I believe the original game was Frisbee football, but by the time we arrived it included a soccer ball on one end. Our older kids started out just playing soccer on the sidelines, but there happened to be a rather large mud puddle close to the goal. Pretty soon the Frisbee was over and became a game of “accidentally” splashing mud, then throwing mudballs, and finally coating each other in it. The end result was a son coated in mud who needed to go home and change before our picnic dinner so he wouldn’t freeze. He came back mostly clean, though we laughed at the dirt still caked in one ear. “Well she just gave me two minutes to change!” he defended himself.
This past weekend was Independence Day here in Honduras, so we had planned a picnic with several families on the Monday holiday. We’ve had almost continuous rain here for the past month. The little girls love to play in the front yard making mud pies and collecting tadpoles. Their chalk drawings disappear almost daily, so they have a clean slate. It’s been fun to have them spend so much time playing with the neighbors outside, but it has made for a lot of wet clothes and mopping up mud.
The evening ended at the playground with a game of “capture the gummies”-like capture the flag, but when you capture a gummy from your team’s bowl you get to eat it. These are the days that make you glad to live life small on a mountain in Central America. Though we spend most of our time here in this tiny community, the small things are truly enjoyable.