Candelaria

I’ve been pondering all morning how to write about Candelaria so far. We’ve been here for eight days (what?!?!) and it’s difficult to sum up what’s going on…my teammates are doing it well, so check out their blogs, and Stephanie’s awesome video (at the bottom of this blog). Here are some moments…

 

~playing in the monsoon-like rain with local kids on the first night…kids we’ve since played with nearly every day

~having Pastor Jose animatedly warn us to be careful (“cuidado! cuidado!”) as we start walking into the town of Chichigalpa. as it turns out, he warns us to be careful of nearly everything. he is watching out for us!

~getting our truck stuck in a river for 3.5 hours (the tractor got stuck too)

~laughing a LOT with Kayla, Pastor Jose’s daughter. She is our cook and we also are helping her study English, as she helps us study Spanish. it’s a win-win situation!

~doing Pilates by candlelight with my Kiatera sisters in our home (the unfinished medical clinic)

~chatting with youth who show up at the church nearly every day; explaining to them what we’re doing and why we are doing it

 

 

 

 

~studying the Bible with the youth (right:

~reading Bible stories to some of the kids who were just hanging out at the church. what fun!

~working in a more rural location to help start the building of a house (read Lisa’s blog)

~bucket showering by the light of a headlamp, what fun

~church in the dark on the basketball court since the electricity was out; then helping to hand out sweet bread and soda to the attending 100-ish young people (aged 5-25)

~riding in the back of a truck (we do this nearly every day for some reason)

 

below are some photos from our evening off when we visited the Pacific coast nearby. enjoy!

 

 

team Kiatera (on the right) at the beach. the sand says “the world race july 2008” wooohooo!!!

 

 

 

 

 

amazing lightning show during the sunset at the beach. it was incredible!!!

 

right, a surfer at the beach. the waves are crazy!!!