Mi Familía
Today I realized how much I love the people here! I love each of these kids like they’re my sisters and brothers, and I wish that I had the giving and loving hearts that their families had. They have so little, but they LOVE each other and they love us. Today is Sunday (Domingo), and we have church twice on Sundays. We have children’s church at 9:30-which actually means about 10:00-10:30 am, and we have grown up church at 3:00 pm-which actually meant about 4:30 today! I love Sundays, because we get to worship and play with kids all day! We have lunch with everyone after children’s church and then play Frisbee and Fútbol. Then at grown up church we worship for a long time and then Pastor Luis gives a message, and tonight we prayed for people that came up front. While we were praying for the people that were up front, I felt so much love for them. I was praying for my brothers and sisters.
O.k. So let me tell you about my new family.
First there is Carlos and all his crazy fun friends. Carlos is the 18 year old, adopted son of Bonnie, the woman that houses, feeds, and takes care of us from Pennsylvania. Carlos is also our translator for most things, and he’s pretty great! His friends-Kevin, Jason, Benjamin, and Bensamon-are always over playing soccer and talking with us. All of his friends are 16 and under so I feel like they’re my little brothers, and they’re the sweetest guys ever, always trying to speak as much English as they can remember. Luckily my years of Spanish classes are paying off pretty well. I know enough to carry on conversations and talk for my team when we go into stores. So between their little English and my little Spanish, we talk a lot.
Second, there are all the little boys and girls that are 11 years old and under that come play Frisbee Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays! They’re oh so precious. A lot of them have learned my name now, but Brooke doesn’t translate into Spanish so it comes out with a rolling “rr” and usually sounds like book. Also, they think it’s spelled “b-r-o-k-e”, and yes the ones that speak English though my name was “broke” at first. I had to explain that my name was not “romper” which means to break in Spanish and write it down for them
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