creative heARTs: Another Weekend for the Books

Another great weekend. For starters, on Friday we went down the mountain after school to get groceries but ended up having a pretty relaxing evening. If I remember correctly (this weekend was so jam-packed that it's hard to remember exact details), we stayed in for the evening played a few games and watched a movie. Nothing too extreme, but still quality time none the less. On Saturday, Pinares had the annual Game Day in which all students and families were invited to the campus to have a day full of sports activities, games, and of course typical Honduran food + Pizza. I slept in until 10am, which is very late here, and then headed off to the festivities. Surprisingly, the turn out was pretty good even with cool & wet weather. I saw several of my students there, jumped rope with a few of the 7th grade girls and held interesting conversations with a few others. It was great to see them outside of school and in a more relaxed environment. I assisted that day with the ticket booth and then went back home to get some grading done. But Saturday night... I went over with John and Richard to the Jovenes meeting (which I almost forgot about - but am glad I was reminded of) that happens down the street for the school. There I was able to see my friend Maria, her husband Juan Carlos and her super cute son Juan David. They are great. We played a ridiculous game involving a rubber band (I need to get the pictures from John), sang worship in Spanish, and listened to the message for the night. Afterwards, we stayed in yet again and watched Soul Surfer in John's apt then took the party up to my apartment for a few rounds of games and some good conversation. Sunday morning, of course we had a community breakfast and went our separate ways to church.

I really enjoyed church service this weekend. Yes, the service is in all Spanish, but this time I had Richard there to help translate some of the words and he voluntarily translated some of the songs for me. I was able to see Maria singing in the choir, and once we made eye contact - it was all over. She cracks me up! The weather that morning was mostly overcast with fog coming in and out. I must say though, it was pretty awesome being in a church service and at the same time feeling like you are in a cloud (the service is held on the balcony of the pastor's home). The entire atmosphere was wonderful. I just felt so much peace and joy that it was hard to sit still. Well, after service, and from our conversation the night before, we all packed in the car and headed to the berry farm. The whole ride up the mountain to La Tigre was beautiful, and the farm was such a cute place. There were rows and rows of berries planted all the way down the mountain and we were able to pick our own berries right off of the vines! The berries were HUGE and tasted so delicious! We spent a good amount of time there, but due to the weather we skipped out on the picnic and left early. Of course we all got our hands on some of the fresh jam that was sold on the property. On our way down, we stopped at a nearby restaurant called Ecos de la Montana where we ordered coffee, hot chocolate and lemonade along with a couple of appetizers to share. We ended up playing table games like "Never have I ever..." and eventually switched up things a bit and played "I have..." It was definitely a great learning moment for all of us... the bonding was going deep. We stayed until about 5 minutes before they closed and headed back home where the party continued.
More personal games were played in which we revealed some crazy things about ourselves to one another. The night was full of great stories I must say. Sarah made some homemade carmel corn, and we indulged - yes, to the point of ridiculous stomach aches (right Dibbly). We took some time out and played a few card games and then just sat around waiting for the next wave of energy to come our way. The night went on, more personal games including the game "The Game of Things" in which each person writes out an answer to a prompt "things that..." and we try to guess who wrote what. It was very interesting. We even took it to the level of, again, revealing information about our personal lives for everyone else to guess. It was great. Needless to day, the night went on and eventually we all ended up in one of the largest living-room forts made by 20-somethings that I've ever been a part of. It was a sleepover with great company.
Monday morning, I woke up to the sound of the maid walking in the door, surprised at the newly decorated room full of adults in their PJs. What a night! We spent a majority of Monday just hanging out, grading, at a potluck, cooking, and at care group where we prayed together and worshiped Abba Father to the sound of the guitar. The weekend was truly a blessing, and I can't wait to get back to that berry farm to have a picnic.