New Additions

Let´s start with last night...

Katherine and I walked down to Lisa and Michelle´s house to help make dinner for our new arrivals, Hannah and Anna. We hung out and put a movie on and made pasta, chicken, roasted potatoes (my doing!), and improvised cookies from random ingredients we found around the kitchen. Of course, Katherine and I headed that one up. They actually didn´t turn out half bad.

Then Hannah, Anna, Lisa, and Laila arrived from the long trip from San José. The seven of us sat around the table and got to know each other while exhanging ideas about the program and kind of cluing Hannah and Anna in on the way things work. After dinner, Katherine and I walked Hannah and Anna back to their house (the terrible walk we did after movie night) and then went our separate ways for the evening.

Today the work week began. The children´s progam actually went much, much better than it did at all last week. The kids this week are much more receptive to trying new things and breaking out off their shells, so we were able to do more with them in a shorter amount of time, which was really nice for us. I have a feeling this group of kids will be much more fulfilling.

The senior cast rehearsal was alright. I think everyone is starting to feel the stress that has accumulated from last week and we´re all getting close to our breaking points. Hopefully we´ll find our rhythm again and be able to get through this week in one piece. It´s going to be very interesting integrating two new staff members into our dynamic. I feel like last week the staff really started to work perfectly together. We´re all definitely on the same page and I think I figured out some of the other people I´m working with that I wasn´t so sure of at the beginning. Now I feel like we´re starting from scratch, which is not a good feeling to have in the middle of a project. We all have our designated jobs and assignments and now we have to divide those up all over again and still maintain order and give people assignments their comfortable with while taking away assignments people are willing to let go of. I´m really anxious and also extremely nervous to see how the rest of this week pans out. Please cross your fingers for me.