Lean on Me works in every language

Another week or so in the books! There's not too much to report, but I'll shoot for the highlights.  Last Friday started another weekend of happenings.  First we had our youth group night.  After another non eventful study time came play time.  The beginning of the night started with me reminding the kiddos of our empenada sale the following day. The kids seemed as excited as they could, but  they were not excited about getting up early.  I can't blame them for that. I don't like it either, especially on Saturdays.  We followed that with the celebrity guessing game Devin had previously recommended.  At first they were far too cool to play.  Middle schoolers.... Right? However it only took a few to get the ball rolling, also my unfamiliarity with South American celebrities helped.  I am always completely down for making a fool out of myself so kids have fun.  They finally gave me another card, Eminem. This helped with the few boys who still didn't want to play.  I played up my poor understanding referencing the candy M&Ms to get some laughs.  After that the game became a hit with them, everyone wanted a turn.  I was barely any help with clues. Twice I tried to help with just genders and twice I guessed wrong much to their amusement. This time unintentional but still my fault with language.  The night ended and we were all off.  I reminded the, that we needed to start bright and early on Saturday morning.  The other volunteer letiana agreed to get there at 8:30. This meant I needed to be out of my apartment by 7 so up even earlier.  It's these nights I feel I always sleep the worst.  I arrived a little late, 8:40 due to missing a bus, and was super worried. When I arrived I remembered the mañana attitude and realized I was most likely very early. I was right, letiana came in at around 9:15.  We then went to buy all the ingredients.  About $100 pesos later we had everything and returned.  Kids started coming in slowly but surely and we began our preparations.  I was on fire duty for the grill.  I gathered the necessities and got to work.  Everything was going well, but the fire was not doing great.  I guess I should have been a Boy Scout at some point.  No worries though, Brian to the rescue.  I saw a mischievous look in his eye and then his eyes led mine to a bottle of alcohol (medical not for drinking).  Normally I wouldn't condone this but who am I to delay the empenadas as well as deny a 16 yr old boy a little fun.  I told him I was the only one to administer the fire juice though since I'm an "adult" and all.  He stood back and Woosh!  I traveled back in time to my 16 yr old self and felt the pure joy every adolescent boy gets from fire. The empenadas were now officially a go, the girls were folding em and the boys putting them in the frying pot. Like a well oiled machine, ha.  I think we made around 80 empenadas and they started to go sell them.  It was a hit.  Families were buying them by the dozens.  I also bought a dozen to share with the kids so they can eat the meats of their labor.  Before I knew it, hours had passed and we were sold out.  Clean up time has never been my favorite and I'm proud to report it's still the case here.  I helped as much as I could but they all knew the drill.  At 1:45 they all left, and I had a few hour break until bible study time with the wee ones.  I came prepared that day though and with a few swift actions I had a hammock all set up for a siesta.  My alarm went off at 3:45, but I think the kids at the gate were yelling even louder.  All I could hear was "T ler." I got up and opened up shop again.  Today's theme was Noah's ark.  I was charged with cutting out animal shapes from different sheets of paper for craft time.  They made some adorable arks which I think I have pics to upload for y'all.  My 10 hour day at the mission had come to a close and I was off to my neck of the woods.  I stopped off at the kiosko on my way home to see uga score, and I wasn't shocked to see how close TN was playing us.  Devin, bless that woman, skyped me again so I could see us eek it out in OT. Another big win, another big Saturday.  I woke up Sunday for church and gathered all my dirty clothes for some laundry time.  I was lucky enough to be able to use Rosi's washing machine after church.  After another good service we were off for my brazilamily time.  I was shocked and a little relieved to learn lunch today was not a party just a normal lunch with the fam and a few friends.  Carlos is a bad man on that grill, I'm telling you.  Lunch was great, not surprisingly.  Afterwards we had some chill time and I helped Sofia with English again and played around on the piano a bit.  Then I skyped Devin a little watched some Netflix and had myself a lazy Sunday.  Since we didn't feast at lunch, we actually had a Sunday dinner which was rice and meat.  It's like they've known me forever haha.  Monday was really chill to, Rosi had lots of piano lessons.  This was because her mom comes this week for a visit so she's doing all lessons on Monday.  I watched some more Netflix and then had some language time with her and Larra.  Finally the time came to leave. Guillermo took me and my clean clothes home.  It's always a bit sad to leave them.  I think Monday night I truly felt homesick for the first time.  It's like having a family tease every weekend, but it is better than nothing.  I talked to some great people back home did a little venting and decided to put it behind me.  Tuesday came and went and I did my home visit but not much else.  Visit was good its nice to always receive a warm welcome despite having two strikes right off the back.  I'm both Chilean and from the USA neither are great things here. Haha. Luckily I am getting by on my swag, charm, or bewilderment.  It's probably a mix of the three with emphasis on bewilderment.  Wednesday was business as usual, the morning focused on final needs for our trip this weekend.  And in the afternoon I helped with some math, English, and I got to color. Score! Thursday I got to the office early and discussed the coming events with Christina.  We have a lot of congregational stuff coming up.  Afterwards letiana was there and it was time to talk about our trip.  We went over the final list of those going and gave pastor our earned funds towards tickets.  I did have one issue with a child not being allowed to go, apparently it's tough for him to listen.  I understand this, but denying him opportunities will not make things better.  Plus I was charged with giving the bad news, which made me less than happy since I thought he could go.  Can't win em all I guess, but I'll try to win everyone over with his help for the next one.  Thursday ended with me getting a lot of chat time with Devin which is always a plus in my book.  Friday came as did vacation time(kind of).  The kiddos all leave at 7 at night, however I don't leave until Saturday at the same time.  I have a presentation on women in America for the ladies of the church on Saturday.  I thought this could wait, but Ricardo thought otherwise so letiana was to be with them there Saturday all day solo.  The morning Friday was filled with me buying groceries and assembling necessities.  The afternoon was like a school morning on the day of a field trip. Controlled ish chaos, and no one had any homework, go figure haha.  The time came to roll to the bus stop and I accompanied everyone as we waited.  Time came to leave and I told em I'd see em tomorrow.  Saturday was relaxing for the beginning at least.  Cooked some noodles and got ready for the trip and my presentation.  I walked in the down pour to church and got my presentation on.  It went well, my lead in joke was a hit too. Thanks Devin.  That brings me to now, I'm on the bus to El dorado made it all by myself on the right bus and all.  It's a 3.5 hr trip and we are off. I'm going to meet the associate pastor at the terminal and he will take me to the camp for the evening and first half of tomorrow. The best thing right now though is Desperado is our bus trip movie. I love this movie, so I must go... More tomorrow on the ride back, hasta...  Well it was an eventful trip to say the least haha.  I was only there for about half a day, but it felt like a weekends worth of stuff happened.  Lets see after the Robert Rodriguez marathon happened I arrived and met my ride and host.  We went to the church which doubled as the camp ground, it's a big piece of land. The kids had already eaten but it didn't look like I missed much. I was welcomed and then dominated a game of electricity, thanks lutheridge mealtimes.  The rest of the night played out like a normal youth group retreat. Laughs, games, bugs, and some short lived tears.  I walked up to the girls cabin just in time to find two girls crying on the stoop.  I didn't know what do to, but knew I shouldn't just leave.  I asked what was wrong, to no avail.  I asked if they would feel better if I danced they smirked, I busted out the white man groove for some laughs.  There were still some tears though so it was time for big guns, I began singing lean on me.  None of them had heard me sing before and before I knew it I was putting on an impromptu concert.  All the kids came out requesting another and another.  I did a few other songs which was helped by the fact that they do not speak English so I could replace some words here and there. Afterwards we played some late night volleyball and soccer.  1:15 rolled around and I decided it was bed time since we had to be up at 8 to get ready for church.  Also knew it would take em a bit to get to sleep but by 2:00 snores were bountiful.  If they had warmed up to me the previous night this was all forgotten the by me waking them up at 7:45 in the morning.  Atleast they could somewhat understand that I wasn't happy about being up early either.  We had a little breakfast and went to church.  Afterwards we did some group chatting about the upcoming camp in January which will be at the same location.  Did some discussions on improving things for camp and then cooked lunch.  After that it was time to pack up and go.  We hit the bus right in the nick of time and were on our way back to posadas.  It was the exact same bus I had taken there, with the same crew they remembered me too, haha.  Got back and then dropped some stuff off and it was time to relax and watch some futbol.  Well I hope I got it all covered, much love ... Hasta