#53 - The last straw (hat)

27/03/2011 (posted 04/04/2011)

I somehow managed to roll off my Thermarest and spend almost all of last night on the hard floor. Oh well.

We had Hojaldras for breakfast which were very welcome indeed. All the flour and sugar and salt and oil is simply delicious.

We had to provide three simultaneous two-hour services this morning - one for children, one for youth, one for adults. We have one translator.
You do the math.

The children's group managed to work with Jonny's pretty good level of Spanish and they made bracelets and drew pictures. I helped organise the adult group and we tried to lead a Bible study and get the audience interacting. This didn't work.
We couldn't tell if they were just shy or had absolutely no idea what we were talking about (some of the locals don't speak Spanish, only the native Bugle language) but they gave no answer to any questions. In the end we simply answered the questions for them and then went round praying for each of them individually.

For lunch we had the chicken I slayed last night.
There wasn't an extortionate amount of meat on the poor thing and it just felt weird eating something I had killed. At least it was tasty.

The afternoon was free so we all just crashed out, exhausted after another stressful morning. I just felt for Lissette - she already works damn hard translating constantly and she had to keep running between groups all morning.
We then went down to the river one last time and found a new, higher rock to jump off which was scary but exhiliarating.

I preached in our final service of the week and it went ok. The crowd were unresponsive as ever but I tried to keep their attention with rhetorical questions etc.
After the service, we said our farewells. They're such nice and welcoming people so it's a wrench to leave but I leave with many happy memories.

Killing the chicken was a great experience, though perhaps not at the time. I will certainly never forget it and apparently I'm already famous in the village for the way I killed it.

Another great thing has been the scenery. Being constantly around such beautiful landscapes and hills has been a real treat and makes the Lake District pale in comparison.

But once again, the hospitality of the village has really been so amazing. They are so humble and servant-hearted and despite the fact they have so little, they have gone out of their way to make us as comfortable as possible.
Despite them having next to nothing, after the service they gave our team bags and hats and dresses for the girls that take a couple of weeks each to make. I got a cool straw hat though it's absolutely tiny. I still like it though.

I took one last walk under the stars and then collapsed to sleep.

JG