A Fun Afternoon for the Toddlers!

This morning began with devotions and my cafecito, followed by updating the blog from yesterday.  When we headed to the Toddler House, I cut the vegetables since there was only 1 knife to be found while Alina went to take care of (round up) the toddlers.  Before breakfast, Alina helped to get the toddlers in line and took the initiative of taking charge in leading the prayer.  Karla (the one in charge of the Toddler House) was VERY impressed.

We served breakfast and then I did dishes.  This morning, all morning, we were in the 'chosa' so that the big girls could get the entire Toddler House cleaned.  They wash mattresses (if needed), pull out all furniture so that they can sweep and mop underneath it and behind it and really do a thorough cleaning of the house, top to bottom.  This is done EVERY Saturday.

When the house was cleaned, we brought the toddlers back to have lunch and then did the dishes afterward.  Alina and I decided to give Karla the volleyball that was donated at her birthday party since Karla had talked about how much she loved learning to play volleyball this past year in the gymnasium.  She said that she hoped she could take us to play before we left.

While the toddlers were sleeping, Alina and I came back to our room to clean.  Alina started with the kitchen, sweeping and mopping...but accidentally poured WAY too much soap into the solution and so she spent the rest of the time working on getting all of the soap off of the floor.  While she was working on the kitchen, I cleaned our room and the bathroom (if you know me, I really dislike cleaning bathrooms...bad McDonald's experience).  The thing is...if you don't clean frequently down here, the more bugs will enter!

When we went back to the Toddler House after naptime, we found out that they were going to take the toddlers out to the sprinkler system on the playground.  It had been painted so nice since last year.  I chose to stay back and chat with the girls in the kitchen (and there was one Ohio girl chatting as well) while Alina went to get soaking wet with the toddlers.  All of the toddlers got baths today BEFORE supper as opposed to after and then we served them their rice, beans, eggs and tortillas.

Alina running with the toddlers under the sprinklers

After doing the supper dishes, Karla let us know that we'd be going on a walk with the toddlers.  We walked in front of the team house, stopping for just a little bit, then walked between the hotel and the medium girls' house, and then towards the office, where Papi came and decided to give all of the toddlers a moon pie (they're pretty common treats down here...check the website to see how many have been eaten to date!).  When we walked past the big boys house, I saw a 'guy' in the distance who I thought I recognized.  When I pulled my sunglasses down just a little bit to be sure (before saying 'hi' to a stranger), Alexander shouted my name.  I've probably mentioned Alexander in prior years' posts, but he had graduated a few years back and is currently studying to be either a pastor or a missionary.  He came back to Emmanuel for the week because he is inbetween semesters and was thinking he'd come back to help out if they needed him.  It was so nice to see him!

We walked around the back way to the Toddler House and dropped of the toddlers before heading home.   The California group has arrived, and I'm so excited to see some very familiar faces yet once again!  There will probably be some pretty exciting posts coming up this next week because of the California-Ohio teams being here!!!