The Place to Be

So I’m thinking I’ll update you on some life happenins in this blog, as life has really been happenin over here.

I stayed at the orphanage this past Sunday. We get to go to town three out of every four Sundays. On the Sunday we stay, we hang out in the big house to help cook, watch the kids, and such. Whelp, this Sunday when I stayed just so happened to be the day that all the boys needed haircuts.

Yeah. I cut their hair.

So before I go on let me tell you how much experience I have cutting hair:

None.

The first lucky candidate just happened to be the boy I have talked to the least here. His name is Adrian and he also just so happened to really not want a haircut. And to top it off, he really didn’t want the haircut my beautiful inexperience gave him.  So yeah. Basically he ended up crying in the corner and refusing to leave the room as he didn’t want his friends to see his hair.

I don’t know who was more embarrassed, him or me.

Then after that I cut all my boys’ hair, other than Hugo as Jonathan cut his. Honestly I’d say I did pretty well. I guess it’s mainly because each of them are the cutest little human beings on the planet, so they would look adorable straight up bald or with a sprout of hair shooting off from the side of their head. But none the less I’m pretty sure I kind of sort of maybe got half of the hang of it and some of their hair is actually cut evenly.

Definitely not Gabriel’s.

The last haircut I gave was to Dagner. Oh my goodness. When I came in March, I fell in love with this little boy. He is so incredibly cute and little and snuggly and adorable and just sweet in every sense of the word. He didn’t really want a haircut, but Miguel asked him if he’d rather him cut his hair (and said it would be incredibly short) and so he said me. So I went to it.

Folks, let me give you a tip. When you’re cutting a nervous little boy’s hair and you realize you severely messed up by noticing he practically has a bald spot on the top of his head, don’t freak out.

So yeah I freaked out and then Dagner freaked out and was like “Teacher you broke my hair.”

Then I refused to do anything more, as the idea of giving him one bald spot somehow seemed a bit better than two. Also I was in despair. So Miguel gave it a try but honestly I had cut him to the point of hopelessness. So then I tried to make it a little better but yeah that didn’t work out.

So then this little boy just starts crying. A lot. And then all his friends start coming in and laughing at his hair. And to top it off, his older brother comes in who is the definition of calm and collected and said, “Who ruined my brother’s hair!!!” Without calmness or collection.

So yeah. That was kind of embarrassing. Luckily his brother savaged the remains. Dagner is still cute everyone stop freaking out.

Anyways, I was thoroughly convinced this little boy hated me. Which pretty much broke my heart in two as he has just started calling me mommy but then his mommy went and chopped all his hair off.

So Monday morning he was sitting at our table hugging Dani and I told Dani to ask him if he was mad at me. She did, and this precious little boy said, “No!” with such genuine concern that my word I truly believed he had forgiven me for causing such trauma. And then he walked over to me, gave me a giant hug and said, “I love you, Mommy.”

Anyways. All that to say I should never go into cosmetology. And also I live with incredible kids who have the most beautiful hearts and I am in awe of them every day.

In other news, Kevin, Ashley, and Miguel came back from Santa Cruz with gifts. I sent Kevin with a shopping list. There happens to be an American Walmart Wonderland in the mall in that city, and I was craving some foods.

Basically my list consisted of French Vanilla cappuccino mix and Cookies and Cream Hershey bars and salty chips and sweet tarts and my word if you somehow happen to see them goldfish.

Healthy, I know.

So of course I knew Kevin wasn’t going to find goldfish. Because that’s just not a thing here.

But guys guess what. It’s a thing here. Kevin found goldfish. And he bought me a lot of goldfish.

I’m talking a lot of goldfish.

The heavens opened.

So throughout this week Dani and I may or may not have had a lot of moments where we just sat together in our room and ate America.

So that has been incredibly fun and I need to go running.

In other news, I guess everyone should know that Andrew and I took a trip to the bridge on the motorcycle because I needed to get service and then I drove the motorcycle back.

Like I straight up steered the thing.

So if I come back decked out in leather and a bandana and long, tangled, winded hair don’t freak out.

Actually freak out because that would be weird.

Oh, Tuesday Candace and I were going to help machete in the banana fields during work. We had to stop by my house first because she needed boots and I needed my hat to shield me from the great big sun.

So yeah, we got what we needed and then headed out to find everyone.

We saw Jancy walking into the jungle so we just followed his path. But then we lost Jancy. So we started screaming for people who we knew were out there and no one heard. So then we started trying different paths.

And basically we were just wandering around in the jungle for a very long time. Like I’m talking Candace started yelling “SOS” which wasn’t necessary but it really added to the experience.

It was almost like we were lost in the banana fields, minus the fact we weren’t really lost at all. Also turns out we weren't even in the banana fields.

So that was slightly adventurous. Also we never found them and I have learned that my since of direction doesn’t improve in different countries.

Shocking I know.

I guess I should add to this list of randomness that it’s starting to get really hot here. Basically the sun really makes itself at home in this little part of the earth. And I’m thankful for all it does and stuff but sometimes I’d like to tell it to take a little vacation. But obviously that would be bad so I shall try my best to appreciate it. But the struggle is real.

Anyways. Those are some happenings in the jungle. And I realize it is pretty random and unexpected but pretty much a lot of stuff here is random and unexpected. Like finding cockroaches. Or experiencing a thirty second downpour of rain. And then the sun comes back. Or having Jancy surprise you with a coconut chocolate drink while you’re teaching.

I’m telling you, folks. This is the place to be.