Tuesday, April 19th

      This morning went the same as always: I woke up, helped with breakfast, walked the kids to school, and helped with laundry. Like yesterday, we painted all day and ended the day covered head to toe in paint and sweat; except today was much worse! I really do enjoy painting because we bring our speaker outside and play music loud and sing with Wafi and Moses. Today, Wafi painted the roof outside of the dorms, Devyn painted the benches and stones, I painted the bridge, and Moses made the wooden bench by the basketball court into concrete (so it lasts longer). Since I painted the bridge, after we helped Moses last week make it concrete instead of wood, bits of concrete (toward the ground) would get on the end of the brush so I would wipe it on my leg. By the end of the day, I had multiple blobs on my arms and legs, some intentional and some not intentional. Unfortunately, today I got FRIED. I look like a tomato with a tanktop, shorts, and paint tan. I am not kidding about the paint tan... wherever I had blobs of paint are now white and surrounding it is bright red sunburn. I was so determined to finish the bridge I worked through lunch and even 30 minutes into when the kids arrived from school. Cavelli, an adorable 6 year old who hung out with me everyday because she didn't go to school, painted the benches with us. Devyn and I put her hands into the paint and she put her hand prints on little benches.

      After I was finished, I put up all of the tools and helped Shanelle with her homework, which was to make a clock. We cut out a circle and arrows out of cardboard and then covered them with construction paper. Moses then cut off a nail for us to put through the arrows and the circle to allow the big and the short hand to rotate around. After we finished her homework, I played with the kids until it was time for dinner. While I was playing PIGS with Delroy (the 17 year old boy), Cavelli and Kavan, twins that I always play with, were adopted by a family that lives in Seattle. Although it was so cute for them to meet their new parents, it was so sad to see them leave because it felt like one of my children leaving me (even though I have only known her for 9 days). I cannot imagine what the caretakers and the other kids feel like after someone gets adopted because they are with them for so long. When she left, I teared up and tried not to cry because I knew I would not be able to stop (like last night). Everyday is such a different adventure and I am going to miss everyone here so much.