Spring Cleaning, Gauze, and Cotton Balls

This week has been bery good. My Spanish keeps improving, and I am able to understand a lot more. I have even been able to joke around with my family, which catches them off guard everytime. We´ve had many good laughs.

Earlier this week I helped clean the clinic. It was like a big spring cleaning day-- except it is winter here. I swept and mopped floors, washed toys, and cleaned chairs. Yesterday I was at the school doing vision screenings with Jen and Regina. I have really been enjoying my work at the clinic, though some of the jobs are monotonus. I´ve filled bags with food, cut paper, and folded gauze. My host brother asks me just about everyday what I did at the clinic, and there is an on going joke that soon they will be having me ball cotton. Well... today I did just that. I balled cotton, and put them in bags. I actually don´t mind those jobs because I get to see them put to use. I was able to hand out the food to the families that came to the nutrition teachings, and this weekend we will be handing out medical supplies (along with the cotton balls) to the families in Rondocan which is another village several hours away.

Happy 4th of July to everyone. Our team of missionaries here are celebrating it tomorrow with a huge cookout. I will unfortunately miss it since I will be heading out to the village for the day.

I have less than 4 weeks left which is hard to believe. It seems like such a small amount of time left.

Some people have been asking if I´ve eaten some more weird food lately. Honestly I´ve just been having the usual... rice and potatoes. :) There are 2 things that I´ve been able to try the past week or so: one being tuna, and the other ¨helado de leche¨. Tuna is a fruit here, not a fish. It only grows in very high altitutes, and it grows on cacti. It is about the size of a baseball with some thorns. (you can search Tuna Fruit on Yahoo images, and see some pictures if you want). It kind of has the texture of a melon, and is a redish-orange color. It´s very good. The ¨helado de leche¨ on the other hand wasn´t a pleasant experience. Juana made it for me during our refresco time (our 11:00 break or tea time). She whips milk, sugar, and added lemon juice. It ends up being a foamy consistency, which she served me in a cup with a spoon. It was all I could do to get it down. I think I may have liked it if it was a vanilla flavor, or chocolate served over some coffee... lol, now I´m just dreaming. It was a little to tart for me.... and I felt like I was eating foam.

Thanks to all the Risser´s who wrote me notes on the family vacation. I missed not being able to see everyone, but it sounds like ya´ll had a great time. It also sounds like the little ones didn´t lack any attention (Mom, thanks for the pictures too).

Last week I lead the team devotional and here are the verses I used. I hope that you can be encouraged by these verses... God hears your voice, and is always with you.

psalms 46- verses 1 and 2
psalms 55- verses 1,2, 16-19, 22, 23b
psalms 56- verses 3,4
psalms 57- verses 1-3 (especially 3a)
psalms 62- verses 1,2