Guaimaca

We were told that we were supposed to be at the Toddler House by 6:30 to start preparing the vegetables for lunch.  When we got there, the vegetables had already been started.  I'll have to look back at last year, but I'm pretty sure that we arrived around 6am last year.  Perhaps we'll have to start getting there earlier.  We finished cutting up the carrots and pataste and then got the girls some breakfast...rice & milk.

Pataste

After breakfast, we went over to the chosa (I'll get a picture of this on a different day) so that the kids could watch a movie for a little bit before taking them on a walk around the orphanage.  I believe that the walk is to get them tired out for their afternoon nap, but I definitely got super-tired too.  They went off of the pathways and up & down huge hills...WHEW, what a workout!

When we got back it was time to serve lunch and put the toddlers down for a nap.  Three volunteers met up with Alina & me, and a few young adults from Emmanuel to head into town.  I needed to buy groceries for the next 3 weeks, for when we're not eating with the kids (mainly on Sundays) and also needed to buy laundry detergent and coffee, and the famous solid dish soap that I always bring home to do our dishes with.  We got some delicious homemade bread from the 'My Little Bakery' shop, including cinnamon rolls, banana bread and a vanilla-raisin bread.  When we got back to our room, we got all of the groceries put away into the kitchen and then headed back to the Toddler House where we served supper (they had tortillas tonight!) and gave quick showers so that we could get to Wednesday night church.  David led the service.  We walked Michell back to her house after the service and then headed back to our room.

Solid dish soap that we typically buy to take home for the year

Alina snacked on a guayaba while we sat on the front steps of the building, feeling right at home with this beautiful place.  When she went to throw the guava away, Luis David passed by with the other boys on a tractor and he shouted 'hola Alina' to her.  He's one of Papi's (David's) workers this year, which really is an honor to be working for the founder of the orphanage.  The guys waved a few more times as the tractor ran past us doing errands all around Emmanuel.

Before heading to bed, I checked the USB modem I had purchased in town.  When I got on to Facebook, I saw that my Doris was online and we chatted a bit before I realized that I was just exhausted from all of the travel yesterday and all of the work today.  I believe we were sleeping by about 7:30pm.