July 28, 2006

It seems like something interesting happens here every few minutes so it's hard to remember to write all of it, but I will try.

The kids at the site do cute stuff every day. Today, Wendy and Dulce Maria were looking at the site and I said "Dulce Maria, are you going to help with the construction?" and she nodded very confidently. I asked "are you very strong?" and again came the confident nod. She is such an adorable doll-baby. Also today, Jessi asked her for a hug and she shouted "HASTA MANANA!" and split! She thought she was so funny by teasing Jessi like that. It's interesting to me because I remember when my kids were small, they used to get a kick out of that kind of joke too. She came back of course and gave Jessi a big hug.

Javier was walking around at one point and I asked him how he was and he asked me my name. I told him and he started asking everyone else's names, too. He said "Who's the guy in the pants?" which didn't tell me very much and then he said "he's looking now". Then he said "I'll show you" and he ran over and pointed at Tony. I said "Tony" and he repeated the name. Then he asked "who's the other guy with the pants?" Not too much help, but he pointed at John, so I said "John" and he repeated John's name too.

Everyone played a bit of lacrosse in the alley with some smaller scale equipment Seaver brought. We even got both Manuel and Jose to join in! They really picked it up fast! Jose is an older guy and he's kinda big and dad-ish (he's got 6 kids, so he should be) so I didn't expect him to join in, but he did right when we asked him. I probably spent an hour talking to Dora today. She is really nice and she's trying to help me improve my Spanish. She told me everyone in the neighborhood doesn't like the neighbor who creates so much smoke each day.

We went to the market today and Victor, our driver, was walking so fast that we lost some people. We got split up into at least 4 groups, I think. It kinda freaked me out, but I think I was the only one because everyone else was looking around a bit and shopping. The traffic situation here still amazes me. I can't believe how it works but it does seem to. I am surprised how cars, bicycles, and pedestrians all share the street. Often it's really "make your own rules". Today there were four lanes trying to merge into one on a small street. Victor is hard to understand because he talks so fast. He and his wife, Lucy, are our usual drivers and they have a cute little baby, Esteban. I always tell Lucy that Esteban's tired because he parties too much, which makes her laugh. I have more to write about from today but I'm too tired now so I just made notes.