Our Family Staycation

This week we had a staycation but not really between myself, Aidan, Juliette and Roger, because everyone else was either in Nicaragua, the mountains, or Tegucigalpa for a conference. It was funny when we had mass in the house, doing all of the mass in Spanish when Roger was very outnumbered by gringos. It was good to be together and for the most part it was relaxing when we were in the house. However our staycation turned into a really intense time of ministry for us because a girl from our barrio died from cancer Wednesday morning. She was 19 years old and has two kids.

Her mother and her best friend came to our house Wednesday afternoon and all of a sudden they were in our entrance with us, and crying with us as Julia the mother was telling us about the last moments of her daughter's short life. She had so much faith in God and it was such a beautiful witness as she talked about the moment she said "it is God's will not my will" as she let her daughter go. Even though they didn't know who we were, all they wanted was a quiet and safe place to mourn, even if it was just for an hour. After we walked back to her house and from there took a taxi to buy groceries for the family.

Later we went back to the house and there were many neighbors in the living room in front of the body. The way people do a wake here is the body is laid in the home and an altar is made around it, and there is glass covering the open part of the coffin so you can see the person's face kind of similar to Snow White. It was really hard to watch people just peeking at the body as if they were looking into a fish tank. At times it felt like people were coming out of curiosity rather than to give their respects to the family. We just stayed with Julia, who was no longer crying but her breathing had naturally turned into sobbing, and when she asked us to pray, we prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet with the family and it was beautiful how prayer fullness spread, suddenly it felt more peaceful and reverent and less like an open house. Please pray for the family!

Earlier in the week I had gone on house visits with Yadira and Juliette and one of the girls from the Sponsorship program Claudia tagged along with us. I really like Claudia, she is 14 years old and one of the girls who taught me how to eat an orange with salt. I'm going to add a picture, she's really beautiful. These oranges are no Florida Oranges, they are literally so acidic that when you eat them your mouth goes numb, unless you use salt. So apparently when you have an orange that you have cut open into fourths you take the salt, rub it into a part of the orange with your fingers and pull that part out and eat it. It is the messiest way possible to eat fruit I'm convinced... Anyway, Claudia came back to the house yesterday because I was suppose to open our storage locker in Casa Guadalupe and find a donated dress for her confirmation. I spent the whole morning with her, pulling out dresses, giving her stuff she needed like a toothbrush and a t-shirt, making her breakfast and talking with her. By 11:30 I was exhausted and she was still asking me a million questions about what I was doing this weekend so we could play soccer together when she said "Can I ask you a favor?" I jokingly responded: "What else do you need this is like Christmas for you!" Then she asked me for feminine products and she was so embarrassed! It was really cute. She whispered really loudly "Don't tell the muchachos!" She hadn't got her period in a long time because of malnutrition, her family lives in the poorest part of our neighborhood. I couldn't find anything in storage so I brought her back to the house and gave her a small package of my own, which was really funny because when Juliette and I received the package from Kara yesterday it was stuffed with tampons and pads. I just laughed and said what you give is returned tenfold.

Thank you for all of the people who put notes and goodies in for us, it means a lot especially when I tend to feel really disconnected from my friends and my family!

Love and Miss,

Ana