So This is Love

Yesterday, I went to the Valle de Angeles (Valley of Angels), which is a little bit outside of Tegucigalpa with about 7 other volunteers to check out the famous handmade crafts and really cheap (but good quality) leather. We spent the day shopping, eating pupusas (a thick kinda flat bread that looks like a pancake, but is made from corn flour, with fried pork rind, cheese, or beans inside... delicious!), checking out the hammock selection (they were way better and cheaper in Guatemala), and just being tourists. It was a lovely day... until we went to catch the bus back to Guaimaca and it was an hour late, which put us on a bus in 3rd world country in the dark... I actually don't think it was very dangerous since the bus was so jammed full of people that if anyone had tried to rob someone and get away, it would have taken a good 5 minutes to get off of the bus. The funny thing about this experience was that the bus had American pop songs jamming the whole way like "Get Low" and others. I had to bust a few baby dances moves ;)

Time has been flying by! I have been in Honduras for almost 4 months and have a little over a month left. For the month of April I went to Guatemala with my friend Katie to study Spanish... and have some fun! It was so wonderful! We were in Antigua for Holy Week, which was super cool and crazy because they have these insane processions with statues of Jesus and Mary in scenes from Holy Week that weigh several tons and are carried by several hundred people, wearing costumes, that take turns carrying them. They're accompanied by marching bands and continue all through the night. It's crazy! But way fun at the same time! People come in from hours away just to see and participate in the processions, especially on Good Friday. They also make these carpets on the roads out of colored sawdust. Some of them are incredibly intricate and take hours to make and then are destroyed as the processions walk over them. I actually got to help make one!

After that, we went to a little town on Lake Atitlan called San Pedro La Laguna. It was so incredibly beautiful! There are lots of little towns on this huge lake, surrounded by mountains and volcanos. The local women (and a few old men) in San Pedro wear traditional clothing that is so beautiful (I got to dress up in it one day and it was super fun!) and colorful! We lived with a local family that had 3 daughters and were so great! We got to be great friends. There was a surprisingly large hippie population there, which just made it that much more cool because you know my love for hippies ;) Our school was beautiful, set by the lake with trees and little thatched huts to study under. Everyday I had 4 hours of one-on-one class with a young Guatemalan women. I learned a ton of Spanish and about her culture too! 

One of the best things about the trip, though, was the freedom... San Pedro was a very safe town so we could go out at night to watch movies in the little local bars, listen to music, go salsa dancing, go to the solar-heated hot pools (which were super hot!), or just go for a walk. At Emmanuel, we have to be back inside the gates by dark and preferably by 4 PM. I know it's for our own safety, but sometimes I miss being able to do things at night.

Now I'm finally back at Emmanuel, my home for the past 4 months. I can't begin to describe the feeling of coming home. I missed my kids here so much! A few months ago, one of the girls asked me if I was a mama (they actually ask me this all the time and I wonder where they think my kids are if I did have some...) and I told her no, but she said, "Yes, you are; you're our mama." That has really stuck with me. It has made me realize (even more than I already did) how blessed I am to have such an incredible family. It's also made me realize the wonderful opportunity that God has given me to just love on these kids. I think that I fall more in love with them every day. 

There's a little 2 year-old girl in the toddler house named Martha (or Martita) and she is absolutely precious. She's a little clumsy (they call her "Bola," which means drunk because she's always falling) and she likes to call me "Mama." Whenever I go to see her, she starts laughing and running towards me with her arms out. When I came back she was so happy to see me (along with all of the other little toddlers because they're some of my favorites so I go play there a lot) and it just made me realize how much I love these kids. 

Along with this love for the kids, I'm also seeing more and more of God's love each day. He has already taught me so much and is continuing to do so and even though we work very hard here and pour out so much of ourselves, He is constantly filling us up so that we are never empty :)