The kids and I needed to be at school by 7:50 today for the ChiChi trip. The internet wasn't working this morning so my plans to work part of the day went out the window. We left Tim at home with hopes he'd get it figured out for himself.
We hopped in the car with the 4 kids, their 4 teachers, the driver and me. It's a beautiful drive from Antigua to ChiChi. We went through Pastores, and Parramos on the way. The ride to Chichi is pretty windy (is that a word?...it winds a lot...not wind!) and so by the time we got there Jake and I had enough of the drive.
We hopped out and got ready to explore the Mercado. Jake and Lily saw string right away that they wanted to buy for their bracelet business. Those two are nuts. We went into the church there as well. The churches here are absolutely beautiful.
The kids did a lot of bargaining....it's good to hear them speaking in Spanish and responding. Their receptive language has improved immensely. Originally we were going to spend the afternoon in Pana, but then we wouldn't get back until 6:30 and Mayda is cooking at 6 tonight so we told them we didn't need to go to Pana.
We walked around the market for a couple of hours and then had lunch. Lily and I had ice cream for lunch. I'm not sure the teachers were impressed by that decision. Jake, Lily and Grace had hot dogs. And the hot dogs came on a bun with guacamole and pickle relish. I told them they couldn't expect everything to be the same. :)
Jake and Lily did find some string for their bracelet business...and Jake found a Mayan pot. He's still fascinated by the Mayan culture. Ethan looked at some paintings, but decided he wants one in Antigua instead.
On the drive home we drove past a bus broken down on the hill. I told the driver 'un problema'. He said 'siempre'. (always). Cracks me up. Then we saw some political parties on the side of the road...blaring music and propaganda. We saw a bunch of people marching with a flag. I asked the driver what they were up to. He shrugged his shoulders and said 'locos'. I said we have a lot of locos in estados unidos too. :)
Got back to school at 4. The kids wanted to go home but I told them they still had one more hour of school. They were ECSTATIC. Not really, but they got to play scrabble the last hour so that helped.
Tim showed up and we all walked home together. Mayda was waiting at the house cooking dinner. We ran into Rebecca and Tessa on our way home. We met them two years ago and they are staying right around the corner from us. Rebecca was on the way to the Porta Hotel, so Tessa came to hang out with the kids. My kids were excited to have someone else to hang out with. Dinner was AMAZING again. Mayda is so sweet. I'm going to miss her. Amazing how quickly you form bonds with people. She gave me her number so I can call her when we return.
On the way home, we drove behind a From Houses to Homes vehicle! They were finishing the day in El Tejar. It's nice to have been here long enough that we are running into people we know!
The kids swam in the pool for awhile and we sat and talked to Rebecca. It was a relaxing evening. I'm not ready to go....but then I am ready to go home. It's going to be bittersweet.
No comments:
Post a Comment