Hello! I envy the temperatures at home right now because I am sweating profusely as I am writing this blog. I remember someone telling me here that it would get cooler, and that February is the windy month. As far as I can tell it hardly got any cooler except maybe at night, and as for the day it is like walking onto the street and into a human oven. A lot of the women carry umbrellas to protect them from the sun and I am starting to think that isn't a bad idea. The weeks have actually been flying by and I am really beginning to enjoy my ministries. I still haven't begun the jewelry ministry but hopefully that is going to get up soon. At Corazon Contento (the special edu. Center) I had a lot of fun with the kids this week. On Monday we made bracelets again and I taught them to make a fun one. I am with the more advanced kids so I am having more patience and I think it is a better fit for me. On Friday we made Valentine cards and put them in a giant cardboard box. Then we had a big Valentines Day party. The kids had never had a Valentines party and it was a blast. We had dancing, food, a piñata, musical chairs, and cards to open! I took a ton of pictures and it was just so wonderful to see how much joy it was bringing to them. On Wednesday I went to the feeding program in the morning and we brought a soccer ball this time and in our downtime played with some of the kids in the area. In the afternoon we had our Children's program and we didn't have very many kids come but it was still fun. That was my week on Saturday Valentines Day the boys cooked us a goat for lunch in which they killed themselves. I was skeptical about the goat in the beginning but I was surprised by how good the meat was, a bit chewy but otherwise decent.   

Well to tag on with the children's program update this week I have a story. We invited some little girls further down in the barrio last week and they came but were pretty shy. This week when we were done with the main part of the program the girls showed up and hung back a little watching us play with a soccer ball. Two girls that live nearby named Cynthia and Fernanda have become really attached to us, but most of the time they are sassy and have raging tempers. When I tried to play with the other little girls they kept tugging on my arms and telling me not to. When I asked why they gave me disgusted looks Cynthia told me that they had lice and they were disgusting. I looked her in the eye and told her that I didn't care. But every time I tried to walk over and play with them I was restrained by two 10 year old girls. I finally got stern and realized that this was a teaching moment. I told them that Jesus didn't care about spending time with the sick, ugly, dirty, and poor and so we shouldn't either. They finally got very put out with me and I while I played with the girls they hurled insults and looks that could kill towards me. I called another one of my friends Alberto over to play with us and Cynthia and Fernanda warned him not to play with us, and despite his moment of hesitation he chose us over his peers. He played games with us and after our game I kneeled down by him and told him how proud of him I was and that I knew Jesus was smiling at us and that he loved each of us very much even the girls with lice. He looked uncomfortable by my display of affection but I made sure he knew that what he did was good and that Jesus was proud of him too. I see Jesus moving in Alberto's life even at such a young age. If he hasn't already accepted Jesus as his Savior he is close to it, he is only 9 or 10 and yet he just radiates joy and I hope to see him become a light to his friends. 

Alberto reading the bible to Celeste and one of the girls who was rumored to have lice.