Flexibility and Spanish Cuisine

From previous missions experiences, David and I knew that any job in missions requires an ability to be flexible. We knew that coming into this, but still thought we knew what to expect. And to a degree, we do, I guess. But in the three weeks we have been here, we have gone from expecting four girls in our dorm, to only expecting three, to having two additional girls on the fence right now, and we may end up with five by the end of next week. We would be thrilled to have a house full, but we would also like to have a smaller group to "ease into" the whole dorm parenting thing. The Lord knows our needs and the needs of the families represented by the girls, so we continue to wait and trust and be ready for whatever He sends our way.

There is a high school camp next week that David is considering attending. It's three days, two nights, and is mandatory for all the students. We think it would be a great time of relationship building with all the high schoolers, so hopefully we can work that out. Our greatest desire here is to open our home to all the high schoolers, not just the handful of girls living in our dorm. We want our home to be a place where they are all welcome any time, and we want the opportunity to invest and minister to them through hospitality and loving them in a mentor kind of way. We don't know what that will look like, but we know that that is the seed that is planted in our hearts.

These last two days we have had "new staff orientation" at the school. It was nice to have some time to spend with the other new staff and get to know them, as well as just learning about school policies, etc. Have I mentioned how welcoming and warm this community is? Not only have they been very sensitive to any needs we have had, they have been so great with our kids. On Thursday, the school took us to the one restaurant here in Camarma, "El Mar Rojo," (The Red Sea), where we had a choice of three entrees. Pork, pork or boiled squid. Spanish food is very different from Mexican food, for those of you who didn't know.

This is our table full of new staff (with a few administrative people)

David ordered the sliced pork with papas fritas.

I ordered the variety of pork, (sausage, Chorizo and fatty pork)

And our new friend Susan (the piano teacher) ordered the squid because she is braver than we are.

We aren't feeling homesick yet, but there is a level of culture shock that we are still experiencing. We are, however, enjoying the slower pace of life and the togetherness of our family these last few weeks.