Spanish speaking Passerbys

woohoo for Spanish speaking passerbys.  Yesterday a Hispanic lady approached me right outside of Open Door and was asking about some clothes and toys we were giving away.  Her English was so thickly accented that I took the chance to try communicating with her in Spanish and she went for it!!  I've been super, super slowly learning Spanish the past couple of years but I never get to interact with native speakers - so I was quite thrilled after the encounter.  The lady's name was Fransesca and maybe I will get to run into her again.  I know some of you are already fluent and/or interact with native speakers all the time, but for me in the inner city - this is quite a treat.  I learned a new word, "agarrar," which means "grab."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

spanish speaking passerbys

brush by me again today

let me linger near your side

and overhear your casual speech

which is like diamonds to my ears

ah, the beauty of language

lures me by and by.

I met one of those kids

At a meeting a couple weeks ago I met a man named Peter who grew up in Uganda and was sponsored through Compassion International.  He was one of those kids that some family or person sponsored by sending a monthly check.  It was so astonishing and inspiring to meet someone who grew up in the program.  He said that Compassion paid his school fees and his medical bills without which he would have had no education and no access to medical treatment. 

So, for all you sponsors out there, thanks for doing what you're doing.  Thanks for giving and providing such wonderful opportunities to the children around the world.

Best Vacation Ever

So here we are in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico on the best vacation ever. It's pretty out

of the way (over 15 hours of traveling) but if you can make it you won't be disappointed.

this is the main stretch of beach - Playa Zicatela - reserved mostly for catching rays and catching waves, big time waves.

Playa Angelita was a 35 minute walk from our hotel, near the outskirts of town - where the non-tourists lived - but considering the level of relaxedness of our vacation, it was nice to get a bit of exercise and lose our way on side streets and use our Spanish to find this hidden beauty of a beach. The waves were meager and the sand was lighter, giving it more of a Caribbean feel.

i

saw these same trees all over in Thailand and I like them a lot.

the small hotel pool with views of the ocean was oh so charming

our quaint little bungalow - when the biggest bummer of the week is the collapsing of the hammock while swinging/reading - life is pretty good

the only time people were in a hurry was right before the sunset - it was the most crowded time on the beach - an excellent village ritual for sure

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Thank you, God, for my incredibly kind and fun husband and this most amazing second chance at a honeymoon - wow - unforgettable.