Is it ONLY Thursday, or ALREADY Thursday???

Just a few notes from Martha:

Wow. What a week it's been. Our trip here was as smooth as we've ever had it. No, our bags were not all lined up when we got into baggage claim, but they DID all arrive! Our bus trip to Santiago was excellent. I was able to direct the bus driver to the Hotel Colonial without a single wrong turn. (Yes, miracles happen.)

The five young people who are new to the trip have been real troopers. They seem to absorb each new experience like old hands at the game. (Speaking of which, we're now playing a card game called Golf.) They are all making efforts to use Spanish, they're all snapping pictures and scarfing up eggplant at dinner. A really good group for sure. We may go out for Helados Bon tonight!

Highlights so far:
Hugs from Hipólito, Dulcina and the family.
Seeing familiar faces.
The new kitten at the hotel.
Learning a couple new songs.
Singing (shouting?) the familiar songs.
Passing LOTS of block hand to hand.
Seeing Glennys.
Talking to Ercilia on the phone.
Looking forward to the end of the week and transfer to the Gran Ventana.

Challenges so far:
The heat.
Many repetitions of passing block from hand to hand.
Forearms that hurt from many reps of passing concrete block.
Not having quite enough VBS supplies... 200 kids????? On Wednesday????
Watching Poly, Lilian and the kids grieve for the sick puppy who died today.
Noticing that P. Hipólito is having a tough time w/ his hip.

Photos, well I'm not going to get them downloaded tonight. Suffice to say that I have a few and hope they're really good. Now, I'm off to dinner... eggplant again! :-) I'll eat some ice cream for you.