Preschool Playtime!

These past few days have been filled with office work, watching movies, and spending time with the little ones. It is wierd to see the ones that were in cribs in December are walking and jumping on trampolines now! I guess that is what happens right, they grow up? The little boys sang me their favorite rhyme song, Hola Don Pepito. It is similar to a Miss Susie song. Hopefully that video loads.

As we were singing and playing, I saw Andy, with 2 (gringo) adults I have never seen before. I assumed they were his hopefully adoptive parents from VA. Andy is 3 years old, and this lovely couple has been trying to adopt him since early 2007. Unfortunately, they are no closer than they were 3 years ago. The Guatemalan govt finds excuses to prolong the wait for approval. They are very sweet, patient and kind people, and it breaks my heart that they have to travel such a far distance just to spend a few hours with their son, and countless more in courts. There is a lot more to their story, but I think it is best to respect the confidentiality of the circumstance and just ask you to pray for them.

After church yesterday, we went to the park. It was a beautiful sunny day (bad for picture taking though...see I'm learning!) and it was a lot of fun. It was neat to see the park filled with such a variety of people. And I have to admit, being in Latin America for the majority of this year, I have been very aware of my surroundings, so I was looking for homeless people. I really didn't see any! I am not saying there are none, but I was suprised not to see any beggars in such a location. There were families, owners taking their dogs for walks (or sometimes the other way around), novios, skate boarders, and lots of bikes--lots sporting their favorite teams (there were a lot of Argentinas and Espanas out there). We ended with waters and icecream at a place called Pops (can't get away from the english anywhere you go).

After the typical beans, rice, and I believe papaya for lunch, the little ones watched Free Willy 4. Most of you know how I feel about sequels so I skipped out on this one and caught up on some reading. Then later the older girls watched Bend it like Beckham (they are teen girls, of course they appreciated Jonathan Rhys Myers but obviously not for tudors hehe). Then Madre came down and was so pleased with everyone's hard work over the weekend, she let us watch Michael Jackson's "This is it!" I was really glad we got to watch it because I had been meaning to see it. It was so great! It didn't go into his past or anything, just clips from rehearsal of his show "this is it" before he died. Thriller was of course the girls' favorite. I told them that I had to dance it for our dance team at school, and that I would teach it to them! I enjoyed Smooth Criminal myself.

Today after putting in some office hours, I got to visit Madre's special O. biblioteca. I asked for monasticism for women, and she has given me a few books to read, one being about the life of Romanian Princess Ileana. She also gave me a book about the most beautiful Orthodox monastery in Greece. It has made me even more motivated to make Pascua in Greece with Jacqui possible. I would also like to visit the town of Larissa, it is said to have a strong Orthodox presence, because there is a monastery there as well.

After dinner, I was given spanish riddles. Heres one: What country can you put in a tortilla? Chile haha! Then we played twister for an hour or so. It was so funny. The younger ones are a little competitive. But that was fun.

Its almost curfew, so I am going to head over to my room now. Some of the girls helped me write out the prayers for meals, because I feel a little strange being the only one not speaking. I guess I should always feel strange being the only gringa around for the most part, but everyone has been really warm and welcoming. Goal: know the pre and post breakfast prayers by desayuno tomorrow (I'm already pretty good with the lunch ones). Buenas noches!