Friday: Wrap up, Clean up, and Party down

Our final day in Colima started the same as the others.  A morning meeting followed by a hearty breakfast.  By the final day breakfast is often just a yogurt or fruit to get going as we eat so much good food for lunch and dinner.    

 Stephan joining the team for our morning meeting

We headed off to the main house, Casa Matriz, to lead the kids in some planned activities.  Like our other two days at Matriz we split the kiddos into three groups and rotated them through sports, games, and crafts.

Yoga is always a good way to start the day

Testing our frisbee skills

The craft table is a busy place that needs lots of supervisors.  You never know where that glue will end up 

Alex and Tonio blowing up balloons for the kids

One of the "kids" enjoying the balloons in the trampoline

Alex exhausted after blowing up 100 balloons

A quick hug with Raquel

And then we went to Esperanza to finish up the projects that were in progress.  There was painting and general maintenance tasks to complete before we would call ourselves finished.

Many hands make light work

Handyman Dan finishes up some light electrical work

Emma practices writing "SALIDA" to mark the exit arrow

Gracie showing how easy it is to paint the ceiling when you are tall

Dan and Sasha laughing in a totally spontaneous and unposed picture

Everyone in front of the Esperanza House

Emma taking a quick snoozer on the drive back to the hotel.  Smart kid

After a rest and some much needed pool time to cool off, we headed back to Matriz for an end of trip party.  All of the houses came out to eat tacos and play games with us.  It was amazing to get to see all of the houses together at the same time.  Logistically it's hard to host that many people in the same space for dinner.  But luckily there is a great caterer in town who specializes in tacos.  Try to act surprised about that one.

Gracie blowing bubbles for the Cuna house kids

Every kid loves to pop bubbles floating in the air

Dan and Pablo shooting the breeze

Julie eating with some of the Golandrinas kids

We ordered 800 tacos for the entire group.  You'd think that'd be enough for this many people, but I know there were some teenagers who could eat a whole lot more.

A pinata for the littles

And then the night ended with a send off.  The team was surrounded by the entire group of kids and caregivers who prayed over us.  I'd like to say that I understood what was being said, but my spanish isn't all that great.  What I do know is that prayer time was a powerful moment and there were many happy tears.  Tomorrow we leave Colima, but I know our hearts will always have a home here in this place.

Thursday: Moving along at the pace of Mexico

The morning was spent at Casa Golandrinas and Famoso.  These houses have a combined play yard that the kids can play and do activities in.  It was the perfect place for us to pull out all of our cool games and activities.  

Craft time decorating with stickers and markers

Activity time with Songbird Julie

A little running around

The longer the trip goes on, the more the travel starts to wear on you.  Things in Mexico feel, taste, and smell different.  And while it is exciting and invigorating in some ways, it can often combine into feeling a bit off.  Fortunately, our God made us to be able to heal and re-energize when we take a bit of rest.  And by Thursday, oh boy were we needing a bit of rest.  

Youth group trippers having a pow wow

Gracie and Kenzie absorbing some solar energy to get over the not-feeling-so-great blahs

Tomorrow is our last full day in country and its good to pace ourselves when so many of us have been sick.  When you are in a tight community of kids and caretakers living together in close quarters, it doesn't take long for a sickness bug to travel through everyone.  Half of the team have had to take time to let their bodies get over some yuckiness as we've caught a few of the germs that have been running through the houses.  With a bit of rest, we'll all be ready for Friday.

Wednesday: Kids, Hike, Comala and lots of fun.

 After all the craziness week 2 has gotten they are more than halfway through the trip!

Wednesday was such a big, tiring but fun day. We started with a good hotel breakfast, then headed over to Matriz for some wonderful activities. The kids did some great job  sand art, water balloons for games and some soccer for sports. 

    Once activities were done we headed back to the hotel, grabbed the things we wanted for the river hike then headed to the market for some exploring that should have been done Sunday but was delayed. We then headed to the adorable little kids at Casa Cuna for lunch before Jupiter picked us up for hiking.

    For the water hike we took the older kids from Golandrinas and Famoso. That was really fun, the kids at first were careful not to get wet, but when one or two fell in they decided to embrace it. They would truck through the deep water and on occasion splash the team and their friends to "cool" each other off from the heat, even though we were in the shade most of the time.

Alex showing the kids how the sand bottles work.

Dan got a wonderful haircut the same time the kids did, and it sure looks great. 

Francisco teaching Nick how to drive the stick-shift van (who knows, maybe he'll drive next year)

Some really cool leather work at the market.

Drink in a bag and pinata's, perfect match for Mexico

Taxidermized bull heads, not something you see every day but something cool for sure.

Hanging with the littles before the hike!

Someone (Roberto) thought it would be fun to rock the bridge while people crossed it

Beautiful place to hike

Group photo at the end of the hike! Looks like everyone had fun!

Enjoying dinner at Jupiter's place in Comala

Enjoying the sign of the city

    After the hike, the tired, happy, and very wet group headed down to Comala for some delicious burritos at Casa Volcana and some small shopping before heading back to the hotel to rest for another fun day.