Jenna b. Photography: El Salvador: day 5

Day 5: (FRI) Breakfast of French toast; tortillas, roast, potatoes, carrots, and rice & corn for lunch; flour tortillas with beans and cheese for supper.

Rachel didn’t come with us to VBS again today, but she had some jewelry to sell from Hector’s sister, so I bought a ring. We were in El Refugio again today, at the El Rosaria school. Probably my favorite place we went to last year. Only 4 beads per bracelet today, we were starting to worry about running out of supplies… crazy! God was awesome blessing us with so many kids. As we arrived, all of the kids swarmed to the gate and waved at us until we got out of our bus. There was a light-brown haired girl, around the age of 8, standing at the gate who told me hello. Throughout the rest of the morning, Alison would come up and shy around me all day. She was one of three brown-haired girls down there – everyone has beautiful, dark hair.

But back to the VBS. Instead of dividing into 10 groups of 10 kids that we had originally planned (which NEVER happened the entire week), each grade went back to their classrooms. All of the kids seemed much more subdued when they were in their classrooms with their teachers… a nice little blessing. Not saying that they were loud and rambunctious though! The kids (with the exception of a few groups over the whole week) are very calm and quiet when listening to instructions. Great kids. I want one. ;)

For lunch, we went back to the lady’s house from yesterday. We had a little issue with not having any water bottles for us to drink, but we all still had the bottles in our bags – so no biggie.

I got the great pleasure to braid Amy’s hair during our bathroom stop at the church in El Refugio… SO beautiful!

Alejandro came and joined us for the second VBS at El Rosaria. I love that kid too. GOSH. The kids here are so beautiful… And speaking of beautiful children, Amber and I did the kindergarten group for crafts… OHMYGOSH. The girls in our group were Lady (age 6), Michelle (6), Natalie (5), Andrea (6), and Gabrielle (5. During the skits and the singing, I played with a young boy (he couldn’t have been older than 5) who at first would not say a WORD to us. By the end he was babbling and playing hide-and-seek behind me and was SO adorable. He wouldn’t take a photo with me, but I managed to get a couple of him. ;)

After we all loaded into the bus, we spent about 15 minutes waving goodbye to everyone… they were so sweet! I would love to be a teacher there…

After we returned to the church in El Refugio (where the gospel meeting was at), mom and dad walked with me to the park from last night and bought some fresh papas fritas (remember, those are French fries with cheese on top). Definitely hit the spot. :)

I helped with the night VBS tonight. Only about 20~ kids, but they all seemed to love it. People were just walking down the street and we invited the children (Gabriella and Hosy) to come in – and they did! The culture here is so welcoming compared to USA. But back to the night VBS. There was a girl standing off to the side eating some sort of chocolate and nut brittle, and me being the food-crazy person that I am, made some sort of smile about the food. She immediately broke me off a piece and handed it to me… and let me tell you – SO DELICIOUS. I of course asked her name (Odalis, age 12) and her (who I soon found-out to be neighbor) Osiris. Through our wonderful translator Stephany, I found out that Osiris was turning 17 tomorrow (the 21^st). She is 6 months and 5 days younger than me… so cool. ;) Emma hit it off with a 5-year-old cutie named Yavitza… and that’s an understatement.

We cut bracelet strings during our group devo tonight. Then I went back to the room and talked with Amber a good long while about 1 Thessalonians 5:24 and marveling at God’s work through the trip so far.

Bed by probably 1.

waving to us at the gate…