week 33: mucho trabajo.... eh? (january 26 - february 1)

the canadians: this week began the first of almost 2 months of volunteer groups coming from canada. from now until mid-march, we will have over 100 canadians come in 4 different groups to do different projects for our kids, for the home and for the surrounding communities. the first week went really well and all the visitors were so nice and helpful. this first group included about 15 people from an irrigation company. they put an irrigation system in our garden and spent the rest of the week building a full size soccer field for our kids. they laid sod, put in sprinklers and brought two really nice, full sized goals and nets. it's going to take a few weeks to be ready, but they did an amazing job and we definitely will have some good soccer games in store for the future. some of the others from the group went over to the nearby batey (small village) and spent the week helping them build a school. they also did some other really nice stuff, like invite us over for dinner one night, had a bbq for all the kids and tías, and during their time here, they will manage to take each house to the beach or swimming pool with them one sunday afternoon. it's going to be a lot of work, but i think with their help, we are going to get a lot of really great things done for the home here.

the superbowl: in the midst of all the craziness with the visitors, i was able to escape on sunday to witness the historic event of the cardinals being in the superbowl! we found a hotel in juan dolio that had nbc (in english), so a group of 4 of us americans headed in to watch. it was a first time in a long time that i was more interested in the game than the food! (but i really did miss our amazing superbowl parties... pinneapple upside down cake!!) it was a good game, but too bad they couldn't pull it out. (sorry father eric, i sang the fight song for you in my head anyway). the hour long episode of the office made up for it all though!

"..and i knew exactly what to do, but in a much more real sense i had no idea what to do." - michael scott