It's the new year, and it's already started off in a great way. I can't even tell you how much I was supposed to make this trip this past weekend. It's absolutely crazy.

I actually already started thinking about what I would blog about on Saturday and I thought... oh, it's just a normal trip, so there's not going to be anything really crazy to talk about when I got back. Yet, I was wrong... I will always have stuff to talk about. Stuff always happens. :)

The second we got there, we went and saw the new baby. Jessica and I were blessed to see Nathan Lavid on his 10th day birthday. He is super cute, I will post pictures of him later. He is less than 6 pounds. The birth went well. Esveidy was nervous and tried to close her legs and keep him in, but once she got into it, everything went great. She is already an awesome mother and she knows all of his little sounds and everything.

The rest of the first couple of days was normal. I played with and loved on a lot of kids during the day. At night, I become bouncer "Ana" and broke up tons of fights in the boys dorm, comfort those that were crying, and tried to do my best to make them say sorry to each other... and I even punished one boy this time.

Sunday, the boys were supposed to have a baseball tournament, but their coach never showed up, so they didn't play. I told them that I absolutely couldn't miss church this time since I missed it on my last trip.

I went to church and we had worship. Manuel then came over to me and asked me to fill in for a teacher because one didn't show up. He asked me to teach the girls. I asked him what, and he said "whatever you want". As I walked off to do it, he reminded me to teach them in Spanish. You would think that this would be right up my ally and that I would be stoked for this... Yet, I have no curriculum, no idea what to teach, no idea where to take the girls or how they usually run it, and no idea how I am going to find the right Spanish words to teach them... I looked at the girls and not one of them could serve as a translator.

I was praying as we were walking, asking God to tell me what He wanted me to teach them. I got nothing. I had one of them pray to get us started. Still nothing. Heck, when all else fails, teach your favorite section of scripture. Open up your bibles to 2 Samuel 9.... The story of David and Mephisobeth. They read it, I got to talk about it a little more. I then talked about how Jesus gave us so much more and went down that road. I talked about how we could be like David too.... The boys are still in their room... What to teach now... Oh, how about the Proverbs of the day... can't fail with that, right? So, we read Proverbs 31. I talked a little about that... The boys are still in their room.... Prayer. That's a good, healthy filler, right? Does anyone need prayer? We prayed for 2 girls. At this time, I realized I did have a translator that was hiding behind a column. She then started helping me. In the beginning, some of the girls could understand what I was trying to say in my broken Spanish, and then they would reword it for the others. Anywho, back to prayer. We prayed, and then I talked about how we can pray and what we can pray for. It ended out being good. Church lasted for 2 hours again yesterday.

It's weird. We are all supposed to leave our religion at the gate, and there have been times when I have wanted to say... if I could only teach them this.... Yet, here I was given the opportunity and my mind was blank. It ended out being good, but I just know how much more prepared I need to always be. I really need to work on my Spanish more as well.

About an hour and a half later, Adrian came up to me and asked me to go to this other place with him. Giselle and Raul go to this plant nursery every Sunday to do a children's service to the poor people that work in this nursery. Manuel told Adrian to ask me if I would go. He wanted me to help teach... again... I just got over the other teaching.... and they were going to pass out presents to those kids. I got there... and I felt what other people do when they first go to CdE. I felt nervous, awkward, and I didn't know what to do... I was totally out of my element. I ended out not having to teach. I just participated in worship and listened to Raul's message. I played with some of the kids and comforted the little one that was crying. It was good. These people are poor poor. It was eye-opening, and I will probably post more about them later.

On the way back, Giselle asked if I had planned anything for the night. I told her no, but I could tell she wanted me too. They were just going to have them watch some movies. So, at 6:00 p.m., the planning started. We went to the store and bought over 200 fireworks, 3 cakes, 12 popcorn balls, candy, and maybe 12 bags of chips. They watched a movie and ate the popcorn balls, and then we had the cakes. I had all the kids sing happy birthday to Jesus Guadalupe (Keith's boy). We then watched another movie and had the pinata. We then went and lit all of the fireworks. That was an adventure in and of itself! They threw them at each other's feet, but everyone was fine. We then watched 2 more movies and ate all the chips. I was actually outside when it turned 12. I was with the ones that wanted to make things fly in the air with the fireworks. The girl that I have been trying to spend more time with because somehow I never seem to, was actually the first one to come outside and tell me it was 12 and wish me a happy new year. That was the sweetest gift of all. I love Leticia.

So, besides getting pooped on by a puppy, Jessica getting peed on, my camera breaking... again... and all of the other little crazy things that happen all the time, it was a wonderful new year's eve, and a new beginning for 2007.