Just keep swimming...

    I'm not exactly sure how to start this next blog post because well first it's been a few days since the last one, it's been really good, but also has felt a bit harder than normal. I'll just talk about the weekend a little bit first :) 

    On Saturday we all found out we have/had lice we seem to be okay now, but have been continuing to treat our hair as needed. Pretty much the entire day on Saturday was spent at Carlos and Ana's washing all of our clothes and sheets while Esther and Ana looked at all of our hair to take out the lice and treat our hair. It was an interesting type of bonding day, I guess you could call it that. For Sunday the plan was to go to a place called Monte de la Cruz with H@ngout students where you can hike and chill. On Sunday morning most of the H@ngout students were not able to go anymore except for Alan. Instead of going there we decided to chill at Carlos and Ana's apartment again to watch movies, and just chill with Alan also there. About midway through the day Carlos said that Justin (one of the kids we, well I met last year!) and his brother Saul (who is one of the kids that goes to the CDI) were at the park, along with Justin's friend Wendy who I believe is also in the same program as him! Justin is now in a soccer program where he is provided with a dorm, food, and intense training. This is an awesome opportunity for him and his family!! He is able to see his family every 15 days and this weekend happened to be one of those days, so it was really fun. We played soccer for a while, had a picnic and then once the rain passed we then played basketball with the soccer ball. It was a really good time and I was glad to see Justin again! 

    Monday we had worship in the morning and then I got to have lunch with Ana before we all went to the CDI! I loved getting lunch with her because we got to talk about a lot of things and just get to know each other. It's really helpful for me to get to know someone one-on-one before I can know my place in a social group and I love just learning/understanding who people are. I also just really love connection with people, I mean don't we all? We got ice cream afterwards from Mcdonalds and y'all let me tell ya I have missed getting the kit kat Mcflurry from there which is sold here and not in Texas. lol it's so good and filled with so much chocolate which I love dearly 😆. Anyways, I hope her and I are able to do that a few more times this summer, she's really cool! Then the CDI went as normal, and we ate at Quiznos (this was actually my second time that day to have it lol) for dinner because we all felt really tired to make dinner or wait for it to cook. I ordered my own food in Spanish! Which is a win especially because the food was right 😎. I think I'm slowly becoming comfortable with attempting to speak more Spanish, which is really fun and interesting because sometimes I don't even notice that I'm speaking Spanish until later. I've been picking up more and more things little by little. 

    Tuesday came and it was a full CDI day! It was really good, everything went as normal with a few minor changes due to time and preparation but esta bien :) Carlos, Ana, Sam and I took the morning kids to school and picked up kids from school per usual on Tue/Thursdays. I got to help one of the little girls, Kyany, read some books for her "homework". She's such a sweet and well-behaved kid, very easy-going too. At the end of the day we all hung out at the CDI for a while once the kids were gone just chillin', Georgen's husband stopped by and we got to chat with him for a bit. When he started a conversation with me he used this app called "Sayhi translate", it was really cool because he would talk into as normal and then click the English button and I would talk into as normal! It was blowing my mind because we were able to have a full on conversation! Man, technology is so cool... sometimes lol. We eventually came home and Katie made dinner, and then we watched a movie. We're watching all the Thors to prepare for the new one coming out! 

    Now today is Wednesday, which means H@ngout day! This morning we had worship, which was good but I also felt distracted because I wasn't feeling good physically. I'm okay now! I'm thankful that the Lord give so much grace for us when we are just not ourselves or feel distracted in whatever way that looks like. The Lord doesn't get disappointed or anything like that so I felt reassured after I shared how I was feeling during that time. After worship we came home to prepare lunch for H@ngout and then we left to Heredia. Overall, it was really really good! I could tell everyone was enjoying their time and good conversations were happening. I think for me personally it felt hard for the majority of the time because everyone is speaking Spanish and so I never pick up the right social cues to jump in and say something because I don't know what is happening. Last night I had screenshotted some questions and things I could ask/say to the students, but I ended up not doing that because so much was happening already. So for the most part I was just listening and eating my food. This week Carlos continued talking about how "Love is the Way" with the students, I didn't understand all of it so definitely check out Sam's blog to see if he talks about that more! At the end I found out 3 other students speak English and I got excited to I joined in a conversation, well kind of. I was more actively listening and jumped in when I felt an opportunity. It felt exciting to me to know more of them that speak English especially when I see them again! After most of the people left a few students and all of us went to this Bubble Tea place across from the university, it was very very good! Then it started pouring, so we all just chilled underneath a covered area, the students had already left to their classes. Once the rain slowed down we all went to a coffee shop called Cafe Rosa's (I think), we chilled for a while longer, I was already really tired by that time. We then all went home and are now waiting to eat dinner. 

Carlos and Ana made buttons for all the H@ngout students! Love is indeed the Way! This is hopefully going to be a good segway into the gospel, at least that is where I think it is leading. 

I got this cute Dory sticker from the Bubble Tea place, they were handing many stickers out that we got to choose from!

    At the beginning of this blog I mentioned these past few days have been a bit harder than normal. This has felt small to me, but it's how I truly feel. I think I've been struggling socially here because obviously most of it is in Spanish, but I'm not usually cued into what's happening or I don't know when I can jump in or even what to say when I can. I don't exactly know my place socially here yet, at least with my team and theirs combined as the main people I interact with. I also haven't spent much quality time with the Lord, I'm not sure why I haven't. I did finish reading 2 Corinthians this morning which was good, now I'm going to read Galatians. I'm working my way through the entire New Testament going in order. Prayers for myself to draw near to the Lord in all I do, pray that I would desire him always, anytime and anywhere. :)

Prayer Points: 

• For us to walk in the Spirit in all we do.
• For good social and combined teams dynamics.
• For mine and my teams desire to seek quality time with God. 
• For continued growth in the connections we make here. 
• For the kids at the CDI. 

As always (well if you're an Aggie) Thanks and Gig 'Em! 👍