Sunday

I originally wanted to go to a different church than the one we attended in July, but the choices were to leave with the little boys at 10:15 or to go with the other houses at 8:00.  That was an easy choice, but as we started to get close to the church, I realized it was the same one I had already attended.  Oh well, it was still fun to go with the little boys.  There were too many of us to fit in the van, and Bob the Bus had taken the other kids to their church, so a few of us volunteers caught the micro, the public bus, into town.  It wasn't very crowded.  We met the boys there and took them to Sunday School.  They had some sort of red, flavored soft drink for them when we got there, and Jose Luis about had a fit he was so excited. 

The service was good.  The lyrics were projected on the screen, and almost all of the time I knew what I was singing.  The sermon was a little harder.  I could get the gist of what the pastor was saying but couldn't follow word for word.  He spoke about living sacrificially and finishing the race strong.

Because we were taking the micro back, we could stay in town as long as we wanted, so Stephanie, Elizabeth, Tiffany, Emily, and I went to lunch at a little cafe.  We all had Oreo milkshakes, which were amazing, and I had some papas fritas.  I feel a little self-concious posting about eating out on a mission trip, but everything is so cheap here that it's not really a big deal.  The food from my Friday night excursion totaled less than 2 American dollars, and today's food was about 5 American dollars, so we're not exactly breaking the bank here.  After lunch, we ducked in the grocery store, which is humorously enough called Wong, and I bought some chicha morada mix.  Gotta have something for my birthday party.

The aforementioned Tiffany and Emily left this afternoon.  They were short-term volunteers from New Zealand, affectionately referred to as "the kiwis." They're on a sort of tour of South America.  From here they're going to Buenos Aires and then home.  They both just finished college.

I got to talk to my sister Caroline on the phone today.  She's Baylor's latest and greatest Chi Omega.  Even our brother Alex approves of that sorority, so I think we're good to go.

Apparently, some volunteer group donated a small pool to the orphanage.  It's really just a PVC pipe frame and a vinyl liner.  The boys filled it up this afternoon and went for a swim, and they had so much fun.  It was great just to watch.  The younger boys swam first and then the older boys.  The little 3 and Josue didn't swim, but all the others did.  Ashley and Hilda, the madre of the older boys' house, swam with them.

After that, I played the game Sorry with Alex and Consuelo.  Then I played with Consuelo, Alex, Heydi, Cristina Grande, and Italo.  Then I played with Pablo, Italo, Abel, and Heydi.  Yes, I played a board game with both Italo and Abel at the same time.  Amazingly enough, it went just fine.

Dinner was leftovers from lunch, only there wasn't much leftover.  There's a higher number than usual of volunteers right now, and they seem to be having trouble convincing the cooks we need more food.  This is another reason I don't feel bad about eating out when I have the chance.  Don't get me wrong- there was plenty of rice and pasta leftover, just not much of anything else.  Thankfully, I packed bread and peanut butter.  There will soon be a praise and worship night taking place in our living room.  I suppose that's all for now.