¡Feliz Día de la Independencia Mexicana!

Today was a lot of fun!  Peggy made breakfast, and since it was a holiday, breakfast was at 8:30, the weekend time. (I wanted to get up to help her, but I was so tired I kept hitting snooze . . . I've been trying to get in bed early, but even when I'm super tired I just can't stay asleep for some reason.  I seriously wake up five times a night.) Anyway, Peggy made the famous RSM Oatmeal Bake, which came from one of the staff girls who used to serve here and is now one of the favorite meals among everybody.  It's super simple--just eggs, oats, canned fruit (usually peaches) and a couple other ingredients thrown in a pan and baked, but it is SO GOOD.  Peggy served it hot in bowls with milk poured over . . . wow.  Everybody went back for seconds.

After breakfast the kids played on the playground and then went to Bible class, like they normally would on a school day.  Josefina sent Reynaldo outside right near the beginning of class because he wasn't paying attention to the lesson.  I saw him sitting on the bench, and even though I didn't know how to really say anything to him, I sat down with him and tried to ask him how he was doing and if he wanted to draw.  He purposely ignored me, but I figured it was good to at least try.  Frances and some of the other staff have told me pieces of his story, and he's a kid with a lot of baggage and a lot of attitude issues as a result.  Frances said he needs correction and training, but above all he just needs love.  Mark is great with him--so patient and caring even when he acts out--but Frances said that she always tries to be sensitive to him, because she knows sometimes he's just struggling a lot.  So even if he ignored me, I didn't mind.  I sat with him until Josefina came out to bring him back into class.

I was going to work on the linen room this morning, but Johnny, Amber, Trish, and Frances were running all the special holiday games out on the ball court, and I decided it would be way more fun and profitable to go help out and spend time with everybody.  Doug talked in staff devos yesterday morning about taking time for people, because people are always more important than tasks.  So I joined them for games, which was great.  They played all kinds of crazy games, and Amber kept score between the two teams.  I think Frances' team ended up winning.  Here are a couple of pictures.

In this game, everyone had to try to pop the balloons tied to the ankles of the opposing team.  Better than soccer!

This game required the kids to strap cups filled with popcorn onto their feet, then do an obstacle course without spilling it!  Needless to say, popcorn went everywhere and the dogs got a good snack.

A very patriotic (and tasty) lunch of red, white, and green!

Around noon I went into the kitchen to help Janet with the lunch.  We were a little short on time and we were hopping until lunch was over--or at least I was.  I had looked up a recipe for champurrado, the traditional chocolate-and-masa-flour drink served for Día de la Independencia.  But of course I'd never made it before (and I'd only heard of it just yesterday), so there was a lot of guesswork involved.  I had Frances be my taste tester because she actually knows what it's supposed to taste like.  It turned out that we didn't have masa flour (I just assumed any kitchen in Mexico would have it, but they don't have any right now), so I used cornstarch instead.  Also had to add a bunch of extra chocolate, some condensed milk, and brown sugar at the end to get it to desired sweetness.  Turned out kind of yummy--little tapioca balls in the bottom, which I liked.  Not sure whether it actually tasted like real champurrado, but nobody seemed to mind if it didn't.  Janet made "green rice," which was prepared with green chiles, cilantro, and garlic, and a chicken enchilada casserole with red sauce, which I helped her assemble.  SO GOOD.  I couldn't believe how much enchilada I ate.  (Mom, I wrote down the recipe.  Never hurts to have two good recipes for easy enchiladas.)  All in all, a very patriotic lunch, for being prepared by two gringa cooks!

Two of the old students came to visit today, and I was so excited!  One was Miriam, who graduated a couple years ago.  She likes to draw too, so she always liked to look at my sketchbook when I would come down with CCPC for the weekend.  She's actually staying here for the whole weekend, which will be cool because she'll have time to catch up with everyone.  The other student was Jesús Martín, who graduated in the spring.  He came for the afternoon with Pastor Carlos (who used to be a student at RSM a long time ago and still comes to teach Sunday church here now and then).  I was cleaning out the linen room in the afternoon, and they came into the distribution center with Josefina to get something.  I actually had a conversation in sign with Jesús Martín!  Granted, I was sort of limited in how I was able to form phrases, and I could only understand about 20 percent of his signs, but I was still amazed at myself.  Just in the last 48 hours, I've suddenly seen my sign language skills take their first big jump.  I think it helped a lot to borrow that book from Amber, because now I can look up a new word whenever I think of something I want to know how to say.

Josefina served dinner--chicken noodle soup--and she didn't need help because Miriam, Pastor Carlos, and his kids were all in there assisting.  I took advantage of getting a break from kitchen cleanup duty and went outside to the playground to help supervise.  The playground hour after dinner is actually really great to me, because we basically just have to be out there to keep an eye on the kids and we can have staff bonding time.  Tonight I talked to Mark and Peggy for a while and then ran around and played with Evalynn (Johnny and Amber's daughter--she's a cutie).

So . . . a full day, but a fun one.  Time to write down the new words I learned and then hit the shower and the sack!  Tomorrow is Shoe Day, and the staff is taking all the kids into Ensenada so each student can pick out a new pair of shoes for the year.  They asked me if I wanted to come since there is an extra seat in the van, so I said absolutely!  I'm really excited to go on an excursion with everybody and to participate in one of the Ranch school traditions!  Hasta mañana . . .