Well work's been busy today. Two of the girls are sick, so we had to go pick them up today from school. I also have a typing class today and I'm tutoring two women later this afternoon.
Anyways, this past weekend I went to the opera! Esther and I went and saw La Boehme by Puccini. It was in Italian with Spanish subtitles. I felt very cultured. The theatre was quaint and we sat up in the top gallery which had a great view. Afterward we went to the Grand Hotel in the center of Downtown San Jose for some coffee. It seemed very high class especially when we finished off the evening with some ice cream from McDonalds ;)
Today I worked out in the morning (occasionally I like it, but overall I prefer to workout after work), anyways, on the way I passed a dog, and I think I startled him because he jumped up and bit my bag. This was my first encounter with a dog who was aggresive (more or less). However, I don't think I was quite awake, because my reation was not to run away, I just stared back at him like "what are you doing?" He then turned around and continued about his business. Nothing major, but I thought it was funny (and my bag is fine).
Happy early St. Patrick's Day. I told my family here that they dye the Chicago river green for St. Pats and my family thought it was one of the funniest and strangest things. Well...I guess it is. I must be painting a pretty odd picture of the US for them.
Anyways, I've been pretty busy. I helped translate for Cristina Pena's organization last weekend and I get to do it again this weekend so I'll write more on that later.
Then yesterday we had a photographer come to take some pictures of the organization so both my group of girls and another group of women joined up to make one big group and we made cards, so it was fun (and different).
Esther (and Melissa, Cristina's sister) headed off for Cuba today. I want to go to Cuba. Oh, well maybe I'll have the opportunity one day. In the meantime I'll keep them in prayer.
Oh, they finally finished counting the votes here, so Oscar Arias is going to be the new president inagurated in May. The election took over a month to count.
Lastly, sugared - dried figs are my new fave here. Very yummy, but you can't have too many (they get really sweet....even for me)
The past two weekends I had an amazing opportunity through Cristina's mission orgnization, Moviendo Esperanza, to translate for a group from the States called The Mobility Project. Their ministry at Mobility is to collect, and refurbish donated wheel chairs and then distribute them to the poor in various developing countries.
Obviously I witness the end of a long process of getting the wheel chairs to those in need, but it was amazing to witness. I got to translate all the paperwork, so I sat at the admin table and could view the whole distribution process.
People came from all over for th eopportunity to get a chair. They waited in one area untill we called their name. Many people had never had a wheel chair. (try to comprehend what life would be like if you had to be carried, or crawl to get around.) When we were ready for them, they would be brought over to a seating technician who would pick out a chair and adjust it for the person receiving it. Then when the chair was finished, and the person thought it was comfortable, they would go to the last stage where they got their picture taken in the new-to-them chair. Nobody had to remind them to smile for the camera....
After the picture, we had an opportunity to pray with them and their families. We thanked God for the chair He provided, and prayed that God would bless the person receiving the chair and their family and that He would use the chair to create new opportunities for these people for His glory.
A few times, after we were done prayer, the person and their family turned the blessing around and prayed for us as well.
I was so enriched by this experience.