We started everything on time this morning so we had time for all of our stations. Our first station was the game room where I spent the whole time reading to Gaby and playing Candy Land with Adrianna. We were reading Disney books in Spanish and they would tease me and point to my “girlfriends” in the stories. One minute it was Cinderella, the next it was Ursula from The Little Mermaid.
Adrianna & Gaby Kevin
We played soccer in the gym and that was craziness. Because there are leaks in the roof the floor tends to collect puddles every time it rains. There were kids flying face first into puddles and at one point Adrianna crashed pretty hard and laid on the ground for about 30 seconds. It didn’t look good. The game was still continuing and all of a sudden she pulls herself up, sees the ball coming toward her, and scores a goal. These are the toughest kids I’ve ever seen. Gina and I weren’t too keen on playing soccer on the wet floors but since the nannies didn’t tell them to stop…game on!
Next was the bakery where we frosted our cookies from yesterday with our fingers and finished them off with sprinkles.
Arts and crafts went okay and it wasn’t nearly as messy as yesterday. After lunch we all watched Veggie Tales and it was a good time to bond with some of the kids. Elmer held my hand through most of the movie and the older girls were trying to help me with my komboskini.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in the park enjoying the clear skies until it was time for church. One of the difficult things about being here is when the kids say things like “Next year you can be in my group!” As much as I want to come back, I know that realistically I might not be able to. I will do my best to make every moment count so that I can take as much of them with me in my heart as I can when I leave. I don’t think it is possible that I could ever forget their smiles and all of the laughter that I hear all day long here.
Below is a video of the boys playing soccer, Alexander coming up and shouting something at me, and then attacking me at the end. A typical moment at the hogar.
