Running!

I was leaving to go running Saturday morning alone and two of the boys, Daniel who is 10 and Francisco who is 11 asked me if they could go with me. I wasn't really in the mood to run alone so I went and asked Julio the onsite head Tio to see if it would be ok. Julio looked at Daniel and Francisco who were already dressed in their best attempted running gear and said yes, that we could run to the next village, Cacao and back (about 1 mile away). The boys were so excited to be able to leave the orphanage grounds! They were so well behaved and cute it was a blast, much better than running alone and they were both actually able to run the entire time! We ran to Cacao to the volunteer house and got them a glass of water and I let them lay in the hammock there and then we returned. When we got back I was bombarded with kids that wanted to go running. I told them I would take 2 kids a day. I got harassed by the kids all day with different kids wanting to go so Sunday I made 4 trips and took 8 kids running to Cacao and back! I took 2 boys, 2 girls, 2 boys, then 2 girls! I was dead! Even the younger kids want to go. Angelo who is 6 almost started crying when I told him I thought he was a bit too young to go, although he is one of the better soccer players. I will probably give in today and take Angelo running.

The one bummer is the kids don't have running shoes. Well some of them do. Francisco wore his black school shoes, and a couple of the kids wore their soccer shoes. I am going to head to town and see how much it would be to get the kids some decent tennis shoes becuase they are now really eager to run but I know they cannot be as comfortable as they claim they are. But Sunday was a really good day! Although I was exhausted (it was also our first day without rain in weeks and it was hot) it was defintaley worth it! None of the kids complained! They all ran with huge smiles!