THURSDAY - Not enough hours in the day
Yet another busy & productive day in Conima. Today we ran some errands to ask the school director how many kids are in the school (answer: 70, ages 6-12), left a note on Armando´s door explaining why we weren´t at the English lesson on Monday, and bought some poster paper & scissors from the internet cabina. Side note: We found out at the internet cabina that power is out in the whole town. I am praying that it comes back on in time to contact the team back home about supplies to bring for next week.
The rest of the morning & well into the afternoon we were all gathered in the 4th floor living room sorting out candy, designing the posters for Bible school, and fillig the small goody bags we´d been given to use. There was so much candy, stickers, and little toys that we had to make an assembly line sitting on the area rug to get all the bags filled in any kind of timey manner. We ended up with 81 boy goody bags and 72 girl goody bags. Some of those will be passed out to all the kids on the last day of our Bible school, and the rest of the bags will be kept until one of our last days in Conima when we will play with all the kids in the town that we usually play with in the plaza. That is when the rest of the goody bags will be given out. As for the posters, Alison & Heather completed them this afternoon, and we will go hang them up at the school in the morning.
This evening brought about a new experience for me. I told my first story in front of the people here. At 4pm I storyed with 3 of the police officers in Conima. Emily, Alison, & I sat our in front of the station with them and did the story. Then afterwards we hung around and talked some more. They are such sweet men and so understanding when it comes to my minimal spanish skills. I decided that tomorrow I am going to make a plate of chocolate no-bake cookiesto take to them at the station. As far as the storying goes, it went really well. They were attentive as I recited the story in spanish with a couple of mistakes, and they were all willing to participate in the discussion afterwards. I pray each day that the Holy Spirit will work in each of their hearts through the stories we share & the love we show. My desire is that the Lord will make these stories come to life, that they would hold a meaning beyond mere words. Not only did I get to share the story of the Fall of Man with the policemen but also a few hours later with Sophia. Emily, acting as our translator for the summer (and a very good one I might add), had planned to accompany Heather & I to Sophia´s storefront to share the story, but when 8pm rolled around and Emily was curled up in bed in too much pain to stand up, Heather & I were sent out just the 2 of us. We were to use the spanish knowledge we had between the 2 of us to story with Sophia. Her husband was also suppoed to be there, but he had other business to attend to this evening. Surprisingly, we held a 20-minute conversation with Sophia and then storyed with her & discussed it afterwards. The spanish was a little sketchy at points especially on my part, but we were able to hold our own in the conversation. That storying session also went really well, and Sophia asked if her & her husband could hear the next story on Monday evening at 7pm. Praise the Lord for all the open doors, response, and ethusiasm!
FRIDAY - What a great reward
Today was full of small tasks such as hanging the posters for Bible school, visiting the clinic to ask about helping on Sunday, and making a plate of no-bake cookies for the policemen. It was a fun day. And the later hours of our afternoon were spent at the small homemade soccer field that the kids play on. Jeremy Stanley, Alison, and I played with the kids while Emily watched cheering us on. I got really into the soccer game. If I´m going to play then I play to win. My competitive nature is going to cost me two bruised shins, but Alison & Emily seemed entertained by me.
Side note: I bought a phone card for the first time today and got to talk to Momma for half an hour. It was nice, and we both really enjoyed it. That being said, obviously the power is back up & running in the town. Luckily, it came on last night soon after the sunset.
More good news came this afternoon when Emily told me that she had talked to Armando. He found the note we left on his door yesterday and was eager to continue with the English lessons so we set a lesson for this evening at 6pm. Unfortunately, as it came sloer to time for the lesson Heather wasn´t feeling well. We concluded that the best alternative was for me to go in her place so she reviewed her lesson plans with me. I was to teach him the months of the year, numbers 11-20 picking up where we left off last time, and begin explaining verbs starting with ¨to be¨, ¨to have¨, and ¨to want¨. The verbs were the most challenging to teach, but everything went smoothly. Armando´s joyful enthusiasm made the lesson all the more enjoyable. After teaching & reviewing all the material for this evening, Emily shared with him the Creation story. It was a great time, and our one hour flew by, came & went, and we were still there. The joy I got from being able to share my knowledge with Armando and be a part of sharing the gospel with him was such a blessing - moreso than I would´ve ever thought. I am seeing more & more each day what great reward comes with losing my life to Christ and serving Him & His glory.
SATURDAY - Group hike gone bad
Diarrhea was sent from the devil to torture missionaries. I am now sure of that. The excitement on Wednesday that my diarrhea was gone was short-lived when I jumped up in the middle of my quiet time this morning and pushed Heather out of my way rushing to thebathroom. The medicine doesn´t work so I´m at a loss of what to do. I think I´ve just resigned myself to the reality that I will indeed have diarrhea all summer long. Sounds pleasant huh?...yeah no. That must be some kind of record.
The overall excitement among the team in anticipation of our group hike today was also short-lived when 2 of us woke up with diarrhea and one with stomach cramps. Ironically, this group hike was planned to be in celebration of all being in good health once again after our team-wide, all-inclusive bout with the dreaded stomach virus. So much for being in good health. It wasn´t any really serious health compromises, but Heather & Alison weren´t able to join us on the hike for need of staying close to a bathroom.
Now to some people this kind of open discussion of such a topic may be ucomfortable of even awkward, but I have come to learn that when living in another country there are many unusual & awkward things bound to happen. These things will happen not only to you but to other on your team. The best way to cope with these situations is to learn to laugh about it together. Many times if you can´t laugh at things - continuous diarrhea, difficulty with the language acquisition, catching boxes on fire with the gas stove top, slips while boulder jumping in the lake, and waking up at midnight to the sound of your teammate dry-heaving across the hall - then you will fond yourlsef crying about them. Like Mary Poppins said, laughter is the best medicine. Was that Mary Poppins?...well whoever it was, they were right.
As for the hike, it turned out to be Jeremy Stanley, Emily, and I hiking with Yasmani, his ittle brother, and Pollo. Those are 3 of the boys we played soccer with yesterday that we invited to go hiking up the mountain with us. In case you were confused, yyes one of the boys is named Pollo. He refuses to tell us his real name. Today it was Paul & then Babylon, and evey day it´s different. So Emily told him that until he tells us his real name we will call him Pollo.
The hike was lots of fun. The view from the top of the mountain was spectacular looking down on the town of Conima surrounded by mountains with the sun reflecting off the lake waters on the horizon. At the top of the mountain we stopped to have lunch and enjoy the view before beginnng back down. Emily told the boys that we were going to et lunch on top of the mountain. When she said we brought sandwiches for them, all 3 faces lit up with big grins. I pulled the 3 extra peanut butter & jelly sandwiches out of my backpack and gave them to the eager hands waiting to receive them. After the sandwiches were eaten, we pulled out potato chips, peaches, and as a special treat I packed a chocolate no-bake cookie for each of the boys. It was a wonderful picnic with some of my favorite boys here. After lunch they ran around on top of the mountain playing with rocks & sticks pretending that there were cannibal, savage Indians out to get them. Boys will be boys.
While they were all playing with Jeremy, Yasmani picked up a BIG rock to throw down the mountain. When he went to throw it, the rock fell short and landed on his foot usting open his middle toe. After cleaning it as best I could with napkins & water, I wrapped his whole foot in a plastic bag tying it at the ankle. That kept the dirt out of it until we were able to hike down the mountain & make it back to the house where I retrieved the first aid kit. Sitting out on a bench in the plaza I inspected, cleaned, and wrapped up his toe. The rock that fell on it was so big that I had a fear it might be broken. After having him flex all his toes & fan them out, I was satisfied that it wasn´t broken. So after wrappingh it I gave him 2 ibuprofen for the pain & told him to come back in the morning for me to look at it again.
Alarge part of my afternoon was spent practicing the guitar. Heather taught me how to strum. As of right now I know 2 songs although they are both still very sketchy. It is just going to take alot of practice.
The other team just arrived so I´ll finish blogging later!
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