Esso, No Mas

Since so much has happened before I made a blog, I figured that I needed to do a "catch all" one to summarize what exactly has been going on in my time here.

The past few weeks have been really cool and so much has happened. Our first day, we road on an ox cart to the house on this rocky dirt road. It was crazy but so much fun! We also went on a hike with the neighbors, Antonio and Francisco on their hill. It was so beautiful and we could see over everything.

This is part of our group in the picture. Francisco is the speck on top of the waterfall, Antonio is the fella sporting the red jacket, Camile, me, Allisha, Caroline, and Cole.

It was so weird at first walking in the woods and seeing 10 cows just hanging out in the woods, not having a fence or anything! On the way, we did see some very tiny houses that entire families lived in. Most of them were really small and they had a bamboo wall or something that would not prevent the cold from coming in at all. It's very sad that they have to live in those conditions, but they do what they have to do and that's ok with them. I have no clue how they survive it in the cold.

A few days after we got here, we took a trip to Pedro Jaun Caballero. It took several hours by bus to get there but it was so worth it. We stayed with a very nice lady that owns a hair salon below her house. A lot of people make their livings like that...they get a building and have their business or store in the bottom and they live upstairs. Church wasn't until that night, so during the day we got to have a little fun. Alicia, the owner, did our nails and hair and had us looking all cute for church that night! But sadly enough, after we started on our long walk to church, it started raining on our cute new hair. Haha. To the left is Caroline with her new pink tips, I got highlights, and Camille got blue tips.

On the 13th of July, Allisha my best friend turned 18 here so we had her a birthday party complete with princess tiaras and a cheese cake that I made. It was a great night of laughs, UNO and pizza.

A big part of being here is getting to spend time with the kids next door. They are so fun and it's such a blessing to walk outside and 10 kids yell your name and run and hug you. I am learning more and more spanish everyday and I hope to be able to speak well one day so I can communicate better.

One night we had a Princess Party with the girls next door to teach them about being a princess of God. It was a very good experience to share with them and afterwards we got to paint fingernails!

Out of all the new words I have learned, there are a few that are officially my favorites:

"Esso, no mas," "Verdad!" "Increible!" "Enserio" It may be because I hear them all a lot but they're my favorite and everytime I hear them, I giggle a little. haha