It was significantly harder to sleep than I anticipated last night, but I did awake with a good amount of energy. I had a surprisingly hot shower followed by a very nice quiet time by the pool. My readings included Isaiah 12, Psalm 19, and Psalm 123, the latter reminding me of J. Snedeker’s song that’s meant so much to me over the years. It was cornflakes and apple juice for breakfast followed by our worship gathering: Blessed Be Your Name and God of Wonders with K. sharing from Isaiah 40.

We were on the road by Ciudad Nueva by 8:45am and arrived by 9:00. The shelter house behind the tortilla factory is now the bakery and the malnutrition clinic is open! There is also a lot more paint and color on the buildings than I remember. We were besieged by daycare kids as we exited the bus each getting a hug or other affection from the team. Milton was there sporting a baseball batting helmet.

Getting summer camp started this morning was utter chaos. We started with 14 boys ages 11-14 and the number grew first to 20, then to 24 with some kids from the clinic and daycare participating at times. Luckily, I was able to pull in D., B., T., and P. – who did a great job playing soccer with them while we finished preparations. The morning session, which included tie-dye (picture below), wiffle ball, a little Frisbee, and two icebreaker games went pretty well. I didn’t have a chance to connect with any individual kids, unfortunately. All and all, it was a good session. My teaching was short, but (hopefully) good. We had to wait about an hour for the construction survey crew to return (in addition to the fact that we ended camp about 40 minutes early). Lunch was fish, rice, tortillas, and plantain(sp?) chips – excellent.

We actually had a chance to prepare for the afternoon session (5-10 year olds), so when the 14 kids arrived everything got started on the right foot. We started with soccer with the cage ball, then pato, pato, ganzo (that’s duck, duck, goose to you). Tie-dye went well, followed by the same icebreaker games. S. then played her violin for the kids and read them a story in Spanish. Her Spanish is amazing and she did a fantastic job reading the story to the kids – they were captivated. As she started to read, I sat next to a little boy named Miguel. I put my hand on his back and he immediately snuggled up next to me and rested his head in my lap (picture below). This reminded me of the importance of physical touch and how much these kids need it. I was so glad I could be there for Miguel in that moment. Camp only went about 100 minutes and I reclined in a hammock until we left. The summer camp started very well – especially the afternoon session. A true piece of Heaven. The hardest part of the day was looking at the 20+ kids outside the fence looking in. Some even managed to climb the fence and we had to escort them out. Also, on our way out, Luis Fernando bought some sweet bread from the bakery and gave it to the team. It was amazing – I hope to buy more of it for myself later. All and all a good day of work.

We went to a shopping plaza next for a little shopping before returning to the hotel. Most everyone went swimming while I checked e-mail (and facebook). Dinner was a magnificent stir-fry. We had a great team meeting/connection time and then we reorganized our team suitcases for the rest of the week’s activities. D., B., P., T., and I had a great tie-down to process the day. Journaled and in bed shortly past 11:00pm.