I made myself some tea to go with my Monday morning verb study. Yippee. The 8th tense was much easier than the 5th, 6th, and 7th tenses. I took my practice verb sentences over to Vanessa's house with the groceries. Vanessa looked over my sentences while I helped the rest of the family with house cleaning. I mopped the two-room house and the front porch. Then I helped Lupita with lunch. I came home, happy. Reina and Davíd ate with us for lunch. I studied more verbs during my time off. Janessa was helping me when Rod came and we left for San Pedro. The day was beautiful and more children came to the class than last week. After class I cleaned up and talked with Fransisca, Nayely, and Jesús. Loren had cebiche almost finished when we got home. YUM!
On Tuesday morning, I started in with my laundry and making lemon bars for the prison. Then I made baked fish marinated in lemon juice for lunch and some lemonade. Donna keeps buying bags of lemons from whoever walks by selling them. So we have lots and lots of lemons in the frig right now and I am trying fruitlessly (pun intended) to use them up. After lunch I did up the dishes, finished up my laundry, and then took my time off. I wrote out a song for prayer meeting. Suzanne was on the front porch and wanted a tour through Facebook. Then I helped get ready for dinner. Well, actually all I did was find a fan... which is a very important part of dinner preparation. I talked on the phone for two hours after dinner and I had a blast! (Very unusual for someone who generally dislikes talking on the phone.) The rain chased me back inside.
Wednesday was my day off, of course. But I got up early to work on my quarterly financial report and get a few more things done before I goofed off for the rest of the day. I walked up to the plaza and spent time just sitting, writing and relaxing. I saw a lot of people I knew and/or recognized. On my way home, I came up behind Santos, Jorge, and Sergio. They were walking veeeeeeeery slooooooowly. I said "¡Apúdense!" (Hurry up!). They tormented me as I passed them up. "¡Salchicha!" "¡Fud!" "¡Nana!" When I got home, I relaxed and talked to my mom and my sister online. I tried to sleep, but I had a headache...which disappeared when I got up. I ate dinner with the others. About ten minutes before prayer meeting, the electricity went out. Donna passed out the Antorcha magazine to everyone to use as fans. That helped, but I felt like I was suffocating by the end of the meeting. I kept an eye on Chuy afterwards. Janessa and I hopped in the back of the truck to go to Mochiqui. When we got back, we bought smoothie ingredients. There was a big political fiesta in town. The election is on Sunday and then the "Lindolfo Reyes es como tú ¡gente de trabajo!" and "¡Oscar Lara! ¡Oscar Lara!" will finally stop. Janessa and I went up onto the roof to watch the PAN group go by in their cars. They wildly waved flags out of their windows and honked and yelled and were having tons of fun, apparently. Some man stumbled by on the sidewalk waving a PAN flag. He gave a cheer for PAN at a passing car and got a response something like "¡Somos de PRI!" (We're for PRI). It was funny, even for someone who does not understand Mexican politics. Janessa and I stayed on the roof for awhile, talking about cars and ghosts. I enjoyed the gently cooling night rain.
Then came Thursday. Suzanne had things well under way when I arrived at the orphanage. All I had to do was take over. I got done in time to play with Chuy. He loves bubbles so I let him play with bubbles from the dishwater. Sometimes he'd just get so excited he couldn't touch the bubbles; he'd just giggle and stamp his feet. The girls dressed him up like a little girl. He wasn't too impressed until he realized how much attention he was getting. After lunch, (and no, the potatoes were not crunchy) Miguel amused himself by playing with a doll. I watched as he gave the doll a spanking, set it on the couch and gave it, "Quince minutos" (Fifteen minutes) for time out. I took my siesta time in the bodega after clean up. It was a nice break from the ovenlike outdoors. After break, I helped in the kitchen and then sat outside with Chuy and the visitors. We went to admire the chickens. Well, Chuy admired them, I gazed on them disdainfully. It started to sprinkle. After dinner, Lenn took me back into town.
[My bubble boy]Friday mornings are those mornings that I set out, determined to do what I least like to do. And I did it. I biked all of the way out to the orphanage...except for the two HUGE hills *gasp!*. The laundry was awaiting me and it smelled as bad as ever. I only did six loads, and entertained Chuy in between. He liked to watch the bubbles form under the spray of soapy water. He had to taste them too. Rosalina decided she wanted to sit on my lap and crush me with a mighty hug after she'd finished the laundry. The twins were in excellent moods and did everything we asked them to do without complaining. We ate delicious taco salad. Then I found out that Domingo's new favorite phrase is "What the world?" I was hot and sweaty when I finally got back into town on bike. I didn't even have enough energy to respond to emails. (Sorry!) We left for Mochiqui after 4:30 despite the fact that we were "leaving in ten minutes" at 4:00. We dropped off a puppy at Doña Aurora's house. Suzanne accompanied Donna and I. We didn't have much time to visit. Ana wasn't home, but we studied with Carla and Tita. MariCruz fed us cake and Rumaldo fed us Zuko. Suzanne and I bought viejitas with Chamoy on the way out. Mmmmm.... When we got back to the orphanage, the hamburgers were still on the grill. We were celebrating the 4th one day early. Jorge and Santos were picking out their puppies. Jorge told me that he was going to name his puppy "Salchicha" after me. After the delicious hamburgers, Johan set off some fireworks for the kids. Then the kids set off some of their own. I lit one and quickly threw it so it wouldn't go off in my hand. I know, I know; I'm a chicken. We had a "punching piñata" because we were too lazy to string up the piñata in the rain. Everyone took a swing at it with their fists, but we discovered why most parties use sticks; it wouldn't break! Lenn finally just pulled out the candy bags.
[Yum! Hamburgers! Almost consisting entirely of beef!] 
[Two troublemakers, Santos and Jorge, with their puppies] 
[Me, Domingo, and Miguel] 
[Jesse pretending to eat Miguel's burger]
[The evening sky was gorgeous!] 
[The Three Stooges, Suzanne, Janessa, and Regina, with their watermelon] 
[Teo with a piece of the piñata] We took our time getting around on Saturday morning and then we suddenly realized how late it was. We quickly got ready for class. After class, I asked Jorge if his puppy had died yet. He gave me an incredulous look. I bit into my ice pop and the juice squirted on my skirt and dripped down my chin...not a good omen for my day. Rhonda and I made lunch at the orphanage. The fan blew the flame out under the cooking rice... so we had crunchy rice. I overheard Miguel whispering to Diego, "¡Es duro!" (It's hard!) and then he gave me a guilty look when he saw that I'd overheard. Domingo complained and Johan told him to try to make rice for dinner. "No, I would burn it!" he admitted. After clean up, the boys tried to drag me outside and lock me out. I managed to hold them off for a while before Miguel discovered that I was bracing myself against the door with my arm. Rosalina told me she'd help me, but she didn't really want to get involved. When the boys left, the girls, Fernando, and I drank lemonade and Zuko and hung out in the kitchen. The twins took Fernando out to pick some sort of weed to cook up. A very sweaty Rumaldo came in from the property for some water. I took my time off and even managed to sleep a little. We had a quick and uneventful dinner. After clean up I went outside to play soccer with Fernando, Roxina, and MariChuy. After a couple of wild kicks that made passerbys chuckle, I made a goal! I went inside to talk with Rhonda. Chuy stepped out onto the freshly mopped floor just after Rhonda had said, "No, Chuy!" He managed a mischievous look our way before his feet flew up and he banged his head on the tile floor. We felt sorry for him, but I won't deny that we laughed just a little. When I got home, I took pillows and a dark chocolate bar on the roof to enjoy the evening. The waxing moon peered down at me as I thought about my little problems and my great God. The chocolate kept me awake for awhile after I crawled into bed. I finally fell asleep after midnight. But I woke up when Charco, the Yoders' dog, was barking. He wouldn't stop even though both Loren and Kedric when outside to check what was going on. After an hour or so, I started dreaming of chihuahua barbecue. I think I also authored an entire book... "101 Reasons NOT to Own a Dog!"
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