Monday Dec. 3, 2012

Family I stayed with in La Paz

                Today I am taking the morning off. Eric and I have decided that we will both take 2 mornings off each week instead of one full day. This is because we are now the sole parents of the kids in this house, making it difficult to spend a whole day alone. So I will still be coming to town ever Monday from about 8 am to noonish, then again on Friday. He will be taking Tuesday and Thursday mornings off. We have decided that we want to be back by about 1 or so so that we can help each other cook and watch the kids in the afternoon.

                This afternoon when I got back I had to dish out a little punishment. The first story was because someone soaked another students’ (Jose’s) bed with water. This obviously made Jose mad and upset. When he told me what happened, he said he thought it was David, but then David said it was Guillermo, then Guillermo said it was David. So I got both of them together and asked who did it and they looked at each other and both said Moises. I obviously knew it couldn’t be Moises, so I told the boys that I would punish them both if they didn’t tell me who did it, and then when I found out who it really was, that person would get an even worse punishment.  So immediately Guillermo perked up and said it was him. So I said Thank you and went downstairs to talk to Eric about my idea for punishment. He loved it. So I went to Jose (the kid whose bed got soaked) and I told him that he could take 2 liters of water and soak Guillermo’s bed! He was SO excited and couldn’t believe that I was letting him do that! So later on when I said he could, he went upstairs and did the deed. However, what I didn’t know was that Guillermo was IN his bed asleep. So that was a rude awakening. However He didn’t complain about it at all because he knew he had it coming.

                At just about the same time, the other David in the house came up to me and said someone trashed his dresser and threw all of his just washed and folded clothes all over the floor. There were only a couple people around, and the most mischievous, Moises, was sitting right there on the floor looking guilty. So I asked him if he did it and he quickly said no. I asked him if he was lying and said that when you lie, it only makes things a lot worse for you, a lot lot worse. Then I said I was going to ask him one last time if he did it, then after I did, he hung his head and was quiet, then he looked up and said no. I asked him if that was his final answer and then he paused, and then said he did it. So I said thank-you and told him that he will have to do David’s laundry next time.

                There is a big problem in this house as far as wetting the bed. Because most all of these kids are going through that stage. But the last story I have to note of this day was right before the kids fell asleep, Moises and David said “Teacher Eric, Teacher Eric” (who was standing right beside me) “we just went pee pee”. So these kids just pee’d the bed before they were even asleep! So I actually thought that was a little funny.

Tuesday Dec. 4, 2012

                Today Eric went to town in the morning. This was my first real test of patience because normally I have Eric here with me who is absolutely phenomenal with kids. But today, I was on my own. The first task was to cook breakfast. So to make that easy, I decided to give them oranges, bananas, and scrabled and fried eggs. BAM! Done!

                Now to get them to work. That is by far the hardest part. So today, I wanted to take all of my boys over to the church with brooms, buckets, and brushes. The church floor became extremely dirty and gross. So Eric and I thought it needed a good cleaning. The kids eagerly went over there. However, they weren’t so eager to actually work. Most all of them worked a little bit, but Jose and Moises worked hard the entire time. We cleaned all the pews and almost all of the floor with soap and water. It looks so much better. And since those 2 boys worked without stopping and didn’t play around, I gave them Oreo’s in front of everyone and explained why they were getting them and why the other boys were not.

                For lunch, we got really lucky because Steven decided that he was going to cook for us which was a big surprise. He cooked soup and potato wedges. It was not only scrumptious, but saved me the hassle of stressing about what to cook for the kids. After lunch, Eric got back. The kids played for a good portion of the afternoon.

                Later in the evening again was when I had bad sides come out again. My David (“davicito”) decided he was going to take one of Erics’ David’s mango. My Davicito took the mango and started to eat it which made the other David sad. So I called my Davicito downstairs, took him to a corner, put a piece of tape on the wall and said that he needed to put his nose on the tape and not take it off for 10 minutes. Genius punishment right? Well I can’t take full credit for it because my girlfriend came up with it. So he stood there, not allowed to talk to anyone or look at anything other than the wall for 10 minutes.

                Later , Eric and I were downstairs talking and all of a sudden we hear terrified scream coming from upstairs. So I ran up there to find Edwin (the new boy) pushing David off of his top bunk headfirst toward the ground! Poor David was so scared and shaking. So I caught him and brought him down to the ground and made sure he was ok. Then I talked very sternly with Edwin because he has been having some bully issues recently. So I’ve decided that I need to talk to Melissa about what to do with him.

                Probably the funniest thing that happened today with Moises. The boys have been making French fries several times today. But Moises (who is 11 but a little slower than most kids) decided that he wanted to add a little flavor to his French fries, so instead of using regular cooking oil like everyone else, he was going to use something special and make a delicacy, he used motor oil. Fortunately we smelled it and caught him before anyone, including himself ate it.

                Another kinda funny thing that happened today was right before I layed down to go to bed, I took a drink of water. Then a few seconds after I layed down, a drip of something landed on my lips. I had no idea what it was or where it came from. I was just hoping it wasn’t pee coming from one of the kids’ beds upstairs! Then it hit me, I figured out where it came from. There was water on my mustache, and when I layed down, it dripped from the hairs onto my mouth! Gross right? Nah, that’s awesome! Haha

Wednesday Dec. 5, 2012

                This morning Eric and I woke up and fixed breakfast for everyone, then Eric and 3 of the boys went up to the Toma to fix the water because a big storm last night knocked out the water. Leaving me with most of the boys which was no problem. It has actually been very helpful to have Steven here as a little relief too. The boys pretty much played all day. Then in the evening, Eric and I showed them Lassie and then they all went to bed. Nothing too exciting happened.

Thursday Dec. 6, 2012

                Today was Eric’s second town day and to be honest, I don’t really remember what happened today. I usually type up my blog once or twice a week and sometimes the days completely run together. So I will make it up to you and try to post a few more pictures here.

Friday Dec. 7, 2012

                Today was my second town day!! Sweet! So me being the cheapskate that I am, I ate breakfast here so I wouldn’t have to buy any in town. But today I stocked up a little bit on my snacks, used the internet, picked up Erics’ laundry for him and just enjoyed being away.

                On my way back however, I stopped to see if there were any packages for either me or Eric, and we each had 2! Normally they would never let me pick up Eric’s mail, but it was a new girl and I told her that he wasn’t with me and really wanted them. I also showed her that they were to and from the same address. So she let it slide. I walked out of that “post office” (which is more like a shed filled with random mail) and felt like the king of the world with 4 packages stacked on top of each other! Turns out that our Christmas and thanksgiving packages arrived about the same time. So when I got back to Familia Feliz, Eric and I tore into them! We got some veggie meat, stickers, chocolate, gravy, mash potatoes, instant cook cookies, cranberry stuff for Thanksgiving, and tons of letters from our friends back home. While we were opening those packages, I think I can speak for both of us when I say that we felt like we were at home. It is non-stop excitement and joy when we get a package and open it. Turns out that they only took about 2 or 3 weeks to get here too! So thank-you southern and too all who wrote me letters!

Saturday Dec. 8, 2012

                Eric and I did not have the best wakeup call in the world. We woke up to the kids yelling something about poop. Turns out that Moises (same kid who pee’d the bed while he was awake, and who baked with motor oil), needed to go to the bathroom and could not make it. So there was poop upstairs on the floor, all down the stairwell, in the kitchen, and all over the toilette seat. Fortunately, Eric manned up and said he would go out and take care of it because he knows how I get around poop. You can smear spider guts all over my face, you can put a cockroach in my mouth, but DO NOT under any circumstance put me near poop, especially when it is not in a toilette, because I WILL throw up. Not maybe, I will.

                So now, the entire house smells like poop and we have to wait for the wind to take care of it. We made him clean up his mess, but there is still a stench. Lizelle came over this morning and also found more poop right outside against the side of the house. Turns out that was Moises too. Not sure exactly why he went to the side of the house to do that when it is not only further away than the bathroom, but there is no toilette paper there either? Oh well.

                This morning for church, we sang 3 songs, and watched a Bible Movie that Eric’s mom sent him. It was also the first time that I prayed in front of people in Spanish! Phew. I’m sure I was extremely wrong in what I said, but I’m sure they knew what I meant.

                We just finished lunch and now the kids are playing, so now I am going to read a little and then take a power nap! Oh, and Eric says hi.

                Well, I woke up a little while later and Eric and I commenced the process of cooking dinner for all the kids. However, Milton, one of Joys kids, came over and asked if we wanted to go to town and play volleyball tonight. Eric and I got so excited because we LOVE volleyball and were even on the same A league intramural team at southern. But we weren’t sure if we could both go because someone needed to watch the kids. That is why we decided to take them all with us! Once we got into town, around 8:15pm, Joy dropped us off at some indoor courts which are actually racquetball courts converted into volleyball courts. This was an absolute blast. We played with the kids and the other volunteers until 10 pm. They don’t really know how to play volleyball and just hit the ball with not much rhyme or reason which I thought was pretty funny.

Sunday Dec. 9, 2012

                Today was a hard day, because Eric was going to town in the afternoon. He changed his days so now he is going to town on Sunday and Thursday. While my days to go to town are still on Monday and Friday mornings.

                However today, 2 of my boys had a rough day. They simply did not want to listen. The good news was, they weren’t disobeying me, but rather they were disobeying baker Steve. These kids have such little respect for baker Steve which makes him very sad and I hate to see.

                Steven and I were baking bread today and while we were dividing them into individual buns, a couple of the kids were playing soccer nearby and came very close to knocking over a bunch of bread. Not only was it a little annoying, but bread is Steve’s passion. Anything that comes to bread he takes personally. So he kindly asked the kids to play on the other side of the building which they did. But 5 minutes later, they were right back over. So he asked them to play outside which they just refused to do. I finally asked them to leave and to listen to Steven and they immediately left and didn’t come back. However, once I finished helping Steven, I went back to the house. But as soon as I did, the kids came right back and started annoying Steven.

                It makes it so much harder for Steven because not only is he not used to dealing with kids, but he doesn’t speak but a few words of Spanish. So he just talks to the kids in English even though they don’t understand. So finally, Steve took the ball from them and locked it up (good for him). But then again later, another boy came over and started flattening the bread and messing them up. Steven caught him and told him to stand in the corner for 10 min. Which even in English, the child understood, because Steven walked him over to the corner and said “Aqui, diez minutes” (here, 10 minutes). But the child (Guillermo), just turned, looked at Steven and ran away.

                Steven talked to me later about all that happened. So I apologized and told him that I would take care of it and those two boys would get punished. Later on, I sat down with each of those boys and had a long heart to heart with them. I explained that it hurt Steven and they need to listen and respect him. Both of them seemed to listen and understand very well.  So apparently, individually, they went to Steven and apologized for how they acted. Which was great because I didn’t even ask them to do that! Steven really appreciated it and now he is happy.

                They night ended with Eric and I making soup with noodles and carrots in water. However, before we served the food, I remembered that Southern had sent me Mckay’s vegetarian Chicken broth! MMMMMMMM it was soooo yummy! The kids loved the taste too! They had never tasted that before. So it was a nice treat for everyone. The night concluded with a showing of the lion king in English. We gave them the option of watching another cartoon in Spanish, but they said they’d rather watch the lion king, even if it was in English.

You stay civilized……planet earth!!!