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| Alina's and my view each time we walk out of our room |
This morning began like most of the others, with my cafecito and devotions, then heading to the Toddler House to cut vegetables, serve breakfast, wash dishes and head over to the chosa. There was a light sprinkle this morning, so we didn't head out to the playground to play, but spent all morning in the chosa. Karla got out some wooden puzzles and we needed to sort through them to find out which ones had all of their pieces and which ones were missing pieces. The kids absolutely loved the puzzles!
While we were in the chosa, Kim stopped by to have three children color a picture for their sponsors. Kim is Elisabeth's mom (Elisabeth was a staff member here for a few years, in charge of the little girls' house and worked with sponsors). While the 3 girls colored, we chatted quite a bit about Emmanuel, the work here, Elisabeth's current trek through Panama and the rest of Central and South America, and just life in general. It was nice to have that time to chat with her while the girls were busy coloring pictures for their sponsors.
We went straight from the chosa to lunch, then put the kids down for a nap and did dishes. Alina and I headed to the school while the children were napping to watch the children line up for their classes, then back to our room for a very quick break.
When we got back to the Toddler House, we took the children out to the playground. It's the rainy season now, but that means it rains off and on between the hot, strong sun. If it rained this morning, it will be dry by the afternoon. We let the kids play on the playground until the moms came home from school and then headed in for supper. Again, I did dishes after supper and when I finished, Karla gave me a nail clippers and asked me to cut all of the children's nails. I began with the small boys and then headed to the big boys room, and then the big girls. The only room I didn't get to was the small girls, since by that time the children were moving once again to the chosa.
Karla explained to me that Monday nights are 'Mom nights'. This means that all of the toddlers whose moms are there (teen moms) get to spend between 45 minutes and an hour with just their mom, while all of the other children are together elsewhere. The teen moms are generally responsible for a room of children, so their own child(ren) usually doesn't get any more attention than a child whose mom is outside of Emmanuel. I stayed behind and watched the moms interact with their kids, which was really nice. I chatted with a mom, Rosa, about how she came to Emmanuel while her daughter colored (which her mom says is her daughter's favorite activity). What a story!
When all of the children were brought back together, Alina & I headed to the Big Girls' yard once again. Michell was out waiting for us and while Alina played with Michell, I chatted with Lucy who may have the opportunity to go to Denmark in 3 weeks to participate in a youth program. She is very nervous about her English and was asking about tips on how to speak and read it better and faster. I said the big thing is for her to open up her mind and shuffle aside the teenage fear of speaking in front of others. She knows the rest, I'm confident of that. When it was time for her and Michell to go inside, Alina and I headed back to our room for the night. Alina must be in another growth spurt because I had purchased enough groceries for 3 weeks while shopping last week, and it appears we're going to run out with her eating habits at the end of each day!!!
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