june 9.  2015

since the village children are in their school until 12:30, we decided to start our little classes at 1:00 at our casa in the village.   so since we didn’t have to be at the school until the afternoon, we thought we’d sleep in and take it easy.  but my clock is set to get up early now since we go to bed so early, and i’m up around 6:00am.  it was great-i got a lot done.  our food we bought at the market is so delicious-we made a smoothie with pineapple, papaya, mango, and wild berries.  all the fruits and vegetables in the picture below we bought for about $4.00!

we did some school, and layed out on the patio looking at the mountainside, and chilled out which was great, especially since we are all going through a sickness-surely from being in a 3rd world country.  hopefully our systems will kick in and get stronger and kick it.  we headed down to the school about 12:30 to set up, and luciano told kids to go get other kids, and before you knew it, we had a good sized group.  luciano loves our magic tricks we brought, and he was excited to help do part of the show.   we then invited the kids into the casa, and invited the girls to the table to do bracelets, and the boys to draw and color.  we were worried the boys wouldn’t be interested, but they said they wanted to color.  they colored for probably 40  minutes.  the girls walked over to the table, and we thought they would take turns using the loom we brought.  they start weaving the bands onto their fingers, and are done in about 5 minutes with a bracelet, it was amazing to watch.  no fighting, no arguing, just standing and getting it done, we were all flabbergasted.

we then took the kids outside to the yard after that, gave them balloons, and then we played red rover.  they got a kick out of the game they have never played.  it was great seeing them catch on and have fun playing.  i just wanted to squeeze the girls, they are so sweet.  for being 8 or 9, they of course are small.  they are probably the size of a 6 year old.  all the kids are so intelligent though.  it was a fun first day-they seemed excited to come back tomorrow.  leonardo-one of the boys-later saw jarom walking in the village and came over to him and gave him a high 5.  so awesome.

we parted ways with the village kids, and the price’s headed up to our house with us for dinner.   we ordered from hans(we can get a dinner for each family for about $8)-a great deal.  chicken and rice, soup, homemade bread.  and a rojo banana for dessert.

the young girl who cleans our house twice a week, veronica-who is 18, came and made tortillas with us tonight.  it took us a little bit to communicate, but we got it.  i was asking her what she does during the day.  the duties are definitely split between men and women in this culture.  she said she climbs the mountain every day and goes to cut wood and brings it down.  the mountain is very high, very steep, very beautiful, and she says people have died.  it is a beautiful mountain, but since they need wood every day to cook and wash clothes, it has to be done. (there is a picture below of camden and julia on the patio and the mountain in the background-you can see patches where they have cut down trees).  we are grateful to spend time with these great people, learn more about their culture and their lifestyle.  what an adventure, what an experience, what a blessing.  we hope our children never forget all they see and do and learn during this trip.