Lots of "Favorites"

This last week has probably been my favorite by far.

Last Sunday night some of the interns went over to Caleo’s (a youth leader’s) house and her parents taught us how to make Baleadas. If you don’t remember that’s the first thing we all ate when we landed in the airport. It’s a tortilla with refried beans and two kinds of cheese. It was fun to learn how to make tortillas from scratch because here they pat their hands back ’n’ forth and SOMEHOW it turns into a flat circle. Mine turned out as heart shapes, ovals, and who knows what with random holes J …They say once a girl can make tortillas she can get married so Daddy your dream may come true and I’ll get married after I’m thirty!!

When we finished making and eating baleadas Caleo, Daniella, Lynette, and I went to Central Park to play futbol in the dark! It was a lot of fun to get to hang out with youth leaders and not be doing camp prep. While we were playing about 6 other kids joined in. I like how sports can bring strangers together to have fun. But one thing that I thought of was “where are these kids’ parents?” No one was around watching them closely and I felt bad that at 9:00 p.m . no one seemed to care where they were.

At camp one of my favorite things we made were Smiley Face Sandwiches. I had the kids cut up grapes and bananas and put them on a peanut butter sandwich to make faces. We talked about how you should be joyful because of the blessings God’s given you and I had them list off a few things they were thankful for!

One of my favorite moments during options this week was with sweet Diego. I helped with the arts and crafts option where we made friendship bracelets and colored. On Thursday Diego who is maybe 6 came and I asked him if he wanted to make a bracelet. He said yes, picked out some colors, and handed it to me. So for a while I’m doing it for him but then I thought it would be good practice for him to try even though I doubted he would understand especially since I don’t know Spanish and he doesn’t know English. I call him over and all I can do is show him and then grab his hands and get him to do it with me….after about 2 min. that boy has it down.  I had to hold the bracelet down and tight but he could wrap the string and tie it faster than anyone else in there. He is so smart and cute. I kept saying things like “Bueno, bonita, Yayyy!” so he would understand I was proud of him and he would just laugh! After options were over I tied it on his arm and he grabbed some more string and said something. All I understood was “casa” so I assumed he wanted to take some home and I said “Si” and his face lite up. Then Diego said something about “Para tu hermana” (For his sister) and I was like “Si” and he wrapped his arms around me and gave me the biggest hug!! Sweet Diego, I love him! It’s been fun seeing him come out of his shell more. At first he was very shy and quiet but now he comes up to me all the time and talks to me (even though I don’t understand) and gives me hugs!

For Fun Friday we had a camp peace vs. camp joy day at the park. Both camps came together and we did things like dodge ball, futbol without a ball, tug of war, and a lot of other outdoor games against each other. During the tug of two of my favorite things happened: 1) some of the older girls of the camp who are about 13 sometimes act like they are “too cool” for songs and things we do at camp but before the tug of war they started our camp cheer really loud and showed a lot of camp pride. It was cool to see and I thought “wow they actually do like camp peace!!” 2) camp peace definitely isn’t as intense or sporty as camp joy because we lost a lot but after about the third time we lost the tug of war the kids started yelling “Perdimos, perdimos, perdimos” and jumping up and down. I was sooo confused. I thought “Didn’t they see that we lost? Why are they jumping up and down and chanting like we won?” And then I asked what they were saying and it was “we lost, we lost”. It was so cute and then my thought was “Yes those are our kids!!” After seeing how the kids at the different camps act I am so thankful to be at camp peace. They really do follow directions, respect us, and are happy in all circumstances!!

I can’t believe we only have one more week of camp with these awesome kids!! I hope for more Favorite moments and that camp peace will continue to have camp pride! Please continue to be praying for us as we finish up our time here. Pray that we will be intentional and show love to all the kids even though we will soon say goodbye!