Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Dear Friends and Family,

I woke up early this morning at 7am, and I went down and made myself some fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and then decided to write something for my blog. I have heard that grapefruit juice is good for your throat, so I have been drinking a glass a day for the last couple of days, since my throat hurts and I keep getting headaches. It feels like a cold, my sinuses are filling up. Its pretty miserable, but I am trying to stay ahead of it with plenty of rest and lots of fruit and fresh squeezed juice. Have I mentioned yet how cheap the fruit is? On Sunday’s Luis takes me to the market to buy fruit, its one of the few things I can eat, and we always buy two big bags full for $6.00. You can get 20 oranges for a dollar, 10 grapefruits for a dollar, a delicious pineapple for .80 cents. There’s also pears, green apples, bananas, watermelon, avocado, kiwi, melon, grapes, etc. It’s wonderful!!!! I can eat it, if I can peal it for the most part. I also eat lots of vegetables that are peeled or cooked and its nice because if you go to the street markets they are really cheap, four ears of corn for a dollar, and potatoes 20 cents a pound. You can buy most food products on the street for cheaper, and as long as you boil it or peel it then you are good to go.

Yesterday was a really good day. Hermana Anita wasn’t there for the whole day, I hope she was relaxing and resting, but she was probably out doing business for the foundation. Instead we had a new helper, Hermana Doris, come over. I guess she has worked here in the past, and she is really good at what she does. She has worked with hermana Anita at another foundation before this one as well. When I arrived she had the boys (who apparently don’t have school for a whole week) well in hand. They were all doing exactly what she told them to do, and were especially attentive during English class. They were well organized for lunch and ate all of their food because she warned them ahead of time, ‘if you don’t like it and complain about it, I will give you double. You are accustomed to not eating what you don’t like and taking food with you when you are done, but it stops here. You are to be grateful that God gave you the food, and you are to eat it all, and take no food away from the table with you, you sat down empty handed and you will leave empty handed.’ It was wonderful! This is the firm hand that the boys need. After lunch she made them rest for a while on the floor, and she told them that they could talk and scream and yell and make all the noise they wanted during nap time, but if they did she had a special vitamin for them, so they could rest better next time. As near as I can tell that vitamin was more chores.

Later on Luis came to play soccer with the boys, which he tries to do on Tuesday’s when he doesn’t work. It was a long day as always, but a good one. When we got home we were pleased to find that Samuel seemed to be a little better, since he was up and around. Luis and I were both trying to get him to come to us, and of course he went to Luis because he tempted him with the car. Then we ended up making a 20 minute video of him taking the keys walking outside to the car trying to open the door, then finally getting in the car and pretending to drive. Its quite amusing. He is only 13 months old but very intelligent. You show him something once and he tries to do it. He even tries to clip his own nails. He’s adorable.

By the way, I am adapting a little more to being here. I still have loads of bug bites, but I am eating better which they are relieved about. I am sleeping a little better too.

Anyway, it is getting close to 9am and I have to go down and try to eat some breakfast, then we leave around 10 to be to the foundation by 11am.

Blessing to all!