24-7

Not a football score, but a "new normal." We now have guardianship of the children around-the-clock. Our official week for observation started this afternoon, and continues for one week. We will be visited by the psychologist at least twice during that time. However, we know it won't be for the long weekend. With the All Saints Day holiday on Tuesday, the government declared Monday a holiday too. There will be no doctor visits, paperwork, or other official business until Wednesday. In case you wondered, children in Lima do celebrate Halloween by going trick-or-treating. Maybe we'll just buy some candy and let them ring our apartment doorbell a few times.

We are in the condo in Lima (Miraflores district). This weekend, we will do some shopping for shoes, socks, jackets, etc., visit the park along the seaside, and other fun things. By Monday, we plan to have the house filled with Post-it notes with the English and Spanish words for items.

Here are some things we have found that are the same for the children as what we are used to:

• skipping stones in a lake
• eating Chinese food (sauce taufi is remarkably similar to Green Jade's chicken and broccoli flavor)
• wanting to watch television more than read books
• looking around a little fearful when the earthquake hits and your 16th floor apartment starts swaying
• laughing when someone spills food on themselves
• wanting to drink soda more than water
• pretending to cheat at Uno
• falling asleep quickly when you're very tired
• being afraid of heights
• getting bored fast on taxi rides

Here are some things that are different:

• using hot water to brush teeth
• eating such a big meal at mid-day that all you have at night is a banana or roll
• wearing the same clothes every day (at the orphanage)
• reading everything aloud, even if other people are reading in the same room
• not just taking your plate into the kitchen, but also wiping down the table after a meal, and helping put everything away
• wearing underwear in the shower (because you're used to communal showers)

Can you guess which one of these we hope will continue when we get back to the US?

Speaking of heights, here's the view from the taxi coming into Andahuaylas from the airport.

The weather was nice all week. It rained often at night, which helped drown out the noises outside when sleeping. It was jacket weather in the morning, and t-shirt weather the rest of the day. We nearly had a glitch when the hotel didn't take credit cards, but between us we had enough cash to not have to look for an ATM when we left at 6:30 a.m. Friday.