This week from Valparaiso

One update from each of us.

1) Grace is memorizing "To Dream the Impossible Dream" or rather "El Sueño Imposible" from Man of the Mancha. It has all of us singing from the musical. It's a 5 verse poem and she's really impressive to listen to reciting it all in Spanish. We'll try to video tape it soon and put it up.

2) Theo lost his soccer ball this week. We purchased a lightweight plastic ball (the school won't allow a regular soccer ball for fear of the windows breaking) so he could play soccer with his buddies at recess. Unlike last week when the 7th grade boys were trying to kick it over the roof, this time Theo let go a big goal kick and sent the ball flying to the roof and then it blew away... Caitlin suggested that we might want to think about budget for one soccer ball per month.

3) Dan is waiting for his new laptop from his company to reemerge from customs (it wasn't ready to travel with us in January). He tracked it to the UPS office here and then saw that someone had signed for it and picked it up. Not being him, it was somewhat worrisome, but upon inquiring in person at UPS he found out that customs has it. When it will reappear or when he will get notice of it remains to be seen.

4) (Laura) I have been spending some time playing tour guide and running around Valparaíso and Viña del Mar with Mary and Caitlin. We've had such a nice time. We said goodbye to Caitlin today and Mary leaves on Wednesday. We'll miss them and things will seem a lot quieter around here.

5) Mary - when she isn't climbing the endless stairs of this city - she has got the kids painting scenes of Valparaiso with her watercolors. Very cool. A good warm up for her as she prepares to head to Guatemala next on an art trip.

6) Caitlin - gathered new friends and old and checked out some nightlife while in Chile (although she was looking a little worse for the wear as she departed today). She also gave chase to a would-be pick pocket a couple of days ago until he finally threw her wallet down (he may have gotten about $2 for his efforts).