Happy Birthday Natalie!

I would like my parents to take a moment to appreciate my newfound cooking skills which have been on exhibit the past few days. I have almost single-handedly made a complete pizza from scratch, pancakes and eggs, and a cake. Add to that the chicken from before and I feel like I'm almost a chef. Ok, moment over. These past three days have been very busy and very good. On Thursday we woke up late and spent some time at the hogar. Geny and his brother Paco spent the night again, and Anna and Clara took them out to go shopping for supplies for the family. I went with them to Wendy's in the night and we just relaxed. The kids love to watch tv because its a special treat for them. On Friday I went with Geny, Anna, and Clara again to Geny's house to bring up some of the supplies. We couldn't take everything because there was a lot of stuff. But we hiked up there again through the mud and spent some good time talking with Geny's grandmother. She is a remarkable woman. She is the matriarch of her family and caretaker of dozens of children while their parents are working. She is extremely generous and gracious, and extremely respected. Several of Geny's cousins live with them, and many of the others live in houses very close to their own. Everyone is an uncle, aunt, cousin, brother and sister to someone else, but it is impossible to remember all the relationships because age doesn't really determine it. Just because two kids are the same age doesn't mean they're cousins, they could easily by an aunt or uncle or something else. It was a short visit because we needed to be back at the jungle school so that Anna and Clara could say their goodbye's. Goodbye's are so difficult. Anna and Clara were so sad, you could see that they didn't want to leave. The kids steal your heart and take it away so easily. They brought some drinks and chips and candy to throw a mini going away party, and a few tears were shed. Seeing how they felt after three weeks made me think about what it's going to be like saying goodbye after 6 months. I can't even imagine.

            We got back at about 1 30, and I grabbed some balleadas and went back to the house to work on the profiles for the hogar. I also decided to attempt to get some exercise in doing basic things like lunges and sit ups and pushups. Well, I am currently extremely sore, thus showing me how out of shape I really am. During this time I also made the pizzas- crust, sauce and all. When everyone got back we ate them as out goodbye dinner and they turned out pretty well. It was a sad goodbye. They invited all of us to Spain to visit this summer. I wish I could.

            This morning at about 7 30 I woke up to the sound of someone calling my name from outside. Confused, I got up and peeked out the window and Geny and his older sister Denya waiting outside the gate with their bikes. They came to try to say goodbye to Anna and Clara but they missed them by about an hour. I let them in and we decided to make some pancakes and eggs. A trip to the store for some eggs, syrup, and milk, and the pancakes turned out pretty well. After that they just relaxed in the chairs watching some TV. The others were all sleeping for awhile still. When they finally got up we decided to go to the Hogar to see what the plans were. It was Natalie's birthday today! We were hoping to go ziplining, but because of ride issues and weather we decided to postpone that adventure. We instead brought up the rest of the supplies to Geny's house. It was the first time Natalie, Ethan and Korey had been there, and i think the enjoyed themselves. The path up was even more slippery than before because of the rain this morning, and all of us were in Sandals. I had my tenis shoes in my backpack but for some reason decided not to use them which resluted in several close calls. A little later, David brought all of the younger kids up to say hi as well. The older kids were at a class for music for the day. Paola's madrina and a friend of hers arrived today to visit Paola and see the HHK programs. They are both very nice and it is obvious that they are quickly falling under the kids spell as well. Laura (madrina) said that as soon as  Paola saw her, without ever meeting her before, she just enveloped her into the biggest hug. It was quite a crowd at the tiny house. The kids were running and slipping in the mud, climbing the trees, and running around the forest. The animals were in and out, trying to steal any food they could. It was so sad because the poor dogs, including a month old puppy, were constantly being stepped on and yelping, and no one paid them the least bit of attention. But that's how it is. Nothing has a name because theses animals are not pets (although they do have a pet pigeon that they keep, kind of like a parrot). After a few hours we headed back down, I slipped a few more times, and then we made a pit stop at with the kids at Burger King for ice cream cones. When we got back to the house we went out to dinner for Natalie's B-day and then made a delicious cake to celebrate. It sounds like so little but we were kept busy and it was good.