As I publish this, I realize that it is a really long post, so if you actually make it through to the bottom you must be a true friend. Or just really bored. Either one. ;)
In the near recent- if that is even grammatically correct- I have been having some stomach issues since Monday. I have no idea what I ate- not that it even matters this late in the game. The bad thing is that yesterday I ate pretty much every kind of food when I should have been more careful, if I wanted to get better faster. So today, my diet has solely consisted of bananas, water and Powerade. Feeling better now! Not up to eating food yet...they ate tacos for lunch which I was really bummed to find out because I love tacos! Oh well, there will be other days.
Talking about other days, my days left in Guatemala are dwindling! I can´t believe that it´s October already! It seems just like yesterday that it was August and I was wishing that I could go home and November felt like a lifetime away. God has really blessed me here. I am glad I stayed. Though, now that I stayed more time, it´s going to be even harder to leave all of the friends that I have made. But I will try not to borrow tomorrows sorrows...
Spanish progress
Last Friday a family that used to go to the Ruano´s church came to eat lunch with us. It was funny, I was soooo nervous because I had to sit down at the adult table (the kids already took up the other table) and I my hand was shaking as I set down my plate of food and I was thinking things like ´´What if they (the guests) try to talk to me? What if I have to speak in Spanish to them? They will find out how little I know! Oh, no, don´t look at them! Eyes down eyes down...´´ haha I´m so ridiculous. It turned out fine, I got used to them and they were nice. The father was actually from the States and was part Cherokee or something so he didn´t look gringo. Anyway, I don´t know why my self-confidence is so low still with speaking Spanish. I will be talking easily with Monica or my friends from the church, and an adult like Celeste´s mom or the Ruano´s grandfather will hear me and be like ´´Hey! You do speak Spanish and understand it!´´ And then I´m like ´´Shoot, they know! I hope they don´t try speaking to me!´´ It´s really because I feel more comfortable messing up in front of my friends, people I really am used to being around. Adults still scare me. Oh, and kids I don´t know as well. I guess basically anyone that I´m not used to yet. haha. But Sunday it was so cool, because there I was, sitting in the living room, having complete conversations in Spanish. I was like ´´Wow! I can´t believe this is for real!´´ Still don´t understand everything, of course, and some days I feel like I don´t know anything, but it´s encouraging moments like that when I realize how far I´ve come.
Preparing for camp
We have been busy this week preparing for the church´s kids camp this weekend. I guess I didn´t really explain what the camp was very well before, because my family was asking me what it was about, so I will try to explain again. It´s basically just a kids camp they put together for all of the kids that go to the church, since now it is their summer and school is finishing up this week and next week. It´s just a one-nighter, but they put a lot of work into it! You´d think it was a week long camp! There are four teams of kids who compete with each other, it´s pretty intense. Each team has four leaders, two boys and two girls. I am one of the leaders for a team. The theme for the camp is ´´Mas Que Vencedores´´ taken from Romans 8:37 ´´But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.´´
Last Saturday I was at the church allll day because my group had to make the flag and other little things for our team. Somehow we are going to attach these little foam people (that we all cut out by hand) and a foam Bible to the flag...I really don´t know who´s brilliant idea it was to involve so much foam in our project. Wasn´t mine! Anyhow, we had to buy some more foam Saturday morning, so Jose, Monica and I were walking around to different little stores, seeing what they had and we also bought some more sparkles and glue. That took a while, and then we returned to our little room with out windows to cut more!! We were in the nursery in the church, it is tiny and isn´t ever used I don´t think. But it´s sad because there aren´t any windows... my mom was thrilled to find out that we were using rubber cement for hours with only the door as ventilation...let´s pray that I am not completely brain dead. But now, if I am, you all will know why.
When we returned to the church, after eating lunch at McDonalds, it was time for youth group. That lasted from abut 3:30 to 5...then we had a group meeting for the camp. Chochy reprimanded some people for not showing up for practice for their groups, and then the group that is going to lead the singing part at camp presented their songs and had us learn the dances to them, so that we can help the kids at camp. That was really fun but was quite a work-out! Everyone was super sweaty from dancing! Some of the steps are taken from Chochy concerts, so I knew it already. I really enjoyed it, I think the kids will like it too.
Camp this weekend!
We have to be at the church at 7 on Saturday, then we leave with all of the kids at 8 and the car ride is about an hour, so they say. I can´t remember the schedule exactly, but I know that we will be competing in games throughout the day Saturday, and my drama team presents our skit at 2 in the afternoon. At 6:30 is a ´´Cena de gala´´ which is a ´´fancy´´ dinner that everyone has a date...unusual for me, but I guess it´s a normal thing for them, they have these camps and dinners every year. After the dinner there is a bonfire, and then everyone goes to bed. Monica and I will be in charge of the girls in our group, we will have our own cabin. I was told that there will be about 6 boys and 6 girls on each team. The ages range from 2 to 11, so I hope that we can handle it alright. I´m sure it will be interesting. Sunday we have to wake up at 6 and we have devotions early, maybe at 6:30. Then it´s another busy day of games and dramas, skits and puppets. When we get back to the church in the late afternoon, we do team presentations and then they announce the winning team in front of the parents. It will be a late night Sunday, they say sometimes they don´t get home until midnight, I guess with all the clean-up and wrapping up of the weekend.
I am excited to see what happens and how everything goes, after all the time invested in this up-coming weekend!
