Venturing to el Parque Central

I'm getting into the groove of things a little more after my third day here. I got to work a couple of minutes earlier today and met the kids at a sort of morning meeting and helped the other worker carry the little ones up to the nursery. Luis, the little boy who hurt his foot yesterday, did break his foot and so has a cast and is confined to bed rest for 2 weeks. He's not very happy about it! Marita had two poopy diapers today and I had to change her whole outfit. It was another interesting discovery because although there seems to be more clothing than I would expect at an orphanage, the kids where 5 layers all the time. It was a process to get her changed! I also helped bathe the kids today. The one worker brought in a big bucket of water and a bowl. The kids sat in a seperate bucket and we poured a couple of bowls over each child, scrubbed them down with some soap, washed their hair, poured 2 more bowls of water on them and dried them off. All of this was done in the nursery. In one regard, at least the children are being cleaned, but on the other hand, I don't know how clean they actually got. I felt like more of a help today in that regard that I got to help undress, bathe, and dress and feed the kids. Speaking and understanding spanish is so dificult and it is frustrating. I don't get much practice at work because it isn't an environment where the workers want to invest in helping to teach me spanish, and often times I am alone with the babies. I do have a couple of pictures from today! They're pretty precious!

Nelzo (who I thought was Nigel). He cried every time I went out of the room! He and his brother Oliver have the most contagious smiles!

This is Oliver, Nelzo's brother! Their dad came yesterday to play with them and both were horribly sad when he left!

Jenny is such a sweet heart. She fell asleep in my arms today.

And this is Marita!

After work we came home and had our lunch, rice and beans, and beets. The food is absolutely amazing! Dona Eva is an absolutely amazing cook. My throat is hurting a little, and she made me a concentrated drink of honey and fresh lemon. I thought that honey and lemon in tea was good, but the concentrated drink was a million times better!

After lunch I had my first spanish lesson. It reminded me that I really know nothing! It's extremely humbling. We took the bus, which is more of a big van, downtown, had our lesson and then walked around the central park. I saw the a highly recommended cafe today, but Hannah (a girl who came my week but is staying 8 weeks) took a taxi back to our house to go to the gym. It was a much needed release of energy.

It's been another long day, and I'm ready for a shower and bed...and it's not even 8pm here!