This week's update

Delaney has decided to make Snickerdoodles this afternoon, and she has lots of short help. She came home from working at the Children’s Library on the lower campus to find children from here on the upper campus waiting for her. They wanted to exchange their books because they missed their storytime yesterday for a school event. By the time she had opened the library for them, a few more kids had shown up, so she spent a little time with all of them. Then the boys took off to play, and one at a time, the girls have shown up at the door to ask if they could learn to make cookies. So right now there are three little girls “helping” Delaney bake, chasing the cat, and generally making a joyful noise. What fun it is to have an apartment full of happy children’s voices!! And it is a real treat to listen to Delaney interact with them all, as they chatter along in Spanish and she does her best to keep up. Since I have the most contact with people on a daily basis, my Spanish is improving much more quickly than Jeff’s or Delaney’s, so she occasionally calls out to me to ask for a word. I really enjoy listening to the children speak, because they speak more slowly and clearly than many adults, and they make the same mistakes I do, so we understand each other! The girls’ names are Nathaly, Oriana, Sara, they range in age from 4-7, and Sara’s big brother Sergio just showed up to join the fun. He’s 8, and is just fascinated by all this. There is much laughing because Delaney drew Sergio in to help and he dumped about 5 times too much vanilla into the dough! Baking with small children is an adventure no matter what language they speak…

We have been concerned about Cookie because he is so painfully shy around any other humans besides us, but he is tolerating the kids just fine. As a matter of fact, he allows them to pick him up and carry him, pet his tummy, and even approach him while he’s relaxing. Amazing that he likes kids, when the mere sight of most adults sends him flying under the nearest piece of furniture in terror. I told Delaney we need to have the kids in to visit more often, so that Cookie can work on getting over his fear of people.

This week has been a little bittersweet. There has been a lot of fun as everyone practices whatever they are performing for the big fiesta next week (it’s the 20^th anniversary and there are competitions of every kind, including dancing, sports, acting, poetry, and even Miss/Mr). Sadly, however, it was rainy for days and that causes rock and mudslides. It makes traveling especially dangerous on our mountain roads, and we lost a student on Monday. A large rock came down and crushed the driver of the bus, killing him instantly. The passengers tried to get out, but I gather only one made it. 19 people died as the rest of the landslide took the bus over the edge while they were trying to escape. The survivor was hospitalized for a couple of days, and she was a UAC student. Another UAC student was among those killed. So we held a mass for her on Wednesday afternoon here in the upper campus chapel. While Mariela was not one of my English students, many of my students were friends of hers, so they were pretty subdued this week. This is usual a very vocal, joyous group, so it was very troubling to see them so down. With the big fiesta coming next week, I told them all their homework was to have fun, and I sincerely pray that they will.

Blessings to all!

Susan and company