December 23, 2003
Reading and Orphans
Well, not much happened today, thank goodness. I got up at around 11:00 or so, goofed off for an hour. I think I spent most of that time hovering around the computer while my brother played Thief II. I must be a sucker for punishment . . . it gives me great pain to watch him play that game. He has no finesse and no patience . . . blunders around levels with his sword out and his health is always in the red zone. And the cool secrets his misses!!! Bah. Whatever.
Then I spent most of the afternoon reading my books. I asked my brother which Star Wars book he was on these days (we're reading the same series) and discovered that he's about six books behind me. So after I encouraged him to go ahead and read it, since he's on a good one, he prevailed upon me to read it to him. I like reading to him from time to time, so I agreed. He's got scarlet fever right now, so that sucks for him, and he's just kind of been moping around the house for days, apparently without even the energy to pick up a book. So I spent an hour or so and read the first two chapters. I'd rather be reading the second Harry Potter book to him (I was actually able to read him the first one this summer!!!), but I forgot to bring it and I think I used up all of my brownie points with the whole D&D thing anyway, so I probably wouldn't be able to talk my mother into it.
The kids got here, right on schedule. Actually, the black-eyed boy disappeared. His dad got really drunk at some point in the last few days and his aunt showed up and whisked him away . . . so he's gone. I hope his aunt is nicer than his grandmother, but it's out of our hands now. The other children are here, though. I haven't met them yet, just caught a glimpse of the little girl as my mom was doing a quick check-up of her medical condition. Their names are Hans, Giovanni (who knows what the actual spelling is . . .), and Emily. Good strong German, Italian, and English names . . . which is odd considering the country I'm in. I've encountered the other two names before, but I've never ever ever heard tell of a Guatemalan named Hans.
Oh, yeah. I should probably have put this link up awhile ago, but there it is now. Go check it out. Pay special attention to the "Profiles" and "Photo Album" sections. I think there's a picture of my house in there somewhere. The kids I'm doing math with at the moment are Alejandra, Dari, Flor, Jose Eduardo, and Luis. My "special friends" (children most likely to attempt a bear hug/tackle at the slightest provocation) are Brenda, Daniel, David, Jenifer, Josue, Karla, Rebeca, Rony, Salomon, Sammy, Sheila, and Yessica. And then there's Rosa, Dalila, and Estela . . . but don't get me started on those three . . . *shudders*
Anyway, big day tomorrow . . . I'm going to go read more.