TALENT SHOW #2

Friday night was way different than I’d expected. And I feel bad; I was dreading the song with Leti so much and it turned out fine—it was intended to be kind of off. Anyway, I’ll get to that later. First I’ll start from where I left off.

All afternoon I had played “Un Viaje Largo”, the song I was going to sing with Keila, so that I could memorize the lyrics completely. I think I listened to it about 50 times. :)

I also went to Bladi—the worship leader—and asked him if he’d accompany Leti and I in our song, he didn’t seem so sure he knew it. I felt really terrible because I went to ask him and interrupted their worship practice, and I didn’t even say “Perdon” or “Lo siento” or even “Con permisso”—I just walked straight up on the stage, asked him my question, and walked straight off; not even acknowledging the band. What a fool.

Anyway, I changed clothes 3 times, practiced three more times with Keila and her dad Jaun (he played guitar with us), and then it was time!

First was Lucy singing accompanied by the worship team. She has this prideful attitude like she’s the best singer on campus, but both songs she sang last night were completely off key. Chelita and Lidia, in my opinion, are far more pleasant singers.

Anyway, next was Elda with her very impressive interpretive dance. The lights were off and as you can see in the picture below, she had her face painted like a mime and wore white gloves.

Then Leti and I were up with our duet of “No Hay Dios”. The way she introduced it was that we were both learning a second language and decided to try singing in it (I in Spanish, her in English), so bare with us, she joked. We ended up doing it accapela, but it was fine. I forgot half my lyrics, but it wasn’t a big deal because as I looked around the room there were wide, white grins everywhere. Well, this was fun, I thought.

Next Rosanna shared an apparently sentimental poem, she started crying, but I didn’t understand it. I think it had to do with how God can bless your life if you allow Him to.

Anyway, next came Miguel. Firstly he presented 4 ladies with artwork of roses he had drawn. Marbella, Keila’s mom, for her helpfulness and giving spirit, Aurora, who wasn’t there to accept it since she was preparing for her skit, for her kind heart and warm spirit, me, which I felt so honored by, for my patience (specifically with his daughter and the other babies), and his wife because he loves her. Then he performed two songs—very well done.

Next was Leti’s skit with her sons. I missed the gist of it, but Aunt Lila explained that it was originally an English skit about a kid witnessing to his friend and giving him a ticket to heaven, but the other one loses it, then asks for another, so the good kid cuts of a few pieces of his own ticket, and in the end the good kid goes to Heaven, and the bad kid goes to Hell, and his ticket pieces spell “HELL”. Boy, was that a run on, or what? Well, it was cute.

Next went Rigo and David performing a duet together with a song and guitar. David is profesh at riffing, so that’s what he did, and Rigo strummed. Also, David harmonized vocally with what Rigo sang. It was really awesome seeing Rigo involved, with him being newly declared blind.

Then came my and Keila’s duet, singing “Un Viaje Largo” by Marcela Gandara. She softly introduced it, but since everyone was talking during the transition, no one heard it. Anyway, we didn’t sing as well as we did when we’d practice, but it was our first time on mics, so it was still pretty good. We both had fun and I gave her a big hug when we finished.

Next came the rondalla, one of my favorites—an ensemble of guitarists (+ a bassist, in this case). They all strummed together and sang. It was really pretty. And Bladi riffed a little bit! Even Rigo was up their! The audience chanted “Otra! Otra!” after they had done, demanded another round, which they would later.

Then came the clown skit with Leti, Lidia, Dalila, and Priscilla all dressed as clowns. They didn’t speak throughout the whole skit either, just motions and gestures. Leti and Delila came in first with their bag dragging on the floor, then Lidia came in skipping with her bag super light-weight. Then they started taking out the boxes in each of the bags. The boxes in Leti and Dalila’s bag said traits like “envy”, “pride”, and “drunkenness”, as well as a whiskey bottle, whereas Lidias boxes in her bag said characteristics like “joy”, “love”, and “goodness” as well as a paper cross. Lidia explained through gestures that they needed Jesus and they wouldn’t have those heavy boxes anymore; they could instead have light happy boxes, so Leti and Dalila accepted Jesus and threw away their old bag and boxes and skipped off with Lidia and her light bag of good traits. Priscilla is Leti’s 5-year-old, she was pretty shy, so didn’t do anything but sit on stage. And Lidia, who by nature is a complete sweetheart, was the cutest clown I’ve ever seen!

Next Aunt Lila performed a magic show that she’d been preparing all afternoon. She somehow incorporated the gospel, which I thought was neat. (Late I tried to guess her secrets)

Next was another skit with mimes about how Jesus can take away your sins such as “violence” and “drugs” that the Devil puts on us. Everyone was shocked at how scary Leti looked in her “Satan’s girlfriend” get-up. Oh, and Keila was in it! All the other kids that participated were laughing and talking, but she stayed in character. Oh, and a student at the BI named Jesús, played Jesus. :)

Beto and Gloria did an adorable skit together (they’re husband and wife) of which was a play on words—and he played the dumb guy and she played the sweet, innocent girl (which sort of mirrors them in reality). I also was informed, by my tía, that Beto used to be a professional clown and was the one who taught Leti and Lidia and the others who did clown skits that night, how to be clowns. He had a quick wit, which I didn’t expect.

The rondalla did otra round of their song, which everyone loved and appreciated.

Joka, who was the host of the night, even presented her own talent of writing a poem. She’s so precious, and made a great hostess—something her handicapped arm can’t prevent her from doing well!

Luci performed one more song with the band in closing and then we ate nachos, MnMs, over-baked cookies, and drank Mexican hot chocolate. I also snagged a photo with Miguel, his wife Rebe, and little Abril.

What an unexpectedly wonderful evening, thanks to Elda, Joka, and Aqui, who organized it!

Everyone seemed to really enjoy it!

TALENT SHOW #1

So, talent show tonight for the whole student body...

I'm in two songs with two different people. "Un Viaje Largo" by Marcella Gandara con Keila & "No Hay Dios" con Leti (the tone-deaf lady who speaks some English). I'm looking forward to the one with Keila, especially because her dad will be accompanying us on guitar; I just have to COMPLETELY memorize the lyrics in just a few hours. The one with Leti, um, it's just to be nice. It's going to be terrible, no matter what. I might try and get someone to accompany us on guitar for that one as well (I tried, but can't transition chords fast enough), but it will still be bad since she can't match pitch; but it's to glorify God, right? Right.

I'll let you know how the talent show goes (hence the title "Talent Show #1"... oh wait, I'm sorry... "TALENT SHOW #1"... excuse me).

Today I realized how, this is going to sound funny, mature babies really are. More than we assume--they're quite the manipulative little things; they'll put on the most dramatic fit to get what they want if they think it will work.
Little Abril, 9, 10 months old: if you lay her down, she'll cry and scream, so I thought I'd do an experiment a few times. I lay her down and go and hide while she's screaming and crying and trying to sit herself up; once she's up and sees I'm not around, she stops crying and goes on a Lynda-Hunt... once she sees me, her tantrum resurrects. How manipulative!

Anyway, that's all. Oh, and I'm starting a study of Acts with my aunt--kind of excited to follow the study guides--new view.

Okay, I'm late to practice with Leti. Adios!

Stuffed Animals & Love Life

Since yesterday was Tuesday, I had the first block off, so I utilized the time by crossing the border to run some errands and then sorting through Aunt Lila’s Oaxaca & Tecate pictures, which I posted on Facebook later today.

Once it was time to have kiddos, Daniela and Abril played great together to start and then when they got tired they napped together. If I have the two of them, I stick to a routine: Danielita can fall asleep really fast without me holding her and she sleeps like a rock (nothing can really wake her up), so I just give her a bottle and lay her down and she’ll drink it herself—then I rub her head and she falls asleep in minutes; Abril, on the other hand, is a very sensitive sleeper—I have to rock her to sleep in my arms and then it takes two or three tries before I can actually put her down to where she won’t wake up. Neither of them cried the whole time—that’s a first for two babies at once so far.

*Oh, while it’s still on my mind. There’s this guy named Jehú—I’m pretty certain he’s got the hots for me. It pretty much makes me uncomfortable, especially because he happens to be the most arrogant, full-of-himself (but doesn’t have much reason to be) guy here. He’s known at the Institute for being what would best be described in Layman’s terms as a “cocky geek”. Anyway, he says hi to me whenever he sees me, I always catch out of the corner of my eye staring at me, and I wouldn’t think anything of these cues, except he’s the type that’s so self-absorbed that he typically wouldn’t pay any attention or go out of his way to greet other people.
I think I just really need God to teach me to see Him how He does—I can’t be irritated by someone I’m supposed to love as a brother in Christ.
He asked me to teach him how to read music, so I did that last Thursday before church and this morning before breakfast, and he wants to schedule another lesson. I don’t know how to play piano well, so it’s hard to teach him (he’s the keyboardist on the worship team).*

**There’s a talent show this Friday night and I’m supposed to sing a duet with Keila and a duet with Leti (they both asked me). With Keila, I’m singing a song by Spanish Christian Pop singer Marcela Gandara (I LOVE her voice and Keila gave me a copy of one of her albums); with Leti (who speaks pretty good English) we’re singing a song from church that I’ve never heard—I’m singing it in Spanish and she’s singing it in English. One problem, Leti is tone deaf and no one has told her. I’m not going to tell her. I’ll sing with her because it’s the loving thing to do (Aunt Lila said the students don’t mind—most of the talent show gigs will be off-key or not work out); I just feel bad that she doesn’t know.**

At 3:30 I watched Beteli and Keila’s brother, David. Beteli and David are both 3 and play well together (and by play well I mean Beteli bosses David around, and David obeys). I wasn’t supposed to have Nohemí & Grete, their parents called saying the girls were throwing up, but they brought them half way through anyway. That had me nervous—didn’t want the other two kids getting sick; turned out it wasn’t contagious.

We crossed the border last night to get beans and pick up Mr. J from the mission (who’s basically Brandon McRee in 35 years, but more interested in Linguistics and Philosophy and less interested in technology) to bring him here because he teaches here at the BI.

***We can only cross over to Mexico with so many bags of beans at a time otherwise we can go to Mexico jail after a certain amount of times getting written up. Uncle Kent and Aunt Lila have been written up once so far.***

Last night, Joka, Chely, and I played around with stuffed animals—we were rolling on the floor laughing from our goofiness. I taught them the camp song “There Was a Great Big Moose” and acted it out with Chelita’s moose stuffed animal, then I interpreted the song, and then I sang it in English and animated the Moose stuffed animal while Joka sang the translation in Spanish. It was hilarious! Oh and we made a bear family out of our stuffed animals and took pictures; and I acted out a mini soap opera with the bears. Yep, I’m 18.

Anyway, it was funny.

P.s. Didn’t have Fiesta de Frijol this morning because I was on time for ever meal the past two weeks. :)

Making Tortillas to Gain a Husband

So today was Monday, so for the BI it it was a Día de Trabajando--work day. Typically, on the work days I have watched the niños just as all the other days, but today was special. :)

For reasons unsure to me, Aunt Lila told the mom's to stay home with their babies today, so that meant that I would get to work with the other girls and maybe learn something new.

Here's how the Día de Trabajando works: All the students gather in the Chapel at 8 AM (after Devotionals and Breakfast, the same time of which they'd start there school day) for Uncle Kent and Aunt Lila to delegate the work to be done, typically, until 5 PM (today it was only until around 1ish for the ladies, and 2ish for the gents). The outside work is divided amongst the guys based on skills, and quite possibly ethic, or just luck of the draw: building fences, mixing concrete, repairs throughout the institute, gardening, etc (since it was raining, there were less outdoor jobs). For the ladies, indoor jobs are more often divided based on who would work well together: cleaning the kitchen, cooking snack & lunch for the day, organizing storage, cleaning bathrooms, making tortillas, etc.

So after the delegating jobs, everyone went to work. After holding Abril for a minute or two (just cause I love that little girl and was half-sad I wouldn't get to watch her), I went to Aunt Lila for direction as to where I could be of help. KITCHEN! :) I was going to learn how to make tortillas!

So every Monday, four girls are assigned to making the flour tortillas, so I was just and extra body. I wasn't to be taught, they had a job to do and didn't have time to stop and show me how for a few minutes and tortillas take all the way up until comida--not a moment to lose! They. Go. Fast! Holy Toledo! Especially Elda! She knocks 'em out, and they're always perfect circles when she does it--Mari-Chuy, tambien (not quite as fast as Elda, but pretty close).

Okay, so one girl rolls and flours (flour is arina) the doe balls, two (or three today) girls flatten the tortillas, and one girl heats them up on a big griddle on the stove. We had two rolling pins and PVC pipes to choose from. Elda was using a PVC pipe and Mari-Chuy was using a rolling pin--I started with a pipe, but could figure out how to get the doe to not stick to it, so Elda gave me a rolling pin instead, but then it was taking too long using the rolling pin, so I switched back to the pipe. Phew! Anyway, at first my tortillas were in the shape of disfigured Christmas trees, but by the end they were closer to ovals. I actually knocked-out about 4 perfect circles--it was awesome! Elda made sure I knew throughout the few hours how well I was doing and how fast I was learning--mentioning it to everyone who walked in. :) She's so nice.

A few blogs back I had mentioned how I look up to her mentally, but have to look down to her physically because she is much shorter than 5 ft. Well, today I was able to look up to her both mentally and physically because she stood on a stool to make her tortillas. :)

Haha

People throughout the day came into the kitchen and commented on my learning to make tortillas--I enjoyed the whole experience! Even the compliments and encouragement helped--I've been feeling detached from the whole group lately and semi-uncomfortable, so by them recognizing me, I felt more appreciated and accepted. It was quite nice.

Midway, we stopped to eat for antojitos (snack), and a few of the girls kept eating the disfigured ones and saying "Oh, Lynda, I'm eating this one cause it's yours!" Haha

Oh, and Aunt Lila said it's kind of a joke within the culture that a woman can't get a husband until she can make mole (Mexican sauce) and make perfectly round tortillas. My tortillas are oval, so I'm close--and mole I'll have to learn another day. Gloria, the cook, made mole today; it was pretty picante (spicy), though.

After the tortilla making, I helped Bella with making comida--mostly just stirred the rice and microwaved fat... yea... She didn't add water to the rice when she cooked it, which I thought was odd, so she ended up having to throw out the first batch because it never softened.
After helping Bella a bit, I helped Marbe and Dalila sort and separate the day-old corn tortillas that we get for free from the tortillaria. You have to sniff them to make sure their not bad, but I didn't know what smell I was looking for, but I sniffed them anyway.

Welp, I took a long nap and Uncle Kent made some delicious eggplant-marinara meal and a delectable fruit salad to follow for dinner. This will hopefully be my last dinner for a while--I'm going to try this new dietary strategy where you don't eat dinner--it's supposed to be good for your digestive system and weight loss. Don't really need the weight loss that bad, but I could really use the digestive aid.

I've been missing prayer in the mornings with the girls--don't know what times they're doing it now (it varies), but I'm gonna ask Chely tonight because I miss praying with them.

Ooh, I got to talk to my mom today! :) Always a good day when that happens.

Less than two months until I'll be home for the holiday! :)

Alright I'm gonna do the dishes and head to my dorm.

Matrimony

Today is the day!
♪Going to the Chapel and we’re gonna get maaarried♪
I mean… not me! Sarita! Sarita and Oliver! Don’t worry, Mom.

So yes, this will be the first Mexican wedding I will have ever attended (as you may have made the connection, same bride as was the bridal shower last sábado). Sarita and Oliver already had a civil wedding earlier this week and today is the church wedding at 5 PM (or more like 5:30…)—Mexico doesn’t recognize church weddings as a legal matrimony. I was in the Chapel earlier and it was beautiful: the several doors that separate the cafeteria from the Chapel were all opened and so the light comes in so beautifully. And it smelt amazing! Dried flowers and rose petals scattered on the table and down the aisle—awww, I wanna get married! :) Just kidding. I’m looking forward to cake and I guess the service to. :P

*In Mexico it’s kind of a thing, the parents of the bride don’t pay for the entire wedding—instead they ask certain guests to pay for things. Like Aunt Lila and Uncle Kent bought the cake (pretty expensive contribution, I’d say). And in most parts of Mexico it’s also a tradition for the groom’s family to pay for the civil wedding and the bride’s family for the church wedding. Pretty interesting stuff…*

Oh my goodness, so my face broke out the other day—no big deal, it happens. Well, while I was watching Abril, we took a nap together, and right after I had woken up, the girls started walking into the apartment and when they saw me they looked shocked and asked “Que paso?” I didn’t even think about my zits, I thought maybe I had red blotches on my face from sleeping on it; “De dormiendo,” I suggested. Chely came up and looked at me close, “Granos?” she asked; oh, granos. “Ah, si,” I replied. So I guess maybe because of my fair skin, zits look really terrible. Oh, well.

Every day I am noticing more and more how much I tower over these girls. I am such a giant, white chick! I was never considered “tall” in Loomis, maybe average. Here, I’m sometimes even taller than the men—I feel awkward.

Oh, and I completed the 1-3rd grade Spanish workbook my mom sent me here with—now I’ll be working on the studybook “Spanish for Educators”—quite the jump! :) I really need to get my verbs down, that’s most important.

Last night we went for Chinese food, and they had some really tasty breaded fish that we tried. We ate some of the leftovers in fish sandwiches that Uncle Kent made. We have fish at least twice a week, which is both good for your health and your tongue.

**There is a man from China who has opened two or three large—and very successful—Chinese restaurants and buffets here in Tecate. It’s weird because he also has girls my age working in his restaurants for a few years and then they leave, Uncle Kent says. He must a have some sort of deal with them or something… college related maybe? And he has young kids who go to school in California.**

Oh, and I went to the woman’s meeting last night, too! There were only 6 or so ladies that went—and daycare isn’t provided, so kids were running in and out—and Aunt Lila gave the “sermon” on Spiritual Growth. It was interesting comparing it to the other services I’ve attended. Since it was just ladies, they were much more open with each other (talking about pap smears and wrist pains, things they wouldn’t talk about if men were in the room) and talked a lot more. It was nice sitting in on it!

Alright, if I don’t want to be late for this wedding, I’d better wrap up. Who knows whether or not this thing will start on time!
:D


Later, after the wedding, I added more:
Welp, that was fun. Pretty much the same as an American wedding, I'd say; except more frugal. Um, it started on time; I was actually late getting in there (the bride had already walked in). The ceremony was about 45 min. long and then we ate dinner directly after (pollo, macaroni salad, salad, and sodas)--the plates and cups were all styrofoam (frugal, I'm tellin' ya). Oh, and our guy students here at the BI are the ones that served the tables (the tables were set up in the chapel for both the ceremony and reception). Um, we toasted with Martinellis, then we had CAKE (I LOVE CAKE!), then they played the game:
It's a very slow race between the bride and groom up the aisle; they move by people pinning money on their clothes (or they also accepted change in the grooms shoes), so for every currency, they take one step. It wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped. Uncle Kent was funny about it--kept pinning ones consecutively on the groom.

After that there was the bouquet toss; they made sure that every single single lady made their way up for it--they nearly dragged me and three other girls up there. It was funny, I was forced up their, stood in the very back of the crowd of girls, and then when the bride was doing her "juke tosses" ("uno, dos... cinco!" and not tossing), I thought, when she throws it, it's coming right to me. I just know it. She finally tossed it, and it came right at me,so a reached for it to block my face and then let it hit the ground, I slightly bent to get it, but when I saw some other girl go crazy trying to get it from off the ground, I lost all interest. Haha! Some girls get really into catching that bouquet--I've been to a wedding where there was even hair pulling! It's not that important to me, though. Haha! But everyone gave me a hard time after saying I let her take it or some said she ripped it out of my hands. It was funny. Well, then, of course, the guys did their toss (the groom's tie rather than a guarder), and their were five or so guys that literally wrestled for it! Too funny! No dancing--I've never been to a wedding reception without dancing--it's frowned upon in the religious culture here. It was neat overall. Oh, and we even threw rice legally. :)

Lloviendo y llorando

The rain in Spain may stay mainly in the plain, but the rain in Mexico stays past it's welcome.

It's been raining since Monday, and Abril has been crying every session since Monday.

I typically enjoy the rain, but not when I'm ill-prepared. I still had out all my summer clothes and didn't bring back with me from home any of my winter clothes as I should've. Somehow it didn't register that not only would it get kinda cold here as in Loomis, but it would be colder because there is absolutely NO HEATING SYSTEM indoors... at all. I never thought about it. Aunt Lila said I'll want to layer--so that's what'll happen, I guess. This will be new; I've been so spoiled.

Sunday we went to town (San Diego)--I got to eat LONG JOHN SILVERS! Kind of love that place.

Monday was a day trabajar; I watched kids until comida at 2. Oh and Tuesday and Wednesday Grete and her sister Nohemi never showed up--I was so excited--mean, I know...

Nothing much else has been happening. Oh, I've been studying Spanish more to learn simple nouns such as animals, foods, flowers, etc. And by study, I mean reading childrens' books and working in 3rd grade Spanish books. Hey, if it helps...

Alright, I'm exhausted from a day of rain and coldness (and dentist :\ he didn't hug me this time, not that I'm complaining, I think because we missed two appointments and had to reschedule due to communication issues).

I'm sleeping at my Aunt and Uncle's tonight so I can get a goodnight's rest--it's hard to sleep well in my dorm because Chelita studies with the light on until 2 in the morning almost every night. She's involved in a lot, though, so I understand.

Welp, I just yawned. That's my cue.

Sabado y la mañana de domingo

Yesterday I studied my Spanish books up until the mid afternoon until I went with Joca and Dalila to Sara’s (a girl from our church) surprise bridal shower. My first Mexican wedding shower—it was neat!

The surprise bridal shower was held in a class room at the BI and was supposed to start at 3 PM (that’s when I got there with a few of the other girls), but people trickled in for the next hour until the bride finally arrived an hour late—typical to the Mexican culture. They started the shower with prayer, then the married ladies each gave advice (all of which incorporated scripture—which was neat), there was a slide show of pictures of the bride (likely taken off her Facebook or Myspace, judging by the photos), and the last part I stayed for was the games. The bride did two races against a shower attendee: one was who could fold laundry faster; the other was who could iron the best. Sara, the bride, won the first against my Tia, but lost the ironing contest against her best friend. Half of the attendees had to leave early for a fasting meeting, and I was bummed about that because I wanted cake. Aunt Lila whispered, “Well, they’re gonna eat tamales first, you sure you want to stay?”, “Oh, nevermind!” I whispered back.

**Have I mentioned that I HATE tamales? When my mom would buy them for us at home, I’d coat them in sour cream, then smother them in sour cream, and then drown them in sour cream before I’d take even a bite. Here in Mexico, they are a favorite meal—but my taste buds haven’t changed much, and they don’t have much sour cream around.**

So no cake, no tamales (gracias a Dios), so we walked over to the Chapel for the meeting to end the fasting. We worshipped, Tio Kent gave a short sermon on “why we fast” according to the Bible, and then we ate donuts and drank coffee. Efren, who organized the fasting chain and called the meeting, asked me to take a few pictures, so I went around taking “high-flash” candid shots of everyone (I don’t know what they say for “Smile!” or “Say cheese!”—“Dicen queso”??).

After the meeting, Gloria (who organized the bridal shower),came and told all the attendees who had to leave early that tamales and cake were set aside for them. I gave my Tio my tamale, of course, but I was all-for downing that slice of cake. And I did. :)

After cake, and after Tia and Tio finished their tamales, Tio had made some fruit salad (he makes the best ever! Con LaLa crème y agave) that we enjoyed. While eating that we discussed Luke 14:26 and ended up on a translation/Greek lesson tangent, which I really enjoyed. I would love to learn the Greek and Hebrew languages.

This morning Aunt Lila and I did our normal routine of crossing the border to go to TMI HQ for bread, rice, milk, and beans. They had rye bread again in the closet, which is mine and Tia’s favorite, so I munched on a few slices for breakfast. :)

I have 8 minutes before church starts, but I don’t think I’ll make it—still have to shower and get ready.

Luego!

Entonces...

These past few days have been interesting. Typical baby watching during the day, but the nights have been different.

Two nights ago we went to a hospital in Cali to pray with a bunch of other members of TMI over a friend of the organization who has cancer of the cavities (spinal and sinus) and it has crept to his brain. For the first time yet, I prayed the way we’re supposed to (addressing the disease, the person, and the demons, instead of God) in front of English-speaking people who actually could understand what I was saying, other than my dad—before I had only prayed over Rigo and my dad. Anyway, my “praying” really stuck out against everyone else’s and I noticed I caused some offense. Before we prayed, I was Kent and Lila’s niece, and a person those people had never met or only met once or twice; after I prayed I was a different person to them. I prayed with power and authority, in the name of Jesus—I even got a little loud. Some came up and complimented my prayer (which I thought was awkward and unnecessary), but mostly people just looked at me strangely; a mixture between fear and judgment. I felt bad at first, but then God reminded me that we are to be persecuted if we are doing what He has called us to do.

Pablo’s very lovely mother was one of the ones that was more inspired by the way I chose to pray; when I met her coming in the door it was a “Who are you? Well, welcome, thanks for coming” deal, but after we had finished praying together it was an “Okay, WHO ARE YOU? Thank you so much for coming and praying for my son!” Haha Anyway, I really liked Pablo’s mom; she was very warm, beautiful, and together (even with her son being in the hospital with cancer).While her and my aunt talked in Spanglish, I understood everything they said. And after, she even chatted with me for a sentence or two in Spanish. She was neat! Oh, and later while talking to my aunt, I found out she’s even cooler—she’s fluent in 4 languages! I think that’s incredible! She’s a person I’d love to get to know better. Oh, and as soon as I saw Pablo, her son, I was like, “Whoa, he looks just like Kevin!” (Kevin is one of my best friend’s [Steph] brother)—fair skinned and light haired and eyed, even.

Last night our last day of fasting began. I ducked out of church midway so I could Skype my family and talk to my mom. I also wanted to get out of church because there’s this socially awkward girl named Karla who goes on Thursdays and Sundays to church and she has kind of decided that we’re best friends—she always wants to hold my arm or my hand during church and I never bring a pen with me to service anymore otherwise she write things on my hand like “Karla + Linda = friends forever” with a big heart around it. I don’t know; she just gives me the creeps—and the other girls feel the same way. I’m trying my best to see her the way Jesus does, but it’s apparently taking time. :\
Anyway, I was so glad I got to talk to my mama.

Today after watching the niñas, we prayed during Comida (for the fast) and then I took a 3 hour nap! SO NICE! When I woke up, it was really close to being time for the last fasting prayer meeting of the day (where we’d hand it off to the last group). I told Lidia that I would give the “baton prayer” (and in Spanish—this would’ve been my first official prayer in Spanish), but I was 3 min. late to the meeting trying to translate my prayer from English to Spanish, so Lidia gave the “baton prayer” instead. :\ I was disappointed and felt bad, but she said it was fine. I need to discipline myself so I’ll be on time.

Ooh, speaking of which, I’m trying to be on time for Devotionals and the meals (I’m not required to because I’m staff, but it’d be good for me). If students are late to meals they end up having to clean the rocks out of beans on Wednesday mornings at 4 o’clock, and when I found out that Keila was late for a single meal and had to go to la Fiesta de Frijol, I decided I needed to start being on time. So I went to the Fiesta de Frijol along with her on Wednesday at 4 AM. Cleaning the rocks out of beans… I must say, I’m pretty profesh. I think I cleaned the most beans of every one. Fast and thorough is how I do. :) Anyway, enough gloating about my bean cleaning skills—I’m going be on time for meals so I won’t have to practice that skill. :P

Tonight, after the last prayer, I went into my aunt and uncle’s house to make myself some food (Bocas on Rye), and when they came home we watched Robots and I prepared myself a pomegranate. I grew up watching movies while peeling pomegranates on newspaper with my Papa.

Exhaustion. Good night! (or Good day, probably)