june 5.  2015

waking up after being lulled to sleep from the downpour that happened all through the night was wonderful.  we all slept so good, and bugs are under control.  hardly see them anymore!  ok-we kill about 6 spiders the size of a half dollar a day-what will we do when jarom leaves-i guess i’ll have to gussy up and deal with it.

this morning, our girls did their math lessons today, and alex did some ACT studies.  it felt good to get a bit of school done.

this morning, veronica, 17, came and cleaned our house today.  She charges 10Q for an hour, or $1.30.  we are grateful to have someone clean, of course, but to also give work to those who want it.  these kids work hard, no complaining, smiles on their faces.  it was so nice to meet her.  we are told she can teach us how to make tortillas.

speaking with luciano is helping our spanish so much.  he was working with cruz, a 10 year old, making baskets out of newspaper and a glue gun.  our girls love hanging out and talking with him.  the price’s came over, and luciano took us on a walk-about to the stream in the jungle-absolutely beautiful.  then jess went down with the kids and luciano to the school to go play soccer on the field over there.  this is something we need to do a lot, since the boys love soccer.  we then met up in the middle of the village at hans’, and took the trail around the mountain over to the price’s.  yummy pancakes and eggs were made, and some rounds of phase 10 were played.  we heard a boat going by, and raced to the dock and luckily they picked us up-even though they were traveling the opposite direction than we were heading.  it was so nice, especially since it was getting too dark to walk the path around the mountain back to the village.

it’s amazing seeing the differences, the cultural differences-the women work all day collecting firewood, making food-especially tortillas, doing laundry and laying it on their hut homes to dry, and the children work right alongside.  we were told by nathalie-who owns the home we are renting- that they don’t want gringos to come in and change things.  nathalie even got people who would financially back getting the water clean for the village, and they didn’t like her changing their ways.  it would save a lot of kids who can die from the parasites that cause diarrhea, but they wouldn’t have it.  i think so far it’s been the best advice given-don’t think you’ll come in and change things and save the people.  they don’t want it.  so we will come in, and teach, play, and get to know these kids.  we hope our little village home we want to do lessons at will turn out to be a good experience for them and for us.  we are so grateful for this opportunity-spiders, bug bites, and amazing views and all.  sometimes i just want to take a baby out of their back slings and just hug on these sweet little kids.  i don’t think that would go over very well, one step at a time i guess.

here’s a video of the kids playing soccer with a few of the village boys…