Another Beautiful Day: Day 6 - Guatemala Update (for Jan 15)

Thursday - One regular day left with rotations this morning before our "You Are Special" Carnival on Friday. Also, this was my 35th birthday! I woke up feeling pretty bad, but still excited about the day. Rick and I were assigned to crafts for the day - we got to create Snowman Art with the kids. Like normal, story time was first. Guili wrapped up her week long mini-series of Joseph. It was fun watching her act out the story, from beginning to end throughout the week. And although we couldn't understand the Spanish, we definitely knew what was going on by her dramatic gesturing motions. Below, you can see how entranced the kids were with her story.

For the Snowman art, we had foamy cutouts of Snowmen for the kids. Through our translator, we learned that the kids DID know what a snowman was. I was mildly surprised. We passed out the snowmen, along with all sorts of stick-on decorations for the eyes, nose, buttons, fingernails (yes, many of our snowmen had colored fingernails!)

The younger kids enjoyed this project more than the older ones... it took the older boys about 5 minutes to finish theirs. We then broke out the modeling clay and coloring books for them. Many of the kids bequeathed Rick and I with their snowmen. I think we brought back about 40 of them. Our fridge isn't big enough to display all the art, but their intention was very sweet.

Meanwhile, the outside playground was almost all ready for the toddlers. We were looking forward to taking the little ones out to play.

And the grass for the inside atrium was already getting the rubber pellets rubbed in by renegade kids who escaped rotations! I think the older kids liked helping out with that. In the picture below, there is only one child working, but believe me, many more participated. It looks like they are raking fake grass, and that's exactly what they were doing. Spreading the rubber pellets around before they get hand rubbed into the blades.

Ted also dazzled the boys with what I call, the "Globetrotter spin."

Lunchtime took us to the mall (yes, a mall!) We ate at Subway, and because the veggies were imported, we were able to have lettuce and tomato on our sandwich. I was so hungry for a big salad! We enjoyed lunch and walking around the mall for a few minutes while the guys stocked up on balls and supplies for the Carnival for tomorrow. Free time after lunch with the kids found Rick and me in the movie room watching Over the Hedge. The kids were congenial and allowed English Subtitles... So I really enjoyed watching the movie. We got smart and put out chairs this time, so we weren't stuck on the cold, hard concrete. During the previous movie, I abused my body with kids piled into my lap on the hard floor. (OK, I know that sounds wimpy... I guess I'm getting old!)

Rick sat at the back of the classroom with Sylvia in his lap. I think they looked at every photo on his iphone during the movie. He later said that it was the most special time he had with her. Dinner on this birthday evening was a treat - at an awesome fondue restaurant. They gave us the entire top floor for our group. Melissa stood up at the beginning of dinner and made an announcement. She said, and I'll try to remember her wording... "Today is a very special day - We're celebrating Kristen's birthday! And because of that, we've brought something very special from the States with us to help us celebrate!" And with that, she whipped out my very own Birthday Banner!

Now, to bring you up to speed: Beginning when we Craig & I were kids, the four Besses' (including Mom & Dad) had our own birthday banner that would hang in the house in the weeks preceding our birthday. I fondly remember picking out the fabric color, lettering, and iron-on decal for my banner from Discount City, in Jacksonville. It must have been around 1980. And to this day, our birthday banners make their way from mom's special hiding place to a prominent place on the wall each year.

When Melissa pulled out my banner, I was dumbfounded! And yet, why should I have been surprised? Mother thinks of everything. The group sang happy birthday to me while I was served my first ever birthday flan :) And the birthday banner was hung on top of a painting on the wall of the restaurant. I got to look at it during the entire dinner and feel very loved and very special!

I don't care how old you get, when your momma remembers your birthday, it's always special!

The day wrapped up, all of us exhausted, and ready for the next day's Carnival. We would have time in the morning to set up for the Carnival and take the Toddlers out to play on their new playground.