One Last Request (Mitch at the Aldea)

Dear Southern Cross,

This is my last week for writing about the kids. I don't really know who to highlight. I want to talk about them all. They are all so wonderful and have taught me so much! Karmela and I are still having our regular piano lessons each night from 7:30 till 8:00. She is going to miss the lessons more than anything. She definitely has potential to become quite good at the piano. If there is any way that you could somehow get some self-teaching piano books for her, that would be amazing. She has pretty much learned the basics and just needs to keep practicing.

Jose Andres invented a new game the other day - steal the shoes from one of the girls and run away while she tries to catch him. It turned out to be a success as I was recruited to be on the boys team with Jose and Pedro against 9 girls. The girls sould pass the shoes back and forth while we tried to intercept them. Once we obtained both the shoes, then it was boys against the girls in trying to keep the shoes from falling into their hands. I guess the kids liked it so much that they already have planned to play it on Monday after school.

Cesar Humbarto and Juan Carlos have been exercising with me almost every day. They are both doing chin-ups and push-ups every day. Cesar and I have a goal that if he can do 15 chin-ups and 50 push-ups before I go, I give him something that belongs to me. A month ago he started out only doing 7 chin-ups and 25 push-ups. Now he can do 15 chin-ups and around 40 push-ups. He told me once that he did 50 push-ups in his house. I think it is awesome how far he has come. He has kind of inspired the other boys to start exercising more as well. We will see if he wins the prize or not.

Mitch