A Comic Routine

At this very moment we are laughing. Hard. Not about anything particularly special, but nonetheless it's pretty funny. It is a blessed reality that we possess laughter in abundance here. We all arrive at every meal with something comical that one of the kids did or a hilarious way that we embarrassed ourselves or something... there's quite an incredible supply of stories, and I wish we could share them all with you guys but unfortunately that's just totally impossible.

I realized today that I've never blogged about what my typical day looks like, so I guess I'll do that now. I wake up between 5:30-6:30 to *something*, usually music, sometimes dishwashing, sometimes my roommate joyfully punching me awake (I needed it). I roll out of bed fully dressed in yesterday's clothes because I was too tired to take them off and besides my bed is like 20 feet away from my suitcase and it's totally not worth it. My absolutely delightful roommate Eduardo usually begins a conversation in spanish. I usually just stare at him until the gerbil that powers my brain stops being such a lazy bum and I'm finally able to produce some form of vocal noise. At least twice a morning my spanish fails me utterly, but he's incredibly gracious and helps me out. I say "Hasta luego" and book it up the 108 steps to the main building for breakfast at 7. Did you know they don't refrigerate milk here? It's weird.

My mornings are pretty inconsistent. Some days I'm in the garden, some days I'm watching mildly frightening Discovery Kids programming and some days I'm reading my books and taking naps. I return for lunch at 1, eat, try to manipulate my team members into doing my dishes for me and then head out to Casa Nueva Esperanza (9-12 year old boys) at 2. I usually arrive just in time for all the kids to decide they would rather be playing soccer than doing homework and so we head back down to either the field or the main plaza to play for the next however many hours until dinner. The other possible way the afternoon goes is I show up at 2 and then watch X-Men cartoons with them for approximately forever (I've now seen around 45 episodes). By this time the psychologist shows up to interact with the children and I have to deal with another round of "let's try to hook Mateo up with the woman in the room". So far we are onto the fifth potential mate as I have frustrated their previous attempts to marry me off. By the way, preteen Guatemalan dating advice looks something like this, "Flex for her! Flex for her! Show her your muscles! Pull up your shirt! What is wrong with you!?" I've told them most women won't fall for that. They don't understand. They've tried other tactics such as talking to the women behind my back, drawing fake heart tattoos on my arm with my future wife's name in the center or simply telling the woman that she is now my "novia" (girlfriend). If only it were so easy.

After dinner the kids all change into their pajamas...which as of yesterday is one of my favorite things ever. They got new pajamas, which are fantastically too big, but they have to wear them anyway, so if you chase them their pants will eventually fall down and they'll either trip or freeze because they'll realize they no longer have pants on and there are often some women in the house. This will probably get me thrown in jail, but little Guatemalan boys running around in their underwear makes me happy. I start rounding up the ones who don't have chores and begin throwing/wrestling/kung-fu-ing them into bed which then sets off a random series of impromptu hide and seek matches. One child won't go to bed unless I defeat him in both thumb-wrestling and arm-wrestling and another one demands a brief tickle fight. Obviously I always win (but I'm totally not competitive about it......). As the last kids make it to bed I usually find myself sitting in the older kids' room just talking and playing and answering questions about random things. I tuck them in (for serious!), give them each a hug and leave at 8 pm.

I don't do much more than that, for which I am very glad. I'm starting to help out more with chores around the kitchen so I get to talk with the house mom. I enjoy our "conversations" immensely and I have never enjoyed pairing socks and folding underwear so much (did you hear that mom, did you hear that?!?!). I hope that as my spanish improves I'll be able to learn a lot more from the staff here.

I go to bed between 9:30 and 10 and daydream and listen to music and pray until I finally fall asleep a few hours later. Then I wake up between 5:30-6:30 to *something*, usually music, sometimes dishwashing, sometimes my roommate joyfully punching me awake (I needed it). I roll out of bed fully dressed in yesterday's clothes... and I couldn't be happier.

-Mateo