Day 16: All According to Plan

...just, not our plan; God's plan (pauses typing to pull up Spotify and listen to Drake).

Ok, so the plan for today:
-7 AM lice killing with Tannia y su madre
-9AM hiking with H@ngout students
-3 PM lunch with Tannia y su familia

-6PM dinner as a team

I woke up a little before 7, then we had breakfast with Tannia y su madre, they made us tacos, which are apparently called gallos here? it was really, really kind of them. After we ate, Tannia's mom took a hair-straighteny-iron thing and straightened everyone's hair (well, those that have hair). This mercs all the lice and eggs and stuff that are in your hair. She said everyone's hair was really good; she only found a couple of eggs (ew). There'll be some pictures below, but it was fun to see Matthew with straightened hair. 

This process lasted until about 9:30, at which point we found out that most of the H@ngout students were unable to go hiking today, so the only one who was free (Alan) was chilling at Lagos and Ana Raquel's apartment. So, we packed up and headed over. Katie was feeling under the weather, so she stayed home to rest and spend time with God. 

When we got there, they were just starting an episode of Stranger Things, which I haven't seen any of yet. It was really interesting. Kinda dark, but the characters drew me in. Afterwards, we watched some absolutely fantastic James Corden videos on YouTube. 

We walked over to the park because Saul and Justin and their dad were free and wanted to hang out with us in a park. Do you remember Justin from last year? He's a really sweet kid. And he's growing up. Right now, he is part of a program where he lives and trains and schools with his futbol team. It's like an advanced talent-finding and developing program or something. It's really intense; he gets to see his family like, every 2 weeks or something. It's amazing the amount of love and sacrifice their family shows for each other. I love watching Justin be a big brother to Saul and how their dad engages with them. This family is something special. Their cousin, Wendy, was also there today. I think she's part of the same program?

We started by kicking a ball around in a big circle. We did this for a very long time. It was a ton of fun. Justin seems much more comfortable with a ball in front of him than in conversation. And laughing at how bad I am at futbol is the same in any language, so I rather enjoyed it, too. 

As it often does, chill kicking in a circle somehow became an all-out game. Eramos siete, so it was uneven teams, but they stacked all the gringos in one team with Justin, so he got to shine. Matthew went hard; he's got skill and drive, though going so hard meant he got tired. Izzy said she didn't know what she was doing, and was in chanclas, but she killed it. Impeccable defense (except that one time). Justin was (obvi) in his element; he was zooming all over the field. It was awesome. Wendy did the same. Lagos just seems pretty naturally good at all thing sportsy, especially futbol. Justin's dad is also crazy-good at futbol, so it was a really fun game. We played wayyyy past my point of being dead, but nobody really seemed to want to stop. 

Afterwards, we took a break for lunch and it started  p o u r i n g. We saw the rain coming; it moved slowly down the street to the park. We were under a big tree, so we only got sorta soaked. It was amazing; we just sat and ate in the rain, nobody seemed bothered except Zeus, the family perrito. 

Just did the wordle today. Oof, took me 5. If you got it in less, good on you. 

Ok, the rain let up and we kicked around a little more, then switched to playing basketball with the soccer ball. It was awesome. The goals were built weird, and it was a soccer ball, so we all struggled a bit. Ngl, I'm pretty good at many things. Basketball is definitely not on of them. Saul is like 2.5 feet tall and he scored more often than me. After a while, it became a game of kicking the ball into the hoop, but only Justin ever made it. I think Wendy would have, but we got bored. Saul and Matthew looked at plants and sapos. Izzy dominated in basketball. A good time was had by all. Much bonding, very lovely. 

The familia went home and we walked back to Lagos and Ana Raquel's apartment. The championship game between two Honduran teams was happening, and one of those teams was Ana Raquel's team. There was a lot of yelling. It was awesome. Her team lost the game, but in so doing, won the championship. Apparently, it was a two-game championship, where the scores were added up. The first game was 3-0, the second game was 0-2, so they won 3-2. Weird scoring system, but kind of fantastic. @NBA, @MLB, consider it for series. 

We Uber'd home and ate leftover breakfast tacos gallos.

I got to zoom with Alexis tonight for a significant amount of time, which felt really good. This distance has felt really hard.

I haven't written much detail because I feel insecure that maybe you're thinking, "homie, it's been 16 days, chill out." Sorry, it's just true though.

I'm not really sure how to foster connection with where we're at. Savannah (my co-leader in Mexico) sent some really thoughtful ideas to Alexis (gracias), so that's been a good place to start. We got to have a lot of time together the last week or so before I left, because the students in homegroup had to study, and things weren't happening as much as normal. But, to go from a tiny hipster concert and watching movies together and a fancy date and dancing in the park to the occasional call or zoom chat is a big switch.

Ok, PRAYER
-for us to walk in the Spirit
(i ask every day because it's the most important)
-for good team dynamics
-for the CDI students to feel loved
-for the CDI students to know it's God's love
-for protection for our team and the church here
-for gospel opportunities
-for mobilization opportunities
-for wise ministry
-for Alexis and I

As promised

I meant it about listening to Spotify
(this is how few pictures I took today, I've resorted to screenshots of spotify)