Los grandes amores de muchos colores, me gustan a mi

I'm emotional from just looking at these pictures. If Thursday was a spiritual high, Friday was an emotional one. 

We had one more morning with our host families on Friday, and then all gathered again in Basilia and Otto's courtyard. 

You've met Carlita, who was such a comfort to Carrie. Now, meet Marta Lucia: 

She's 2.5 and she tied her baby doll on herself. The doll's name is Roxana.  

She and Maureen got along famously, until wooed her away later on. 

What a blessing the children were to us! We usually think of adults as the ones to offer services to children, and of children as being in need of our help. But this week reminded us of how much adults need children. We need their beauty, their joy in learning, their joy in teaching, their sense of fun and humor even at serious times, and their laughter! I am so grateful for the children of San Andres Itzapa. This Sunday when I teach Children's Chapel at church, I'm going to be telling the kids about the brothers and sisters they have in Guatemala and trying to establish a pen-pal relationship. This sister church relationship will depend on children in many ways. 

Some of what I said about children also applies to pets. They were such a comfort!

We were going to miss Balan the Noble, so much! 

In the morning, the youngest girl, Keli, asked me to braid her hair, the way she'd seen me braid mine all week. She had a lot of gorgeous hair, so it took me a while, but here it is: 

She wore it to school. From a 13 year old, that's a compliment.  I felt so proud! 

One more time, Friday morning, Don Otto summoned his cats, and they came running, as they always did, from the four corners of the town, seemingly. 

Don Otto (right) and his older brother, Don Juan

Don Nicholas and Don Luis took the day off work to be there. 

Later in the morning, Julieta led us in a couple of team building exercises. The leadership from Sister Parish is determined that this relationship be maintained! For one of the exercises, we played a circle game in which we threw and caught four balls in a pattern around the circle. There was much laughter even as we concentrated on the exercise. Afterwards, we had to write down the values or skills that we needed to succeed in the game. Then, Julieta let us know that these were also the values we'd need to succeed in our Sister Parish Relationship. We hope to make a poster with this list:

You'll see skills like: focus, awareness of partner, laughing together, practice, vision, help, love, dynamism, willingness to learn, agility, recovery from errors, and more. It's a great list.

Next, Julieta assigned us to create posters that represented where we had been in our Sister Parish relationship, and were we hoped to be. We symbolized the reality and the dream with houses and castles.

Our team's castle. 

Kim was the resident artist

After a lovely lunch, we walked down to church. I remember the walk clearly.

Things got a bit silly as we were taking far too many photos.

 Group selfie

It was a long downhill to church.

Church is an outdoor event here, at least in the dry season. The indoor space is quite small!

Maureen quilted their new altercloth; it was a gift we brought

Padre Miguel prepares for mass

We enjoyed the view. 

The mass we had that morning will go down as one of the most memorable services of my life. 

This is church, guys. There were men, women, children, babies through teenagers. We used the Libro de Oracion Comun and so, despite our varying levels of Spanish ability, we were all able to participate and know precisely what we were saying. There were some cool differences, though.

Instead of "Therefore, let us keep the feast," they say, "Celebramos la fiesta!" Different connotation, eh? We loved saying that. 

This cross hangs in the tiny indoor chapel

People filtered in at a steady rate throughout the service. There is no shame in being late down there. I like that. 

There were so many children.

I loved these guys, even as I feared for their safety. 

The prayers and hymns were in Spanish, but Padre Miguel asked that we do the scripture readings in English. I got to read the gospel! If you belong to a liturgical church, you know what an honor this is. The gospel reading was the calling of Nathaniel. "I tell you the truth: you will see greater things than this." On point.

We also sang (amateur choir though we are) some songs for the service. Ready? We sang "Seek Ye First The Kingdom of God," "De Colores," "Amazing Grace," and a very energetic "This Little Light of Mine." It was a blast. 

After the service, and I didn't think I could be more emotionally charged... there were speeches and presentations. Goodbye speeches, gifts, (to add to the lovely ceramic angel and tortilla basket and cloth we'd received already) and, to my joy, the children had a special goodbye to say. 

The teacher. Doesn't she look like a teacher?

The children, with our gifts. 

Each child presented the gift to each delegate. The one I'm talking to told me her name is "Isabel." I said, "Yo tambien!" 

Me & Isabel

Maureen receives her gift. 

With "our" kids

Listening to Don Luis give an emotional goodbye speech. 

I want to go back immediately as I type.

The whole group, or that which remained after the service & could make it that day

We were so happy, and so distraught to be leaving, both at once. I wished for the whole congregation of my home church to be here to see our brothers and sisters, and to know the transformation that this relationship has brought our delegation. We have a few opportunities coming up on February 22nd, and at another event after Easter, to try to convey our experiences and our hopes for the program as we move forward. Keep us in your thoughts, please! We want to be good ambassadors. 

At the end of the series of speeches, it was finally high time we got on the bus. 

My emotional goodbye to my adopted abuela, Basilia.

Children kept befriending me to the very last moment. I wanted so badly to frolic with them, but we had to settle for a selfie and a hug.

This is Madeline.

We will so miss San Andres Itzapa. Where else could we regularly see sights like this?:

The hay did, in fact, move from side to side as the horse walked. 

Back in Ciudad Guatemala, we had a long meeting in which we discussed our plans for when we were back in Virginia. Then, Brian told us he thought it good for us to go out and celebrate our week.

How did he know we were in need of something familiar, of home? Brian took us to a jazz club!

I took this picture on Saturday; we were actually there around 9pm

The band was playing Duke Ellington! We ordered pizza! It felt like a dream. 

All week long we'd been seeing ads for Gallo Cerveza, or Rooster Beer. I'd been remarking upon the sign all week, and hoping we could find some when we got home. We decided to seize the opportunity and grabbed us some Rooster Beers at the jazz club. 

I was so overwrought, but it was amazing to relax and just enjoy the company of these people with whom we'd experienced so much. I had a long conversation with Julieta. I hope to meet her again. 

We went to bed in a much more festive, slumber-party-ish mood than the week before when we slept in Sister Parish. We planned to get up early to shop in the market-- our first and only chance to get market souvenirs! 

I have to admit a bit of superstitious worry that I'd wake up sick, as last week.

But the next morning I was in fine condition, drinking coffee and, as Sharon pointed out, eating everything but the furniture. Finally, I would be able to enjoy Ciudad Guatemala.