USA

I’ve made it back to the USA!! I think I need to sleep for a very long time now….

Happy 2010!!

After the boys had dinner, the team put together a very special presentation complete with choreographed dance, piñata, and marriage proposal!! That’s right! The boys (and BLC) got to witness their second proposal in 7 days :) We knew the littlest boys wouldn’t stay up with us until midnight, so we gave them all noise-blowers and had a mock countdown. Then as the team headed up for their own dinner, we continued to hear the noise as the boys ran circles around the building. Good thing we weren’t in Jericho. Those walls would have tumbled for sure!

(massive dog pile when the candy dropped!)

(the girls were tricked into believing they were doing a wedding skit...but Ben was much more serious!!)

After a good meal, we started the bonfire. Nothing too organized, just goofing off with our favorite kids in the world. Jhonny T helped me get hot dogs set up for all the boys and team as a treat and later we made hot chocolate too. We had learned our noise-blower lesson, so just before midnight we passed them out and began the countdown. Welcome 2010!! Lots of noise and boys flipping around the soccer field brought in the New Year until we simply had no more breath. The middle boys soon headed to bed. I had told the older boys I would stay up with them all night if they wanted and they were soon begging for a movie marathon. We headed inside, but they started dropping like flies pretty quickly. Around 3am, one boy stood up, looked around the room, and asked, “is anyone else awake?” When he didn’t get a single reply, he looked at me and asked, “can we all just go to bed? I don’t even like this movie.” He helped me to get all of the others up and moving and we turned in for a few hours of sleep. It was a blast!

(we know how to do a good bonfire!)

An elaborate puppet presentation by the team filled the morning of January 1, and then we took off for a hike. I’ve always heard about the Incan ruins above Sipe Sipe and wanted to go, but it is a pretty rough hike for a team. From the very first bus ride from the airport, this team had been begging for a hike, so we went for it! It took me 2 full hours going straight up to arrive, but it was AWESOME!!

(the view was amazing, and this wasn't even the top!)

(Sitting on top of some of the ruins. There were several stone houses bunched together.)


We couldn’t resist a surprise water attack on the boys for our final afternoon :) Even with our careful planning, the boys always win!

(We gathered them together for a group picture and then bombed them from above!)

(And then they came after us. Unrelenting!!)

Late that last night, a surprise the team had been working on finally arrived…a basketball goal!!! I can’t wait to come back and play!