Cruz Alta Cowboys and girls

Otra vez, hello again and once again a busy week. On Tuesday my chimbo (propane tank) ran out and John and I carried it down the hill, filled it up and carried it back up again, John half of the way and me the other. Brutal work in all and i don't really want to do that again anytime soon. Sorry if my spelling isn't so great, there aren't any spellcheckers on these computers and the phonetic Spanish is really screwing with my sense of where the letters go. On Thursday I was invited by the school to go with the kids and teachers to another pueblo by the name of La Mision. I showed up at 6 in the morning (when I was supposed to) and of course nobody else showed up util at least 7. The three teachers showed up on horses and were asking me why I didn't have one and giving me a hard time about walking the whole way. Most of the kids showed up without horses but there were a few who had them. I figured I'd have no problems keeping up with the little guys. One girl showed up with a caballo bravo (mean horse). That thing tried to kick her (and succeeded a few times) anytime she got near the critter, but she kept going back until she was in the saddle. I don't know many kids that would have done that. Anyway, we headed out and had an amazing hike to La Mision. It took about two hours and most of it was on a trail through the forest filled with whooping Lenca kids. Most of the time they ran, and I tried to run with them up and down some steep and muddy trails, it was like something out of Last of the Mohicans. Once we got to La Mision, we were greated by their school and some home made rockets that didn't exactly do what they were supposed to, but did manage to explode without killing anyone. The two schools sang the Honduran National Anthem and some other songs and played some games then headed to the soccer field for a futbol game. I can proudly say that Cruz Alta won 4 - 0 with an impressive performance by both the girls and boys teams. After about an hour and a half of futbol, we all ate a bit and started to head back. Some of the kids played soccer barefoot and ran back barefoot too. It was crazy, they were whooping and running even harder on the way back it was so hard to keep up with the kids and horses. I was pretty wiped out by the time I got back, but I had to go to a parent teacher meeting that shouldn't have lasted 2 and a half hours but did. oh well, sleep when you can I guess. On Thursday night a couple of other volunteers showed up and we went to celebrate dia del niños with them at the school. Some Cruz Alta people had some baskets and ceramics on sale and some good food. All in all a good week, a good start for September and my 27th year. all for now, hope to hear from everyone soon. Joe