School / Playtime

School or play? Any guesses? Who knew clothes pins could be an educational tool?
"20 groups of 5 equals 100 clothes pins mom!"

Snack time. mmmm Guavas.

View from our trailer. This little patch was dry and practically dead a couple months ago....even the cactus!
After some faithful watering and a couple BIG rains its looking like a desert paradise with beautiful flowering succulents and cactus.

The kids have been playing SO good with each other lately. I think they have really been forced to be each others best friends. The orphanage kids are not only difficult to communicate (language barrier) with but they are often busy.
The biggest change that I've noticed over the last couple months is Silas becoming more and more one of the "big kids". He LOVES to play house, survivor, castaway, petshop ....or whatever imaginary life they are living.
In this picture they are playing "Globos" .
We went to the Tuesday open air market called "Globos" at noon today to pick up some produce. At the market you can find just about anything. It looks king of like a giant garage sale that spans for blocks.
Make shift tables, vans converted into stores, tarps and sheets for shade and dirt streets for floors make up this Baja shopping "mall". In it you can find potted flowers, trees, produce, shoes, clothes, toys, housewares, candy...and just about anything you would be surprised to see set next to a pile of Cilantro. I came away with two very large bags of all kinds of vegis and fruit for only about $13. As I was browsing through the boxes and tables of vegi's I looked around and realized just how "used to" Mexico I am. It will seem strange to shop in a giant grocery store again with it's beautifully displayed but overpriced produce deptartments. We bought 3 lbs of strawberries for $3! You can't get much fresher....we can see the fields from our house. :) Not organic but we'll survive until I can get home and plant a huge garden...definately beats a vegi/fruit free diet.
Our orphanage cafeteria diet , although we are immensly grateful for it and it is tasty, is very lacking in healthy fresh foods...like vegi's.
Oh well....all it takes is a trip to globos and we have lots of healthy food.

Check out the wierd looking plastic thing by our door. An older couple that is working here for a few months brought it down with them for their shoes. It is actually a little greenhouse I think. I admit I coveted it immediately when I saw it outside their trailer.

The one bane of my existance here has been where to put shoes...especially during rainy spells. The other couple decided that they weren't using it and asked if we wanted it. They were going to just drop it off at the ware house. I said "YES!"....well I think I actually did a dorky little excited clap. I now have a place to keep our shoes out of the dirt, the rain, and our trailer!! Sometimes its the small things :)