update part 2

This is update part 2, so read the one below first! I'm also working on getting some more pictures put up.

In working news, Emily has a story hour at the local library that is quite a hit with the 4-8 year olds. Libraries are different here, you can’t actually check out books, only read them in the library (which is open 4 hours a week) and there aren’t many books. One of my jobs is to start a baseball team with 4^th and 5^th grade girls. So I went to the classes and asked who wanted to play. Everybody wanted to play. So we had a baseball camp. A few volunteers from elsewhere came and helped teach kids who had never played before. We had 98 kids, and oh, if it doesn’t sound hard enough already, we only had 20 gloves, 14 balls and 5 adults. But they loved it. The biggest success of the camp is that no one was badly hurt. Kind of lucky, considering that the kids could already more or less throw, but had never really caught, especially with their left hand. Thankfully, our numbers have dropped a bit (I only need one team of 15) because it is now “summer” for the school kids. Just like in the states summer coincides with harvest (here, the crop is coffee). Not that kids in the states actually work harvest anymore (except Emily’s brothers). The baseball team still has a long way to go though, when I told the kids they weren’t supposed to slide at first they said that they didn’t want to get hit with the ball. Well, I couldn’t argue with that so until the first baseman can actually catch, they get to slide into first. We have other projects too, but they’re top secret so we can’t discuss them (actually it’s just because this is already so long).

I don’t know how I waited so long to tell you all, but I have been playing soccer with the local team. We are called Atletico San Francisco and we’ve got 4 different uniforms. It’s the big time! In my first game I stole the ball and scored a goal. All Emily or I heard about anywhere we went during the next week was my goal. I think it’s the first goal I’ve ever scored in my life. Right now we are playing in a tournament, with games on Sundays, and the town comes out to watch. I tell you, I don’t know if I’ve ever been as nervous as I was before the first game. You know, I don’t even know a lot of the rules, but I can’t really go ask my teammates either.

Emily and I got a few packages a couple weeks ago. We were surprised when it took less than two weeks. Thank you very much to our family for the wonderful goodies and photos. The most difficult thing about having one really good chocolate bar in your kitchen is how to decide when to eat it, because once it is gone you won’t get one for another few months.

Well that’s all for now. I must say that I will do a better job keeping up with this blog. The end of the school year made for a very busy team here because I became de facto computer genius. And don’t worry, Christmas season is here too, we were in the big mall in the capital and they have a 40 foot tree in the center. Though the Christmas music sounds a little different when it is sunny and 70 degrees.