A few relfections on my 3wk "break" from school

GOOD GRIEF! It's a lot of work to host teams!
I quickly learned that we have a least one team each week for most of the summer. I'm beginning to learn what it takes to host a mission team- quite a bit of work and I've only scratched the surface and watched as Britney and Bobby (B&B) host new teams weekly. I'm so glad we have industrial sized washers and dryers! I think their new. Two girls (about 11 yr old) wanted to help me fold the many sheets and towels the last team left for us. After getting permission, they came into my room and we talked, laughed, and listened to some pop Christian Spanish music. Oh yeah, we folded laundry too. But building relationships is everything here.

MEASUREMENTS...NO PROBLEM!
Some team coming in early Aug. wants to do a "make-over" for the multiple roomed house where the little kids stay, Griffin House. Therefore they needed all the dimensions...the length, width of walls, windows, doors, distance btw each, length and width of halls, etc. Didn't sound like too hard of a job. Ha! None of the windows were the same, often the doors weren't even the same measurement, and each room seemed to have some sort of strange deviation- not to mention the lack of 90 degree angles.

TOO OLD FOR A HUG?
After doing devotions with the little girls (age 4-7) in Griffin House one night, I went to say goodnight to the boys (approx 10-14 yr old) in Strawn house. I went room by room to say good night, and wondered if they felt they were too old to get hugs. I was nearly tackled by the youngest boys (in the first bunk room) when I asked who wanted a hug. It's like they were starving for a hug...or at least like they were just waiting for someone to ask. Room after room it was the same until I got to the last room where the older boys sleep. I could tell 2 really wanted a hug...but they didn't want the other boys to know it. So I told them I was gonna hug them all, like it or not :) We kind of made a game of it as I chased them around their beds...but it ended with smiles and hugs for all.

I try to rotate doing devotions with the kids every night, as well as the "night-night hugs" (all thought I'll admit only to you that the little boys age 4-7 are my favorite). Night-nights are definitely the best of the day to me.

A NIGHT ON THE TOWN
Sat 6-30-07 All the kids from about 10 yr old and older got to go to a Christian concert tonight due to the connection the artist has with the Benner family. Nice outing for all of us.

ZIP, ZAP, ZING
What am I gonna do when team season is over and there's no left overs? It feels like it'll be a long time until May when they start coming again. The teams get more expensive food and we missionaries are allowed to have anything that might be left over. And it pays to make friends with Alma, the main cook.
she and I are buddies, and we both like mischief. She looks out for me and saves me some of the "good stuff". Today she offered me papaya, but I turned it down since I really don't like it. She asked what I liked. I told her pineapple. I tried to stop her when I saw she was about to cut a pineapple for me. I told her it was too much work for her. She seemed insulted that I didn't want her to do this for me, so I simply said, "yes, thank you!" Zip, zap, zing...and in less than 30 seconds the pineapple was skinned and sliced ready for eating. Amazing!

SECADORA FAHA
I spent part of a day running around with Allen, a really neat short term (4wk) missionary that knows almost no Spanish, looking for a secadora faha...in English- a clothes dryer belt. We went several places, and no luck. Guess we'll have to leave this errand for one of the local guys who somehow know how and where to go to get almost anything. And to be honest, we probably don't want to know the where or how part of the equation.

B&B
I spent a good part of a couple of evenings talking with B&B. They've committed to a year and arrived in early Jan, but they're pretty sure they're gonna stay longer. They're a really neat couple, and it was nice for us to just sit and chat and start to get to know each other. Their heart is bent toward teenagers (thank goodness...because it's certainly not my favorite cut of tea!) They've been the leaders of their church's' youth program for a few years. They are in their early 30s. She's a nurse with a masters degree and has experience in the Emergency Room and ICU. He's been self employed as a carpenter and general contractor. It's amazing the things he can do. So he lines up and runs the projects for teams who are interested in getting dirty. Britney does all the ahead of time communication and preparation, and helps directly with teams too. I think we're going to work really well together. I really like them.

FUMIGATION DAY
Double yuck! Hopefully this will thin out the critters and mice. The smell in our rooms seemed to last for days.

IF YOUR LUCKY, YOU MIGHT HEAR A RUMBLE OF THUNDER
But otherwise, there seems to be no warning to the monster rain storms we get almost every night during our 6 months of rainy season. They often seem to come from out of nowhere, real suddenly. Real gully washers. Sometimes it comes mid to late afternoon. Sometimes it rains all night. I hear that September is the worst, and has the most rain (sometimes all day & night). Yuck!
The El Salvadorans believe that you will become very ill if you go out in the rain. So they'll even push dinner up by an hour if it's nearly ready and rain seems imminent. Friday nights the whole campus does devotions together instead of each house doing their own. If it's raining, they won't come out and they'll just do devotions on their own (even if a team has prepared a skit or some sort of presentation). They feel VERY strongly about this. Of course, based on this premise I should be sick every time I shower.

YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN HER EYES!
One Sat. while Kim was visiting, we were asked to help put up advertisement posters for an upcoming big Christian Expo being held by AMILAT- the part of the ministry that runs the bookstores and book distribution center. The expo really looks well planned with well known guest speakers and musicians for various ages. The older kids at the home were asked to help put up posters too. Team leaders and regions were assigned and we left in about 8 vehicles. Our main focus was putting the signs up in front of and inside churches (with permission of course). We also wanted to target public buses since this is by far the main mode of transportation here. Teri Benner was our team leader and driver. Teri is the Benner's daughter and my age. I will answer directly to her when/if the clinic ever gets started. So, when our van would stop, a couple of us would go to the near-by church(es), a few would go to some parked public buses and ask if we could tape up posters inside the buses.
At one particular stop, Kim & I put a few posters up and returned to the van where Teri was waiting for us. Some others were still putting posters in a bus parked in front of us, others were at near-by stores putting up posters too. YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN TERI'S EYES when the bus started to leave, with out kids in the bus! Yet, we couldn't follow because we had other kids still out in the neighborhood. Then one kid in the bus popped his head out the window, grinned, and waved. Teri felt sure this was just a joke. Within a couple of min. the kids from the bus walked back to the van and explained that the bus driver was dispatched to go up one block to the next stop...so the kids stayed on and finished putting up the posters. Whew!
We were assigned some towns that were pretty far away and got to see some really beautiful areas. This was probably my favorite day of Kim's visit.

YOUR HEAD IS A WATERMELON- SPLAT!
Allen used to be in the Coast Guard, and he was asked to do a water safety course at our pool for the kids and staff before he left on July 14th. Allen asked me to drown a few times as a demonstration of how to best help a person in distress in the water. He taught classes by age groups. He told them their head was only as thick as a watermelon (although we all know that kid's head more often resembles concrete), therefore they shouldn't dive in head first (into this 4.5ft deep pool), nor should they be running and horsing around. For the last 2 classes Allen came up with a watermelon and dropped it to illustrate what might happen to their head. It made quite an impression. Of course, he couldn't resist showing the girls how some of the smooshed red melon could resemble their smooshed brains...and then he'd eat it.

FORREST TURNED 7!
My oldest nephew, Forrest turned 7 on Monday July 9th. I so hate to be away from him, Joshua, Haley and the rest of my family on days like this.
I called and spoke with Forrest and asked him if he felt like a 6 yr old, or a 7 yr old. He said "7". "Why?" I asked. "Because I'm 7" he calmly said. OK, stupid questions deserve stupid answers!

CURTAINS AND SCREENS
My apartment was almost ready for my occupancy when I arrived for my break. I could've actually move in if it wasn't for teams needing to use it since one of the team rooms was having plumbing problems. The electricity for the apartment wasn't yet hooked to the main box on the street by the city workers yet, so they rigged it to pull current from another building by using extension cords that ran between houses. And there were no curtains or screens on any windows- just minor details. I was thrilled to find out that a particular team had 2 seamstresses who happened to be living in my apartment, and they very much wanted to make curtains. 2 days later, I had curtains for all 6 of my windows, and you'd never know they were made from bed sheets. Now I just need to figure out how to hang them since the walls are made of thick concrete and spring rods seem to be nearly impossible to find here. Oh, my windows got screens on the day before I left. I was thrilled ! So I reckon I'll be able to move into my apartment when I return in mid August.

LEAF SOUP...need I say more? It was quite interesting.

CONFUCIUS SAYS...
That if you sweep an unused room, you'll find lots of active bugs, and they can be most effectively killed by sweeping them into a somewhat small pile and stepping on all of them at once instead of crucnhing them individually.

SCREAMS & WHITE MEN STOMPING IN THE NIGHT
On the eve of Allen's leaving, we missionaries gathers in B&B's apartment for cake and ice cream. Wow! I'd forgotten how much I liked desert! As best I can tell, it's never served here except when bought in by a visitor(s) like at Christmas. It was SO good. Then we suddenly heard the loud shreeks of many girls. Immediately I said, it's either a snake or mice. Yep, a few mice. The girls were freaking out and had run out of their house, and pointing toward the main meeting room just inside the door. Allen and I tried to get the mice to come out from behind the lockers. When one of the mice came running towards me, I discovered beating him with a broom that happened to be in my hand was not too effective, but I was able to sweep him out the door (towards the girls...who then all but climbed the near by Palm trees and screamed even louder.) Good thing too...because then within a few min we had the help of a several other guys. It took about 4 of them to move the bank of lockers away from the wall, and then another mouse darted out. The phrase, "White men can't dance" came immediately to mind as these 2 white guys started stomping like crazy as they tried to step on this mouse that was running in circles around them. I couldn't tell if they were high stepping because they really didn't know what else to do, or if they really wanted to actually step on it. Somehow, one of them finally steeped on the mouse. Later he said to me, "you know, I was wearing flip flops, and all I could think of was what if that mouse ran over my bare foot and/or up my pants leg?" No wonder he was high stepping so furiously!

Friday July 13th= a 4.8 Earthquake tremor...and I hardly knew it.

PACKING BY CANDLELIGHT
Late on the eve of my leaving to return to school, I was busy packing when the electricity went out in our town...again. I tried packing by candlelight. I found it hard to hold a flashlight and use my hands very effectively. No wonder I ended up not packing some of the things I wanted to bring.