Day 26

Mostly I'm posting to let you all know that I'm okay. I think I'll chalk the whole week up to being rough; although, there have been some nice spots.

On Thursday, Karen (my "boss"), Estuardo (her husband), and Maria Andrea (their daughter) came back from their vacation in the US. The rest of that day was just a mess. Anyone who could find a way to avoid Karen did. She spent the afternoon walking around the hogar saying how things were done wrong and how she couldn't trust anyone to do anything right while she was away; then she would continue by saying how much she had to get done. I took a lot of the brunt of this and it really hurt. The biggest problem, as I see it, is that she didn't give clear directions to everyone who needed to be involved in what she wanted done.

Yesterday, Friday, we took the kids (and a good chunk of village kids) to IRTRA. It is a Guatemalan amusement park; however, that's only about half of it. The other half is a zoo (and I'm not talking about the kids!). I saw a jaguar, lion, and puma yesterday! (No tigers.) A good deal of it is actually birds. Jean (one of the American volunteers) and I asked one of the boys if there were Quetzals (the national bird) in the zoo. He told us there were, but we never saw any and forgot to ask him about them again later. I actually rode a few rides as well. (The coasters weren't as big and crazy as those in the States, but it's still odd to think of getting me on a coaster.) My biggest problem is that they don't allow glasses or hats on the rides. On one of them, I had put my hat on my belt loop, and they made me stick my glasses in my pocket; however, on another they actually made me pass my glasses off to someone else. (Fortunately, when you go to the park with over 100 kids, there's usually SOMEONE in line that you know!)
After lunch, I spent my time with David (the 22-month old...who I should probably post a picture of sometime for you all; it's not like I don't have plenty!). We walked around for quite a while, and then people started asking us (me) to hold stuff for them while they were on certain rides. The only trick to this was that they had to find us because David was busy exploring the world. I carried Daniel's backpack and hat the rest of the day. I finally got tired of walking around with David; so I suggested a ride. We went on the ferris wheel (only 8 seats on it). He wasn't a big fan of it and started fussing; so I put him on my lap. After about once around, he just fell asleep. After that, I took him on the train because he's just a touch heavy to want to stand around with. Then I went and got an ice cream and sat on a bench and ate it. Finally, I decided to start walking toward the entrance, but I found Alba (our cook) with her daughter Migdalia; so we sat with them for a while while Migdalia ate her ice cream (and shared it with David). When Migdalia finished, she went and rode an airplane ride 3 times in a row, and afterward we started heading toward the entrance as a group. We did stop and do one more ride on the way out. It was these little semi-trucks which went around a track (it was a ride, but the kids had ineffective steering wheels and effective horns). Migdalia and David rode it together. Last stop was the bathroom before our 2 hour ride home in traffic. (We left the park around 4 pm and got back to the hogar around 6...definitely rush hour traffic through the capital.)
I was tired and didn't feel like standing up for the trip home; so I got Kevin (one of the medianos) to give me his seat if I let him sit on my lap. It was a deal, and I slept for the first hour of the ride. Kevin and I played "I spy" for the second half.

Other good things which have happened are the possibility of me getting a kitten. There is a feral mother and her three kittens near here, and they're pretty much adorable. The home gets "useless" stuff like donations of cat food; so, I don't expect a huge cost in supplies. I still need to talk it over with Karen, but I have a few things around here that I'm doing to make things more efficient (i.e. put her in a good mood) and there are a few sanitary concerns which came to attention during the gringos visit which a cat could help with; so, I'm hoping to find my kitten a job here. She's an orange tabby, and I'm still looking for a name for her before I bring her home. (She's also only 7 weeks old; so I'm waiting another week at least before even thinking about moving her here.) Anyone have any name suggestions for a female Guatemalan orange tabby?