Since Monday morning when I said goodbye to a team from Pennsylvania, I have been living at Puerto Alegria alone with the 40-some Girasoles boys, house family (Gene, Patty, Kanny and Josue) and 1 of the 3 caregivers.

Being the only foreigner at Puerto Alegria, I have had plenty of time to spend with the Girasoles boys living here. They stick to a schedule similar to when there are groups here, but their attention is spread among the 10 or 20 people in the group. Since I’m the only one here, all their attention is focused on me. (Instead of the popular show “Jon & Kate Plus Eight”, it was more like “Kate Plus 40” this past week).

When I first saw my schedule and realized that I would have almost an entire week free in el medio de la selva (the middle of the jungle), I was slightly concerned how that would go. As I have previously mentioned, we’re about 45 minutes from the city and only have electricity between 5:30 and 10pm every night. I can’t walk around the city, nor can I be working on much on my laptop since the battery doesn’t last very long.

In some ways, this has been a great blessing. During the past few days, I have been able to go into Iquitos with Gene twice (to post these entries), but a majority of my time has been spent with the boys – Luis, Marcelo, Junior, Segundo, Geillerson, Victor, the list goes on… – playing, listening to music, taking lots of photos, teaching some English, singing, watching movies (at night!) and relaxing in the hammock.

My next team arrives in Iquitos tomorrow morning. I’m looking forward to meeting and working with them, but at the same time, I have really enjoyed my time without a group!

(On a side note, I’ve seen my name spelled various ways – keit, keyts, queyt, but however they spell it, they all call me “la Kate”.)