Happy Halloween! (a day late)

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So I forgot to add on the previous blog that the night we were playing on the basketball court with the kids, they found a crab behind the court. It was about the size of large hamburger bun. Then about 3 minutes later a huge toad goes hopping across the basketball court. What fun creatures we find here! :)

Yesterday was a fun day. We cleaned the room a little in the morning and I took on the job of cleaning out our shower faucet. I put on gloves and unscrewed the drain top. I then went to work removing the hair and pulled out about a baseball sized wad of hair, dirt, sand. It was disgusting but our drain works well now ;)

Before we headed out for the afternoon I hung out with the kids for a little bit. The kids here have a little store that is stocked with toys from donations and they are allowed to buy things with points that they earn for being good, doing their chores, etc. All the kids had their new gadgets and some had new jump ropes. Two of the little girls, Franchesca about 4, and Ari, age 3 were jumping rope with me and Nicol holding the ends and twirling it for them. It was hilarious to watch but they were pretty good for their age!

We headed to Jaibon, the other orphanage for the afternoon. First, we stopped a roadside goat restaurant and had some good food. I ordered baked goat, and although it sounds gross, it was pretty good. It tasted like pot roast to me. The only weird thing was all the bones in it. Little ribs, and Luke who was sitting next to me, had this huge bone sticking out of his, probably some leg bone or something. That was a little disturbing! We had a bunch of good sides, some rice dish that tasted like jumbalya, fresh avocados, plantains, and white rice! It was yummy!

We got to the orphanage about 2pm and hung out with the boys. This orphanage is totally different than the one here. It is tucked back on a road, down a long driveway and has a church, school, and a boys and girls orphanage on the property, as well as tons of areas where pigs, birds, and chickens live. The girls orphanage area is not used currently, only boys live there for now. There are about 24 boys living at the orphanage and they are so sweet and well behaved. Tia, a lady that has lived there for many years, is strict and keeps the boys in line. They all have chores and are so respectful. We played several games with them, and had a reading time with them as well. It was a great 3 hours, that passed by so fast but very nice and a different environment from the kids here!

We headed back to the orphanage, had dinner, and then Christine and I watched Hairspray until our other roommate Heather arrived from the airport. She went home for 2.5 weeks and came back last night. It is great to have her back!

Today was a packed day starting with a little worship service, then some time with the kids. I got drilled in the knee with a hard plastic top of some sort by accident but it broke skin! One of the older girls was throwing it at another girl and I somehow ended up being the victim! :)

We left after lunch and went to a new beach near El Morro, the other beach. This beach was not for swimming because it had lots of seaweed and junk in the water but Vivian and I walked around exploring a little and there were lots of shells, coral and snails on our walk. I came back and enjoyed the sun for a little bit before we left.

After the beach, we went to the English Insitute and played games with the Hopkins family. We played a game called Farkle (a dice game) that was a lot of fun. We hung out there for about 2 hours before heading back for dinner. They treated us to ice cream floats which was a lovely treat!

The rest of the evening was typical for a Sunday here, dinner, church with the kids, and now just resting until bedtime! Happy November and wishing everyone a great beginning of the week!