Morning at the Temple Annex

Ernesto let me know that his wife was going to come to the temple on Saturday because of the holiday the president of the country set up because all the Asia presidents were getting together for a summit or something. The president wanted the commuter traffic to be lessened so gave a Friday and Monday holiday to workers. I asked if I could watch their children while she worked in the temple. Ernesto said he would be working his usual shift at the MTC and that would be great idea to watch his kids. His wife came with some other people from Cavite on a bus.

I was excited to see the kids again and tried to think of what I could do to prepare for a few hours. I understood the youngest boy Jhon Andrie was artistic, so I got pencils, markers, crayons, scissors and paste and three different colors of paper. For their daughter Princess I got a Beauty and the Beast coloring and sticker play book and for the older son, Jhon Kyle I got a (snap-together-like-lego) set that looked like it would take quite a while to put together. Then I worried that they would want to do something else another hour and got a yo-yo, dominoes, and a small nerf ball. I also put in my grandma bag a bottle of water and some snacks.

Solera Family

I met with the Solera family around 6:30 am and noted they came with other children. Of course the children with them wanted to do the same activities so I invited them to come over too. Luckily Andrie wanted to play with the dominoes and help his brother with building his set so there was a lot of paper for the other kids. More kids came until a corner of the room was filled with children drawing and playing.

Children at the Temple Annex

I started making notes in my head about what I would do next time, and what supplies I would want to have on hand. There were some kids who where extra needy and not artistically inclined, so I played catch with a few of them. After awhile the security man wanted us not to throw the ball in the room - of course - so I sent all the boys outside. The heat and humidity along with all of their running around wore them out - Nice. The yo-yo was problematic put kept some entertained for awhile. I had one scare when Andrie went looking for water and ended up in the tunnel going to the MTC before his brother, sister and I caught up with him. He was looking for water. That's when it hit me how far away from the states I was. No public building has a water fountain (except the American made MTC) so there were all these thirsty children. I let the Solera children have my water bottle - note bring lots of little water bottles next time - and they shared with their friends.....uh okay. The dominoes were a big hit and everyone wanted to play with them. Stack them, line them up, match up the dots, they were in constant use. The paper ran out so I sent them all outside to eat their snacks. Over all a good time was had by all - especially me.

The boys in the corner with legos, the girls drawing pictures

Next time bring dominoes - maybe a few sets