Birthday parties

The past few days were busy with birthday celebrations. On Thursday my house 3 girls planned a surprise party for me. They decorated their room, did a dance and sang, gave me a gift, played a game, had a cupcake for me. It was so special.

Upon entering their room they put icing and confetti on my face.

 
Andrea, me, and one of my presents.

A bunch of the girls.

 

Then Friday night I planned a birthday party for all of the girls at my house. We ate pizza and cake, watched a few movies, had devotions, more presents and more.

Supper

Birthday cake!

Presents

a bunch of the girls

Missionary Retreat

This past week I went to Belize for the EMM missionary retreat. It was great to get together with other missionaries and share about what we are doing and what God is teaching us and doing in our lives.

Esther Banquet

For the culmination for our character study on Esther with my Friday Bible study group, we celebrated with a banquet Saturday evening. I spent most of the day cleaning, decorating, cooking, decorating, and cooking.

In the morning the girls came over to do nails.

In the evening we enjoyed a formal dinner.

 And lots of pictures.

Reading the story of Esther.

and more.

Fair Week

This past week there was an unusually high amount of activity in town because of it being fair week. Traditionally among the evangelical churches the fair week is frowned upon...I believe mostly because of all the drinking and partying that goes on every night, all night long. The fair also does provide some "clean" entertainment like rides such as the Ferris wheel, and food like french fries. The youth here at the Finca, like most youth, find the fair an attraction and despite the fact that it is against the rules to go, in the past many have sneaked out to check it out. This year though they decided to provide the kids with the opportunity to go out at a reasonable hour to walk around an check it out...but under the supervision of someone "responsible". And that person was me! I ended up taking small groups of girls out to the fair almost every night this past week. I think I rode more fair rides this year than I have altogether in the past five plus years...and spent less money too! There are only about two rides geared for anyone over the age of ten, but I went on both of those more times that I would've done had I gone by myself to the fair. Overall it was fun to get out every night and take the girls so that they could see what it was all about and hopefully satisfy their curiosity.

Popular hangout...

Last night I opened the library like normal for the kids to read and play games. Before I realized what had happened I had over 30 kids in the library! So I locked the door, and had to say to various kids that it was full and I was no longer letting more kids enter.

Looks like its naptime...

As I was walking to my house this afternoon I had to step around this little kid who seems to be enjoying an afternoon nap. Being a kid can be tiring sometimes I guess...

Pupusas and craziness

Friday afternoon I took "my girls" out for pupusas and natural fruit drinks for something special. The "meal" was pretty calm...but afterwards I took them to the town park (in the center of town)....I'm not sure what I was thinking--or wasn't thinking-- taking 18 girls to the park with only one older girl to help me keep order! There was alot of screaming and running around. It was fun though.

Waiting for the food

Enjoying pupusas!

In the park