A voice

I had my first futbol experience yesterday. It turns out that I actually like to watch any sport if it means you can drink beer in the middle of the day with a bar full of people all cheering simultaneously.  Marinus and I bellied up to the bar and watched Denmark and Peru get their butts kicked. In spite of the loss, we had a great afternoon. And now I think I know enough about futbol to justify owning a jersey. I bet I can talk them down to 9 soles (4ish dollars) now that Peru's out of the "World Cup" picture.

Last night, we tried really hard to get dressed up to go to an Opera dinner show. Unfortunately, my dressiest outfit consisted of thermal leggings, a long skirt that I haven't washed for 10 days, knock-off Toms and a Columbia (hey, at least it wasn't a knock-off...just from the clearance rack at the outlet store) jacket. The staff at the 5-star hotel surprisingly did not turn us away.  In fact, they treated us like queens and a king. Marinus was a lucky man on a date with 2 underdressed ladies and one lady who actually packed appropriately. The dinner was scrumptious.  It was so fancy that they brought it out on a silver platter, literally.  The music was amazing.  The voices would sneak up on you, literally. I'm serious. The soprano would pop out of different corners and balconies.  She was so beautiful that Marinus fell in love even though he was already on a date with three stunning (underdressed but stunning, nonetheless) ladies.

After dinner, we hit up the town for our last night with our new friend. I was determined to get up early to work on communication boards for the girls at the orphanage, so for the first time in my life, I left the bar early, before anyone else. I survived my first, solo late-night cab ride and actually rolled myself out of bed four hours later to draw pictures of noses, ears, shirts, and stuffed animals.

Unfortunately, the girls that I got up early to make the boards for didn't get to come to therapy today. So after lunch, I managed to sneak away from my typical sweeping duty to try out the boards. The girls were absolutely amazing.  I could name almost anything on the page, and they would use either their knuckles or wrists to point to it. As I was naming off body parts, and watching them smile as all of the volunteers cheered them on, I realized that up until this moment these girls had probably never been given the opportunity to demonstrate how smart they really are, make a choice, or even express their needs.  

We only got to play with the boards for a couple minutes, but it was enough to motivate me to spend my afternoon drawing picture board after picture board. I can't stop because I don't want to limit them. They are amazing girls, and I am confident that with their new voices they will be able to blow everyone away.  I can't wait to see what they can do!