Birthdays, Bad Roads, and Blood Pressures

There’s been a lot of birthdays here lately. This year, it’s been Vickie’s tradition to make dessert for everyone here at the home (about 45 people all together) on their birthday. In the past, the kids birthday’s would pass and they wouldn’t even really be celebrated or acknowledged. Some of the kids didn’t even know when their birthday was. 

This past week was Sebastian’s, Venancio’s, Lorena’s and Samuel’s birthdays. Vickie and Norm have been really busy with appointments and preparing for the next team so I helped them with a couple of the desserts. Let me just say that making dessert for 45 people is not easy. 

For Lorena’s 21^st birthday, I made pumpkin cake bars with cream cheese frosting. I’ve decided it’s better to not make desserts from scratch because then you don’t really know all that’s in it. The cake had 12 eggs, 6 cups of powdered sugar and four sticks of butter! For Venancio’s birthday we made worms in dirt (pudding and oreos and gummy worms). That was slightly easier to make, but it was a little challenging because they only have powdered milk here so we had to make a ton of milk for all of the pudding. 

Yesterday while Norm and Vickie were gone all day to go to the city to pick up the team and some groceries, I stayed back to help out here and I made all the beds for everyone on the team. I didn’t think that would take so long, but it was a pretty big job. 

The team was supposed to get in at 6 or 7 last night but they didn’t get in until nine because of traffic and bad roads due to the rain. I was waiting around for them to get here and then Norm called and said they wouldn’t be here for another few hours so I brought out one of the movies that I brought for the kids and we all sat and watched August Rush. As soon as it was over, the team was here within a matter of minutes, so it made the time pass nicely. And now I have many more people to share my side of the home with. There are 16 people here from Peoria, Illinois from Norm’s brother’s church. There are a few couples, a few adults, and a few high school students- it’s a nice group.

This morning I went to the clinic and helped out by weighing babies, taking blood pressures and blood sugars. It was a busy morning and I didn’t get back til around two. Next Sunday, I’ll be going again and then afterwards I’ll go back to Canilla (a town about half an hour away) to stay with the Fickers for the rest of my time here.

You can be praying for me that I will click with this team and be able to form relationships with them so that the week isn’t awkward and that I can be useful in helping to host them here. You can also be praying against any sickness for me because I haven’t been feeling the greatest today. Just a little headache and tiredness so hopefully it’s just that I need more water and more rest.