Sunday, May 5th

 

On May 5^th, we got a ride to church with Cristy. Church started at 9 and began with a concert of sorts with lots of singing and dancing, the church service finished around 11:30. After the music stopped there was a portion of the service that was for announcements of events, services, and groups that were happening during the following week. After this blessings and prayers were done along with a collection of money. After the collection of money the kids went off to bible study and the “homily” began. The homily consisted of a women talking for a while about several bible verses. The homily lasted about one hour and forty five minutes until the kids came back from bible study and then more music was played followed by family blessings. Family blessings consisted of all the families going to the front of the church to get blessed and to pray. Since it was the first weekend of the month communion was served in the form of bread and wine. All together,  from the mass I gathered most that the service was about spirituality in general. Following church all 24 of us piled into the van and drove to Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). It was Ms. Edwards and my first time eating at KFC. Spending this portion of the day with the kids you can see how precise the pattern and routine that the kids have fallen into with David. Finishing up at KFC we headed up into the mountain past the Jungle School to Paola’s  abuelo’s house (grandmother). Paola’s grandmother’s house burnt down and David helped to build them a new house. The difference between their new house and their old house is their new house has running water and electricity. When we got to the house we parked on the side of the road and walked down a path to the house. The house was made out of cement and had tons of clothes line hanging outside with tons of clothes and there were chickens running around everywhere. After everybody changed into their bathing suits we crossed the dirt road and trekked down the side of the mountain to the Cangrejal River. The river was beautiful with a small rock water fall and a huge rock in the middle that the kids loved jumping from. The current in the river was so strong and had a huge rocky bottom. At the end of the day I had multiple bruises and scrapes all over my body but it was 100% worth it. We swam in this river for a couple of hours and then headed home. I spent this night relaxing and updating this blog.