Happy 4th Birthday to Claire!!

What a great day!! Claire had a party at school on Friday and on Sunday we had a birthday/father's day party. We rented tables and chairs, everyone brought food - arroz con pollo, picadillo de aracache (a type of tuber veggie), fried platanos, corn-cilanto-avocado-tomato salad, and chicharrones. It was amazing. We had a pinata, a fishing game (where everyone fishes for a little present) and a lovely cake & gifts. It couldn't have been better! Well, it could have been better if Daddy was there with us but under the circumstances, it was fantastic. All in all there were around 30 people - mostly the family of Mariaelos, my neighbors, and Floi & family.



A good Claire quote from the day:

Claire: "Isaac is so cool."
Me: "Yeah - he is you buddy!"
Claire: "No he isn't! Daddy is my buddy!!" Said with an angry little 4 year old face.

Claire's New School

Finally - she has kids to play with and a school to attend. Last week was her first full week at 'Centro Infantil' - they take kids from 2-12 years old. I don't know why it has the name Infantil but, it does. It is brand spankin' new. New toys, new curtains, new swingset - new everything. It is a first for San Marcos and they opened on Monday. We were the very first people to enroll a kid and we did it Monday morning. I was worried that Claire would not really want us to leave since the only kid there was the teacher's child and neither she nor her assistant speak a bit of English but, here is the dialogue that we had:

Me: "honey, grandma and I are going to go grocery shopping and we will be back in about 20 minutes - does that sound okay?"

Claire: "can you come back later than that?"

When we returned about an hour later she didn't want to leave. The second day I told her I would be back in 4 hours and she said, "how about 5?" On Thursday I called a cab (since we don't have a car) to come and pick me up so I could go and get her and then come back to the house. I walked down to my gate and here was Claire. Apparently my Spanish wasn't so hot over the phone and the cab driver went to pick her up and he brought her home. She was cool as a cucumber and said, "hey mom! I came home with Carlos all by myself! But, I didn't talk to him."
(Yes, Carlos is on the pick-up list)

So, she loves it. Every morning at 8am they start a preschool lesson which is all in Spanish. I think she understands some of it and in a few weeks i'll bet she will be speaking fairly fluently with the rest of the kids! There are now at least 6 enrolled and hopefully they fill up because if they don't, they will close and then I will cry.

Creepy Crawlies

I am constantly amazed by the wildlife here. I not talking rare birds or monkeys. I mean bugs. They are insanely obscure and totally disgusting. Here are two of my most recent favorites.


A moveable feast of worms.


Millipede? Centipede?


The other day I found Henry sitting in front of the fridge playing with a catipillar. These are particularily bad because aparently, they leave an itcy mark on you for years. Great huh!

Obama: I will be the Democratic nominee

Thank you Jesus. I guess all of Claire's marching has paid off!

CNN: Obama: I will be the Democratic nominee

New York Times: OBAMA CLAIMS NOMINATION
Marks End of Epic Battle With Clinton

Marching for Jesus

Something has happened to Claire. I don't know what it is but she has become a Jesus Freak. There were a few thing that I have let slip over the past few months:

Begging to go to the church (It is always closed and my mom explained that it was because people kept stealing everything that was inside.)

Taking a stick into the church because she wanted to beat off the robbers

Singing about Jesus - sometimes even rapping about Jesus, Daddy style (not the Jesus part)

Marching me up the path to my parent's house "come on everybody, we are marching for Jesus!"

Talking about how Jesus and Cinderella were up in the stars

I know there have been many more, but the yesterday took the cake. She saw a huge procession of army ants and exclaimed "they are marching for Jesus!"

Now, could someone please tell me what is going on with my daughter? We don't even use the words God or Jesus in the house. Not ever. (Not that there is anything wrong with that.)

Mormons Strike Again

This is truly hard to believe but I was just visited by two Mormon Missionaries from Utah. I thought that after living in Blakeley Village for three 1/2 years surrounded by Mormons that I had put the experience behind me. Nope. Here it is, 7:20 pm and the young boys with their short sleeved shirts are hollering up at me from the street. Amazing. I told them that they are welcome to come for a quick visit some other day but that there is no need to bring a copy of their "Book" nor was there a need to talk to me about the religion - I knew all I needed to know. So, we'll see.

On another note, there are 19,000 people in rural communities that no one has heard from. Roads are washed out, people don't have power, food, water, phone, etc. It is pretty bad. We are totally isolated here in San Marcos. Both roads out of here have been washed out and covered in mud. There was a helicopter flying around today - i think they were dropping food to stranded families. It is sad.