Day 5 - Guatemala Update

Day 5. Wednesday. Hump Day. Halfway through the week with our new best friends. I woke up sick. My throat had closed up so tight, it was that feeling where you are going to choke because you can't swallow. So it was with a huge headache and hurting throat that I ventured downstairs for breakfast. One thing about our group... there wasn't a lack of medicine amongst us. Prescription, non-prescription, alternative... if there was anything I needed, someone was bound to have packed it. So I was well taken care of. Rick and I were assigned Bingo for the morning rotation. He had covered Bingo the previous day, so I relied on him to carry the weight. Carte (not sure how she spells it) was our translator for the morning, and it was so wonderful getting to know her better. We passed out bingo cards and chips, and Rick or I would read the word in Spanish. "Dog, Cow, House, Spoon, Knife...." Bingo is a great way to learn Spanish vocabulary. AND a great way for little kids to snicker at your mis-pronunciations! Prizes were awarded for each hand, and of course, each child won a prize. M&M's and sweet tarts are universally loved. The older boys were helpful - they enjoyed "running" the game. The older girls laughed the most at our attempt at pronouncing the words. The group with the younger kids were pretty active and hyper, while the special needs group had to have quite a bit of assistance with the game. But each group that rotated through was so sweet and fun to be with. Bingo was probably my favorite rotation group because it was pretty organized and the kids all seemed to love it. For lunch, we brought in Happy Meals for all 107 of the kids. They loved it! Even the boys who had eaten happy meals yesterday at McD were excited to get them again. A special treat after lunch was making banana splits for everyone. We bought tubs of ice cream, bananas, and toppings in town, and created an assembly line in the kitchen. It worked out perfect, with enough for the orphanage staff to have one too. And I think they loved it just as much as the kids did. For free time in the afternoon, I wandered out to the playground where Melissa and I broke out the yarn and beads for bracelet/necklace making. The children are so creative and can braid beautiful strands - it was fun watching them work on their creation. Many of the boys got into this also, making necklaces with beads and colors. This was an inexpensive craft that the kids loved!

We were trying to keep most of the kids outside, because the men were installing some artificial grass in the inside atrium area. This improvement was very exciting, and the kids loved tumbling on the finished product! Rick got involved in laying the grass for this area, and he really enjoyed some hands-on physical labor. Later on in the afternoon, we all got involved rubbing in the rubber pellets into the artificial grass on the Toddler's playground. No one could really explain WHAT the pellets do... we each came up with our own explanation. But it did seem to make a world of difference, lifting the blades of grass up, making it fuller, softer, and more lush. This artificial grass was top of the line, and it showed.

I skipped dinner that night, opting for bed at 6pm. My symptoms seemed worse, and I was beginning to worry that I would miss the next day's activities. My teammates came to the rescue with plenty of drugs to get me through the night. High of the day: Treating the kids to banana splits Low of the day: Feeling rotten