Thank you ALL for the incredible amount of mail, email and facebook messages!! I think I say it a lot, but it really does mean so much to have your thoughts and prayers here. In this entry, I thought I´d make a list of ``a non typical day in the life of isabel´´, to complement my last blog entry haha. these activities usually make up our weekends and nights.....
--hang out with the neighbors right nearby. frequently we visit the 9 kids that live in the house on the corner, right on the other side of the street. jessie´s pictures of one night with them are on fb (the night i wore glasses and a purple t shirt i think). we also like to spend time with Wellington´s family and Walter´s family, who live on either side of the corner house. Weve celebrated many a birthday with Wellington´s family and played cuarenta with Walter while eating his wife Jesus´ delicious meals. They each have a bunch of kids who we love playing and talking with!
--do some outreach in AJS. recently weve been trying to branch out a lot more on the weekends, spending time with Alicia (who has 4 kids that attend Valdivia often, watch movies there or just sit on the beds and chat), Gabriel and Theresa (my Ecua-grandparents), Emma (aunt of 2 Valdivia boys), Nancy´s family, Sira and Cynthia (Nuevo Mundo coworkers), Mercedes and more. we still got a long way to go, but we love meeting people here, poco a poco.
--head to the 10.5 for Chicos activities. sometimes jessie, jenn and i will head to Casa Don Bosco (aka the diez y medio) for activities with all the boys from all three Salesian shelters here. The 10.5 is the second stage in the program, and the Nuestros Hijos shelter where I work is the third and final stage. they have parents meetings there monthly, Catechism classes, english classes, dance and bracelet lessons, soccer games, etc.
--go to Arbolito or Mt Sinai. we like the mass in both locations a lot, plus it´s a great way to see our fellow volunteers! Oh yeah, and also good for neighbor time. we love visiting those neighbors too, though its of course taking us time to meet many.
--enjoy our free time. laundry, cyber, cleaning, you get the picture. so exciting, not! but defiinitely important. we have a schedule for stuff like cleaning, plus were all trying to exercise (situps, pushups, jump rope). its a nice space in our house to do all these things!
--have community time. once a week we have spirituality night, where we plan activites to better connect with each other and God. its super great to discuss a lot of the issues were encountering here! we also have community night, usually on thursdays, which leads us usually first for ice cream, then for a game or movie of some sort. once a month, we have an all-Rostro meeting, where we do a few hours of logistics, then a few hours of reflection. (this past friday was a reflection based on our pillar of spirituality, so at one point we actually did Agape from Search!!).
--listen to music. this deserved its own section, first because we are all so grateful to a stellar KERRY MCMANUS for sending a cd with hip new tunes our way ... it may have been played at least once a day this past week, if not more. thanks kerry!!! also, we lovee learning the new music here, usually from our students´ or neighbors´ recommendations.
los quiero mucho! (love you all so much!) and feliz cuarto (happy fourth) to those involved with search this weekend at villanova!
isa
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