Halfway Point

Thursday, July 23, 2009 (Day 13):

Today was the halfway mark for my journey. It's hard to believe that I left Midland two weeks ago and I will be back in Midland two weeks from tomorrow. My flight will actually leave two weeks from tonight. Seems strange to only have 14 days left. This week has certainly flown by!!

When we arrived at the home today, the girls were excited to see us. They all greeted us with open arms and little kisses on the cheek. Then they went straight to their knitting. Quite a few of the girls have been walking around this week with yarn and knitting sticks. Some of the older ones actually know how to knit, but the younger ones do not. I'm not sure if the girls that are volunteers from Spain gave them the supplies, or if they have just had them. They do love their knitting though. We convinced a few of them to come play volleyball with us for a while. Then Kelli and Julie were trying to get all the girls together to sing and dance for a while. I asked my little buddy, Shulay, "Te quieres bailes?" She gave me the funniest look and said, "Te quieres bailar?" Oops, I didn't properly conjugate my verbs. I was trying to ask her if she wanted to go dance. While the girls were doing the "Cha cha slide," Meredith and I got the supplies ready for the crafts. We had the girls paint pictures and little Ruthie was the biggest help! She made sure every seat had a little glass of water to dip paint brushes in, there was a chair at every seat, and paintbrushes for everyone. Once Julie told the story of David and Bathsheba, the girls came out and started painting their pictures. After a while, Robyn went around and made a black mark through their pretty pictures. The idea is that tomorrow, the girls are going to make something beautiful from that black mark on their pages. We're trying to illustrate how Jesus makes something beautiful out of our mistakes. Most of the girls were very confused by this and some even got really upset. One little girl cried for the longest time. Robyn felt terrible and once the girl realized the reason for the mark, she was better.

We had extra help in the translating area today. Eric works for Buckner in Peru and we spotted him on the street this morning and asked him to come with us. The girls love Eric. They remembered him from last month and they mobbed him. He headed up the volleyball game and helped the girls untangle their yarn for most of the day.

Just before lunch, Sulay wanted me to help her with her knitting. I have knitted scarves before, but it has been a while. From watching some of the girls, I could remember how to knit, but couldn't figure out how to start it off. I did figure it out and worked on Shulay's knitting for a while. I then showed her how to do it. Once the girls realized I knew how to knit, I became the knitter after lunch. While the rest of the team was doing the lesson with the older girls, I was teaching the younger ones how to knit. I also became the string holder for the girls to make friendship bracelets again. Shulay made me another bracelet. It's only half finished, but she tied it on my wrist. Shulay also gave me the picture frame with her picture on it that she made the other day. She is a really sweet girl, but she can get a little attitude! A few of them get really fussy when things are not going the way they want them to, or they are forced to stop doing something they want to continue doing. Even though they can be grouchy at times, they are still so much fun to play with. I was even attempting to teach some of the girls English words and they were catching on!

We were going to throw a little surprise party for the girls today, but found out one of the volunteers birthday was today and they were throwing a party tonight. So, we are throwing the little party tomorrow. We got them soda, cookies and crackers. I can't wait to see their faces when we surprise them!

Thank you agian for your prayers and support!

Blessings,
Dawn