Thank goodness for the hypnotic effects of Disney music!

So...attempting to follow the humorous stylings of Mateo will be a challenge but I figured it was time that I contributed more than a few pictures (which I didn't even take) to this blog.

Today...today we learned lots of important life lessons.

Cressia learned that in English we have different words for perfume and cologne. And that Matt, as the sole male in the group, would not likely have purchased perfume at Hiper País.

Cressia also showed us a side of her we had never seen...the side that can dance! :)

As Matt mentioned, we all enjoyed (or at least experienced) the lovely effects of globalization in the form of blaringly loud American pop music at Hiper País.

Lauren Harlow learned everything that Wikipedia has to say about concussions.

We all learned that they weren't kidding about this being the rainy season! It's currently pouring so loud I can't hear Lauren and she's 5 feet from me. I keep waking up at 2 am thinking that someone is taking a shower.

We had further lessons in flexibility tonight as we were asked to provide the 3 year old Sunday school class for the rest of the summer. They asked for someone who speaks good Spanish and another person who knows some Spanish to take the 3 year olds every Sunday during the worship service.

When I got to Casa Samuel today I found a note on the fridge from the house mom that said she wouldn't be there today and I should take care of things. Except I wasn't really sure what things were. So today was a challenge. Emily + 10 children who don't speak English and whose names I don't exactly know yet, 1 of whom is mostly deaf and speaks sign language (which I don't know how to do at all), and 1 of whom either has a leg injury or is pretending to be hurt so badly that she can't walk or do anything for herself = interesante.

Things I learned today...

• Mulan is entertaining in any language. Also, so is Ice Age and some other movie with a bear that we watched.
• When kids tell you that "Mommy always lets us have candy right when we get home from school," they might be lying. I let them talk me into giving them 6 pieces of candy each and then immediately regretted it. Children + high fructose corn syrup = chaos.
• Alvin and the Chipmunks do a laughable rendition of Beyonce's Single Ladies. Don't ask me why someone thought that having helium-enhanced rodents sing R&B was a good idea.
• 10 children sharing a communal balloon is gross, especially when they add bits of lollipop and candy wrappers into the mix of saliva to create a bacteria filled maraca. Yum.
• The last 6 years of Spanish classes that I've taken turned out to be useless. Writing papers about post-war Spanish literature does not help you discipline children. I should have stopped after year 2 in high school so that I could remember useful basic things.

Overall, it was an adventurous day and we got to experience the joys and thrills of Guatemalan van transportation. Hopefully tomorrow won't be eternal since the kids are off of school. Thanks for reading this to those of you who are!

Love from Guatemala,

Emilia