39. Cooking, Wrestling, an Airplane

Saturday, 11/10/12

Today it was Annie’s, Chad’s and my day to cook for the whole campus. Chad must have known this all along and smartly left two days ago.

However, Annie and I played it smart and delegated our burden. The best cooks, the girl’s dorm girls, did most of the cooking. We did close to nothing. All the knives were locked in Carmen’s room, and she was gone for the weekend. That was interesting. I felt like karate chopping the papaya.

We ended up making fruit salad and bread for breakfast. Rice with veggies and fries (known as Mahalito), corn cereal, and salad for lunch. More bread and cereal was for supper.

I was looking forward to my first church service with my boys. I now know why my Mom liked to pick out my clothes (and still tries too). It’s quite a blast. We were all wearing the same shade of yellow and they got a kick out of it! Wish I had a picture for you.

During church, I was enjoying the music when Juan reached down and ripped off his toenail!! Who does that!!! It was about to fall off anyways, but he was giggling due to the expression on my face. I will never let him play with my toes or a finger…that is for sure!

We then went to the river called Asunta to cool off. It was hot!! We had a mud war. I then noticed one 17 year-old guy fiercely hurling mud at two girls. They were hurting but he kept doing it thinking they were enjoying it. I decided to play hero and dramatically save the girls for the audiences enjoyment. I was expecting laughs with my “If you mess with them, you are messing with me” lecture, and I got them (probably due to my awful Spanish). I then went to tackle him, got him on the ground in the river, enjoyed victory and my bravado for a few seconds, but then it all changed. His machismo was wounded and he retaliated. He probably weighs thirty more pounds then me and has been play fighting his whole life. He pinned me down, and I looked like flailing sticks with my skinny arms and legs. He definitely won that battle. So much for being hero. It was worth the shot. J



Looks like Juan´s a little jealous, eh?



I then gave Miguel and Juan an airplane Erin had left for them. One of those pre-made foam things. Miguel was soooo excited, then hugely disappointed! It stunk! Wouldn’t go more than three feet. We then proceeded to make our own, superior, paper airplanes.

After the Sabbath circle, it was bedtime. I then discovered Juan’s favorite activity. Timed showers. I joked and challenged him to take a shower in less than five minutes. He got all serious, then smiled, and hurried for the shower. I timed him. The result? 1 minute 33 seconds! And he smelled decent! He’s ready for the U.S. military! He was so proud he wanted to do it again! If we weren’t short on shampoo I would have let him. Younger Miguel, now excited to do the same, then took 2 minutes and 46 seconds. Not too bad for a little guy who could barely reach the faucet knob.

What did I learn? If I want to manipulate a little fella, challenge them to do something. I’ll see how long that works for!

I then put them to bed. It took them a while to sleep, though, because I told them I had a surprise for them tomorrow. Want to know what it is? You’ll just have to wait in anguish, too! J

**Keep adventurizing!...I know I will!**