After lunch I played with the kids some out in the playground. Then it was time for driving lesson #2. Let's just say that the "minibus" or guaguita as they call it here was a lot easier than the truck. It does ride a lot lower to the ground so I scraped a few times but the steering and shifting are so much easier! We drove around town for about an hour or so and stopped for some frozen juices! Such a treat in the warm weather here! Although the minibus does have A/C, a luxury you only get here while driving or going to the bank! :)
We tried again on the dental tools, searching them online but no success. Tom, the director of OO who lives in Arizone, called later in the afternoon to discuss a PA school from Pennsylvania that is interested in bringing a team in March. They have gone to Honduras in the past and want to try something new. That would be exciting to get to work with them!
I played with the kids again before dinner. The two little twin girls are little daredevils. They swing on the tree branches, climb up everything, and try to do everything the older kids do. It is amazing how all the kids are so tough and strong here. They aren't worried about getting hurt at all! Sometimes a little to daring!
After dinner, we watched Beverly Hills Chihuahua with the kids and they loved it. They love dog movies and this was one I brought down so it was new to them! We have a "plaswood" TV here, a huge piece of wood that the movies get projected onto and we set up chairs in rows for all to watch. They typically get a treat as well like suckers, cookies, jello, etc.
Merry Risa (named because she came around Christmas and Risa means smile and she was always smiling) is one of the girls here that is about 9 years old but has cerebral palsy or something of the sorts. When I first came here in 2006 she was about the size of a 1 year old, didn't talk, and was always clapping her hands and feet together to self stimulate. She was abdandoned in a hospital bed for who knows how long. So now, she is walking, talking and starting to get a little personality but still with severe developmental delays, speech problems. Last night she was sitting next to me during the movie and everytime a song would come on she would tap me and start moving her head like she was dancing. At one point in the movie there are pumas that get scared and meow like a cat and run away. She tapped me and imitated the pumas and it was absolutely hilarious but so cute!
For the second half of the movie, Luis Alberto, my baby sat in my lap and cuddled with me! He is too cute but a little jealous of others when they try to lay on me or touch me. I need to break him of this so I can love on more than one kid at a time! :)
After the movie, I went on top of our roof where it was nice and breezy and relaxing. I read some of the book, Better, which is a great read by the way, but probably not all that interesting to non-medical people. I sat and watched the stars afterwards because we are on the outskirts of town and it is so dark outside that the stars are bright and beautiful. I saw a shooting star which was pretty awesome and just finished off a great day!
This morning I got up and went running through town for about 20 minutes. It felt good to exercise! After breakfast I worked on the Nutrition Unit for my curriculum. Next week a team from Villanova is coming and they have 4 people that want to teach Nutrition so I am trying to finish that this week so they have lesson plans for next week. I got a good portion of it done this morning before lunch. After lunch, I hung out with the kids for a bit and then took a little siesta!
After siesta, it was back to work on the Nutrition Unit. I still didn't get done because this morning I did the basic outline but this afternoon I had to fill in the meat of the information which takes a lot longer!
Coco brought back spring roll papers with her from her trip home in August and had been wanting to make spring rolls for dinner one night. Well today she tried to do a trial run and I helped her out. It was pretty fun. We filled them with cabbage, carrots, onions and Ramen noodles. We also made a peanut sauce, but had to fabricate a little because we didn't have all the ingredients. They turned out to be a success however at dinner!
After dinner we had free time with the kids. I played with a bunch of the younger kids on the merry-go-round which apparently is off limits. Volunteers have gotten hurt playing on there before so I was told later I wasn't supposed to push them on this. Oops! Well anyway, they were having me push and then all jumping off and playing a trick on me. It was quite dangerous so I quit this game and went to hang out with some other kids. Of course, not too long afterwards, Luis Alberto came and found me and sat in my lap. He eventually fell asleep in my lap until one of the older boys took him upstairs to bed.
Towards the end of the night I sat with Nena who is about 7 years old. She is very smart! She was drawing in a notebook with a pencil about the length of my pinky finger! She was drawing a house and the windows she drew had window panes in them like I would draw if I were drawing a house. She also drew a tree with the fluffy cloud like top and drew circles inside that were supposed to be apples she told me. I was amazed at how many miles away kids still draw the same images. I'm sure Nena has never seen a house with window panes because those don't exist here, you don't see houses even with glass windows here, just open air shades. And I'm pretty sure she's never seen an apple tree because apples are expensive and hard to get here, the kids only get them at Christmas time. It was pretty neat to watch her draw because of the similarities in her drawings with American children.
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