Shopping is always an adventure

I always miss the kids when I don't see them on Sundays, so I welcome Monday mornings. Saw the boys today, had a small group plus a private lesson and we got much done. Afterwards I stayed behind to play hangman because they love it. Sometimes we take turns, I'll do English words for them to guess and then we switch and they pick a Spanish one for me.
Some of the other boys were fooling around a lot, wanting to talk about certain drugs. I've had some concerns about one of them who is very withdrawn most of the time and often very angry. I fear he would be a candidate to escape into drugs to avoid his feelings and problems. He has a lot of clothing and jewelry in colors promoting certain drugs and really likes that image of himself. I shared some of my concerns the best I could, but I don't think it made much of an impact. I have seen first hand what drugs do to lives, and I don't want that life for any of the kids. I love them so much. Maybe I will get a chance later to talk to him alone. They try to be cool in front of each other, so I'll wait for an opportunity and brush up on the vocabulary so I'm ready.

A few of the boys have been making bracelets and earrings with one of the teachers and last week the girls had asked me to get them some bracelets and today I was able to buys some from them to bring to the girls tomorrow. Found them all their favorite colors!

At 4 pm I met up with my friend, the taxi driver, and he helped me buy the rest of my living room furniture. It was quite an adventure and it took over an hour to just pay for it and get them loaded up. The patio furniture set I wanted was a display set and they gave no discount for being a little dirty and dusty like they would have in the States or other places. I had brought about $360, but when I tried to pay, they quoted me about $130 more. Turns out in order to get the lower price you have to pay with the store credit card. I was bummed and thought I would have to come back another day with more money. My friend spoke with the cashier and she agreed to help us try to convince another customer with a card to let me buy it on theirs and give them the cash. I was pretty skeptical to the whole idea, but the cashier eventually succeeded in talking another customer into it. After that came the job of cleaning off the furniture and loading all 4 pieces into and onto my friend's little car. Again I was skeptical that we would manage it all in one load, but we fit the two chairs, love seat, the table and all the cushions!! Drove very slowly the 2 blocks while holding the furniture down with our hands out the windows... No ropes needed here!
I have a real home now!