CenterPoint Go and Grow: Colima: Wednesday

Wednesday was a very full, very fun day… apparently all days for this team in Colima are very full and very fun – not a bad way to spend a mission trip!

Of course, we started the day with our most important activities: devotionals and hugs with friends old and new!

Hugs all around!

Our motorcycle man finds his Mexican counterpart and they happily compare notes and get their hands greasy

These kids have entered our hearts so quickly with their ready smiles and hugs

Fortunately they are very sturdy children

Wednesday’s “sport” was sidewalk chalk, a favorite activity from last year. For all of you who donated sidewalk chalk to this trip it definitely went to good use! We tried to use our powers for good, but admittedly it sometimes got a little bit wild.

Another sidewalk chalk masterpiece

Most of us tried to use our chalk time for good... a few of us just made mischief (try to act surprised)

Ok, there was a lot of mischief

The guessing game was a favorite activity from last year that was equally well received this year. We’d like to say that it kept a whole room full of elementary-aged kids busy for a full 20 minutes but, let’s face it, there are few games in the world up to that bar!

And Wednesday’s craft was our big one for the week – photo frames. All week we took pictures of the kid trying to get a picture of every kid. We had them printed out at WalMart and the kids loved looking through their gallery of photos, pointing out their friends and admiring their smiling faces.

Frame assembly

Nothing makes you feel better than a new toothbrush!

And then it was back to the new house to paint, paint, paint. The painting crew has worked so hard in the hot sun with blowing dust and very sore shoulders and their work is clearly paying off. By the end of the day Thursday almost all of the outside of the house was sealed, the inside was all sealed as well, and all of the ceilings had new coats of bright white paint. By the time we leave, the house should be ready to tile!

Our theme song this week has been, "Rollin', rollin', rollin'" for good reason!

Up go the scaffolds and the volunteers

When you have walls this big, you have to attack them from every angle

We love the new interior paint color (it's so much more fun to paint than fondo sealant!)

Like we said, a lot of wall space to cover!

And we tried every angle

Best ab workout around!

And we did have to take a few minutes off to appreciate the volcano, it was especially active and interesting yesterday and with clear blue skies we were able to witness all its glory. Everybody who lives here is used to the volcano, but we sure do think it’s cool.

Team Curtains is also doing well. By the end of the day Thursday we had finished 5 of our 6 rooms of curtains at Casa Formosa including a very eventful trip to the fabric store to purchase more material. You haven’t lived until you’ve successfully purchased fabric from a Mexican fabric store!

We had some very enthusiastic sewing and measuring helpers

New curtains for Casa Famoso!

And of course we all made some time for Perler Bead creations

Lunch at the Senorita home was, as always, delicious, and I have to believe we got the very best seats in all of Colima for lunch – shaded and green with a light breeze blowing through!

Our group pic, all looking our sweaty, painty, happy best

And with Wednesday evening came our very favorite activity of the week, the Tamale Party at Casa Leonel! The tamales were, as always, simply fabulous. Piñata busting was hilarious. And Team USA held its own fairly well in the games although Team Mexico did reign supreme in jump rope, the chicken-foot balloon-popping game (it’s complicated), and the ab-killing lie down on each other’s stomachs and don’t fall to the ground game. Ok, Team Mexico ruled all of the games. And for a better explanation of all of these games and how real Mexicans attack a piñata you simply must talk to somebody on the trip – we learned a lot on Wednesday about how to throw a killer party!