SUMMARY: Week 2!

This is both a normal update and a SUMMARY series, since it's been forever and a day since I've last posted – don't blame me (toooo badly), blame the band practice and terrible internet)

Well, we've managed to get a schedule going in week 3 – but week 2 was more ironing it out and really nailing down more specifics. In other words, we did a few things and talked about what we needed to fill our time with. Casa Hogar Vida is very laid back – we have to develop all the things we want to do – they just provide the environment and we provide the services, essentially.

Sunday: Pancakes in the morning and then feeling bleh for the rest of the day – thank God it was just a short sickness though – lasted one day and that's it!

Monday: Started the exercise program for the people in the community (mostly for the women to bond more), played with the kids, talked to that woman who was really on fire for God – found out her name is Hilda. She is a great person to go to if you need encouragement – she's just overflowing with the Holy Spirit! In the evening, Peggy (our roommate) led a bible study on Joshua.

Tuesday: Sarah and I went to Manualidades (the crafts house) – Sarah made a scarf and I translated and talked to Maura (who is like, the matriarch of the community here). We finished just in time to join the second half of the exercises and catch Xan's lecture and Bible verse of the day afterwards. After lunch was a English class with the kids – it was crazy because we just were trying to figure out what level the kids were at, but it was chaos. They basically know some random vocabulary and that's it. We played with them for 3 hours, which was exhausting! After dinner (which was at the cook's house again), Taylor, Xan and I went to band practice – I got to try out their keyboard, which has some cool sounds on it :-)

Wednesday: Instead of going to our separate sites, the entire HLT team went to the hospital in the morning to visit some extremely malnourished kids and their mothers. It was really hard – honestly, I don't think I've had much time to process it. There was a news team there (randomly), so of course they had to interview the hoard of gringos visiting the hospital – it was annoying. But apparently we were on the local tv here – crazy!! After that, we went to our separate sites – we played with the orphans for a bit, then ate some of the best beleadas I have ever eaten! (Granted, I had had beleadas like once before haha) but they were delicious. For real. One of the women, Edith, who comes to the exercises offered to make them for us. She's super cool. After lunch, she braided our h r, whhch was fun. Dinner w`/Qmac'n'cheese and potatoes with cheese, but I wasn't hungry after all those beleadas! Haha

Thursday: Sarah and I went back to Manualidades – by this time, Sarah had created a pattern for a purse, so she tried making one that morning while I translated, organized their shelf of fabric (fun for me!) and looked up vocab words pertaining to sewing and such. We missed the exercise class (oh darn... :-P). But after lunch, we finished the bag and showed it to Maura, who really liked it. Then we played with the orphans and the community kids, read them bible stories from the gospels, and got a little wet (Xan got a lot wet because she played out in the rain with the orphans and the tia – it was fun to watch :-P) (and for those wondering why I didn't get in the fun, I didn't want to drive to dinner in wet clothes, haha) After dinner, Ed spoke at our first ever HLT meeting on Habakkuk. It was a group of about 100 youth, so there was a translator of course... some of the dry humor got lost in translation. Ed's hilarious! But he also said some really good things about disappointment – how we need to complain directly to God, and that God sometimes still lets things happen, but in the end, it's all in his will. Good stuff :-)

Friday: Miguel (one of the electric guitar players – he's like 15) came with us to Casa and hung out at Manualidades while Sarah taught Joana how to make the purse. Then we played with the orphans (I got to chase the twins around – Eli will run all the way around the house, so I'll just go the other way and catch him; Elias will run for a side of the house, then stand there laughing until I catch up to him and scoop him up! SO FUN!!!). After lunch, Michelle, Mandy and April joined us from the support group, and evangelized – it was so cool to see some of the people on our team really step up and ask good questions to these women. (Could you pray for the women we met? They were all Christians, but a lot of them have seen some tough stuff and are going through some hard circumstances.) Then we had exercise in the afternoon because apparently it'd be cooler – it wasn't. We're sticking with the mornings next week :-) When we got back to the apartments, we had to go on a scavenger hunt to find our laundry, because the lady doing our laundry had hung it out to dry and it was all mixed up with everyone else's laundry. It was fun though! :-) Tonight, our cook was busy, so we got pizza from pizza hut, so while we were waiting for that to come, I got to skype with my mama :-D so nice to chat for a bit :-) After dinner, we watched Emperor's New Groove (Shout out to my roomie, Michelle!!! :-)

Saturday: Sarah, Elsa and I got to skype with said roomie of mine (Yeah yeah!!!) and eat ice cream while talking :-D Sarah and Elsa went swimming, and I took pictures since I wasn't in the mood to swim. It was HOT though! I forget what we did that afternoon, but dinner (burgers) was at the church because we had the church service that night. I didn't get to hear the translator, but I tried copying off Sarah and Elsa's notes. The pastor was talking about the need to serve in the community, and about halfway through both S and E zoned out and started doodling with their respective majors (fashion figures and eyes for Sarah; dots and leaves for the Interior Designer, Elsa). I cracked up! Apparently I got the gist though, and since we're already serving in the community, it's okay that I didn't catch everything :-P

That was Week 2! Sorry I didn't get this out last weekend, but our electricity and internet has been a little sketch and we didn't have internet basically at all this past week. I'm going to the office to see if I can get a signal there, but if not, hopefully they'll fix the router soon!!! Plus, band practice is taking up basically all of my free evenings, so I'm not sure I'll be able to do as many updates as I'd like. Ah well!