Day 33 (26): Long Day / Short Post

Unexpectedly busy today, but a really good day.

We woke up and had breakfast and headed to the CDI. Today we were meeting up with Georgen and her family there to go check out the market downtown. We walked around and joked around with her and Reychel and Derek; it was a lot of fun and a good chance to connect with them. We grabbed lunch from McDonalds, fed some pigeons, got rained on, and walked around the market (but in opposite order of that).

We got back to the CDI right before the Lagos got there, so we finished our lunch and then walked over to the slum in Barrio Mexico, which is where our kids live. 

We got to hang out and play with them in their home all afternoon; it was amazing. A bunch of other kids showed up as well, which is really good. Hopefully some of them will start coming to the CDI. Hopefully they won't come expecting us to just play all day like we did today though, lol. 

I gave approximately 2 million piggy-back rides. We also got to play a little bit of soccer. Andres and Julian and Derek were all really good, but Justin's skill was flabbergasting. The ball would just go wherever he wanted, and he looked like he was just goofing around the whole time. I'm shook. I got to communicate that to him, which he seemed to really enjoy. 

While we were there, I got to climb a ladder up to the school that the church here built on top of the house that they helped build for one of the families here. They're planning to open a school in the middle of the slum to help the kids out; they're just getting the funding and stuff finalized and figured out. Be praying for that! It's amazing to think what kind of long-term difference they're going to make with these kids.

I got to meet Diego today. He lives with his mom (I think) in the slum. He has some type of developmental disorder, so even though he's older, he plays best with our kids. I got to talk to him for a while. I couldn't understand most of what he was saying, but I really enjoyed spending time with him. A couple of times as different guys were walking through, he told me they smoked weed or sold drugs or things like that. It was a good reminder of the kinds of influence these kids have around them all the time. Good thing to pray for as well.

When it started to get towards early evening, we said, "see ya Monday," and walked back to the CDI. We were all feeling pretty tired by then, but we had plans to have dinner with Saeed and Carol tonight, so we hopped in some Ubers and headed somewhere completely different. I definitely just napped in the Uber.

We got to their house and had a super delicious meal and laughed and talked and hung out for hours. It was such good community. Their house felt so welcoming; it was the perfect place for hospitality like that - plenty of room and a really deep sense of peace and love that permeated everything. We played games and talked and it was incredibly refreshing. 

A couple from the church drove us back home, which was incredibly kind of them. Like, a lot. 

Once we were back, we hung out a little, I got a shower (and feel much better, though my neck's definitely sore lol), and now I'm going back and forth between watching early 2000's music videos and writing this post, lol. 

PRAYERS:

- for the school in Barrio Mexico to get opened soon
- for the kids and the influences around them
- for our time with (hopefully) some of the students from H@ngout tomorrow
- for our transition out to go well

Pictures: Actually got some today, just aren't mine:

Our team hanging out in San Jose

Our team + the MN team + Lagos & Ana + a bunch of the kids