Just in case you were
wondering, I am alive and well. The base
here in Ejido Buenos Aires, Mexico is great- a main building and then a dorm
building with a huge wall separating guys and girls. The showers and toilets are real (unlike
Gainesville) and there is plenty of room to sit and watch some absolutely
stunning sunrises/sets. The first few
days I started running with my team for the fun of it (yeah I know :O ) but
right now my feet are a bit swollen from mosquitos so I’ll have to wait a few
days until my shoes comfortably fit again.
Don’t worry- like I’ve been telling people here- the bites really don’t
hurt. It’s all good.
We spent this week
focusing on observing and getting to know the family we will be serving this
next two months and the girls were already able to help as we caught them
starting to do laundry during our second visit.
Every other team has a family within walking distance, but my Nicaragua
group drives to a very bumpy hard to see rural road with a small house with a
tin roof at the end, where we meet up with the mother of seven and five of her
children – the other two are working in Matamoros during the day. An interpreter only came with for the first of
our three visits, so the fact that most of us have a few years of Spanish under
our belt is definitely coming in handy.
Everything’s been great. I’ve had more deep convos in a two day span
than I’ve had in my entire life, I’ve been branching out and trying stuff like
running and dancing in the grass – and with some Mexican missions students who
share the base. That was fun. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is
freedom and He is definitely moving here so it really has been a blessing to
witness. Even in such a relatively short
time there is an amazing sense of unity- whether in singing or in eating and
living together or in fighting the greater fight that we are all just beginning
to see.
I love you guys.
~Val
