It's Friday!!!

July 18^th – Friday

                An important note that I forgot yesterday, we have a new boy! He was from an orphanage in Nogalis where he has lived since he was a baby, but they don’t keep teenagers, he’s about 11, they are too much trouble. So they sent him here. The three new girls still haven’t arrived.

                The day started at like a typical day, but then we were able to Skype with the California branch of the family. We took mom and Stacia on a tour of the compound. The children were fascinated with the video and a couple of the younger boys started following us around. Eventually Zander joined mom and Stacia and as soon as Christopher saw him he said “You Crazy!” Zander was slightly shocked, but this is one of the few phrases that Christopher knows and he likes to use it.

                Well a little later in the morning Lilia asked us if we would watch all the children while they ran one of the boys to Nogalis to have his eye checked. We were a little hesitant since the last two times were not the best of experiences. But there were plenty of other adults around who spoke Spanish and we really didn’t have much of a choice. We prepared a craft for them to do, but they ended up working on Quince dances. Which was just fine with us, we put the craft away and have it already to pull out for next time.

                So you might have noticed that all of a sudden there haven’t been any updates on the quince. With the unexpected death on Sunday, it was pushed back a week so it will be taking place next Friday. But we are once again a week out so the girls all got busy practicing their dance. They spent several hours today working on this.

                The flies today have been worse than normal, and they were driving us crazy! I eventually went and put jeans on because they wouldn’t leave my legs alone. As Arielle and I were doing dishes they kept flying around our heads, in our ears, on our legs and arms. By the time we had finished the dishes we snapped and grabbed the wet towels and started snapping. We used to get in snapping wars with our brothers so we have pretty good aim. It rather alarmed all the adults who were sitting nearby at first. We slaughtered about 40 flies in the kitchen and swept up their remains and left. A few hours later we noticed a frenzied activity in the main eating area when we investigated everyone had some type of cloth and was snapping the flies! We jumped right in and it was great fun. After we had destroyed the fly population in that room we closed all the doors and it was heavenly. Arielle’s final count was 32 flies, I did not count.

It was a very laid back day for Arielle and I. The girls danced the boys watched tv or played on their two wheeled skateboards. The boys tried to teach Arielle and I how to use their skateboards, but I think they have given up on us. We really don’t have the best of balance, as anyone who has gone skiing or snowboarding with us can attest.

We were all sitting around outside together doing varies things, combing through hair for bugs, smashing fruit pits to eat the seed inside, talking, making grass whistles,  at about 6 o clock when Lilia and Arturo arrived home. The boy still has his eye so whatever was wrong most have been resolved. They had also picked up some stuff for the quince and for Julie birthday which was today. At this point Suchie (this is not spelled right at all) asked if Arielle and I wanted to go for a walk, they asked the night before if Arielle and I got bored and I said no but we would sure love to occasionally go on a walk. We jumped to right quick, and a few minutes later 13 of us set out on a walk. It was very nice to get out and see some of the surrounding neighborhood. We walked to the edge of this drop off with a splendid view of the valley and the surrounding mountains, it was beautiful. But it was at this point that our nice walk turned into a “dad walk” the younger children all took off down the drop off, us older ones dutifully followed. At the bottom there was a dried up stream bed with sand in it, we followed this a way and climbed on a downed tree. We eventually came to a marshy pond and a couple of the kids grabbed some Turtogos (turtles) out of the water. Well the sun was setting and we were still down at the bottom of the ravine so we headed up the embankment. When we reached the top however there was a fence and houses so we started making our way along the top until we found a place we could get through. All this time we were passing deer and dog bones which added a special ambiance to the scene. After we made it to the road it was smooth walking back to the compound. But ones again Arielle and I missed the ladies prayer night.

           We finished the evening with a little celebration for Julie birthday. We had sandwiches, juice, hot chocolate and cake.   

* I have a few pictures of the birthday celebration but our SD card had a bit of an accident today and is barely hanging on. So I will wait and do multiple days of pictures at a time. The missionaries who live in America our going to bring us a new card eventually.