Hey! good questions everyone. Sometimes I feel like I don´t know what to talk about, so questions are very good!

Well... when it rains and the kids have to stay home, the parents most likely do go to work, but the kids probably run around like the rest of the camp kids. Most families whose parents work in the fields live in camp-like settings on a few acres of land and each family portions out a small area. I don´t really know who or how they pay for that area. Most homes are built out of cardboard/plastic/plywood and have dirt floors. They are also usually just one room. I´m sure that they just cook outside, but I could be wrong.

Because these camps are set up as such there are usually extended families and some older women who can´t work, who stay around the camp. If the parents are off at work and the kids stay home they will probably just play around by themselves. Many times older kids (say 7, 8 and 9 year olds) take care of babies. I don´t know everything about it, and I´m sure all families and situations are different. The banos are outside, like outhouses, so consequently it smells a little like that. Also food and everything. These kids are very dirty, however, and their playground is whatever they can find. As a result, I´ve seen that characteristic come out while they are at the daycare. Little Rosa went exploring in a shed through some old roofing shingles and other tools. To her it was just another exploration, but for someone like me, I´m standing there saying "no, no. basura! yech!" Great Spanish, huh?

This morning I walked into the center´s kitchen to find a lot of strawberries. Now, last week, on Wednesday, we had a lot of strawberries. But today... oh no, today we had a LOT. A lot as in 30+ full flats, I´m not even kidding. Someone had donated them yesterday. Needless to say I spent most of the morning unstemming, cutting, washing and storing tons of strawberries. I was in the kitchen from 10:15 until 3:30 today working with strawberries. Some people would come in and get a bag or two of strawberries, we sent a bag each home with the kids, and I put three ziploc storage bags full in my freezer for that strawberry shortcake (I told you those ziploc bags would be handy for something, mom!). I wondered where I would get strawberries from for that shortcake (i don´t think you can really buy them in the stores), but now I don´t have to worry.

I had my first day of boredom on Saturday. I woke up and cleaned my little apt, then went to see what I could for the girls, who were in their classrooms doing stuff. I was with them for about two hours, and then they left. I had the time from 12:30 until 6:00 (when I went to church) by myself and I all of the sudden just got very bored. I had stuff to do, but after a while you don´t want to do the same things you´ve been doing for the last two weeks. Sunday was a little bit the same, although I did come to the internet cafe (and couldn´t get the internet to work), and hung out with Ruth Ann. Boredom makes you creative, though, and so I have a little project I´m working on for some people back home.

Last Thursday when I came to the internet cafe it was my first time out alone, so I was a little scared, but everything went fine. I even ran into Maribel, from church, and said hi to her. It was almost like I am getting a little established. I am also here alone today. Saturday night church is a youth service, and I go with the girls. Kids were asking my name this time, etc. I even gave ten pesos to be entered into some kind of drawing. With my understanding though, I´m not even quite sure what I win, if I do. Aye.

The hardest part about learning Spanish is the past and future tense. I have a lot of verbs and nouns down, but saying that I went somewhere yesterday is hard. If I wanted to say that I went to the store yesterday, I usually end up saying something like "ayer, yo voy a la tienda", which literally translated says "yesterday, I go to the store". I have a whole new appreciation for people who are learning languages, especially english. Yesterday after work I was walking with the girls ("the girls" being Brigida, Geno and Avy), and someone said something. I immediately responded with "¿Con que?" ("with what?"). The girls broke into applause over my brilliance of knowing what to say. Earlier Brigida had said that my intelligence was large, but I thought she had meant that my brain was big. So after saying "¿Con que?" we all agreed that my brain was large.

I have noticed that I have begun to talk a little differently. I have gotten so used to speaking slowly, haltingly, and with a question mark that I have begun to do it even while speaking perfect English to Ruth Ann. So watch out when I get back.. I may be a horrible English speaker.

I can´t remember if I have said this already, but I am supposed to be teaching an English class some afternoons to the four year olds. Not only do the four year olds make fun of me and my Spanish, but I don´t have many phrases to tell them to stop being bad (as they often are). "No Mas!" (no more!) and "alto!" (stop!) are about it. The cutest things is that I was trying to teach them colors first and I said purple, and they repeated "puh-puh!". The hardest thing about teaching them is that they don´t know many objects and things in Spanish, so it´s hard to teach them the basics in English. They are still learning to identify colors and numbers in Spanish, and still don´t know their alphabet. So I´ve decided to just move on to familiar things like what is in a house, and how to introduce themselves.

I´ve written a lot today! Man.