Thursday night

My headache disappeared with the nap and I woke feeling positively bright and happy. It is such a wonderful feeling. God is very good. 

My limbs were tingling and shaky all afternoon. Maybe I was just tired. But I'm really not ready to leave. Definitely not ready to leave. 

I woke well rested and happy again this morning. Last night Cat and I had a really long, good conversation on the roof, so I woke with the benefits of sleeping on that. Allison, Hannah and I headed with the medical team to an elementary school in Parque Industriale. At first we felt useless and Allison and I wished we'd gone with the construction team. Then we started face painting and with the first smile I decided this was worth it. We painted and painted till the kids crowded too close and sloshed the paints into Allison's lap. So we dispersed the kids and headed outside with balloons and stickers. Oh my word. It's official: Allison founded the Culto de la flores, and my cult is Culto de la espada (Cult of the swords. I had about five boys hanging on my back and about 20 kids in line for a balloon. Allison had just as many. We distracted some of them by handing stickers to Hannah, but more and more kids just kept coming. After an hour and we had no room to blow up more balloons, we cried No mas, and scattered the children. They flooded back very quickly, though, when we got out more stickers. I pretended to be completely overwhelmed by it all but secretly I love that they are not afraid of putting their arms around me and being all over me. 

We got back to the work site and helped them finish and clean up. I am so grateful to have worked with them two days, and actually feel like I worked hard, but also get to see the kids. Allison and I still wondered at the end of the day whether it was really worth it to be there doing what we did. Mr. Shepherd said, "They'll be talking about you and this for weeks." And my heart was at peace. 

Allison and I had a very mature moment once the kids had left. We were discussing college and life and future and we suddenly realized we were talking about it all while bouncing on the see-saw very carefree and joyfully. Oh the irony. It was pretty funny. 

I talked to Rosa, a university student there who attends Cristo Rey, while we walked back to the work site. She is super impressive (including her very good english). I really like her and will miss her. 

We went straight from our last lunch at Arevalo to the archaeological sight, the Temple of the Moon. It was my second time, and I was exhausted, but surprisingly it was possibly more interesting than last year. When we got back from that we had enough time to clean up a little and then we went down for Justin's devotional. I wish we'd recorded all the devotionals. They're so good. 

But the highlight of it all -- maybe the entire week -- was tonight at the Davenports. Very possibly one of the sweetest nights of my entire life. I loved being all together -- eating, singing, laughing, crying and playing. And again, words do not do justice to how much I love that family. Bonnie and Seth professed their faith and my heart swelled and throbbed with the sweetness and fullness of all we have and all we are. 

So our hearts in all their filling come up empty and longing because the more they are filled, the bigger they stretch and there are empty spots scattered all through them. So we ache in longing and we ache in love, because our hearts are still growing, and the growing pains are hard to bear. 

When we got back to the hotel, Allison and I couldn't sleep so we headed to the rooftop pool. Officially a bad idea. It was freezing. But we braved it anyway and we shivered for about half an hour while we talked about a whole bunch of things. It was a really really encouraging conversation. I am so impressed by Allison and I love her so much. 

Rosa is on the far right. She is amazing.