I can’t believe it’s already March, our time here is going quickly. Month after next, we’ll be making our way home. We’ll continue to max out this experience because it will be over before we know it.
My nasty cold hangeth on. My voice is still gone and I don’t have any energy. But life isn’t waiting for me to recover. There are still things that have to happen on the first of the month. I could have taken a tuk tuk to get them done, but I’m kinda hardcore about the walking and lying on the couch has made me feel like a bit of a blob.
I walked to the bank and then went to Cali’s school to pay her monthly fee. Cali was at recess when I got there. The minute I walked through the gate, she bounded up to me, big happy smile. Her friend wasn’t at school today because she caught Cali’s cold. Not surprising since she was at our house most of the weekend. Cali was saying she speaks a lot more Spanish when her friend isn’t there. I’m sure that’s true.
After school Cali went straight over to the family’s house to make tortillas and play with Laura, their youngest daughter. She ate beans and rice for lunch and they played in the backyard. When I went to pick her up, the youngest boy (8) was playing on the roof with his friend. They were running, and jumping up there and then they were hanging their heads over the side of the roof. It was kinda freaking me out that either of them might fall off and break something, like their necks. But I took my cue from the mom who said, “They love playing up there.” Which meant I should just look away. Amazing how that works, just look somewhere else, anxiety gone.
Cali brought home 6 tortillas that she’d proudly made. Kier was excited. She likes to eat them with a little cheese or just with some butter and salt. Cali wants to go back tomorrow and make more, which is fine. She gets to learn more Spanish and it also gives me a good reason to give the mom some money directly to her for watching Cali. She comes home so dirty, I can’t even tell you. Her skin and clothes are covered in dirt. But when you see the place where they play, it’s not surprising–it is a mini ghetto of dirt, little chicks, puppies, a bunny, broken down cars, an orange tree with a swing.
Kier and Madi went to voice lessons for the play after school. Kier’s guitar teacher, and my choir director, is the guy who is doing the music for Moulin Rouge. Seems like pretty much every day there is now something extra that is play-related, which makes the girls very very happy.
I realized that my phone wasn’t charged, so no one could get in touch with us. The way these cell phones work is that even if you don’t have minutes on your phone, you can still receive calls, you just can’t make calls. But if your phone isn’t charged, obviously no calls are getting through. Meanwhile, Kier was out of minutes. So she got a text from one of her friends and tried to text him back, but couldn’t. They don’t usually get together on school nights, but parents were out of town so a spontaneous group congregated. Kier stayed home. She’d just been out the past three days, she could miss this.
We were watching tv this evening. Kier was sitting forward when Madi noticed one of those big black spiders on the couch, right where her head would lean back. The girls freaked out, refused to sit on the couch for the rest of the evening. This meant I got to stretch my legs out and have the whole thing to myself, after I checked under the cushions, of course.
Cali has made up different words to the church songs that are played every evening next door. We can hear her singing in her bed, trying to fall asleep.
We skyped with Paul. Kier didn’t bring enough clothes so Paul is bringing some when he comes down. He brought down armloads full of clothes from her closet and showed her each piece. She would say yes or no to each one. How did the world survive pre skype? I think it did not. I still can’t talk, so skype isn’t that much fun for me. The girls had to keep repeating what I was trying to say. That got old pretty fast.
Cali’s frog blog: Today I had lots and lots of fun. My friend had a cold so she couldn’t come to school. I think I gave her that cold on the weekend when she stayed at my house. She forgot her cell phone at my house, so I was waiting to give it back to her. I talk a lot more Spanish when my friend isn’t there. Right after school I went straight to the family’s house. The first thing we did was make tortillas. I’ll tell you how to do that. First we got some dough from the bucket. The dough is made out of ground up corn and water. You take a medium size amount of dough and roll it into a ball, then you start patting it into a pancake. Then you round the edges and you get a bit of water on the tips of our fingers and then we keep on patting. Then I put it on the hot grill, made sure I didn’t burn myself, and I tap it down on the grill, also without burning myself. Then you have to grab it without burning your fingers and flip it. I can do that all by myself. Then you make another one. I made 10 but I only brought about 5 home, which Kier ate. After we made some, we put happy faces on them and made them into stars. Laura and I ate all of those fun ones. We ate all of those tortillas in the tree. We climbed the tree and them put our salt in a little bag. There was a little branch, so we hung our bag of salt on that little branch. Laura and I were tortilla eaters in a tree. We even brought our lemonade up there. Then they gave me beans and rice for lunch. We climbed the tree in the backyard again to get an orange to eat and stayed in the tree some more until mom came to get me. We also swang on the swing. I wasn’t ready to go home when my mom came to pick me up on the bicycle. I asked if I could come back tomorrow and they all said yes, I could. P.S. I love you all very much.