Weird weather

Sunrise over Valle de Guadalupe . . . the start of a humid day

Today was bizarre.  There is a hurricane off the coast of Baja further down, so all day we had very odd weather.  When I woke up this morning, there was a beautiful sunrise with tropical-looking clouds, and once the sun was out it got super hot right away . . . you know, that kind of serious humidity that turns every molecule of air into a magnifying glass.  I took a walk after breakfast (and did a double loop to make up for no walk yesterday), but it was pretty nasty out (beautiful, but miserable to be in).  Then, around 9:45, a cloud layer came over and, though it trapped more heat, it at least took away the oppressiveness of the sun. 

I hit a new milestone today: first time praying in Spanish!  We prayed for the dining room and kitchen today during staff devotions, and Howard, Frances, and I went in the kitchen to pray for Juanita.  I decided to try doing it in Spanish, so Juanita could understand it better, and gracias a Dios, I succeeded!  Juanita was so thankful for our prayers, whether in Spanish or English.  She got all weepy in the middle and had to find a napkin to wipe her eyes.

At 10 am, Doug did a mandatory fire-prevention class for all the kids and staff.  Since they had the big fire this summer, he wanted to make sure everybody was educated about fire safety.  Everyone met in the chow hall first, where we learned about the basics of how a fire starts and is fueled, and then we all walked out to the dump at the corner of the property to see examples of how to fight different types of fires.  Johnny translated everything while Doug did the demos.  Doug had set up all his equipment beforehand, and he lit small fires of different kinds (wood fire, oil fire, gasoline fire, electrical fire) and showed us all the correct methods (and extinguishers) to put out each.  It was great . . . I learned a lot.  It’s been a long time since I reviewed any fire safety.

Everybody assembled at the dump for fire demos

Doug showing the process of an electrical fire while Johnny translates

I helped Juanita with both breakfast and lunch today because it was Kayla’s day off and Janet had dorm duty until she got back.  Juanita left not long after breakfast because her daughter Griselda had some pain and other symptoms and was worried the baby might be coming early, but it turned out to be a false alarm and Juanita made it back in time to prep the lunch like usual.  She made her special secret recipe for carne adobada (marinated beef), which was SO yummy.

The afternoon was long and sleepy.  A nice strong wind kicked up, so it cooled off some, but the humidity and cloud cover stuck around and we’ve had random raindrops and sprinkly showers since about 3 this afternoon.  So weird.  I worked in the linen room for a while after lunch, and then went to the kitchen and made some more popsicles out of leftover champurrado (Janet and the dorm girls were in there making cookies and I had a fun and ridiculous time trying to communicate with them), but after that I had to go take a nap.  Crazy how humidity just saps your energy!

A neat moment today—while I was in the linen room, Mark brought the boys to the distribution center to load up the trash for transport to the dump, and Reynaldo wandered in.  I waved hello, and he came up really close to me with a sort of unreadable expression on his face.  It can be really hard to tell what he’s feeling because sometimes his face doesn’t seem to match his emotions.  Anyway, I signed to him, “Are you doing okay?” and he suddenly leaned against me and gave me this big long hug that lasted a whole minute.  I’ve seen him do that with Frances and some of the other staff, but this was the first time he’d done anything like that with me.  I was surprised, but I’ve observed that sometimes he needs long hugs, so I just hugged him back until he was ready to let go.  After that he went back out of the room to look for Mark, and I resumed my work.  Random, seemingly, but I guess God let me be there to give a hug when he needed one.

I hung out in the kitchen while Johnny and Amber finished making dinner, just to help them by keeping an eye on the kids.  JJ and Evalynn are cute, but they’re definitely a handful (especially because JJ has some development disorders and Evalynn has all the energy typical of a three-year-old).  It was a tasty dinner: chicken noodle soup with quesadillas and canned peaches on the side.  (Maybe not the most nutritious ever, but the soup did have a lot of carrots.)

Johnny and Amber invited me to join them and Trish for a game night at their house at 8:15, and at first I wasn’t going to go, but in the end I decided to take them up on it, and I was so glad I did.  We had a great time.  The kids were in bed and we played a board game called Karuba, which was a “quest for the lost temple” themed-game (think Indiana Jones) that involved placing little tiles to make pathways through the jungle to the different temples.  There were little jewel prizes to collect along the way for extra points.  It was super fun!  I won the first game, and Trish just beat me in the second one.  Amber had made Abuelita hot chocolate, and she and Trish educated me on how to do a “Tim Tam Slam,” which she learned from her friend (and former staff member) Erin.  There are these packaged cookies called Tim Tams, which are made in Australia.  They’re like a sandwich cookie—two rectangular cookie wafers with a chocolate layer in between—coated in milk chocolate.  To do a Tim Tam Slam, you get a cup full of hot chocolate, and then you take a Tim Tam and bite off the two opposite corners.  Then you hold one corner in the hot chocolate and suck at the opposite corner to draw hot chocolate up through the whole cookie.  The cookie gets soft and melty right away, so you have to “slam” it and put the whole thing in your mouth at once.  If you’re careful you can do it in two bites, but it’s a bit messy and you always have to be quick.  I’m normally not much of one for packaged cookies, but I happened to be craving dessert really badly tonight and wow, did that combo hit the spot! 

Johnny gave me their Game Journal to sign when I left.  He said that he and Amber always document their group game nights—it’s a fun way to keep a record of what games they played with whom.  He and Amber (and Trish) are all self-professed “nerds,” which cracks me up when I’m around them because I’m so un-nerdy by comparison.  Just to give you an idea of the extent of their nerdiness . . . Johnny was wearing a “Visit Mordor” T-shirt tonight, there were art pieces on their wall containing quotes from The Fellowship of the Ring, and they had a ten-minute discussion about one of their favorite games in which the most recent “smashup” battle was between aliens and geeks, and the battle before that was between pirates and zombies.  I agree that Tolkien is pretty awesome, but beyond that it all goes over my head.  Another language more foreign to me than Mexican Sign!

Argh, it’s late again.  Sugar rush from the Tim Tam Slam is long gone.  Must.  Sleep.  Must.  Sleep . . .