In honor of Easter I decided to share some of my favorite Easter activities with the girls at the orphanage yesterday (Thursday, April 5). Seeing as the school week consisted of only Monday and Tuesday, I had Wednesday to make all of the preparations. After my German class (yes, I am now taking a German class once a week on Wednesdays thanks to Pop and Mom), I went to the grocery store to buy food coloring and 30 eggs. While I boiled 22 of the eggs, I watched my favorite telanovelas (Spanish soap operas) and sorted through a huge bag of candy that Mom and Pop had brought to Paraguay in December.
With a full backpack I set out to the orphanage the next morning with Nicole. It was a tricky bus ride because Nicole was holding the bowl of 22 eggs, and I was trying to hold onto her because the bus was so full that there wasn’t anywhere to hold onto to brace ourselves for the evitable jolts and quick stops. When we got to the orphanage around 8 am everyone was up and running around while the tía was mopping the floors. We headed upstairs to do 45 minutes of creative writing (they are each writing their own story and drawing the illustrations), but of course everyone wanted to know why we had a mixing bowl full of eggs, so around 9 am I decided that it was time to change activities.
Ok, so I definitely checked for the recipe online, and I had everything that it required, but for some reason the dye would not take to the egg shells. I explained to them what the purpose of the water, vinegar and food coloring was supposed to be for, but that we would just have to try it some other time. Good news is that they really weren’t that disappointed because they loved cracking, peeling and eating the eggs. Go figure.
While they were eating, Nancy (one of the older girls) and I headed down stairs to hide the candy all over the back patio and in the vegetable garden. When we called everyone downstairs and explained the activity, they went crazy running around looking for the candy. It was more than a success.
Little did I know that the morning hours wouldn’t be the only exciting events of the day…
When Nicole and I were packing up my things, Nancy announces that “the storm” is coming, and she began to close all of the windows. “What storm?” I thought. I looked outside and to my surprise the sky to the south was dark red. Then I noticed that the red sky was coming towards us at an alarmingly fast speed. “Qué es eso?” I asked Nancy. “Polvo.” She replied. Dirt. Or dust. It was a dust storm. Within a minute of noticing its approach, it hit. We watched from the inside as wind blew clouds of red dust past the orphanage. After a few minutes I realized that even though the storm had not passed that Nicole and I had to go because we needed to go to the grocery store before the last buses left to go to our barrios (neighborhoods).
*Side note: During Semana Santa (Holy Week) everything shuts down on Thursday at about 12 pm until Saturday and just every other Paraguayan week, nothing and I mean nothing is open on Sunday.
We put our sunglasses on (not for the sun, seeing as there wasn’t any at this point, but so that the dust wouldn’t get in our eyes) and ventured up the street toward the grocery store. Within minutes of being inside, a downpour of rain started. After we purchased our food and supplies, we rain to the bus stop one block down from the store. Mine arrived first so I said good-bye to Nicole and got onto another very crowded colectivo (bus). Once I got home from walking the 7 blocks from the ruta, I was soaked. All I could think about was a hot shower. Naturally, the first thing that I noticed when I stepped inside my house was that all of the electricity had cut out. So, you know what that means. No electricity. No hot shower. I have an electric head on my shower that heats the water as it goes through it. No, you can’t touch it because yes, you can get an electric shock. “Ok, ok.” I told myself. “I will dry off and lay down in my bed for a little bit to warm-up, and then maybe the electricity will come back on so that I can make lunch.” Thirty minutes later I got a phone call. Nicole’s bus never came and seeing as she lives around 7 – 8 miles from the ruta, she could not walk home in the storm. So, I told her not to worry and that I would make us lunch because the electricity had just came on. The moment I hung up the phone the electricity went off again. I decided that I might as well go back out to the ruta to get her with an umbrella because I knew that she had to be just as soaked as I had been. When we got back to my house 20 minutes later, the electricity was back on. I was so relieved until I realized that now the water had gone out. And that is how it stayed for the next 8 hours (until around 9 pm).
Thankfully today the electricity and water stayed on all day. It was a Good Friday miracle.
Feliz Pascua! Happy Easter!
(Photos coming soon)
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