So much!

Wow. I have "so much" to say! The past couple days have been very full, but very good.

During the day on Friday we traveled in these safari Jeep things to a poorer, more dangerous neighborhood of Cartagena for a get together with another YWAM site. What a different world over there! I was mesmerized by all of the people in the streets and the little shacks squished together on the hilltops. I remember seeing this from the plane when I first arrived. It is an incredible site. No wonder Latin America is like one big family. Everyone lives on top of one another!

We had a worship service and played games and ate yummy food. It all was very refreshing for me because I understood much of what was said and how to play the games. I enjoyed meeting another German girl there..she is simpathetic to my situation as she recently went through this stage of being new and learning the language, etc. I have now been added to the list of people who help in the kitchen and so my first time doing so was at this other YWAM location in a kitchen I had never even seen before! This was very frusterating because I didn't know what needed to be done or where things belonged or even how to ask! This is a common problem and then I get looks like "uhh why are you just standing there?" Its complicated though because often times when I ask questions to get clarification on something no one knows the answers to my questions. Its also a cultural thing--so I'm learning to watch and learn and go with the flow!


Friday night I spent the night with the German girls at an English teacher's house. It was nice to be away from all the crazy spanish speakers for a couple hours. HOWEVER, when I went to use the bathroom I had my first encounter, a very close one indeed, with a cockroach. He was as gross as I imagined and was chilling inside the toilet paper roll!! How does a person function in the bathroom with a cockroach??

Saturday was a challenging day. We did "aseo profundo" as they say. Which is basically deep cleaning at its very deepest. I was entirely overwhelmed by all of the latino people running around like crazy people babbling in Spanish to me and telling me what to do. Many times I had no idea what they wanted me to do, and that was frusterating. And other times I knew exactly what they wanted but didn't understand why they would ask me to do that. And then there were times when I had already done what they asked and they would just keep telling me to do the same thing! Whew. I'm discovering a new level of humility here. It's difficult for me to be in submission to these people I don't even know who speak a different language and live in an entirely different culture, especially when I don't agree with them on something. But, God has been teaching me through it--that I work for Him ultimately and to have an attitude of service and love.

On Sunday we went to a really big church called Rivers of Life. When I walked in there were thousands of dark-haired, dark-skinned people worshipping the Lord, not a blonde in the bunch. very beautiful!!  The worship and the message were very good and the overall workings of the church were similar to Valley Family Church so I felt at home :). 

Later on that day I was invited by a new couple from Switzerland (they will be students like me) to go to the beach with them. So I decided, "heck yes! get me out of this house for a while!" It was definitely an adventure. We went to a wind-surfing school and the couple was reunited with a guy they met several years ago. Since then, he has become a Christian and has a wonderful vision of using this surfing school as a ministry. He talked and talked about what God has done in His life. Praise God for giving me grace to understand almost everything he said in Spanish!! We hung out there and played paddle ball on the beach (the closest thing to tennis that I've played so far)---LOVED IT. When we started playing the guy I was playing against was like "just let me know when you get tired because I will just keep playing and playing!" So we played for quite a while and then I could tell he was getting so tired and so I asked him if he wanted to quit and he was like "YES you win." Haha!! Anyways, it was very fun and I got a lottt of sun. We then went to a restaurant and had some yummy food and pina con leche (a pinapple/milk drink).

Okay I think that's all for now. God is good!!