Mid-point

Hey-O!
Well, I didn't get to make an entry last weekend because I had a 1 pm lead-in, but this week my lead-in isn't til 5, so I have a bit of time!

I just got off the phone with Dad, and it sounds like the painting of the plane has been an interesting challenge. I can't wait to see pictures!

Our "Mid-point check-in" at Ensenada (I was wrong when I thought it was in Rosarito) was amazing. On Friday we had 4 hours of free time and I got to read and write some thank you's which are way overdue. The campsite was incredible- our tents were at the edge of a cliff looking down into the Pacific Ocean and the mountains were behind us. It was so gorgeous I felt like it should be a picture in a calendar :-) I forgot to bring my camera connecting cord thing to the office so I can't upload pictures, but I'll try and remember for next time.

This past week my group built a church, which is four times the size of the standard Amor house. It was a really fun neighborhoood to work in because there were lots of kids and the neighbors were really friendly. The pastor that we were building for cooked us lunch twice (tacos with rice and beans one day and tortas, which are large sandwiches, another day), and one neighborhood lady brought by fresh-squeezed melon juice! I'm definitely not starving here.

Also, I got to hang out with some neighborhood girls, and we compared the difficulties of learning Spanish and English. They thought my Spanish was hilarious, especially when my voice got hoarse at the end of the week and I sounded like a frog. But I understood a lot of what they said and I think my Spanish is improving, although there have been a few miscommunications. Like I thought they were talking about drinking blood (sangre) when they were talking about drinking Sangria, a Spanish soda.

The advantage of having a hoarse voice here is that if you just say a few words in Spanish, people think you're fluent and aren't saying much because you can't physically talk. Still, I'm very glad that my voice has returned. It's frustrating not being able to say what you're thinking! I got pretty good at charades.

This coming week is a pretty slow week of groups, probably because of the 4th of July holiday. We're kinda hoping that some groups have fireworks so we can confiscate them and set them off ourselves :-)

Well, I hope everyone has a great week and fun 4th of the July. I can't believe it's July already! I miss and love everyone,
Chris