Honduras: Day 2

AFE. July 29, 2011.

Before the day started, we had breakfast at 7 o'clock this morning, followed immediately by devotions. Our pastor, who was able to come on this mission with us, talked about love and doing the right thing for the right reason. Sometimes I'm fantastic at doing the right thing for the wrong reason. Like helping load up the bus because I feel like it's expected of me instead of doing it because I want to help. I find that sometimes I have to sit back and check my motivation to decide whether or not I should continue doing what I'm doing for the reason I am doing it. But tomorrow is a new day with new challenges, which I welcome greatly.

I went to the AFE school today and played with the kids. We played a lot of soccer! So much so that my feet are aching! Those little boys are so good though! I was glad I remembered some of the tricks TheKeeper has taught me over the years, so even though I wasn't spectacular super star quality all the little boys told me I did well.

Jose was the one who played with us the most. He is nine and he let me take a picture with him. He's super sweet and he tried so hard to get us to understand him. He would speak very slow and repeat himself often. Sometimes that didn't make a difference - we just didn't know the language, but sometimes it was very helpful. He was great for practicing the very little Spanish that I do know with. I didn't realize though how many words I actually knew before I got down here. I've never taken a Spanish class and I already knew more than the other girls I was teaming with!

I don't think I drank enough water though, because I don't really feel that great. I played hard today, and it would be a shame if I got sick. I'm laying down before we go to dinner. I'm tempted to go to the pool in a little while, or at least downstairs to see if the wi-fi is on yet. The internet is so very sketchy down here!

Dinner & After:

Tonight's dinner was followed by worship. TheKeeper requested the song "Lord I Lift Your Name On High" because we wanted to do the motions! So the song starts, and then the leader stops to explain that he would like to change the words from "I'm so glad You're in my life" to "I'm so glad I'm in Your life" because God is greater than we are, and it's a reward to be His children. And then we start the song over, sing the changed words, get to the chorus, and we just start doing the motions when Pastor M stops the song again!

He points out that TheKeeper, TheMechanic and I should stand in the front and lead the whole team in our motions. And then everyone sends Dad up there with us, which he totally did not want to do. Haha! Then we start the song again, and the whole room joins in with the motions. We are singing through our laughter, worshiping Christ with joy in our hearts, and I think that's exactly how you're supposed to do it. A joyful noise we will make!

And if you think that was buckets of fun, just wait. Because there's more. (I know! How could there be more!? But there is. And it's amazing.)

Worship had ended and people were dispersing into the lobby for Facebook and e-mails and Skype loved ones, while there were a good many of us who remained in the cafeteria for conversation and drinks. I'm sitting with Dad and couple of other people talking and laughing when one of the girls from my team, who is a hairstylist by career, walks in with her clippers. Dad makes an offhand remark and then has to back track to explain himself.

It seems that he and another gentleman had decided today that if one of them shaves their head bald the other would do it to. I'm not at all certain as to how the agreement came about, but what's important here is that my dad is a "long haired hippie" and shaving his head bald is something that would be completely shocking and a drastic change to say the least. Dad tells her that maybe she can cut his hair tomorrow night.

About 15 minutes later, in walks the guy that my dad made the bet with - you guessed it, completely bald. There is no escaping now, the deed has been done and it's time for my father to step up to the plate. There is loads of laughter from the entire room, and more people trickle in from the lobby to find out what is going on. Dad leaves the room to rid himself of his blonde locks.

Everyone is buzzing about what will my mother say? What do you think he will look like? Man, this seems to be taking a long time! And it did take longer than we had expected, but not just because Dad started out with more hair than his fellow bet-mate, but when came back a baldy-waldy he was joined by hairless Mechanic as well!

I took their picture and quickly uploaded it to Facebook like the good 21st century internet capable daughter that I am and waited for the inevitable mother freak out. It only takes a couple minutes before she comments "AAAHHHH!!"

TheKeeper posted a status update in addition to my picture, to which my mother replies, "You are supposed to keep them from doing this crazy stuff!"

The entire room was in stitches, I believe.

A few of the guys said that the new qualification for being part of the building crew was to be bald, wherein all the eyeballs in the room shifted toward me and the other girl who was planning on working on the learning center tomorrow. Then I had to explain to them that I would look funny bald for a multitude of reasons, the main one being that I had a rather large dent in the back of my head.

No one really believed me.

So I made them touch it. One guy subconsciously wiped his hand off on his pant leg after making contact with the crater that is the back of my skull. He realized what he'd done, and apologized explaining that he couldn't have stopped himself if he tried. He just had to "wipe the creep off." I found that absolutely hysterical because the back of my head gets a variety of reactions from different people. The ones who are grossed out by it used to hurt my feelings because, let's face it, it's not diseased or anything. But now they just make me laugh, because my head is just like yours only shaped funnier. God just made me special, okay? Don't hate.

But now it's bed time, and I'm hoping that tomorrow is more awesome than today, although to be honest I'm not really sure any day will be able to top how fantastic today was. Tomorrow definitely has some big shoes to fill.