All bets are on

So we somehow started this new trend lately of betting for almost everything.  It started out me betting them they couldn’t do a certain trick with their toy tops.  If they would win I would owe them a piece of gum and if they lost they would owe me some sort of cleaning duty that they didn’t already have to do.  Then it evolved.  We started doing push-ups and chin-ups for movies, I quickly learned that a couple of the boys here can do lots and lots of push-ups when they are motivated by the prize of getting to pick a new movie to buy.  At one point I was down 6 movies but I won them all back, they quickly learned that I am really good at bargaining my way into winning so I don’t have to do anything. 

The most recent bet and by far the biggest was I bet them that they could not run to Jequedepeque and back.  J(for short) is about 3 miles away, making it a 6 mile round trip up and down very long and steep hills.  Only two of them took on this challenge and they thought they had it in the bag.  Some others went along for the fun of it.  We decided on a prize of them being able to take out their mattresses and sleep in front of the TV for 4 days, I decided not to put a bigger prize or any penalty on it because I knew that they would end up dying trying to avoid the loss or reaching for a super prize. 

The first attempt was cut short because there was an emergency and I had to return the van (that’s another story for later).  But today after 3 days of rest we went out for a second try.  I figured they had a pretty good chance of making it there because the first attempt they made it about ¾ of the way to J.  They did indeed make it to J in about 35 minutes but instantly collapsed on the agreed about turn around point.  We made a side bet saying that if they just made it there and not back then they could take the mattresses out one day.  They decided that it was enough, one day of mattresses would suffice. 

After some thinking I realized that I inadvertently created a super child who was now able to do 70 push-ups in a row, 20 1-handed push-ups (with his right hand), 16 pull-ups, and run for 3 miles pretty much barefoot without any prior training, all for the sake of winning a couple $1 movies.  My winnings out of the deal I got my house cleaned and dishes, floor, and table cleaned after breakfast for two weeks and counting.

The emergency that I mentioned earlier that pulled us off early on the first day was a very sad one.  One of the new house moms was preparing a bottle for the baby and got the water too hot.  She accidentally split this too hot water on the baby’s head and burnt him very badly.  He went to the hospital and got some creams and bandages and is doing fine now.

Following behind them in the van

The choaches

Aftermath

Took them to the river to cool off

cooling off

A squaters house on the way