As mentioned on the previous day, the lack of electricity led to a long night with limited air flow. I feel like I woke up about every 30 minutes to different sounds. And the water from the shower was less than a drip this morning, soooo glad I showered the night before. I did speak to Maximo about the power outage, and he mentioned it was a major tragedy for the area. He showed me the news on his phone where the local Energy company was blaming a lack of rain flow for the power outages at the local hydro dams. On this morning was the first time I got to visit again with brother Israel, who works at the daycare, and came in while Maximo and I were discussing the power outage. I jokingly blamed Israel for this, and we laughed about this each time we met for the remainder of the week. Israel with his awesome cowboy hat is one of my favorites to hang out with, and I found I could finally understand more and more of what he was saying. He was not at church on that Sunday due to his daughter visiting from Spain. It is fun for me to learn the language, but connecting to friends like Israel is what keeps me working hard at it.
On this day, we went in the morning to the ChaChaquata school. The skit went really well again, but we were awkwardly right outside of the room where Maximo and Eduardo were preaching (not a lot of room at this school), but I think Hondurans just roll with any distractions, and it does not bother them a bit. So we did our thing, Maximo did his thing, and then we pulled the kids to the back of the school for activities.
Each year, I try and few new things working with the kids, and see what works well. The Bible Card memory game went well again, and I even pulled out the 17 bible period magnet cards I have, and the kids liked a game where I would ask where the bible characters were. I did not get to the cards in order, but by the end of the week that was working well also. The cards are all in english, but the pictures do a good job of showing the stories. After a few games, I would show the kids some of my new tricks...I have the disappearing ninja, the broken rubber band, the jumping rubber band, the ring floating up the rubber band, and a random one that involves a lempira bill, a rubber band, and two paperclips (papelsujetas...thank you "reword" spanish app). And most of these tricks are in my back pack, so the kids would crowd around as I pulled these tricks out of my bag. It was here that I found the best gag ever...while digging in my bag, the kids jumped as something grabbed my hand and started pulling my arm into the bag. After wrestling with this hidden creature, I pulled out a pair of my peeps underwear (Yep, not planned, but when I travel by air, I keep a pair there...just in case). Embarrassed I thru it back into my bag, but not before one kid busted it laughing...this was laughter that I still hear, and it is the best...uncontrollable laughter that infects others, and we were all falling over laughing. The gag worked, and would I use it again for a laugh? Of course, many times.
We fed all the kids, and I think it was here where I got to say the prayer in spanish for the kids and the meal. Apparently if you are feeding a bunch of people, you bring chinese food, as it goes a long way. I pulled out one final old staple of a trick...the artist drawing, where I chose a group of three of the pretty girls and simulated drawing them while all the kids behind me watch and laugh at the stick figure creations I am making. I can't remember where I first starting using this gag, but it seems to always work pretty well.
We went back to the daycare for a short break and redid everything from that morning at a school in Cacao. All of the same bible games and tricks were shared with the same fun success, but never would I get that cackle laughter like that first little boy. I did learn another trick when in a large soccer field which captured the majority of the kids. I sat down in the shade, and pulled out a punch balloon. Then started punching it, and watched in amazement as a crowd of kids ran my way and sat down to play the bible games with me, then I threw the balloon for them to play. And many ran off with it, but many stayed as we continued our games. Never could this work as well in the US, and perhaps it will not work forever here, but it is nice to be in an area where the kids still appreciate card games, they appreciate the little poppers I brought down, that were a staple of my childhood...before the distractions of cell phones, there was an imagination and fun that these kids still have, and I love to be with them and laugh with them.
Back at the day care, I spoke with Maximo a little more, taking note that I need some practice with spanish connector words. I got to see Gabriel again with lots of hugs. Since Maximo's family now had a copy of goat lords, I taught Gabriel and his older brother Andy how to play (I taught them without action cards, explaining to Andy to use the action cards when they get above the beginner level). They loved it and I think Andy beat us all on this game. Got to talk with intern David Russell, and find out he was from Amarillo. I got to meet Yeni's sister Christina and her niece Naomi. And Davis got to purchase his official Cowboy Hat. Another friend from last year, Briyan Anariba, came by to visit with me for a bit. He was the door guy last year, and helped me with alot of spanish, and has since helped me thru many many conversations on messenger throughout the year. He recently got married, and I was excited to share some presents with him during his visit. Another fun day!
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