Saturday and Sunday, May 8 & 9

Saturday a lot of our students had soccer games in town. There was a U12 and U14 game along with a girl’s game in the afternoon. Tad, LB, Paola (my fourth grade neighbor who lives at the comedor) and I went to town to watch them play in the morning. It was early enough that we could see the U12 game (which my fifth grade boys played in) before the bank closed. I really love seeing my kids outside of school, especially playing soccer which they love so much. They did great; they won 9-0! They played with great teamwork as well; only one boy scored two goals and the rest were by different boys each time. After their game, Tad, Paola and I went to run some errands in town. We had wanted to go to the bank, but when we got there the line was out the door again. ATM’s need to be brought to Gracias. I had enough money to cover lunch and we had also been assigned the task of buying decorations for our neighbor’s son’s (Neo) birthday party. We went into a papeleria to find stuff and we found a birthday sign, some crepe paper to make streamers, hats and balloons. Afterwards, we let Paola pick where she wanted to eat lunch and she chose Guancascos so we ate lunch there. All three of us went back up the Villa Verde and spent the rest of the day doing schoolwork and relaxing, finishing the day with a movie at night.

Sunday Tad and I had to decorate the comedor for Neo’s bday party; we enlisted some help blowing up the balloons from the rest of the kids. That went…interestingly. They would blow them too big and they would pop; they would blow them up and then let the air out. Eventually we taped all the balloons up, hung the streamers, put up the sign and got ready for the party. The party started at 11 (aka 12:30 in Hispanic time) and we ate some great food for Neo’s birthday. This included chicken salad sandwiches, potato salad, chips with cheese and pico de gallo stuff, fruit salad and cake. Yum. It was amazing. Neo was so excited he kept saying, “It’s my birthday party!” I’m glad he had a good time. The rest of Sunday I caught up with friends and family and relaxed.