After 20 days of nothing...

Maybe it´s the sun, or maybe it is the relaxed pace of everything around me, whatever it is, I have not posted on this blog in 20 days. I had realized that it had been a long time and my goal was to make it to the internet one more time before the end of July. I´m barely squeezing it in! I guess I have a lot to fill ya´ll in on.

T.E.A.M.s and CHI
When I last wrote, I was working with a group from Pennsylvania, it was raining, and the new intern had recently arrived. Since my last post, CHI has hosted three more TEAMs, one from Colorado, another from Kansas, and the current TEAM here is a large group from The Woodlands, Texas. (The youth leader of this group is actually a friend of my mom´s good college friend Jon, small world.) We´ve been putting in a ton of work here and it is so incredible to see the changes. BJ, the ¨new intern¨, was such a blessing to me and to this organization. He is a sixteen year old whose Spanish far surpasses my own. I learned so much from him this last month with the language and so much more. We miss him a lot! The Children and TEAM members are currently enjoying swim time and tonight as a last get together, the group is serving everyone Ice Cream Sundays! Yes. Moving on.

My BFF Dolly
So, many of you heard about and know of the friend that came raging through the coast last week. Hurricaine Dolly arrived in Reynosa midday on Thursday July 24. We had a small group from Kansas that week, 10 amazing youth and leaders, who were game for everything. We all worked up until the point where it seemed dangerous for us to be out and about, and then we spend the afternoon and evening in the dormitories. As far as weather goes, being from MN, I have never experienced a hurricaine, and once was probably enough. I am under the impression that stateside got hit worse than we did, but Í haven´t been there since, so I don´t really know. As far as damage goes, a few trees were knocked down and a few doors were broken off of hinges, but now serious damage was done. Most importantly everyone was safe. One thing that did happen however was the loss of electricity. We lost electricity on Thursday afternoon, and we went without electricity until Saturday night at 945. I will never forget the squeals of glee and the shouts of ¨llega la luz¨ THE LIGHTS ARE HERE! Everyone was so excited, I wish that I would have had a video camera so that I could share it with you.

Whatever else...
My flight will leave McAllen, TX one week from today. I am completely floored by how quickly this summer has flown by. It honestly seems like yesterday that I was here by myself waiting for two families from North Carolina to come and serve. I still have trouble finding the right words to say to explain how I feel, all I can think of is excitement. I cannot remember a time where I felt so excited about my life, and more importantly, excited about what is to come after my life has ended. I am excited to see where this organization is headed. I am excited to be in Minnesota with all of the people that I love. I am excited to see where God is going to take me, wherever that is, I´m along for the ride.

I did my best to fill in some of the gaps of the last 20 days. I will be seeing many of you soon. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts!

Dios le bendiga.

Love Eliza