There's things need a-fixin

I know! It has been four whole days! But we have been muy ocupado, which is to say, very busy.

So. There's this family, see, the Manzanos. And there's eleven children who are Manzano-born, and then five more that are Manzano-adopted, and then no one's quite sure how many more that just sort of live there with them. And there's always visitors.

Needless to say, the Manzanos have no money and their house(s, since one does not house 20+ people in a singe house even here in Mexico) are falling apart. So all this week Joel and I have been heading over there to do stuff around the house(s). Our main project has been the clotheslines because when you're housing 20+ people, there is muchas laundry and electricity here is like myrrh. So they had these three nasty clotheslines, and they were way high up (Mexican ladies are short) and had wires jutting out of them and were suspended over quite a bit of dirt and some grass.

The original plan was to tighten up and lower the ones currently in place, add two more, and put a giant sandbox below the lines so that when the clothes fell, they'd fall in sand (which can be easily brushed off) and not in dirt (which can't). So we spent a whole day flattening the area, digging out the grass, and breaking Hannah's van (sorry, Hannah). The next day, the plan changed from 'build giant sandbox' to 'plant grass,' but grass seeds don't work in Mexico unless you can babysit them, and who has time for that when you have 20+ children?

It had taken several backbreaking hours to remove all the grass, and took several more backbreaking hours to remove a bunch more grass from elsewhere in the yard and replant it where there had previously been grass. I took before-and-after pictures, but I'm not on my laptop and also the end product was le hideous. Perhaps I'll show you later.

Working at the Manzanos is awesome because there's always tons of food, and always tons of people. Awesome people. We like to throw lavish DDR parties at Gord and Carol's, because we feel like we should represent them in their absence, and yesterday the older Manzano girls not only brought snacks, but cleaned up after the snacks and left my horrid, fly-ridden kitchen cleaner than they'd found it. Also, they are good at games, and for these reason, we love them and will happily glue their front door together for them.

Today we didn't work at the Manzanos for reasons that involve LOTS OF BLOOD!! Excitement? Return tomorrow for moooooooooooore! (*spoiler* Joel and I still have all of our blood.)