An Unfinished House

our U-12 team won yesterday by forfeit because the other team failed to show. it's not the best way to move up in the rankings but we'll take it.

thems are dominos

Little Mateo turned 1 yesterday so they dressed him and told him to smile. Actually where those clothes came from is beyond me as normally he wears nothing more than a diaper made out of one of his brother's t-shirts. We celebrated as we always do with the cake and the singing and the prayer...and he understood none of it. The horde of kids did though, they heard there was cake and came a running and enjoyed it for him. Happy Birthday to him. happy but not really sure why mateo is funny actually, funny in a way that worries me. he's a slow mover - in just about every way. it's like his every movement is in slow motion, from turning his head to pointing at something. on top of that he gets fixated on things, he'll just rest his slow moving gaze on something and stare at it for minutes on end and nothing can break the studious glare, not even caling his name. i'm being serious when i say that i'm not sure everything is ok here, i've never seen a baby move so ...

Some of the little kids found this empty and shattered pinata the other afternoon and roped Konrad into holding the twine while they took turns beating the life out of it.

one of the coolest girls in town had a birthday

Here's a better look at the work we do here:

Good Morning, at least it’s morning here, quite early in fact. I’ve been hit with the desire to introduce you all to the Varela family – the boys of the family actually. I’ve been meaning to do this for some time in that I find them so captivating and frustrating all at once, but as is my wont, I get distracted and busy and grand exposés get pushed to the side in favor quick photos with snappy captions. Anyway, I've got the time this morning and the gumption so let me start by saying, I really like these kids. I suppose that's a given, I like nearly all of the kids in this community, but there is something special about these boys, the way they look out for each other, raise each other, act the man of the house when necessary. I don't know, it makes me smile. In all, including the 2 girls, they are 8 - they know of their father as he sometimes visits but he lives 3 hours away and for all intents and purposes doesn't exist. Their mother is Marta who is an wonderful lady,...

forgot to mention that konrad and I took a quick trip to utila the other saturday/sunday. we'd been feeling exhausted and burnt so we hopped the afternoon ferry after the soccer games. it's a beautiful and strange place inhabitated by english-speaking (sort of, their dialect is less intelligible than jamaican english) descendants of pirates and british colonials. it's nothing like the rest of honduras culturally and a must see if you're ever in the area. needless to say that konnie and i came back rested and rejuvanated.

I brought Jacks to play with the kids yesterday but the adults pushed them out of the way and started playing themselves. Marta's really good by the by.

phillies fans in laureles chicks painted orange for easter retaining wall afternoon siesta super hero for a day garbage collecting in the rain coconut rain sibling rivalry everything in its place much love for uncle kentucky like a scene from texas chainsaw massacre or west virginia

Dear Blessed has it been slow! Which I don't mind telling you, is nice; we've been running ourselves ragged for the past 2 months with little or no resting time so this past week has been a real treat. Yesterday we just visited with kids and families and spent the better part of the morning lounging in the trees. just waking up from a nap high up in the trees forced poses even marta was taking it easy

Kevin, one of the kids I'm closest to, turned 10 the other day. We did the requisite celebrating and all and had a grand old time. Incidentally, the next day Kevin scored the game winning goal for our U-12 soccer team...so he's been riding high here. the kid and the cake afterwards we smoked the candles...ok not really. his slice, though his brother seems to want some of the action as well and konrad is happy

I forgot to mention the other day that this past Saturday, for the first time since beginning our soccer season, both of our teams won their respective games. I had fully expected our U-14 team to come away with the win, they've been practicing hard, are loaded with talent and were practically bloodthirsty. It was our U-12 team though that really surprised me, they stayed disciplined the entire game and just wore the other team down. Both teams won their games 2-1 and needless to say we were all elated. We rode back into the community on the back of a truck screaming "WE WON, WE WON", we made quite a spectacle of ourselves. Now for this coming weekend...

i came home yesterday in the afternoon and was greeted by this. it made me want to laugh and cry all at once and also aptly depicted how i felt right about then.