Placencia with the Boys

Who in their right mind would volunteer to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to get on a bus with 47 teenage boys and spend the next 15 hours with them? This girl. This was exactly how I spent my Wednesday. And it was perfect.

This all started Sunday at the youth thing when a couple of the 2^nd Form boys asked Kelley and I if we were going on the trip with them. We had no idea what they were talking about. It turns out they were going to Placencia for a dual Science and Social Studies trip and as soon as it was clear that our favorite students were going to the beach for the day, we thought oh yeah we have to go! Aside from just wanting to go the beach and be with our favorites, on a practical note we know that you can never have too many chaperones and Kelley and I each have a good solid relationship with most of those boys. And not to sound arrogant or conceited but we were the only Americans who went, and frankly if we didn’t go, I don’t know who would’ve actually chaperoned the kids. We were the ones who did bag checks, we were the ones keeping kids under control on the bus, we were the ones trying to keep the group of us together. But I can honestly say it was one of the best days I’ve had this entire semester. Those boys are crazy, but they are some of the funniest and most enjoyable group of kids I’ve ever encountered. Ok where to begin…

Well they were absolutely wound up as soon as they stepped onto the bus. Thankfully I was too, so instead of wanting to kill them, I was able to enjoy how ridiculous they are with their tons and tons of food. Pretty much all we did the whole day was sit on a bus and eat, and we ate everything from chips to granola bars to weird cookie marshmallow things to cheese dip. We also got offered hot dogs, but we passed on those. Goodness, I can’t even remember all the antics that went on during that bus ride, I can just remember laughing and laughing for the whole 3 hour ride down there. I also can’t believe it’s only 3 hours one way, it seems much longer. The ride down was broken up a little though because maybe about 45 minutes/an hour before we got to Placencia, we stopped at a Mayan museum that’s right off the highway. This was part of the Social Studies part of the field trip. Of course when I say museum I mean the Belizean definition of a Mayan museum which was a rather large thatched roof hut thing. The presenter man is 100% Mayan and pretty much runs the place single handedly, so he was incredibly informative and was quite pleasant to listen to. However I missed most of what he said because we had children going outside and kicking around coconuts and throwing them around (towards the thatched hut. Not smart) and no adult had gone out with them. Really what happened was Kelley and I ended up outside with about half the boys while the quiet good kids stayed inside actually listening to the presentation. We got to try roasted cacao beans which are totally disgusting by the way and this is coming from a girl who likes bitter chocolate! Some of the kids also tried the small chile peppers, but they, being the funny protective students that they are, wouldn’t let me try it because “it’s too spicy, Miss!” Well after a few Mayan chocolate samples and many of the kids clamoring for Kelley and me to buy them chocolate bars, we got back on the bus to finish our trip. But not before one of the students became my cousin: we told them all we would only buy chocolate for our families and one of them who is so shy and sweet comes up to me and says, “Miss, I’m your family.” So of course I say, “Oh really? And how exactly are we related?” Long story short, we decided we (meaning Kelley, the student, and I) were cousins. I still didn’t buy him chocolate, but now I call him primo and he calls me prima. I love it.

Ok so finally we get to Placencia and the only thing scheduled is later in the afternoon a lady from the tourism bureau is talking to the students to give them the answers for the worksheet they had. What did we do in the meantime? Played on the beach and ate lunch. I’m telling you, all we did was eat! But I’m just going to let the pictures do the talking.

 These are from the museum:

 Our guide. Everything there is handmade.

 Some students standing outside of the chocolate factory. It was nothing like Willy Wonka's.

 This is a super great candid photo of Juan Carlos, Manfredy, and Edwin!

 This is Christian who is my favorite student. He always looks mad like he hates the world until all of a sudden he gets this huge smile that just takes up his whole face. 

Ok beach pictures!

 Some of the "cool kids" of 2nd Form: Christian, Orvic, Rahim, Ellsworth, Jonathan, and Juan Carlos

 Yay for being at the beach! And calling it work!

 Some of our quieter sweeter boys. Except Jerson who really isn't quiet: Gian, Jerson, Johnny, and Darwin

These 3! They used to drive me absolutely nuts in the beginning of the year because they always goof off and don't really stop. But with a little perseverance, we are at the point where I love them and they are always sure to say hi to me: Istvan, Alberto, and Rafael.

 Here is a progression of pictures. It started out with Kelley and I wanting to take a picture together with a couple of students jumping in.

 Then we saw more coming and called them over.

 And this is how our picture of 2 white girls ended up being

This is Nigel. Being a kid.

Kelley with Manfredy and Lulvin, the two that threw her into the ocean

Manfredy with his stack of starfish that he was so very proud of

 Here they all are!

You know what it was that actually made the day so great? Because all of these boys never get the chance to be boys. They all have so many adult responsibilities, have problems that a high school student shouldn't have, and Wednesday was a day when they could run into the waves as fast as they could and do flips off each others shoulders and just be. It was so very beautiful to watch. It's days like Wednesday that just make me absolutely love my life.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.

Better Late than Never, right?

I'm only a little behind, yes? I promise I've been trying to post this for 2 days. To make up for it, here is a pretty picture walking home from school I took earlier this month:

I’m going to be honest with you, today did not start great. At all. There wasn’t anything particularly horrifying that happened, but it’s hard to start your day off right when your stupid dog wakes you up between 5:30-5:40 every morning for the second week in a row and then you’re stuck lying in bed for another 20-30 minutes just waiting for your alarm to go off which is now too loud because you’re not dead asleep and then it scares you and nobody likes waking up that way.

Have I mentioned I’m not a morning person?

All I can say is praise the Lord for headphones and a good playlist. It would’ve been no fun whatsoever trying to write this in a foul mood, especially since I have so many weekend events to fill you in on! Who knew life could be so exciting? (Warning: there may be traces of sarcasm laced throughout that last sentence)

I do believe the last time we left off, we were talking about the start of the weekend. Yes, I know that Friday was filled with a retreat, but I truly have no desire to talk about. I’m still rejoicing in the fact that it’s over, so all I’ll say about it is that we made it through, girls were crying during Adoration (trust me, for teenage girls that’s a good thing), and I think most of them had fun. Friday night was pretty chaotic and fun though. Jack’s business class put on a bazaar, but I feel bad for giving Jack my bad Friday luck because it started raining at about 4. The bazaar started at 4:30. So of course things had to be shuffled and shifted, but it worked out. There were a lot of kids there though including some of my favorites, and getting to hang out with them is always the best. Plus having so many kids at school, while it may be crazy for us teachers, it means that they’re staying out of trouble on a Friday night and some of those kids definitely would’ve gotten into trouble.

It was a pretty great Friday night despite my exhaustion. And it got even better when I got to talk to one of my littles in household, Hannah! Plus a few other household sisters popped in here and there. What a gift little Hannah is. It was just what I needed after an unbelievably long day/week. And the weekend was spent almost entirely at school as well: Saturday was pretty typical which means Kelley and I grabbed breakfast from the bakery (ham and cheese croissant things aka the best. We waited half an hour just to get them fresh and it was so worth it) and we went to school where we gave Joe his cinnamon roll and I cleaned off my desk and tried to get my life together. Oops, I almost forgot Saturday night! There are really only two things to mention: 1) Joe and I finished our book! Well sort of, we still have the epilogue to read, but we finished the last chapter. And then we had another realization of how close to the end of the semester we are. After that, there was Adoration from 8-midnight at the Church as a vigil for the feast of Christ the King on Sunday for people to come whenever throughout that time. It’s just always great when I can spend a long time with Jesus, especially in the midst of a super crazy weekend.

Sunday was much much busier. There was some youth day hosted and held by our school, well really by Benque, and so from 8 am to 4:30 pm, we listened to a lot of people talk in Spanish, heard a lot of stupid polka sounding songs in Spanish, and continually moved kids off the picnic tables and bleachers to sit in the seats that were set up. It was so exhausting and it was way too long of a day for teenagers (or anyone for that matter). A lot of our students left around 3 and I don’t blame them since that’s when it was scheduled to end and a lot of them had to get home. But there were some of them who stayed the entire time, including one of my favorites, so I was really impressed and proud of them for sticking it out. We were all super glad the day ended.

I don’t really remember Monday, so hopefully I’m not missing anything too eventful. Tuesday was also pretty average except after school when Kelley and I were baking cookies with students. It was so much fun! The kids are mystified by snickerdoodles and they are super easy to make here, so we made a triple batch, one for the kids and two for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Well I’m sufficiently behind in getting this dumb thing posted due to computer complications as well as being on a field trip for 15 hours yesterday (that’ll have its own post, trust me!), so let this be enough for now! You have the promise of the field trip with the 2^nd Form Boys for next time and depending on how our Thanksgiving dinner/lunch goes today, maybe that’ll be another post. I am just cranking these out! Or at least I will try to. So Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully that’s a belated message because I am sure you have more exciting things to do today than wait for my late blog post. To help you get in the thankful spirit, let me encourage you to enjoy your leftovers. At least you have Thanksgiving leftovers and not whatever we’re going to end up eating today. Oh it will be such an experience!

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.

Countdowns

There are little countdown apps for iPhones that allow you to have several countdowns going for various events like birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, concerts, etc. I've come to the conclusion though that such a tool would be completely excessive for me because anything I would be counting down to is constantly rolling around in my brain. This week, two of my countdowns concluded: one was the CXC Awards ceremony (more on that below) and the other, which is the most freeing and exciting to me, is that yesterday I had my last retreat. I can not tell you how relieved I am. Because while I've loved these retreats (though not the planning!) and I've formed a lot of my relationships with the students through these retreats, yesterday was the 2nd Form girls and boy, they...they are quite the group. There's a lot of them for starters, and most of them have a lot of problems like home life issues that run deep. But it's useless to complain about the many things that made it a stressful day. It should be enough for me that there were girls who had a fruitful day. Oh! But the best part of it was that it was the first time in the past 4 retreats that I woke up and it wasn't raining! I can't even express to you how much of a miracle it was. It's the little mercies we receive throughout the day.

What else am I counting down to? It feels like so many things, I just can't turn it off!
1. 5 days til Thanksgiving. We're having a half day so that the school can give us volunteers a "Thanksgiving." Yeah, I'll let you know what that looks like...
2. 1 week until our basketball regional tournament. So pumped!
3. 1 week and a day until Advent
4. Only 2 weeks until the music classes have their Christmas concert (which also counts as their final)
5. Also 2 weeks until our staff Christmas party. This also means that Finals Week is right after that.
6. 3 weeks from today I go back to the States. SO. WEIRD. And bittersweet. Don't get me wrong, I am more than ready for the break, but you just don't understand how hard it is to leave these little babies! I definitely have some mixed feelings.

Ok so this past week was just crazy. Monday was pretty ordinary (for Belize standards anyway), Tuesday was our holiday, Wednesday was a normal hectic pre-retreat day. Then Thursday was my second field trip! So in Belize, at the end of your 4th Form year, you can take the CXC Exam which is a standardized test for the Caribbean. Well Thursday they had the awards ceremony for this past year and 2 of our graduates were receiving awards. Our school was also asked to prepare a 5 minute musical piece which is how I got roped into this. What this meant is that at 7:30 Thursday morning, I piled into a van with Monica, 5 students, our 2 students getting awards, one of their parents, our vice principal, our principal, and our front desk man to go to Belmopan. Basically, we (being the students who missed school for the day by the way, Monica, and myself) took an hour and a half drive for a 5 minute performance. TIB. It was fun though because I was with some of my favorite students which made the boredom from the ridiculously long ceremony much more enjoyable. Once it had hit noon and we still had about 6 more pages of names to call to receive awards, the kids were getting hungry. Who am I kidding, I was hungry. I knew we brought lunch with us, so I went to our vice principal to ask her if we could just go eat outside and she was like, "Oh yes, we brought some burgers, they're in the van." This is where my American mind set my expectations way too high because I was like wow, burgers, that's pretty fancy for just this trip. Well we get out to the van to get our lunches and as I open the paper bag, I remember that in Belize burger is synonymous with sandwich. So what we actually had was a hamburger bun with cheese, raw onions, and (get this) one slice of baloney. Barf. Monica and I still talk about the humorous and traumatizing experience that it was. But again, the day was a lot of fun. Here is a picture with my little ones (see it's funny because they're mostly 3rd Formers and only one isn't 16).

This cracks me up so much because you would never know that these kids actually smile. Weirdos.

Oh my goodness, I think I'm too exhausted to say anything else. I feel somewhat sleep deprived since our dumb dog has decided to bark at every living thing throughout the night. This means that I've woken up at 4:30 or 5:30 every morning as well as more than a few times throughout the night. Thank you, Belle. Well, there's always the next update to look forward to! I guess all that can be said in any sort of conclusion is that I love whenever I get to hangout with my students which is all I did Thursday and Friday. It's those kinds of days that make it seem impossible to imagine I would be anywhere else right now.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.

No Time for Titles

I know, I know it’s not Tuesday. It’s not my fault though, we had a holiday. Belize really likes Tuesday holidays! We celebrated GarifunaSettlement Day. Something about Africans and Carib people arriving here in Belize I think? Yep, I’m that person, knowing nothing about the country I’m living in. Belize shouldn’t take it personally though, social studies/history was never something I particularly cared about. Anyway, the point of this is 1) to hopefully inform you (and myself) as to what exactly our holiday was yesterday and 2) explain why I didn’t post an update yesterday.

Ok let’s see, what has happened in a week? It seems impossible that it’s only been a week since my last update. I thought for sure I went to Cayo 2 weekends ago, that Belle had her puppies 2 weeks ago, but as it turns out my time perception is just horribly askew.

The weekend was fairly uneventful in the best of ways. Friday night, Kelley made dinner for all of us again because her mother sent her a jar of homemade pesto. Now homemade pesto is a big deal no matter where you are, but it’s an even bigger deal being down here. We were all pumped! And of course it was mega delicious, completed with garlic bread, a salad, and of course some wine. The rest of the weekend I’m pretty sure was spent just hanging out as per usual. The fact that I can’t remember anything too exciting usually means that I was just a bum the whole time. In fact, Saturday was especially lazy because we’ve been having sunny wonderful weather which has been missing for quite some time now. So naturally I had to engage in one of my favorite activities: basking. Kelley and I set up our little folding chairs right outside our house which then caused much laughter and curious looks from Belizeans. Just a typical day!

Sunday we had a little bit of fun though because Kelley and I spent a few hours babysitting Joana and again the weather was spectacular! So we decided to take a walk around Benque after lunch and we stayed for a while at this little park down by the river.

Too cute for her own good.

 Sunday Fun Day!

Monday felt so difficult to get through simply because we knew we didn’t have to come to school the next day! It turned out fine though, especially since I had to sub for my favorite class, one of the 2^nd Form boys. However, it was for their Social Studies class and there was no work left for them. Again, Social Studies is not my thing, and I got asked to sub 3 minutes after class had started, so I was just scrambling for something to do with them. But surprisingly when I walked in there, they sat silently waiting for me to tell them what to do. And I mean silent. It was weird. Of course this was also after the usual, “Can we go outside?” “No” “Can we go to the bleachers?” “No” “Let’s go to the computer lab!” “No” etc. Finally I was struck with those rare moments of teacher brilliance and I decided they were going to write a letter to any teacher at MCHS telling them why they appreciate them. And they all groaned at first and I had to walk around to ensure that they actually took out a piece of paper and started, but after only a couple minutes they really got into it. Some of them were busting out their letter writing skills that they had worked on in English class, so I had questions like, “Miss! Is the address like this?” “Miss! Do I need to skip a line?” One of them asked me to proofread his. Hilarious. I told them to make them good though because they were going to be delivered to those teachers. And that was the best part I think. I collected all of them at the end of class and read through them and wow, let me tell you, if they weren’t my favorites already they definitely were after reading their letters. It totally made my day giving them to the teachers and seeing their faces just light up at it. I totally felt like Santa Claus! And the letters I got are going to be little treasures that I keep forever.

Tuesday was our holiday! But I still woke up at 6:15, though I forced myself to stay in bed until 6:45. It’s ridiculous I tell you, absolutely ridiculous. Thankfully that provided ample time for breakfast and coffee/tea with the housemates which is always the best way to start any lazy morning. The boys were playing all day in a futbolito tournament, so we spent the better part of the afternoon watching them get all the way to 2^nd place! All in all it was a good day off that went by way too quickly.

Ok well I have more adventures to document, but since I was so delayed in getting this update posted, I’ll save my other happenings for another day. Again, I apologize for being so late! I promise I’ve been trying to post this for 2 days now. I also feel super loved to be reprimanded by people for not posting on time :) So thank you!

Oh, it’s my very last retreat week! Praise the Lord! Please please please pray for the 2^nd Form Girls tomorrow! They need the prayers oh so badly. Thank you!

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria. 

No Rest for the Weary

Sometimes I feel like that is the mantra of a volunteer here in Benque. It kind of seems melodramatic and woe-is-me, but it's honestly just the truth. There really isn't a point to "get to" that means breathing for half a second because we always have something to take care of. That can really make it hard to remember to take care of yourself though, and thus we have the balancing act that every person faces. 

Not all the busyness is bad though. Yes, planning that retreat was exhausting but with a lot of grace and Kelley, we planned a day that didn't even go remotely as planned mostly due to the vast amounts of rain that poured from the skies. And it was perfect. Well, except for the outrageous amount of bug bites I got that day, but they are so disgusting and fiercely mean that I'm not even going to talk about them.

When we got back on campus after the retreat, we found out that the basketball games that were originally scheduled to be away had gotten moved to our home court! We were playing Mopan who our boys had just beaten on Wednesday, two days before, in a true nail biter. So Friday was a big deal and just as exciting, if not more so, as Wednesday's game. It was another game that came down to the wire, made up fouls were being called against us, the rain was pouring on the tin roof covering of the court. It was all quite theatrical. But our boys were great and the proud mom feeling surfaced once more.

Saturday was truly full of adventure, just for us volunteers! Our principal took us about an hour out of Benque to a family's farm (their nephew is one of our students). Now when I say farm, it's not quite what we think with cows and hay and a barn. They live in the bush. Straight up. They live with incredible simplicity yet they seem to have so much. We didn't get to explore a lot of their property because of the rain, but they have land with wild horses, a little boat to go out on the lake, treehouses, and 2 little boys who pretty much act like they are being raised in the wild which they kind of are. They're also only 5 and 7, so that's pretty typical for their age anyways. Well enough boring talking, how about some pictures!

 This was their kitchen. It was very spacious and had a picnic table inside where we ate our delicious lunch of barbeque chicken and flour tortillas.

 This is a giant house right by the kitchen hut. They rent to archaeologists who come and stay on their property which is how they make their living. Right now they're getting a fresh coat of paint on it while it's the slower season.

 Kelley and I being all wilderness-y.

 Miriam overseeing the BBQ though our boys did most of it, specifically Jack. She's really incredible though, with a German mother and Egyptian father, she grew up in Germany and traveled all around the world for her education and came to Belize to do field work for her thesis, fell in love and moved here. Pretty crazy. She rocks.

And here is our group photo semi-crashed by Rodolfo, our principal who decided his perfect spot would be on the cooler right in front. Evan, who's uncle owns the farm is also there.

Saturday night was fun because I was desperate for some introverted time, so Kelley and I went on a date in Cayo. While we were deciding where to eat, we saw the other whites (the student teachers) who invited us to join them since they had just sat down. We had a really great time eating with them especially since we hadn't seen most of them in a couple weeks. After we left them though, I realized how grateful I am for the community I have. Not that they are bad to be around or anything, but it just makes such a difference to be here with people who don't just see it as a job, who aren't just here for themselves. I don't know if that's making any sense. All you need to know is that it was one of those times where my tired anti-social self needed a break from the same 10 people I've been around for 3 months and when I did take a step back, I realized how much I love them. Yep, it's sentimental but there you go.

Sunday was much less outdoors, but still exciting because I got to take a nap! I spent most of the day planning my Sacraments class and rubbing Benadryl on my ankles and despising the rain. Oh! Sunday night was eventful because Belle, our dog, had her puppies! 3 little guys. She decided the best place to have them would be under the stairs outside which is of course right outside my bedroom window. Luckily, it was all over and done by 11, so Kelley and I could sleep peacefully. And the little guys were a great treat to wake up to!

The only bad thing about writing these posts after school is that it gets to a point where I really just want to pack up and go to dinner, so I don't always remember everything I meant to say. But those of you who know me well are probably going, "For the sake of everyone around you, go eat!" So I apologize for the million somethings I'm forgetting to mention.

Oh my gosh! Of course! Today my mom emailed me the flight confirmation for my parents coming to visit! They'll be coming down at the end of February, so I'm already praying that the rainy season will end a week or two early (March is when it usually ends). So that's my big news. I feel much more at ease about going to dinner.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.

Remember, Remember...November!

Well another month has come and gone. Some of my students' jaws dropped when I told them it was November. I think part of the reason is because then they realize how close they are getting to exams. For me, it's more disbelief at how soon the semester will end. We just keep rolling along, stunned at how quickly 24 hours disappears. But just because I've had a long exhausting day doesn't mean I have to get all philosophical on you.

Honestly this past week was so packed and moved so slowly that I don't remember much of the everyday things that went down. It seems that this week is the exact opposite, flying by so quickly that I don't know what to do with myself except keep working. But let's not get ahead of myself.

A couple of highlights I'll cover:
1. I didn't have a retreat to plan, so I could actually get other work done. I forgot I had a life outside of retreat planner! But that's over for now because the 2nd Form boys have their retreat this Friday. Please pray for them! They definitely need it. This retreat is a little different from the others since some of these boys are my students, so I actually know them! There's also 50 of them, so I'm really hoping that all the teachers that I want to go are able to.

2. On Halloween, we all got to have some Reese's Pumpkins because my mom is the best and sent 2 bags. I only opened one bag though, so the 2nd is still in our fridge waiting to be opened in a moment of desperation to escape retreat planning chaos. That may or may not have happened last night.

3. Friday was eventful! First, it was the feast of All Saints and Fr. Scott gave a killer homily. One of my music classes was also in charge of the music for Mass and they all sang loud and well. After that though, I was one of 4 chaperones to go on a bus with 45 students to Cayo for a "Rally for Jesus". Now the Caribbean culture mixed with the fact that this was aimed for high schoolers made it a rather...interesting event. You know how at rallies and events they have music playing from speakers as they transition from one thing to the next? They did that, but since it was a Jesus rally, it was praise and worship music. With heavy bass. That was turned up way too loud. But instead of dwelling on all the things I would change about the rally, my favorite part was hanging with some of my favorite students and getting to hear 2 of them sing! Each school had some entertainment piece they had to present and Mount Carmel sang 2 songs. One of the students was in my music class and the other is just one of my favorite kids.

Edwin on the left, Rolman on the right.

Yep, I was that proud mom in the front row taking pictures.

4. Friday night we had a Halloween party for the staff at the boys' house, costumes necessary. They were  mostly hilarious probably due to the fact that it's always funny to see your principal or that one teacher you can't picture out of school dressed up. As ridiculous as some of them are, I don't really think there is any interest on my side or yours of explaining every single one, so I'll just show a group picture instead.

The scary man with the machete on the far right is our Academic Dean. This is the man that disciplines our children. See? It makes it so much funnier!

There is one costume I do have to showcase because the planning and execution of it was very involved. I also know that Joe won't read/see this, so he can't get mad at me for posting this picture. But Monica and Joe had the best costume. They were Oompa Loompas.

In case you can't tell, they have green paint in their hair and orange/pink eye shadow smeared all over their faces to get the orange effect. We have limited resources here in Belize, but we don't let it stop us! Oh man, this picture gets me every time. 

5. Saturday was boring. It was perfect. I got a ton of work done all by myself in the staff room which meant I could plan and dance to my heart's content. So I did.

6. Sunday was so much fun! Well, it's always good because after Mass we have rolls at lunch! This doesn't seem like a big deal, but literally the only time we get rolls is on Sundays. Anyway, after lunch we went to the border to spend the afternoon in Melchor, Guatemala with some of our students! Who doesn't want to hang out with their teachers on a weekend? No, they were great, some of my favorite kids at school. We saw a lot of students all around Melchor, but Rolman (the same kid that sang) and Patricia were our main tour guides. Here are some pictures from our small adventures, complements of Kelley.

We went to the park there which was awesome because they had these random giant animals.

Naturally, Jack had to tame the giraffe.

With Patricia and Rolman. They both look much shyer than they actually are. Trust me, they're not in the least.

In Melchor, the common mode of transportation is by motorcycle, so Rolman was a champ taking us one by one back to the border. We just love this kid so much!

Ok well that's a lot and it's definitely dinnertime, so I'm ending this now! Again, say some prayers for the 2nd Form boys!

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

Totus Tuus, Maria.