While at our friend Jeoffrey’s house in San Dionisio, we spent a good deal of time playing and interacting with the kids. Here’s the cast of characters of the three stories to come:

This is Jina, she’s 3. She is the sweetest girl in the whole wide world.

This is Joseph, he’s 5. He knows how to write his name… and a few other English things (like nose, eyes, mouth, hands, etc..) after a writing session with Justin. He liked Justin so much that he wrote his name as Joseph Watt.

This is Jan-Jan, he’s 13. He was my buddy. He was also my bodyguard. He would hang out with me pretty much everywhere I’d go. I introduced him to the iPhone (good idea? I’m still debating) and he became quite good at Angry Birds and Ninja Jump.

This is Jun-Jun, he’s a teenager. He doesn’t like to be told what to do, especially when it involves carrying two very large and heavy humans on his back.

Crochet night

One night, I took my crochet project out (I’m working on a secret crochet project). Jan-Jan and Joseph sat next to me, very curious about what I was doing. I was making little squares of about 2″ x 2″. So Jan-Jan took one in his hands and asked me if I could make him a necklace with one of the squares. Of course! Immediately, Joseph wanted one too… wish granted. Both were so very happy. A few minutes later, Jan-Jan looks at his necklace, picks up another square and puts it against the 1st one. “Pocket money!” he shouts with a big smile. He wanted to me sew the two together with one side open so he could slide a few coins in there. Evidently, I executed. He thanked me a million times. Joseph watching the scene, decided he also wanted a pocket money pouch but Jan-Jan objected and said he was the only one allowed to have one. Since that wasn’t quite fair, I still made one for Joseph, but instead of coins, Justin put a seashell in it. There. It was a shell holder, not a money holder… everyone was happy.

That was a fun night. So fun I forgot to take pictures of their pouches, oops.

The Carabao

A carabao is a water buffalo. They are used to help plow the rice fields (and fertilize perhaps?). Jan-Jan, as it turns out, had a teenage carabao named Jun-Jun (convenient) which helps plow Jeoffrey’s family rice fields at the other end of the village. We were asked: “Do you want ride carabao?” I was the first to immediately respond “Yes, please!”.

And uh… turns out if the carabao moves, it’s hard to stay on. It doesn’t have the neck hair that a horse would have to grip onto. You can therefore witness my almost-off-the-carabao experience…

You can also witness Justin’s very clear extensive experience with how to ride… anything.

Dance session

On our last morning, we had a little bit of time to spare, so Jeoffrey turned up some music. Jina and Joseph immediately took the dance floor and started dancing like crazy. How could I resist? And here we were club dancing for more than an hour with the kids (and grand-ma in the background enjoying every minute of it). What fun and what a workout! They were so talented. Jina’s moves will “kill” a few men later in life.

Such cute kids.

So much fun.