About 3 weeks ago there was a small chess tournament in the nearby town of Guadalupe. Our chess teacher went and invited our kids to participate. I actually played as well, in the adult bracket and held my own against some of the pro's. Gerson did well and placed second in the kid's division and actually won 30 soles.
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| The chess team. Gerson on the right with his certificate. Coach in the middle. |
So I realize I haven't even really shared with you guys my usual routine yet. Technically my shift in the orphanage is from 7:00 pm - 7:00 am. But that's not how it has been going really. A typical start of shift is like this.
7:00 PM - 8:00 - Technically my SHIFT STARTS. We finish eating and the kids come back inside. I start warming up bath water for the baby while the other kids are usually playing some card games or fighting over whatever. Older kids start taking turns showering.
8:00 - 9:00 Little kids go to bed and I give the baby a bath with usually the Gerson helping. Older kids are finishing showers and playing card games, gameboy, chess. After the baby's bath I give him some milk and brush his teeth, then put him down to sleep.
9:00 - 10:00 - Older kids go to sleep. I split time between the two rooms just kind of hanging out with them and talking about whatever they want (usually the girls they have crushes on).
10:00- 11:00 - Everyone is in bed and I check up on the news, email, etc.
11:00 - 5:45: Sleep if I'm lucky. Sometimes the baby wakes up I give him his bottle and he goes back to sleep. Sometimes I clean puke and diarrhea off the floor from a sick kid. And this morning I woke up at 4:15 because the older boys thought it would be a good idea to wake up early and take showers before school.
5:45 - 7:00- Wake up and wake the kids up for school. Make sure they get dressed and I feed them their breakfast that I made the night before. They have chores to do like sweeping their rooms and cleaning the bathrooms and taking out the trash. Kids are out of the door at 7:00.
7:00- 8:00AM SHIFT ENDS. The other house mom comes in. She gets the remaining younger kids ready for school. I hangout with the baby. He usually wakes up exactly at this time I get him out of his crib and change his diaper then we play on my bed until about 7:30. I bring the baby out to the other house mom about 7:45 and go back to my bed.
8:00- 12:00 I try to get a morning nap in. Then I bring my computer out to the kitchen table where I can play for about an hour or so before the internet gets too slow to do anything. Also I've been trying to study a little bit of computer and web programming. This is also when I do any errands I need to do. Like buying food for myself.
12:00 - 1:00 - Little kids come back from preschool, we eat lunch then they run around like crazy animals.
1:00 - 3:00 A little bit more free time here. I usually try to get in a decent workout and more studying. Meanwhile the little kids are terrorizing everything everywhere.
3:00 - 6:30- Big kids get back from school. Let them play around for a little bit then they go off to do homework. I usually help a bit with that. If I'm not helping with homework then I'm helping control the other kids. Or playing ping pong with the older kids that didn't have homework that day.
6:30 Eat.
7:00 PM - SHIFT STARTS
