Tuesday afternoon

Answered prayer: we were finally able to finish packing all the gifts. We had a great assembly line going this afternoon with several orphans helping us. We were the conveyor belt, and they were the arms. We would get a bag and walk down the line and they would put each item in the bag. It was really fun to do that with them. It has been humbling to see the kids peeking into the Conference room - so excited about their Christmas gifts. No high school kid that I know in America would be excited with these packages, yet these kids here can hardly contain themselves. One boy today was standing outside asking us for a can of sardines. Amazing. We have been given so much in the States, my prayer is that I can give back in proportion to what I have been blessed with.
I was also able to meet many of the orphans that people in our church sponsor and give them the gift that were sent. It is so nice to see their smiling faces when they receive a gift that is for them.
We arrived at the center during recess today and it was a mob scene. You could hardly walk becuase of the 50 kids who wanted to touch you and shake your hand. Later I was told by a group of teen age girls that I was the whitest person that they had ever seen :) It is fun to try to communicate with little langauge in common, but with smiles and hand gestures.
For supper we went to a French restraurant and had "El Capitan" which is fish caught in the river. It was very good - like a nice seafood dinner you would have in the states. They had live trumpet, sax, and guitar music and nice candles and ambiance. Then we drove out of the parking lot and saw a boy catching "kindagozo" - crickets! He was stringing them live on a piece of string. It is a highly desired food here that they fry in oil and eat. Some of the culture swings here are really hard to adjust to. We just laugh, because it is only way you can process some of the information.