This is Tom and Carmen de Maria. Carmen is one of the twins who came from an extreme abusive situation. Tom is our leader who keeps us motivated and on task every day!

A sneak visit to the coffee shop! I ran out of Peets!

It's already Thursday and the week has flown by. It is now so routine to go to El Arca each day to help out. Today Aoife and Tighe started out the day sanding and staining chairs, painting one of the homes (and himself), in the afternoon they helped with crafts.

Deena, Kristin and I were asked to clean out the school supply room and organize the existing supplies. All I can say is thank goodness the ceilings are high or I would certainly have banged my head when the cockroaches came out and at times crawled up my hand and arm! I jumped so high....this was the dirtiest job I think I have ever done....there were roaches everywhere and roach poop everywhere; it's especially gross when it gets under your nails! The house mothers got a good laugh at us shreiking and jumping whenever the roaches ran out from a box we moved or emptied. Here's some pics of the room and the end result with all the supplies neatly stored in containers... a perfect job for Deena to lead, she did an excellent job coordinating the effort!
Today we (Eric the kids and I) had lunch in Indiana's home. Indiana lives with Wilkins and Diana, their 3 children and 7 other orphans. It was a fun time, Diana is 32 and has a bubbly personality, always smiling and laughing and Wilkins has a very kind gentle nature; he told us is studying on weekends to obtain a teaching credential. The biologocal children of the house parents do not get any additional food, clothes or exra treats, they live the same as the orphans. The homes are interesting and quite a contrast to how we live. The furniture is all made locally, some of it by the house fathers and older boys at the orphanage. None of the chairs have cushions so there is no soft place to sit! Of course there is no TV and no radio. There is a schedule of the days events posted on the sparten wall. Chores are listed as well as family meeting times. Other than soccer adn basketball disputes, we have not seen any discord among these children and the concern and respect they show for each other is in abundance! The dishes, pots and pan etc are mismatched and old. We didnt have enough forks to go around so some of the children used spoons to eat their lunches. Diana made what has become my favourite food item..I cannot recall the name but it is made from Yucca and deep fried (so bad but so yummy).



After lunch we strolled over to Arhalia's home to enjoy a cup of coffee and a song. I am going to try and post a video of this visit...

We then (the women) joined the house mothers in their afternoon group meeting and they taught us how to prepare that Yucca snack I love! We had so much fun...it is neat to experience their comraderie and friendship. The rice they use is the cheapest rice and they showed us how they pick out the bugs etc prior to cooking!

Eric spent the afternoon in soccer camp again..the boys are really getting to know him and he is getting to know all of them and its fun to see how they interact with him on and off the field.

At the end of the day as we were leaving I noticed the kids lining up outside the door of the multipurpose room. They were each taking turns to come in and speak with Janina (the director of El Arca). I learned it was 'Pay Day!" they were coming in to find how much they had earned

In the evening we learned how many of these children still need sponsors. We will be sponsoring a child (probably Willy who remains glued to Tighe's side). Each child needs 9 sponsors to be fully supported here. A sponsor ship starts at $35/month...11 lattes! If you're interested let me know and I can send you the email address of the person coordinating that for El Arca.

After dinner we walked into town and everyone enjoyed a well deserved ice-cream! Of course when we returned the power went out. We are used to it now. The night was so hot that I could not sleep...our free standing fan does not cover the whole room and until someone moved it I had enjoyed it's breeze every night..now it's someone else's turn!