Days 22-25

I apologize for not posting for several days. The days are full and I've gotten off my writing schedule.

My art class on Friday was a huge success. The kids made monsters out of paper. Even the littlest boys spent the full hour working on their project and every single monster looks terrific! The kids were really creative and they are really good with scissors. I felt so proud of them!

Yesterday was a special treat. A wonderful group of people from a local company hired a clown complete with a full performance for the kids. They also provided tamales and a pastry and candy for everyone. Of course the clown chose yours truly from the audience for one of his tricks. Thank goodness I understood everything he said and his instructions! It's funny how embarrassed I was standing up in front of everyone. Mexican clowns kind of freak me out. Actually most clowns do, but Mexican clowns look like they originally started out as mimes and switched halfway through. They have bright white makeup and florescent colors. It's totally crazy. However, for the kids this was great and they spent the morning laughing and getting treats. The company that so graciously provided the entertainment and food also donated a bunch of provisions (laundry soap, toilet paper, shampoo, etc). I love seeing how much people care for these kids, how involved the community is and how needs are continuously met.

I've spent a lot of time lately making friendship bracelets with the kids. Kyla had the great idea to show them how to make bracelets as there's a lot of colorful thread in the supply room. I'm sure someone in the past did this with the kids too, since it was familiar to a few of them. We've spent a lot of time sitting around, chatting, trading bracelets. It's been an especially nice way to spend time with the younger girls. They also love it when I bring out the nail polish and we all paint our nails. The other day, 8 year old Kristel painted my nails green with pink polk-a-dots. :)

Last night I took one of the sweet sleeping triplets up to bed and noticed that all their beds had sheets and were made up all nice for them. My friend, Johanna the secretary and a girl named Ameryka have been taking care of the boys the past few days and have done an outstanding job. It is an incredible amount of work to keep their cabana clean and to wash all the little boys clothes constantly and to make sure all the boys do their homework, are ready for school, have their uniforms and hair gelled and generally speaking maintain order. I very happily tucked little buddy into his clean bed and planted a kiss on his forehead.

I've been thinking about the kids here as one big extended family even more so since viewing William's photos. He had photos going back the last 8 years or so to when he first came to Hogar. Seeing a lot of familiar, but younger faces in his photos made me really realize that these kids grow up together and are each other's family. The older ones look out for the little ones, people tease each other, play together, work through problems, see each other through tough times, celebrate birthdays together. They're together for most of their childhood. This is a pretty amazing thing. A really big extended family. When I see the older boys putting their arm around the little ones and chatting with them it about melts my heart. Same with the older girls holding children on their laps and helping with homework. There's a lot of love here.