It is amazing how tiring listening and trying to understand Spanish can be after a day long effort.
We left early this morning and picked up William's kids and AltaGracie's kids and a niece of Williams. That was seven kids and one 20 something year old. Oglivia was sick and William works on Sunday. Since that made two more than we had last time we decided we had better stay at church with them so we would be there when Primary was over. The niece of Williams and I went into Relief Society. I hope she got more out of it than I did! I hate feeling like I can't really help anyone that I take to Relief Society because I don't know what's going on myself. It was better in Gospel Doctrine because Scott was there. Except I sat by this woman who had a beautiful smile and was very friendly but had on a blouse that covered almost nothing. Generally the women are more modestly dressed but once in a while even at church you realize they don't have much of an understanding of modesty. One surprising thing happened during the sacrament - the pianist played sacrament songs as the sacrament was passed. At first Scott and I both thought that was strange but then peole around us started huming and were much more reverent. During Sacrament meeting the 14 year old daughter of Alta Gracie was sitting by Scott. While he was trying to entertain some of the younger kids she reached up and felt his hair. She must have thought it was fun because she kept running her fingers through it and messing it up. It was obviously disconcerting to Scott but when he told her his hair was too long and that he was going to get it cut she told him not to cut it. I was trying not to laugh because Scott kept looking at me with this "what should I do" look. Last time she kept feeling my hair which wasn't nearly as fun for her! As a whole the kids were better this week but we need to take more paper and pencils for them to write. Both families have been sick with the flu. I was holding one of the 6year old twins and so couldn't see her face but she kept making this choking sound. Finally realized she was so congested it was hard for her to breathe. How blessed are we that when we are sick we can buy medicine or go to the doctor. One of the hardest things here is knowing you can't change the way they live.
We dropped them off and headed home to get the keyboards and books we had to take out of the car so we could fill it full of kids and head out to San Cristobol for our first lesson there. We got lost last time but this time we made it there. There were about 20 people there - mostly adults. About half women and half men. We are grateful to get to work with so many of these people. One 20 or so young man came up to the keyboard where I was playing. He said he knew how to play a little bit so he sat down to play. He said he couldn't play out of the hymn book so I put the simplified hymn book on the stand. He started playing but obviously wasn't reading the music. There are many people here who play by ear but want to know how to read music. It is difficult to keep the pages of the book from turning as the 15 ceiling fans were whirling around as fast as they could go. Finally found some markers to hold the pages back. I have not been in a church room here that does not have ceiling fans - that seems to be their most common means of air conditioning. Even the rooms that have air conditioning have many fans that are always on. We were at the Canastica Ward building.
We left there shortly after 3:00 to get to our lesson in Oriental at 4:00. We had to come back through Santo Domingo and go out the other direction. After we took a couple of wrong roads we made it with two minutes to spare. Most of these kids are doing very well. Two of the older boys haven't been there for a couple of weeks - which really puts them behind. Maybe they decided it wasn't worth the effort! Scott wanted me to take this picture of the twins helping each other.
By the time we got loaded up and home I was so tired - and I am not the one doing the teaching. Just trying to make sense about what is being said gets old! We got off the elevator by our door and sitting on the stairs with their computers were the Yturraldes. They can get internet from our connection as far out as the stairs. Wish I had gotten a picture of them. Anyway they came in and stayed for a couple of hours. We just go to bed and they lock up on their way out..
We left early this morning and picked up William's kids and AltaGracie's kids and a niece of Williams. That was seven kids and one 20 something year old. Oglivia was sick and William works on Sunday. Since that made two more than we had last time we decided we had better stay at church with them so we would be there when Primary was over. The niece of Williams and I went into Relief Society. I hope she got more out of it than I did! I hate feeling like I can't really help anyone that I take to Relief Society because I don't know what's going on myself. It was better in Gospel Doctrine because Scott was there. Except I sat by this woman who had a beautiful smile and was very friendly but had on a blouse that covered almost nothing. Generally the women are more modestly dressed but once in a while even at church you realize they don't have much of an understanding of modesty. One surprising thing happened during the sacrament - the pianist played sacrament songs as the sacrament was passed. At first Scott and I both thought that was strange but then peole around us started huming and were much more reverent. During Sacrament meeting the 14 year old daughter of Alta Gracie was sitting by Scott. While he was trying to entertain some of the younger kids she reached up and felt his hair. She must have thought it was fun because she kept running her fingers through it and messing it up. It was obviously disconcerting to Scott but when he told her his hair was too long and that he was going to get it cut she told him not to cut it. I was trying not to laugh because Scott kept looking at me with this "what should I do" look. Last time she kept feeling my hair which wasn't nearly as fun for her! As a whole the kids were better this week but we need to take more paper and pencils for them to write. Both families have been sick with the flu. I was holding one of the 6year old twins and so couldn't see her face but she kept making this choking sound. Finally realized she was so congested it was hard for her to breathe. How blessed are we that when we are sick we can buy medicine or go to the doctor. One of the hardest things here is knowing you can't change the way they live.
We dropped them off and headed home to get the keyboards and books we had to take out of the car so we could fill it full of kids and head out to San Cristobol for our first lesson there. We got lost last time but this time we made it there. There were about 20 people there - mostly adults. About half women and half men. We are grateful to get to work with so many of these people. One 20 or so young man came up to the keyboard where I was playing. He said he knew how to play a little bit so he sat down to play. He said he couldn't play out of the hymn book so I put the simplified hymn book on the stand. He started playing but obviously wasn't reading the music. There are many people here who play by ear but want to know how to read music. It is difficult to keep the pages of the book from turning as the 15 ceiling fans were whirling around as fast as they could go. Finally found some markers to hold the pages back. I have not been in a church room here that does not have ceiling fans - that seems to be their most common means of air conditioning. Even the rooms that have air conditioning have many fans that are always on. We were at the Canastica Ward building.
By the time we got loaded up and home I was so tired - and I am not the one doing the teaching. Just trying to make sense about what is being said gets old! We got off the elevator by our door and sitting on the stairs with their computers were the Yturraldes. They can get internet from our connection as far out as the stairs. Wish I had gotten a picture of them. Anyway they came in and stayed for a couple of hours. We just go to bed and they lock up on their way out..
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