From my travel journal:
I woke up to Steven sneaking out the window [to avoid our door which squeaks horribly despite oiling and sanding] to start work. I also snuck out to journal and do yoga on the roof.
Charlie joined me and played on my yoga mat [he's the Benji to my Adriene].
I lingered afterwards to contemplate "The LORD your God is in your midst" from Zep 3:17. We went down to make oats. Os asked me to read a few chapters of the BFG. Lucy, Os, Charlie and I played soccer before Charlie and I set out in search of avocados and bananas.
None of the little shops close to us had avocado, but we were having fun so we continued until we found some. The further we got, the more determined I was to keep going. It ended up being a 1.5 mile walk round trip.
Charlie amused himself by moving any big rock or chunk of concrete on the sidewalk down into the road. In pursuit of a more "no pasa nada / no tenga pena" attitude, I allowed it. When he began to tire, we bought a chocolate ice cream novelty treat for 6Q ($0.77).
The first avos we found were quite mature, so we also bought some minis that were still "verde." Finally, we found the cheapest price and ready to eat avocados, coming home with a total of 8. On the way home we bought a coconut from a 10 year-old-boy who opened it for us with a machete. It was not as sweet as I'd imagined so it wasn't hard to save some for the rest of the fam to try.
Our tired feet collapsed us at the kitchen table where his earnest face talked me into a game of Uno before I started to make lunch. I let Eliana finish my hand since the kids were all getting hungry. They ate a whole bag of cheese curls while waiting and then hardly touched lunch. This frustrates me greatly.
After lunch, I leave the dishes in the sink and take three of the kids to the pool where I read, "Following the Way" when I'm not distracted by the teen girls dancing to loud music at their pool party, which we're crashing. They are good dancers and their moves are tasteful like their swimwear. I write down one of the songs in case Eliana and I would like to look up the dance and learn it sometime.
Steven and Ozzie join us after an hour. After another hour, I ask the kids if they still want to help Dilia make banana bread. They slowly drag themselves out of the pool. I am still so appreciative that they can all dress themselves! We go to Dilia's.
Most of them end up playing instead, but Andrew and Eliana stick with it. The group moves to the park when it's time for the bread to rise. I mention our plan to go out for tacos. Dilia takes it upon herself to recommend two places that make Mexican style tacos and talks herself into a craving and insists they'll join us for tacos. But we wanted Guatemalan tacos. She has to wait for the bread to bake and then deliver it and it's already 5:30 [our usual dinner hour].
Steven borrows Ben's bike and goes into town in search of Guatemalan tacos. I still don't know how to break it to Dilia when she asks her son if he wants to join us for tacos for dinner. Steven brings home chicken (no tacos to be found) [they're made en casa and sold out of a wheelbarrow or off a fold up table on the street] and I fail to bring home all the kids. Os wants to keep playing with Andrew, the girls have gone off with Dilia on her scooter to check the bread.
I text her to send the girls home and tell her Steven brought home chicken so we won't be going out for tacos after all. The kids trickle in eating friend chicken quickly and heading back out to play. We bring them in at 8 (Charlie at 7). The bedtime struggle tonight is Lucy being offended that she has to go to bed at the same time as her younger brother. We get them in bed, watch an episode of Survivor, and fall asleep ourselves.
Comments
Post a Comment