Saturday Traditions

As I've mentioned before life for me has changed since moving into the community; daily activities, traditions, staples, all have been sporadic or put on hold - it's taken me a while to get back into the regular rhythym of life here. This past Saturday I was able to resurrect one such tradition that had been suspended since the beginning of December - "The Saturday Outing". For over a year now my Saturdays have been spent with a specific group of boys (Cristian, Sergio, Lauro, Duke, Chihua and occasionally 2-3 others); we take trips, go to the mall, hang out at the house or go downtown then in the evening we go to church. The church part has continued unabatted but since December I've been busy with sundry other responsibilities and we haven't been able to take any outings. This past Saturday was different - sort of. The night prior it had rained terribly and water had flooded into the church, that morning we got a call to come clean the church so I gathered a reliable group of kids together and off we went. We were pretty hot and tired afterwards so we decided to spend the rest of the day in one of our favorite swimming holes. We came home then in the afternoon and got ready for church that evening. Traditions are good - now that I write that I realize how true that is, more than that I realize how much of anchor they are for kids. They give them a sense of place and time, they're markers to point to, highlights in one's life. And the kids missed them, this past month they dropped hints at random times asking me about our Saturdays and what had happened to them. Hopefully they're back to stay.

carlos, one of my favorite kids, he and his brother tati have been irregular participants in the saturday tradition this past year.

and this is the first time sami's ever been out with us. he's awfully young but he asks me all the time if he can accompany me somewhere and i always say no...this past saturday i got tired of saying no.

me. i think i'm staring down my dog.

on the road to the river

i was trying to be all artsy and drive at the same time

duke didn't notice

our newest addtion, eduardo, straight outta santa ana.
the kids here gave him the nickname dalmation.
he'd been here about 5 hours when he received that name.

this place is nothing if it's not predictable.

another shot of sami

alert keiser

pulga, checho, chihua and julio
as a result of manuel i now have a steady stream of older youth through my home and life in general.

i like them all.

i don't know how i feel yet about mixing them with my adolescents.

checho and chihua are innocent - pulga and julio are great but far from innocent.

manuel with his protege lauro