKA when everyone's still asleep)...so that didn't get accomplished.  Generally when I don't get to do devotions at this hour, my day doesn't not run as smoothly.  On top of this small problem, there was no coffee to drink prior to going to the little girls house for breakfast.  Kimberly woke up late (she wasn't so excited about that either), and Johaira was upset with the little girls when she took them out to clean up the lawn before breakfast.  So it was not the greatest start to the day.  Although breakfast and dishes seemed to go pretty smoothly, when I was walking back (mind you, I'm in the mountains, so the terrain is not flat like Wisconsin) I stepped incorrectly, my body twisted and I pulled a muscle in my back.  What a GREAT start to my morning!

When I arrived back to the house, I noticed that the internet stick now decided to work and I was able to do my devotions & upload my blog.  Kimberly made some coffee and offered some to me.  Things were starting to look up.  I also had found a miniature (VERY miniature) chess set in the girls volunteer house.  Since we are not "cool" like Andres, I decided to take it to him since he had forgotten his at home and is hoping Bob will bring it with him when he comes down next week.  Andres was over on the farm working with cement around the fish-growing facility (not sure what the technical word for that is either).  Next to this big structure is a greenhouse which is being built.  Joanne was there and asked if I could help out a little bit.  I didn't have a baseball cap to protect my head from the sun, nor did I put on sunscreen today...but I agreed to work for an hour or so anyway, at least until Keisha came.  I got to use (and show Keisha how to use) a power drill!!!

When I got back to the volunteer house, Zue was waiting for me so we could discuss possible ideas for her first teaching lesson on Monday.  One of her responsibilities is to teach Spanish to the students in Bachillerato (high school) once a week for the next 3 months.  She needs to focus on reading, writing and expressing oneself, and had been asking for my help this week since she is not a teacher and figured I'd have good input.  Frankly, I've never taught Spanish to Spanish-speaking people!  So we brainstormed possible ideas together and I think she'll have a good start for her class on Monday.

At lunch, Ana Yanci was in the kitchen instead of Dunia.  She said that she's there on Thursdays & Fridays because she doesn't have classes those 2 days.  She's in Bachillerato and they only attend Monday - Wednesday.  Since I was going to head into town with the Maryland group immediately after they had lunch, Ana Yanci helped with dishes.  It was at this time that I realized that my back was not bothering me at all!

So the PALETAS (Mexican lollipops/suckers that have a mango or watermelong core, but are coated in chili pepper - that I bring down here every year)...all of the kids know I have them now & are asking for them all the time - to the point where it's disrupting my day.  Finally I resorted to telling them that Thursdays are "Paleta Days".  So in keeping my promise, I brought about 7-8 paletas out to the special needs yard and gave them away this afternoon.  Now although I'll have to field a few questions here & there throughout this next week, I can simply respond with "Is it Thursday?" when they ask for a paleta.

We headed back to the little girls house & helped with supper and baths and then used the 2 metal combs that Katja had given me to comb the smallest girls hair for lice.  There is only one girl from this side of the house that we'll have to "redo" tomorrow night because she has super curly, long hair which dried before we got to her...Raquel.

Finally to end the night, we were invited to an ice cream social by the 2 teams that are here.  Okay, at least I THOUGHT it was an ice cream social.  When we arrived to the team house, all of the tables had tablecloths on them with candles and really nice place settings!  The lighting was awesome!  They served a 3-course meal and then dessert (or does that make it a 4-course meal?).  We started with a type of jellow that had fruit in it and an interesting cream on top, followed by a simple salad, but in the middle was a roma tomato stuffed with tuna that had sort of a cucumber slice for a "lid" to this tomato "bowl".  The main meal was refried beans, black beans, 2 tortillas, cream, fried plantains and a rice mixture of corn, chicken and different color peppers.  It was all so wonderful.  They DID serve ice cream for dessert with chocolate or strawberry topping.  I think my ice cream was a butter pecan, but they also had oreo and neopolitan flavored ice cream that they were serving. 

At the beginning when we came in, they took pictures of all of the families as they entered.  Then one of the team members escorted (yep, formal) us to our table, while another man was playing the saxophone...really neat!  At the end of the night, after ice cream, they served coffee and a girl (about 12 years old or so) sang to us.  It was such a neat experience.  Andres helped the group serve and got sent to Elvia's table.  Zue said that he handled it well (Elvia is quite the character).  Kimberly and I sat at a table with Esperanza and her husband, another couple and a Mom & daughter who are here until this weekend.  It was a really good time and a great ending to a day that started out a bit rocky!  Thank you so much to the teams that put this on.  I'm sure all of the staff & long-term volunteers here at Emmanuel were very appreciative of what these teams did.