Happy new year!

Well, its very exciting to be writing a blog post on the very first day of 2009! I love new year, with all the hope and fresh startiness that it brings. I hope that this year is a wonderful one for all of you: if 2008 was a bit rubbish, that you can put it behind you, and if it was great that you can continue in that vein!

I spent last night, once again, at the girls home, and it was certainly a really good way to see the new year in. As with Christmas, it involved the most enormous amount of work in terms of getting the place decorated and food prepared for the night. Because we were doing a talent show to celebrate, we had to put up a stage and set up the sound equipment, and use all kinds of balloons and streamers to make the area look beautiful.n One of the things that always impresses me about Yani and Salustio is that whenever they do anything, they do it really well! In terms of food, the girls prepared a whole bunch of delicious desserts! For the main meal, we had barbecued meat which was AMAZING. Seriously, probably the best meat I have ever tasted in my whole life. Our lovely neighbour gave us vast quanities of limes and passion fruit to make juice with, which I did also enjoy.

The church that we go to in El Torno (nearest town) joined us for the evening, which did mean that there was 15 more people to cook for, but it was really nice to have guests, and the girls really enjoyed it too. I had to judge the talent show with the minister of the church, who is really quite a scary shouty person, which was frankly a terrifying experience. He took it all very seriously, and obviously wanted his daughter to win! I took it all a bit more as a joke, and it was hilarious! Three of them together did one of the funniest dramas I have ever seen, which they wrote themselves and everything. One of the little ones whom I would always have described as being really quite slow has the most fabulous comic timing. There were also songs, including a few from members of the church, and a couple of dances. The entry of the new year was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life though, as people began to set off fireworks seemingly without thinking about age or place. We started eating at roughly one o'clock in the morning (I was absolutely starving) and it was great! Mmmm food. I didn't get into bed until half past three though, which possibley explains why my grammar may be failing a little in this blog - apologies for that!

Other than new year, things have basically been continuing on as normal, although I would like to fill you in on a few of the problems that have become more notable in the last week. One of them is quite simply, a problem of lies. I'll give you a quick example of what this may look like, with the little ones who are especially prone to lying. They have to do some constructive activity every morning, and I told them that they couldn't go and play until they had made at least one bracelet. I later found them playing basketball, and they told me that Sandra had said they could go because they had finished: this was a lie, and when I went to check it with her they ran away and hid in the mango tree. This would probably be funny if it was just the once, but its all the time! They lie about anything and everything,, and there is absolutely no way to tell by there faces and voices that they are lying. Lately, even the older gils have started to lie, which is extremely irritating as it means that I have to check up on everything they say. Its a problem, and it is definately something to work on.

Well, thats all the news I can think of for now. Happy new year once again, and I hope to hear from you soon.