Saturday, September 5

Happy Sabbath!!!

At church, I couldn’t stay awake. I tried so hard. I sat up straight and opened my eyes wide, but the next thing I know, my head droops and I catch it. The room was filled with people, it was warm, and everyone was speaking in Spanish. The little girl next to me was sleeping and I was tempted to wake her because I didn’t want to fight my sleepiness alone. But I didn’t wake her. She’s the biggest sweetheart, with a very small body. She’s ten years old, but she looks a lot younger, like a lot of the kids at the Hogar. Her name is Cindi and she’s one of the better behaved children. Everytime she sees me, she comes up to hug me. I absolutely love this child.

After preparing lunch, Tarynn and I passed out on our beds. We took a long nap and when we woke up, it was raining. This is not normal so cal rain. This is some serious business. It was hard to hear people talk when we had devotional (not that I’d need to. It wouldn’t make sense to me anyway). The rain was a blessing, though. It cooled us down. It was a nice Sabbath treat.

After dinner, we had a little staff meeting. The first one since we’ve gotten here and I’m pretty sure it will be the last one unless they have something to say to us individually. It’s a good thing for the two girls from southern, otherwise we would’ve been lost. They said that the two people leading the Hogar didn’t tell them what they were doing until later and they were so confused. Anyways, we got our assignments. Tarynn and I will be working at the Infa, which is the daycare. I’m excited! I start on Monday… but tomorrow, I’m supposed to get the kids up, make them do their chores, watch them swim, make them eat, make them clean up their food, etc.. It’s hard because Tarynn and I were sort of pushed into this. We don’t really know what to do. Good luck to us, I guess.

Oh and today, I was called a china. This is a term for asian. The Americans where warning me that people would call me that, but if the kids called me that, I’d have to tell them not to because it’s derogatory. One of the older kids saw a picture of me and asked who it was. When I told him it was me, he laughed and said, “You look china, but when you’re tired, you look more china.” I couldn’t help but laugh. I’m very tired. It’s hard to sleep at night. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m far away from home or because of the bugs. Or it could be because of the geckos that squeak. It’s been hard for me to get to bed and when I do fall asleep, I get up in the middle of the night and imagine tarantulas crawling at my feet. These tarantulas are very common. Ryan said that it feels like you’re crushing a lightbulb under your foot. Ewwwwwwww. I don’t know how it is, but I always end up talking about bugs. I can’t help myself. I’m absolutely terrified.