Continued...

Turning to more upbeat news, I had a really good day at the orphanage on Friday. I was with house 2, and there were less kids, and some of them were older. This meant I could play with 3 or even 6 kids instead of trying to watch 20 at one time. There was one little boy I played with most of the day. He is probably around 4 or 5 and really took to me. We played soccer and ¨monster¨ which consisted of taking turns chasing each other with my jacket pulled down over our faces. He really seemed to like it. I also braided a doll´s hair with a 7ish year old girl who then took to braiding my hair as well. I also spent most of the day with a 2 year old named Sarah. She is so cute and once we got back inside I understood why she liked me so much. Her older ¨brothers and sisters¨hit her and would pick on her for no reason, and she would come running back to me. It seems there is alot of that. As soon as the Madre would turn her head to cook or clean, the older ones would take to hitting the younger ones. I assume it is a part of what they grew up in. I also taught two little kids the ¨slap¨game and the thumb war game. They really enjoyed them. I am happy to say that the altitude hasn´t been too much of a problem. I am able to run and jump with the kids just fine. I have a harder time walking to the bus in the morning than keeping up with the kids. I am getting a good workout, too, because they have see-saws, and two kids never want to play at the same time, so I end up playing with them, which really consists of a thigh workout pushing myself up. I´m going to be so buff. :)

I also started taking Spanish lessons. I think Maria is pretty surprised and dismayed that my Spanish is so poor. I told her I didn´t sign up for the classes because they were so expensive. She has a friend that is a professor, though, and told her about me. So far I have met with her once and will meet with her again on Thursday. She is very nice and patient. She also doesn´t have a thick accent like Maria and speaks slower. She only charges $6 an hour, and the sessions are for 4 hours, so it is fairly cheap. I am learning new things all the time, but I go back and forth between thinking I know so much, and thinking I know nothing. We´ll see. I have two new roommates - boys from Wisconsin. They are cute and nice, but only staying for about a week. I can´t remember when they leave. I was so excited to speak English with them, but it is one of the rules of their program that they cannot speak English while they are here, not even with each other. Which really is good for me. They do help me to learn because I can ask how to say something in Spanish and they know what I am saying. They also said that Maria speaks with a very thick accent and is very hard to understand, which makes me feel a little bit better.

I guess that is enough for now. Pray for my health!