One Heck of a Giant Family Reunion (7/25-31)

It was another week full of activities, food, and soccer tournaments.  The biggest events: a group from the UNC Dentistry School came for their annual trip of cleaning teeth and eradicating cavities and that Saturday was the 57^th Anniversary of NPH.  I had no idea about the UNC trip until they were actually here. It was fun to find another hidden connection to NPH from my old life that I had been ignorant of beforehand.  My favorite story from their visit was when one of my girls who stayed in Grandes A accidentally threw up in her dentist’s hand while he was cleaning her teeth.  Apparently she had a little more than a gag reflux.  Neither seemed to know what to do about it and just stared at each other for a few seconds before breaking into action.  Poor kid.  She was pretty embarrassed.

From of my girls cleaning up after a morning activity spent cooking.  This was one of the more popular activies.

Especially since they got to eat the fruits of their labor.

Tuesday in the morning we had our T-shirt workshop.  I never was able to finish a shirt for myself.  There were too many requests for "help."

Wesleigh and I found a good routine with our activity and came to know what to expect from the groups.  Wednesday the normal schedule was interrupted by a huge storm; we spent most of the day inside.  Thursday and Friday were used  in large part for party prep and Friday was the private house party, kids and staff only.  We all had a blast with the Cuernavaca and Monterrey kids playing different sports which culminated in a giant baseball game in the patio and another delicious meal of hotdogs and French fries.

Me and another of my new girls hanging out at the school enjoying the games.  She had arrived at the house only a few weeks earlier with her two younger sisters; they had all grown up in the circus.

The “public” anniversary on Saturday had a relatively simple schedule: tournaments of basketball, volleyball, and soccer in the school in the morning and afternoon, good food for breaks, and a lot of chatting.

The male volunteers all joined the Miacatlan team to represent the house in the men's tournament. They showed us proud and won their division.

The newly painted seal was completed just the day before and was nice and shiny for the event.

The women's team from Miacatlan was a rag tag bunch.  They were a mixture of directors, volunteers, year of service, university students, and even a few of my girls.

Flags were put up representing the nine NPH houses across the Western hemisphere. Mexico's flag is of course the largest.

My girls competed in the girl's division and made me proud.  They had been practicing for weeks and were really nervous.  I think the cute uniforms helped give their confidence a boost.

While chatting and enjoying the crowd, we were interrupted by these two gentlemen who introduced themselves and thanked us for supporting the house.  We in turn were a little star struck.  Both gentlemen had been brought to the house within a year of the organization's foundation.  I felt like I was meeting celebrities!  They came with all of their extended family, children and grandchildren.  I asked for a picture to record the event.  From left to right: Meghan (Cuernavaca volunteer), Alli (new Miacatlan volunteer and roommate), Wesleigh, and me with our new friends.

It was like a giant family reunion and carnival all in one.  Pequenos who were now grandparents brought their entire families, all the current Pequenos were there, and a lot of history was represented.  As the weekend was supposed to be my descanso, I had dinner in town with my fellow volunteer descanso-ers and slept late the next day to recover from all the excitement.

The Princess and the Plywood Story

No one was happy about moving, but it had to be done.  I checked out the boys' room thoroughly before the actual move took place and went ahead and chose which compartment I wanted for myself.  It had a window, two lockers, a nice big "door," and a decent amount of space that would not change due to its location.  The only problem was the bed was a little smaller than the one I had grown used to so I couldn't keep my mattress.  I wasn't too upset about this, my mattress springs were starting to poke through anyway, but it did make things a little more difficult as my new room's previous occupant wanted to keep his old mattress.

So we moved.  Martina and Andrew kept their old mattresses while Dan and I made do with what was left over.  After all our things had been switched out, I finally gave my attention to the bed situation.  I tested the mattress on it.  Too hard.  I lifted up the mattress and discovered that several sheets of plywood had been put between the springs of the bed and the mattress itself. Interesting.  I wondered why. Can't hurt to try it sans plywood, right?  Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I tried every conceivable combination of mattresses, singular, double, different singular, etc.  Of the four mattresses at my disposal, I tried all, together and separate.  Nothing really worked.  Some were too soft, some were too hard, some were too high when combined...the list goes on.  I felt like Goldilocks.  And then, a few nights before I was supposed to go home, the springs started to give out a little and I suddenly found myself sitting in a hole in my bed.  But what to do?  I had exhausted all my available resources.  How was I to get a good night's sleep?

While home for vacation I decided to therefore bring back my old egg carton cover from college and a mattress pad.  My first night back I tried it out.  It helped, but no miracle.  Then, with the early departure of Martina, I tried her mattress.  Better, but still too soft.  Finally, in what felt like a desperate last attempt, I put the plywood back on.  Perfection.  I officially love my bed and have slept well ever since.  Who would of guessed?  The perfect combination was plywood from the beginning and my bed and I now have an ideal relationship.  Now, if I could just work things out with the bathroom door...

My new room and my plywood bed in all its glory.  That's a window in the right corner.

The other corner of my room.  It took forever to get the boy smell out, but at this point we've eradicated it for the most part.

I'm back! (7/18-24)

My first working day back I headed to desayuno with my girls.  A lot had changed in my absence.  First off, twenty-one of my twenty-six girls in Grandes A had graduated from primaria and moved up to a new section, primeros de secundaria, the youngest of the three secundaria sections.  In US terms, this means they would be entering seventh grade in the fall. This move in section meant a change in dorm, a change in encargadas, a change in seating in the comedor, and a change in chores.  The girls were now responsible for cleaning a third of the comedor after every meal along with the other female secundaria sections and keeping a few gardens, or more accurately patches of grass, neat and tidy in the house.  Our Grandes A encaragadas had both left the house and moved to Monterrey where the university is, so they were no longer around the house.  Half the year of service kids had followed suit and a new batch had come in.  In our section, the encargadas were now Gris, a second year who I knew from before, and Luz, the newbie.  Both really sweet.  Our dorm room was now located on the second floor of the girls’ dorm meaning I would have to climb steps now in order to reach the girls.  Our comedor tables were now located in recessed alcoves of the comedor making seating a bit more of an adventure.  Bottom line: lots of changes and I was a little anxious about them all walking into the comedor that day.

                                              

But even with all that, there was even more to deal with.  As I said, Martina had left the Saturday I returned and that Monday the new volunteers arrived.  Volunteers’ was therefore in a bit of an uproar.  I was now rooming with all three of the new female volunteers, two of which I had not met before that day.  My worries were foundationless it turned out as both were very sweet and we got along well.  I had also missed the start of summer vacation and came back in time for the beginning of the second week.  This meant the schedule was completely different for everyone.  Now the kids were allowed to sleep in until 7am at which point they got up to do chores, 9am desayuno, 10:30am to 12:45pm activities, 2pm comida, 3pm to 5pm activities, 5pm to 7pm break/shower/chores, 7pm dinner, and 8pm to 10pm soccer tournament.  This was the schedule on all weekdays for four of the six weeks of summer vacation.  The activities were two in the morning and two in the afternoon.  Morning activities were less active and consisted of things such as spa, table games, painting (T-shirts, statues, etc.), crafts, and Zumba.  Afternoon activities were meant to keep the kids moving: soccer, volleyball, softball, etc.

Two of my girls enjoying their fruit break.  Every morning between activites the kids were treated to some sort of fresh fruit.  A healthy way to break up the morning!

Leslie, a visiting volunteer who had a few of my girls when they were in Medianas, with one of my girls playing table games during the morning activity.

Guess Who?  I loved this game growing up and played it a little too much over the course of vacation.  It was a challenge playing in Spanish.  I had a lot of help.

My first day back was the first day that this schedule was enacted.  I met my girls for breakfast, they cleaned the comedor, and we headed to activities.  That afternoon, I was assigned to help with an afternoon activity: water balloon volleyball with Wesleigh and a year of service kid.  The activity went only so-so.  It was our first day and we went through the water balloons rather quickly.  Since we had the youngest sections that day, it was a bit of a problem.  After a quick shower, I was treated to delicious American style hot dogs and French fries at the despidida for the current visitor group.  They left the next morning.  At the soccer tournament after dinner my girls won their game against an older girl section and my team (I was asked to play with the year of service girls again) won theirs as well.

This day was basically repeated the rest of the week.  I would spend most of the day with my girls besides my afternoon activity period working the water balloon activity and basically each night my section and my team played in the tournament.  Monika returned on Wednesday from her Guatemala vacation and Saturday was spent hanging around the section a lot.  I gave a tour for the new visitor group that morning and we had a dance that night in the tae kwon do room. It was awful.  The room is basically a cave in the house, aka no air flow.  It was great for controlling the kids. The entrance/exit was carefully guarded, but there was no water and everything smelled to high heaven.  Sunday was again a little more relaxed.  The kids spent most of the day practicing dances for that night which they performed for our new group of visitors and the rest of the house.  It was just my first week back and already I was exhausted!

One of the cutest Matamoros kids at the soccer tournament Friday night.  NPH has an extension house in Matamoros.  It is tiny, only about forty kids, and they spend each summer at the house in Miacatlan.  We all enjoyed having them around.

Two of my girls being cute in the section.  The one on the right was a newbie for me.  She had stayed behind when everyone changed sections.  I was happy to have such a sweet addition to our group!

Through several high school art programs in the States, all of the kids in the home had their pictures turned into works of art by the US students.  Apparently, this project had been in the works for a while and it was finally delivered and completed my first week back.  The quality ranged a lot of course, but I think overall the kids were very proud of their portraits.

Our new dorm room. It's smaller than our other and therefore harder to play in, but it's also cozier.

The dance Saturday night.  Like I said, it's a cave.

A bunch of my girls having a good time soaked in sweat.

Becca, one of the new volunteers and one of my new roommates, getting to know the kids at comida familiar on Sunday.

Me and a friend chilling in the patio.  It was good to be back.

The dance performances that night.  The teams were made up of kids from all different sections.  This one in particular was very cute as the little boy up front was the only boy on the team and quite a good dancer.  He kind of did his own thing up front while the girls performed a choreographed dance in the background.

The Airport Tar Heel Story

So...as I mentioned in my previous post, I had a significant delay on an already late flight on my trip home.  I had been up a while with very little sleep the night before and so began to get a little loopy while waiting for a final decision on my last flight.  I had made it to the gate with plenty of time and had already been waiting a while when they made the first announcement about the delay in flight.  The gate had become pretty crowded.  The row I was sitting at was not very long, only about four seats when an older man sat at the extreme end of the row from me.  I had my iPod in as well as reading material making me look very busy and unavailable for conversation.  This did not stop the man from trying.  He was obviously casting around trying to find someone to talk to and would insert himself into other conversations without invitation.  There was a lot of superficial moaning about the flight delay and several phone calls to random people he apparently hadn't spoken with in a while.  I vigilantly kept my eyes on my book so as not to make eye contact and become another unwilling conversationalist.

Eventually, and inevitable, someone finally sat down with us, a young Mexican woman.  She chose the seat next to me leaving space between her and the older guy.  As soon as she sat down, he tried to talk to her. She responded with a few quick words in Spanish which after a few more tries on his part finally made him give up.  I observed everything with a small internal giggle.  Not long after, the flight crew announced our plane unserviceable and the need to switch planes/gates.  This is where my loopy factor kicked in and the first time I have ever done this in my life.  I started a conversation with the Mexican girl in Spanish!

We started chatting about where we were from, why we were flying to Raleigh, about Mexico, our kids, etc. as we joined the new line to board the new plane.  In this line we stood near another older man wearing a Tar Heel hat.  He obviously did not speak Spanish and had no idea what we were talking about.  That did not prevent him from trying to join our conversation.  I don't remember what his initial comments were, but they were all very unrelated to our conversation.  At first I tried translating a little for my new friend because I wasn't sure what her English level was and together we laughed about his randomness.  Like I said, I was pretty loopy at this point as well as emotionally stretched with the delay, so I found pretty much everything funny.  He kept interjecting and we kept sort of responding and talking.  At first it was innocent enough, but of course he started to make some veiled hints about what we should do later that night and his current single status and I started employing my usual tactic of pretending not to hear.  Finally, they announced boarding and we were able to separate.  My new friend and I exchanged info before she boarded; we were on separate ends of the plane.

Our new Tar Heel fan friend boarded before either of us.  I think he was some kind of special member or something as he was at the front of the plane and we each had to pass him to get to our seats.  I was honestly worried he would try to pinch me as I passed and tried to walk quickly up the aisle.  No such event occurred and I gratefully sank into my seat.

I'm obviously too busy eating to deal with creepy old guys.

Punch line: Later during the flight I got up to use the bathroom in the back of the plane and on my way to the bathroom I passed my new friend.  She was sitting at the window on a row of three.  She waved and then gestured emphatically next to her.  The flight was not full, so our Tar Heel fan had taken the initiative to move to the back of the plane and found the open seat next to her.  Thankfully he was at least polite enough to sit on the aisle and was passed out when I walked past.  Who knows what kind of exchange transpired before I found her.  I've never been so grateful for a full row on a plane in my life.

Conclusion: A lot of weird people in airports, but you get to meet some pretty cool people too.  Maybe I should be a little more open to conversation when I travel by myself.  Just not too open.  Especially not with older men travelling alone.  Ewww.

Home and Other Adventures (7/7-17)

Well, I'm not sure if you realized this, but in order to get home the first step is to get to the airport.  So after my usual breakfast with my girls at 6:15am and seeing them off to school, I boarded a bus and then a taxi and then another bus in order to make it to the airport in plenty of time for my flight.  The first flight went very smoothly.  The second one...not so much.  It was delayed over an hour and a half.  Normally this would not have bothered me too, too much, but it was a late flight to start and I didn't actually end up getting into Raleigh until 12:30 in the morning.  The delay provided some good stories.  Bottom line: I got really loony and started talking to all kinds of random strangers.  Definitely not my usual MO.

Mom, Dad, and Janet were all at the airport to meet me.  I spent most of the night talking to Janet and the next morning being shown around the house by my parents to see Grandma's things that were new additions for me.  It was really hard.  The last time I'd been home, Gramma had just died and Dad was still in Pennsylvania working on the details.  It was good to be back and get some closure on that.

Late that afternoon I left to spend the weekend with Lauren, my college roommate, in Norfolk.  I got in before her and checked into our motel room.  The next day was our beach day: soaking up some rays and catching up.  Notice my Wisconsin hat.  I happened to have toured the school while looking at undergrad and brought it with me to support Lauren's new medical school acceptance and plans.  That's right!  I officially have friends in med school.

We had a fun day in the sun and a great Thai dinner that night.  Funnily enough, Thai food was on my "Must Eat While Home" list and Lauren had just happened to look up a good place to eat before coming.  It's all in the details!  After dinner we walked around a bit.  There was a failed attempt at seeing a movie and then a successful drink on the strip.

A fun display for anyone to contribute to while we walked downtown Norfolk.

After breakfast at Waffle House we parted ways and headed to our respective homes.  The rest of my time home was pretty chill: a lot of eating from my "To Eat" list, a lot of hot showers, a lot of just sitting around enjoying the air conditioning and the big screen.  I did get a much needed haircut and spent a fair bit of time travelling to Chapel Hill to catch up with friends there.  I was also very excited to see Erin, my other awesome college roommate, who told me first hand her engagement story and showed off her ring.  (Congratulations again, you two!!!)  What's this? Life keeps moving and big changes keep happening even with me isolated down in Mexico?  I don't remember that being part of the deal...

Mom trying on her hiking stuff while I was home.  They were busy preparing for their upcoming Scotland trip.

It was a great trip and I loved seeing everyone, but I also missed my girls terribly and the other volunteers.  The time flew and I was ready to head back when the 16th rolled around.  No problems this time flight wise. I arrived back at the house relatively early that Saturday with luggage full of toiletries, American food and fresh clothes.  In my absence (aka that morning) Martina had decided to leave the house permanently, so I was again in the room by myself for a couple of nights. I also stole her mattress. Sunday I returned to Cuernavaca and met Wesleigh to see the new and final Harry Potter movie and enjoyed my last few hours of freedom before officially joining the summer vacation work crew the next morning.

The End of an Era and My First Six Months (6/27-7/6)

My last ten days with my girls in Grandes A began with Natascha following me around for the day and spending time with my girls.  Because she was early and gradually assuming responsibility in the clinic, she took advantage of her extra time by getting to know the house in general and the other volunteer responsibilities specifically a little better.  It was fun.  Natascha was even able to join us for a little soccer after dinner that night.  Thankfully for her, she too is a big soccer fan and enjoyed playing.

                     

My last ten days also signaled the beginning of the house’s electricity and water cutting.  Because of a slight financial crisis in the house budget, from that time until today the house has been cutting power in most parts of the house during normal business hours and some days the water.  This change has made us very creative with our break time and Internet use, amenities we basically went without for the kids’ school vacation time.  Anyway, back to my week…

Wednesday I was there for my last Edge before my trip home and the start of summer vacation.  We took the cheap route and watched a movie.  Popcorn included of course!  The girls loved it so I consider it a success.  Unfortunately it rained rather hard that night confining the section to the dorm.  This did not deter the girls from a mini soccer tournament in the room.  The bathroom door was one goal and the main entrance the other.  Thankfully no one was seriously hurt.  We did get yelled at for making too much noise. :-D

Natascha hard at work with our somewhat inadequate broom.  She's over six feet and that broom handle was no more than two.

Thursday found Natascha and I hard at work rearranging our room in order to fit a fourth nook (I’m not sure how else to call them).  We did some heavy duty cleaning, trash collecting, and dumping.  That night was the June birthday fiesta and I came back to the section to find the girls busy cleaning out the excess lockers.  It was interesting seeing the sort of things which had collected over the course of the year: Christmas wrapping paper, random pottery, incomplete board games, extra uniforms…just to name a few.  Most was redistributed or thrown away.

One of my girls with me at her birthday party.  The presents are made from whatever extra donations the house has and are usually pretty practical.  The encargadas put them together earlier in the week.

A few of my girls sitting in the middle of the randomness that came from those extra lockers.  They were a little late to bed that night.

Some fun in the dorm that same night.

Friday I accidentally overslept missing all my pre-descanso responsibilities.  That was a little disorienting.  Natascha and I took the teacher’s bus to Cuernavaca after a little down time in volunteers (and my computer battery running out).  After some Mega shopping we went to our favorite taco place for dinner and Monika joined us back at the apartment.  Saturday was spent sleeping, getting the apartment ready for the new volunteers, and hanging out with friends at a bar that night.  Sunday, more sleeping and a movie with Monika.  We even were able to briefly meet a few of the new volunteers and when I say briefly, I mean briefly.  They walked up with their luggage, we said hi, Marinay started to steer them towards the house, and we said bye to head back.  The whole exchange took less than ten minutes.  I was glad to put some faces to names though.

The gang old and new hanging out at one of Marinay's favorite bars and Natascha's first night out on the town in Mexico.

A visitor group had arrived while I was on descanso and I got my first up close encounter with them on Tuesday when they decided to “help” us clean the comedor after almuerzo.  We had twice as many people as normal cleaning, but somehow managed to take just as much time.  I pretty much had side splitting laughter the whole time watching the encargadas reaction to the “help.” It was sweet of them to try though.  That night was their despidida from the house and we had a feast of hamburgers that were oh-so-delicious.  The visitors were also challenged to a game of soccer which they promptly won much to the chagrin of the house.  I ended up giving the thank you speech at the end of the night.  Teresa was supposed to do it, but she came down with a case of the throw-ups so I stepped up.  No big deal really, but my whole public speaking fear made it a little more complicated than necessary.

                                                                     

Wednesday was my final day with all my girls in Grandes A and with the two encargadas I had spent the past six months working with.  I was to leave to fly home the next day and while I would be gone a lot of changes would be taking place, namely the encargadas leaving the house and moving to Monterrey where they would start university.  As it was my last night with them, the girls and I planned a surprise of pizza and cake for dinner as well as a gift for the encaragadas.  I had made each of them a photo album with letters of thanks from the girls and gave them to them that night.  Photos are a precious commodity in the home and I used the photos I had been taking since I got to the house.  I think they appreciated it.

Ana and a few of the girls at the going away party.

Ochoa and some more in the section that night.

It was a bittersweet end and hard going to bed that night.  Over the course of my time at home (ten days) the majority of my girls would be graduating from elementary school, participating in Visitor’s Day (only of two days a year families are allowed to visit), and moving up to secundaria.  These changes also signaled a change for the year of service: some would be leaving to head to university while the newest bachillerito graduating class would be moving into the home and taking their place.  As I packed that night I was anxious about all I would be missing, but excited to see my families and friends as well.  But the outcome of all that I’ll just have to leave for my next blog post…

And so IT begins... (6/20-26)

The end of June signaled the beginning of big change.  Monday the first new volunteer arrived, Natascha.  Her arrival was completely unexpected for us as we had received an email that day saying she would be coming Tuesday.  Within a few hours of reading the email, Natascha was touring the house.  Haha!  Such is the unexpected, uninformed life of a volunteer.  We were so unprepared the rooms were not yet ready.  Tuesday, the boys and I swapped rooms.  I moved along with my roommate Martina in the larger bedroom at the front of our compound and Andrew and Dan moved into our smaller accommodations.  No one was very happy about it.  We were all very content with our previous arrangement, but the impending male to female ration dictated the change.  Natascha therefore moved in with Martina and me and the three of us desperately tried to eradicate the nasty boy smell that the guys left behind as a housewarming gift.

My room in it's final days before the move!  I had gotten it just the way I liked it...and then did it all over again:

Tuesday was a big day.  We moved, Wesleigh left for vacation, and all year of service and directors left for the day for evaluations.  In their absence I was seriously concerned the house would self-destruct.  Secundaria kids were left in charge (horror!) and a few were with each section to supervise for the day.  Somehow we all survived it, but I couldn’t breathe easy until the directors returned that night.

The rest of the week went smoothly, though I dearly missed Wesleigh.  I must say I was not a good host for Natascha that week.  She had arrived two weeks early then the others because she was Jeremy’s replacement in physical therapy and needed to be trained by him before he left. I was so tired for some reason that I started avoiding the sala for all reasons expect grabbing snacks and for the most part sealed myself in my room with my computer.  Natascha is very tall, over six feet, and anytime she had a question she’d peek over my locker door to see if I was around and willing to answer questions.  Sorry Natascha!  I became a much better hostess later on, but her first week was touch and go.

Friday was my last day working in Grupo D.  Monika and I supervised the game we had tried the week before, switching the teams, but again the game did not go as planned.  I also spent a good portion of my day being interviewed by a representative of the Belgium NPH office.  She wanted details about a volunteer’s life in the home in order to better prepare any volunteers coming through their office.  She was very sweet and I enjoyed our conversation.  The night’s activities consisted of movies on a huge projector in the school.  Yes, it was movies plural.  The kids were given coffee and freshly made donuts as their snack (can you say wired?), a huge treat in the house.  During the first movie, it started to rain a bit but the house preserved and we kept watching.  At the end of the movie, I started to get ready to leave when Agustin comes running through the kids a huge smile on his face and another movie in hand.  Apparently he was having too much fun for the night to end just yet! The second movie took us well past midnight and the following morning was a little difficult for all.

Saturday the house played Rey Pide, a game where each section is given the same list of questions pertaining to the house which they then run around trying to answer.  These questions can be anything from how many tables are there in the comedor to what is Father Phil’s full name.  My section won.  That night was the Gold Cup, USA versus Mexico and I must admit I was nervous.  If States won, the kids would be devastated.  If we lost, I worried about the teasing the volunteers might undergo.  Jeremy was especially brave I thought as he sat front and center with the Pequenos for the game.  In case you didn’t know, we lost, but I was impressed by the general lack of taunting.

Semana de Fiestas (6/13-19)

For a few weeks, the volunteers had been in doubt as to whether or not we would have our biannual retreat and/or the traditional despidida for our departing volunteers.  In the end, Marinay (our volunteer coordinator) was able to work her magic and we got not just one but both.  Due to our individual schedules, they also happened to take place in the same week, back to back. 

 Tuesday night therefore was our volunteer despidida.  A despidida is a farewell, bon voyage type party and are typical in the house to say thank you for volunteers, year of service, departing employees, etc.  Our despidida was for Jeremy in Miacatlan and Jane and Edith in Cuernavaca.  The party was held at a hotel in Miacatlan.  We brought the food and drinks; the hotel provided the atmosphere.  It was pretty crazy.  The drink flowed, the food was delicious, presents were given, dancing ensued.  I left with the first car out at 2:30 in the morning.  Everyone else left much later.

Rafa, Edith, Jeremy, and Jane

To our benefit, the volunteer retreat was scheduled for the next day.  Instead of our normal routine starting at 5, 6, or 7am we slept in a little and then boarded an NPH bus to head to Las Huertas.  After a brief snack stop along the way, we finally arrived.

Teresa and Marinay on the bus there.

Las Huertas: advertised as a natural water park.  It was a really beautiful and fun place.  It had definitely been manipulated by man, but still very unique.  I missed my Keens dearly!

A dead centipede near the trashcan.  My foot's in the photo to give size perspective.  That's a size 10 foot people!

Wesleigh and I warming up by one of the man-made pools.  I applied sunscreen every hour and still got burned!  Typical.

Las Huertas was a lot of fun and a very distinct break from house life that we were grateful for.  I hope I get to go back!

Thursday in celebration of Father's Day, the females of the house threw a party for the guys at Agustin and Chela's house.  I helped with cooking that afternoon.  My job consisted in picking up the raw meat and putting it on the stove for the cooks.  That night after the kids went to bed, the party started.  I must say, the cooks did a great job.  We served the guys and gave out presents.  I think they felt properly celebrated.  I slipped out early as I still felt sleep deprived from the festivities the previous two days.

Friday morning, Monika, Wesleigh and I had fun with Grupo D creating a scavenger hunt around the house.  One group was given the task of placing clues around the house to lead the other group to the end prize: a bag of chicharrones.  We had a small bump in the road when one mischievous child from the first ran ahead of everyone stealing the clues and the prize.  Thankfully we got to him before he actually ate it and the second group was able to finish the game.

The rest of my weekend was very quiet.  Monika and Wesleigh were both working so I was on my own again.  I did some great blogging, watched a lot of movies, slept, and Skyped.  A nice break after a long week of fiestas!



Sorry!!!

While I know the excuses keep rolling in, I do apologize for my latent posting.  Especially to you, Wanda!!! Don't worry, I won't go two months without posting again.  In my defense, Internet was basically nonexistent in volunteers for summer vacation and as you'll see my descansos were pretty full.  Regardless, here it comes, all the juicy backed up stories of my Adventures Abroad.  (Heehee, you like how I slipped that in?  Yeah, that's the title of the blog.  Let's just call this Part 2.)

Now would I have posted this embarressing picture of myself if I wasn't truly penitent?  This was totally NOT staged, but completely by accident.  Proud moment.