Happy Friday!

Welcome end of the week! Today has been a fun day. I did some work this morning and then helped Bryson make Chicken Parmesan (with a Dominican kitchen). He really did everything, I just helped shred some bread to make breadcrumbs, shred cheese, and put some sauces on stuff. It was definitely one of the best meals I've had here! Maybe he should look into culinary school!

This afternoon I've spent working on inventory, entering in all the medications that we have left onsite from our clinics 2 weeks ago. It is hard to believe it has already been 3 weeks since I left home! Doesn't feel like that long at all!

Tonight is going to be a great night as well! PIZZA! When we have small groups we get to go out for pizza at night instead of eating lunch out on the town, so lucky for us there are only 10 of us here! The pizza here is awesome! If at home I eat 2 pieces on average, here I can eat 4! The dough is so light and non-filling compared to at home and the owner is from Milan. He cuts fresh basil out of his garden beside his house/restaurant.

Before dinner, I hung out with the kids and played a couple different things I hadn't played before. Mike, a 3 week volunteer, has been jump roping with Arianni. She stand in front of him and then they jump rope together. So, she came up to me and wanted to try it. I wasn't sure how good I'd be but we were able to jump together about 5 times. Not so great, but keep in mind she is 3 years old so she doesn't jump too many consecutive times together on her own. Although from this fall to now she has improved so much and they get so excited to show you how long they can jump rope! Then I played several rounds of Knock-Out. A basketball game where there are two balls going and everyone is in a line. The first person shoots, and then the person behind them shoots and the goal is to knock-out the person in front of you by making a goal before they do. I am not so good at this game. The first game I was out in about 15 seconds. As the games went on I got a little better, or just placed myself in line so a younger, less experienced kid was behind me and gave me a little shot! But yeah, probably not my speciality, but fun nonetheless!

Last night I spent quite a bit of time with the kids after dinner. For dinner, we had Thanksgiving style with mashed potatoes, squash, chicken, stuffing, peas and pumpkin pie. Another advantage to having a small group! Aside from talking about food, we played a lot of cards last night. I played some "robyito" with the little kids, a card game I've learned here. I haven't mastered the strategy behind this game because 6-7 years old beat me everytime! Then Nena and I played SlapJack, which she had just learned from Christine the other day. Everytime she would win a big pile, she would just start cracking up laughing and brag to me! It was awesome! She loved this game! We then went into a game of war. Arianni came and sat in my lap and played for me. She is too young to know when she won so I'd have to help her but for the first 15 hands or so we didn't win one hand. Then all of a sudden we started winning, and we won almost every "war" that was presented! This game got stopped by the chief, Nena, because it was taking too long! The kids could sit and play cards for hours here. They love it. And even better, they play often with half missing decks, and they don't seem to care.

Once it was separation time, I came back over to our side and we continued to play cards. We played 500 Rummy (but only to 200). I was in 2nd place going into the last hand and ended up coming in 5th place! How quickly that game can change with one hand!