El Dia Del Campo

All of Central America is out of school and off work during Holy Week.  Our children have been out of school, but still had lots of homework and we have been functioning since Thursday with  a severely reduced staff.  I decided early in week we would do something fun today.  I just did not tell the kids until this morning.
After devo, I said we would eat, do chores, pick up the trash all over the campus and then go to the park for "el dia de campo" or a picnic.  There were shouts of excitement. 

I was so tired.  I did not want to threaten anyone that they could not go if they did not behave.  I did not have the staff for one adult to stay back with the misbehaving child or children.  Fortunately, everyone did chores, helped pick up trash and was good this morning.

Matt, Nicole and I left around 11:20 with nineteen children.  Pamela did not go, but Haley did. We walked to the park.  It was a pleasant day and, to me, the excited laughter and talking of the children was a pleasant sound.  Matt was with the faster ones.  Nicole and I brought up the rear with Haley, Josue, Maryuri, Reina and a few others.

It has been a while since the children have been to the park.  Some of the seesaws and swings were broken.  But the slide and monkey bars were huge hits.  There were three inflatable swimming pools set up today in which people could pay to play.  Of course, our kids wanted to swim.  I was up to a couple of hours in the park, but not the pool.  Besides that, I didn't bring any money with me.  Thankfully.  Most of the children stood up as near the pools as they could get and watched.  That was their choice.  Others chose to play as hard as they could. 

Mr. No-Fear Josue was everywhere, causing my heart to stop once when he climbed to the top of the big slide, stood up and let go of everything.  He thought he was brave.

Grammy just had to put this one in.  Don't worry.  Someone held her every second of the way down.  

Elvia cooked a great meal for us and Marc showed up with the food around 12:30.  The kids went running to his car yelling and screaming like they had never seen food.  After a prayer, we ate and played some more.   We walked back home.  We quickly brushed teeth and I got those under ten down for their naps.  Most went to sleep very quickly. 

The greeting-the-food committee



Jackson chose to eat lunch on top of the monkey bars



We all had fun today.  It was a great day for "el dia del campo.

Terri