not for the faint of heart

Within the past three days I have come to realize that many things should come with a warning label, advising the user that it is not for those faint of heart. For example, any race including the word "extreme." This past Sunday, I participated in an "extreme race." It was a group event, not judged on speed, but rather, on the ability to act as a team. It included a 5k run, 4.5k walk, 2k walk through a river, and climbing 2 hills, 200m in height. It sounded like fun, so I did it. At the beginning of the race, I found myself thinking about the possibility of injuries. In my mind, I could envision myself getting hurt and having this unjury somehow pull the team together. In a way, I got my wish. To make a long story short, the event was extremely fun, but I came away from it slightly banged up. I rolled my ankle within the first kilometer of the race, hit the sore ankle on a rock in the river, then fell 5 meters down the hill at the end. Yes, I ended up with a few scratches and bruises, but my injuries did seem to bring my team together. As we ran, the kids would remind each other to slow down if I was at the back of the group, and after my fall down the hill, one of the boys in my group took my backpack from me and carried it. He didn´t ask if I wanted him to carry it, he just did it.
The next day, I encountered another activity not for the faint of heart: making gluton. I have never made gluton, though I have heard horror stories. I discovered that they are all true. For those of you who have never had the privilege of making gluton, it involves a lot of rinsing the dough in water. Really, it´s not all that bad, but when compared to making any other dish, such as rice or bread, it is very time-consuming.
Another thing not for the faint of heart is internet blogging. In a recent conversation with my parents, they called to my attention to the fact that my blog may sound a bit whiny, and that my most recent entry detailed events that the common public need not know about. For this, I apologize. I don´t intend to whine. For some reason, the fist thing that enters my mind to write about are the difficulties I encounter. When I feel the need to inform others of these difficulties, I don´t feel it is sufficient to give vague ideas of what my problems are like. I am a detail person, so I feel a need to relate all of the nitty-gritty details. Unfortunately, there are times when I must censor my ever-flowing commentary on the ironic comedy of life. Furthermore, I do not wish for my writings to reflect an opinion that the administration of this establishment is inadequate or at fault for problems that I encounter. If I have implied that in any way, shape, or form, I apologize. Our new directors are working hard to get into the swing of life here at the Hogar, and many things are getting better. There are also plans in the making to improve many other things. I am encouraged by their presence and touched by their kindness.
I am reminded daily of God´s presence here, and I thank you all for your prayers.

back to the written word

Ok, so it turns out that speaking is harder than writing for me. It takes a bit more energy to talk, and I'm not allowed the luxury of editing myself. I guess I could script my audio updates, but then that makes even more work for me, so where's the fun in that? So I am returning to written blog entries.
This week, two odd things happened: The first, which occurred on Sunday, was that after I awakened from a short afternoon nap, I discovered that some of the children had been locked in the house without any supervision, as far as I could see. I heard a clatter and saw that the girls were trying to get out by taking the screens off the windows. This doesn't work totally because the windows are the kind that have multiple panes of glass that are arranged like slats horizontally, and can be opened by the turning of a knob, so in order to escape, the girls would have to either remove each pane of glass individually, or else break them. Not an easy or cheap task. So when I saw the missing screen, I told Sara to put it back. She in turn gave me the finger. I walked over to where she had sat down and stood over her to be as intimidating as possible. I asked her, "Do you want to do moppings?" (the popular form of punishment here--one mopping means mopping the entire dining room/living room area, and children are usually given at least 10 moppings at a time for punishment) Sara looked away and ignored me. I was on my way to the pool and was actually late, so I didn't exactly have time to fight with her, so I just left. Before I left, I also saw that Sara was messing with the door handle with a meat fork. I didn't think that she could really hurt the door too badly the way she was handling it, but I decided to tell someone as soon as I could what was going on. I left the house, and before I came to somebody I could tell, I saw that the girls had gotten out of the house. I was annoyed because that meant that they had probably broken the door handle for the 3rd time in 4 weeks, and the most recent model was so new that I didn't even have a key for it yet. But on the other hand, I was annoyed at the parents for locking the kids in the house on a sunny Sunday afternoon. There is absolutely no reason to do that. If you do that, you're just asking for something to get broken, not to mention the fire hazard of it all. The second odd thing that happened this week occurred on Monday. I did not witness this, but Alexis did, so I rely entirely on her account. Apparently, during lunch Teresa and Moises got in trouble for trying to start a fire outside with some dry grass. When Mami Ana called the two over to her, Moises went willingly and Teresa put up a fit. Alexis looked away for a second, and then for some reason, Moises was the one crying and Teresa was still wimpering, but wasn't such a basket case as she had been before. Moises was hauled off into the boys' bedroom wing and Alexis assumed that he had been put in his room because she heard a door close. A little while later, she heard a little boy talking to Moises, asking him if he wanted to get out. Alexis looked down the hall and was confused because she saw that the door to Moises's room was open. She then noticed a board leaning across the hallway. She saw that it was leaning against the hall closet door. She then realized that Moises was IN that closet. The boy went away from the closet and Alexis didn't think that much of it until later, when she walked by the open closet door. Inside the closet were a garden hose and pieces of a broken door, which had nails sticking out of them! Moises had been locked in that closet, where there was practically no room for him, for at least an hour! That is simply not right.
Alexis and I have been talking to our new directors about our house parent situation. We've told them about how we're frustrated with how everyone is just waiting for the next person to fix it: the old administration told us to wait until the new directors arrived, the new directors are telling us to wait until they find new house parents to fill the position. In the mean-time, we're worried about the children's safety and our sanity. They are practically allowed to run wild because the parents won't exercise their authority and punish them properly and the SM's have little leverage for punishment. However, in a meeting we had with the directors on Monday night, Assistant Director Trevor Wilson told us that he had an idea: make the rules the kids' responsibility. He suggested a very Byron Kehlor/Love and Logic solution that included a house meeting with all the kids, letting them know that their living situation was their responsibility. We're going to let them have input and control over what kind of environment their home is. I really liked Trevor's suggestions, and I'm looking forward to when we can have that meeting. So far, we've been putting off the meeting because our real house parents were on their days off for a little while, but now that they're back, maybe we'll have the meeting soon.
Still surviving, still finding pleasures in the little things of life. We've had to go to San Salvador twice this week to take care of visa stuff, which is a bit of a bummer because it took up all of my day off with un-fun stuff. But it turned out not being too bad, because when we went today, all we had to do was sign our names again and take some pictures, and after they told us that we had to wait for 20 minutes, Tony (our driver/everything-we-could-possibly-need guy) decided that we could go get pupusas down the street. So we went, and they were sooo good! The salsa-like tomato sauce that went over them was waay good, and tasted a lot like my dream pizza, for some reason. Also, I tried some budin, a custard-like dessert. Wow, it is definitely my favorite thing to eat here. I will try it again and again. It's even better than flan, I think, and for those of you who know how much I like flan, that's really saying something! Also, on our way back home, we got ice cream in Opico and caught a ride with Papi Joel, who we just happened to see drive by at the right time, so that saved us 20 cents for bus fare (Tony had other errands to run, so we took a bus back to Opico). Then, I made my first ever box of cook & serve pudding (Thanks Peter!)and man, it was waaay good. I couldn't wait for it to cool all the way, so I ate some when it was hot, and more when it was still warm, and I think I'm converted. Forget cold pudding, hot pudding is where it's at! And then, I discovered a scale in the office today, and I've been feeling a little on the round side lately, so I weighed...and I was normal! So today has been a good day. Hope to hear from you all soon!

the nerdy side

So, while I was on my day off at the beach (now about 2 weeks ago, I think), the three of us (Darrin, Carrie, and I) made a cool little recording that we really liked. Naturally, I wanted to post this on-line for all to enjoy. However, I was bummed because this blog doesn't allow audio posts. So I e-mailed Robert Boisimer, who set me up with this blog in the first place, begging him to give me some advice as to how I might post audio files. He obliged, and I was soon happily reading about how I might post to my heart's content. It was not until later that I discovered the dark secret of Robert's help page: (dum dum dum...) The page did not enable me to post pre-recorded material! (The horror! The horror!) BUT, the page gave me much-needed vocabulary: audio file host (and preferably FREE). So I did a Google search and soon located my heart's desire: Putfile.com. I am amazed. On this site, I can post not only audio files, but video and flash animation as well! I don't plan on using the flash feature because I have no idea how to create such a file, but still, it's impressive. But most of all, Putfile.com is absolutely free! Oh, my dreams had come true. So now, until I tire of vocalizing my updates, you can find them by simply clicking on the link entitled "New! Media Files!" or something of that approximate meaning. So look, listen, and let me know what you think.

the adventures of Mullet Girl

I am happy to announce that I am now enjoying the kids here. They just happen to be kids that aren't in my house. The other day, I was walking to the office to send a letter and on the way there, a little girl from Reception said hello to me. I saw her again on the way back. I hadn't been able to send my letter, so when she ran to me with her arms out-stretched, we sat in the street looking at my letter. I pointed out the stamps and told her who it was going to. She was in awe. She wanted to touch it. She wanted to hold it. She wanted to open it, but I wouldn't allow that. Another little girl came out to join in the fun, and instead of being fascinated with the letter, she kept touching my face, in awe as well. After a few minutes of this, one of them finally asked (in baby-Spanish), "Why is your skin like that?" I asked them if they meant why was it white, but they said no, and indicated the freckles. I told them I didn't know why, I was just like that. Eventually, they discovered the beeping sound my watch makes and that entertained them for a few minutes. I then decided to go, and they were a bit sad, but not terribly so. Then on Friday, I spent most of my time in House 1. As I was walking by, some girls called out to me and begged me to come in the house. I did, and Conchita ended up reading a book to me. We then watched Shrek 2 in Spanish (and I was so glad that I'd seen it before, otherwise I wouldn't have had a clue as to what was going on). Afterwards, Conchita wanted me to swing her around by an arm and a leg so that she would be flying. I did, and it was lots of fun. But then Gloria wanted me to swing her around. Gloria is bigger. She's not fat, but she's only about 4 inches shorter than me, which is a big deal when you're trying to swing them through the air. I kept telling her that I couldn't do it, but that Ian could, so why didn't she go ask him? But she wouldn't. Eventually, she was hugging me and picking her feet up off the ground, and I realized that I could swing her around that way. So I did, and she seemed to like it a lot. I then went to go sit with Megan on the curb and Conchita and Rosita came and engaged me in a tickle war. Oh, it was so much fun. I laughed a lot.
Last night, I had Alexis cut my hair. It's been getting pretty long and a bit scraggly, and I'd been considering cutting it for at least a few days. It took Alexis at least an hour to do it, but she did a really good job. It's layered and a bit shorter, but I figure, I've got time to grow it out. The only thing is that the bottom layer is a little on the long side, so I'm feeling a bit like Mullet Girl. Thankfully, Alexis said she'd take care of that tonight. So enjoy it while you can, because tonight, Mullet Girl dies!

filling in the details

So, my mother complained to me last night about how I STILL hadn´t updated my blog for over a week. So Mom, this one´s for you. There really hasn´t been much happening here, so I will tell you just a few highlights: Almost two weeks ago I bought a bass guitar in San Salvador. I just couldn't live without one for any longer. It cost me $130, which was a little more than I was hoping to spend, but still, a steal of a deal considering that a similar bass in the States costs about $400. The trip to San Salvador was my first excursion made entirely by bus. It took almost 2 hours to make the usually-45-minute trip into the capitol. The busses stop for everyone, it seems, even if they aren't at a bus stop. Anyway, I've been using the bass a lot for worship music at least twice a week, plus a few of us get together a few other times each week just to play for fun. It's really great and I'm continuing to improve my skills. However, this did not hold true this past Sabbath. A few of us prepared a special music for church and in the middle of the song was a lovely little bass solo. Really easy. The only problem was that the jump up from the previous note was a little tricky. In practice, there were few times when I made the transition smoothly, but I usually got it within 5 seconds after I was supposed to. Sabbath was no different. Well, almost. When it came time for the solo, I jumped up to the fret that I thought would give me the proper note to begin my solo. I was wrong. I searched. I was wrong again. This continued for a very long time. It was a solo that repeated three times, interrupted by guitar accompaniment, and I didn't get it right until the third time through. I just about died! Fortunately, everybody said they liked it anyway and that it was cool. Oh well, we can't all be perfect.
In other news, I made my first trip to the beach this past Tuesday for my day off. Again, long bus rides, and also a short boat ride across a dirty river. Much wandering through back streets trying to find a different bus stop so that we wouldn't have to cross the river again, but when a local boy told us that the closest bus stop in the other direction was a 40-minute walk, we decided it was worth the few extra cents it cost us to cross the river. A sun-burn was my complimentary souvenoir. However, it was my first major one received while here, so I'm doing pretty good.
I joined the marching band here for their last two performances and it was lots of fun. I'll join them again when they start up next year in January or February. Being part of the band also included a trip to San Salvador to eat pizza together. It was TONS of fun, and the bus ride made for great times learning Spanish and playing classic bus games.
Well, that's all for now. Our new directors have now arrived, so we'll see what kinds of changes they bring.