Thursday

We are all a little sad that it is already Thursday :(  The week has gone by so fast.  Today was a crazy and wonderful day.

We took the long route to our villages, stopping to shop for carved wooded items from our old friends in Mabilha Village.  We have had a lot of rain and the roads today would make a great new ride at Six Flags!

At San Lucas, Don, Jill, Mary, Ann and Allie worked on art projects, pen pal letters, made fruit loop necklaces and formed letters out of pipe cleaners.

The most special moment of the day was when the group was asked by a family to bless their grandmother who is very ill. They were honored to pray together with the family.

In Otoxha Rick gave a first aid presentation not only to the children, but to several adults in the village as well. There is a new Peace Corps worker and a new Health Care Volunteer in the village and they were excited to learn from Rick and promised to put the first aid kits to good use.

Hans, Jen, Jody and Linda finished the Pen Pal letters with the students and sang This Little Light of Mine while the kids each got a small little battery operated tealight. They were invited to lunch in two homes where Hans took one for the team by eating BOTH his and Jen's bowls of caldo!

Corazon Creek was a busy place today.  The construction crew was pleased to see that the men of the village had already poured the new concrete floor for the outdoor classroom by the time we arrived this morning.  Ther rest of the day was spent painting the school both inside and out.

The teachers in Corazon, Mary Pat, Cathy, Mike and Rose made bracelets with solar beads, made Fruit Loop necklaces and TRIED to bake s'mores in the pizza box solar ovens.  Of course right after the s'mores were placed in the ovens the rain started!  This did not dampen their enthusiam one bit.

There were several amusing moments in Corazon today. After all of the s'mores were "baked" there was about a half bag of marhsmallows left over. We offered them to a few of the local men who were doing construction and the next thing we knew all of the guys came running over, just like little kids, to get their marshmallow!!  It was a highlight of the week to see their joy at getting such a simple treat.

We broke out the iPod and introduced Corazon to the Cupid Shuffle.  We definitely provided the comic releif as we had most of the village lined up watching us dance!  Nick was a good sport, telling one of the men that if he would get up and dance that he would join him and sure enough, they both did. 

Our new friend, Molly, a Peace Corp volunteer in Corazon, drove back to join us for dinner at the Retreat Center.  It was hard to tell if she was more excited about the delicious dinner or the chance to take a REAL shower!  We're pretty sure it was a shower!  We loaded her up with lots of supplies to take back to the village tomorrow. It made our day when she told us that we already feel like her family :)

The quote of the day was from Rose.  She was walking to the home of a family for lunch when the father picked her up on his motorcycle!   When she got back to school she was happy to report: "I just had my first motorcycle ride!"