yippee I can post this....It's Monday afternoon, August 12. I have internet but apparently not enough power to open a new post on my blog, so I'm writing in word and I'll copy it over later when I can get into it. It's been raining now since Thursday, spots of no rain, not sun but not wet. There's this arroyo that goes under the road from up in the hills, bringing the rainwater down to the sea. But they're doing construction on the road, getting ready to pave it, and they widened the road- made it double the width in that particular spot (don't know why only there), but I don't think they put in the extra pipe underneath for the water to flow thru. We saw a couple of those pipes sitting along the road closer to town, not sure why they didn't put it in... anyway we can see the water trickling thru the rocks and around the sides, but it overflowed the road yesterday to pour over the other side. Anyway now there's a huge pond on the side of the road and Sam and the nearby kids are very happy about it! The ocean is too rough now to go in, but this pound is so deep the kids are jumping in and it's over their heads. Sam swims around collecting all the sticks and stays in until we order him out! It will be interesting to see what comes next ha ha.

You know these kids are jumping right into a hole where they have no idea what's under the water, there's gravel and chunks of rock that the construction guys have been breaking up to layer the road with before they pave. Of course at this rate I don't know when they can pave if it doesn't stop raining for a month ha ha. This means to us that mud and sand flow in a river down our driveway and quickly overflow or stop up the gutter that runs in front of the patio. The gutter has pipes that run under the patio and drop into the backyard, which has pipes to the beach, but I think because of so much mud it's overflowing. This means out patio which is part of the house since that's where we eat and walk across to the kitchen, has a layer of slippery mud all day now.

Anyway the kids here are amazing. For one thing once they are teenagers they pretty much have to grow up, help in their parent's stores & restaurants, help with the younger kids, etc. But the younger ones are fearless; they climb on the rocks at the beach, they play all over the place, the bigger ones watching (kinda) the littler ones. I know a 3 yr old who goes swimming in their pool, on his own! He plays all over the neighborhood. He knows though about the beach, he stays away from the water unless he has permission, and when he does, runs straight in. I guess because they live here they don't get sick. They run and play, flop down and sleep, then get back up for more play. School starts next Monday and they tell me they are ready!

And for English class! I've had usually 4 or 5, sometimes nobody, and today: 13!! Wow! I didn't know what to think, or really what to do. So I just started class, asking the new kids their names, giving them the little handouts I had made (luckily) last week. I need ink for my printer! I also ran out of the Spanish/English dictionaries for kids. Gotta see if there's a place in Acapulco to buy more....but it was fun, and they helped each other. next week when school starts we will move class to 1:30pm instead of 11am. They really like to compete now that I give little pieces of candy for right answers. Everyone wants to recite individually, today even 2 of the brand new students! ha ha This is for them- but I feel so good. Overwhelming grateful that I get to be a part of this. The other day I was swimming in Chela's pool and 2 kids from class were guessing the colors of everything and then a couple of other kids wanted to learn them too. The when I went to Rosa's Monsie, Miguel and Ronoldo wanted to guess colors and body parts (eyes ears nose...) And it's helping me with Spanish too.

Well can't fix the windows yet but luckily for us when the wind was blowing so hard yesterday and last nite, it wasn't raining. Then the wind died down and it rained all nite. The rain makes us feel lazy, we're watching a movie now- Indian dubbed with Spanish ha ha, but the dancing is good. The bread lady came by when we were having class, and she asked me when I have it, so maybe we're gonna have even more estudiantes! The laundry on the line has been there 4 days ha ha cause it never gets dry before more rain...and even the stuff I hung up inside still seems damp.

But I'm happy to be here at the hardest times, the rainy wet season, the buggy buggy season, cause in another month it will be fresh and clean and cooler and the water will be amazing. Then by the rainy season next year we will be better prepared, but aware of what's coming. Like when I was a kid I used to eat the stuff on my plate that I hated first, then I could enjoy the rest of my food. yeah my parents made us eat everything on our plate. They'd say eat it or no dessert, I'd say ok I don't want dessert. Eat it anyway or have it for breakfast. I saw my brother-one time- get served something (i don't know what) from last nite's dinner....I never wanted to do that, so I ate it, or found interesting ways to get rid of the food. Can I pls be excused to come back? That meant could I go to the bathroom and come back to the table- you didn't get up from the table without asking to be excused...and I'd take a napkin full of meatloaf and throw it out my bedroom window.

Of all the mistakes I made as a parent, that wasn't one of them. They had to try it, but if they hated it they didn't have to eat it. It seems like they don't have all the weird food issues I've had ha ha. Anyway.......the point is that I wanted to come when it's the hardest to get that experience out of the way first. We were gonna come after the rainy season, but I realized I wanted to do it this way. Well we'll see how I feel in a month after being wet for all that time. Nothing feels dry, even the stuff that doesn't get wet, still feels damp...hmmmm maybe it's just me.