Homemade Flytraps

Best. Day. Ever. We started off with a devotion and prayer with Doña Fide. Always a highlight and our times together in the morning always propel me to walk in the light of the Father throughout the day. We left for San Jose at about 9 AM to go and conduct a census of the community. The goal is to go to every house in the San Jose community before the first Snellville team gets here so that we can see the needs for each family individually. We are hoping to start building houses for families in the community, but we have to see where the need is the greatest to know where to start. So we got there and parked in front of the school right when recess was going on. Ahh it was great because I was able to see so many of the boys that we worked with last year. Albarro and Osman ran up to the truck right when we got there. It was great to see them and see how much older they look in just one year. After saying hey to all of the kids before they went back to class, we started on our journey to each house. Honestly, this is my favorite part. Being real with the families in San Jose, getting to know them, their needs, their families. It was great for them to see that not only does the ministry care, but Jesus cares for each of them. In two hours, we were able to visit about 10 different families and talk with them. We made sure to spend enough time at each house so they could see that we really cared about them. Celvin and Alejandro navigated us to the houses to make sure we wouldn't miss any. Raf said we have about 70 to go, but I am more than pumped to meet all of the families. Yes, it is definitely sobering to see that some of the families have six people living in a 12 foot by 12 foot area, with the only privacy being a blanket separating the sleeping area from the living area. But the sobering part was not that they were sad, but happy with what they have. We are going back on Thursday to work on the census some more. We're considering taking lunch out there so that we won't have to come back and we'll have more time to stay in the community.
After lunch, we went with Raf to Quebradahonda, one of the places the medical team is going next week. We're hoping that the roof will be going up sometime this week so that the medical team will have some sort of shade. On the way back through the city, Mo and I were dropped off at La Matagalpa to pick up the ingredients to make a dessert for dinner. We were going to make dinner, but Fide convinced us that there were enough leftovers for dinner with Chuga and Roberto, so we were just going to focus on the dessert. After going to two different grocery stores, we finally had our supplies and headed back up to Apante. As Mo said today, "It never gets old: sticking out like a sore thumb." Ha. Two blonde haired kids/chelitos walking through town. Our specialty ended up being brownies with ice cream and rice krispies. The brownies were a flop because the pan was too big, but the rice krispie treats were great! We made them with fruity pebbles instead of regular rice krispies. Of course we spent some time with the boys in the neighborhood for a little while, playing fútbol and UNO. We had a game of 11 people at one time, with Fide and Chuga joined in.
After dinner, Raf and Lesbia and the kids came over for a while, and we played the guitar with Roberto and Chuga. It's ridiculous how good they are at playing the guitar. It was so great to have everyone here laughing and carrying on.
Entonces/Well. I'm off to shower because I can smell myself. Not a good sign. Up in the morning early for school. It got cancelled on Monday at the last minute so it'll be our first time going this week. Oh and Feliz dia de los niños/Happy day of the child. Yep. They celebrated that here today. Pallito and Ashley made us tell them that tonight. They're a mess.
Love you all,
sb