Blessed Feast of the Dormition!

Yesterday, I moved out of my “office.” It was a little surreal moving the scanner and printer and cleaning out my desk. I moved everything to my room (because the office will be locked over the weekend) just in case I have to do any more work before I go.

We didn’t really do much. It was really just a day of fun and games. I played Frisbee in the courtyard with some of the boys for what seemed like hours. Before vespers, we get a message that we will be starting later than usual. Thrilled, the children continue their playtime. I played more Frisbee, ran a few laps with my “trainer,” and played Uno. I enjoyed learning their version of Uno. Many of the rules differ from standard play, but my favorite is if you don’t say uno, you have to pick up as many cards as the number of people who caught you. Sometimes, this count was up to 8 cards, because after one person says uno, they all chime in.

No one from the team was in church, because they took one of the girls to buy her quicenera dress. When they returned, we saw some pictures. She looks like a princess! Erika is telling everyone that it is blue, but really it is orange. She even has faux pictures of her in a different dress that she is showing everyone at the hogar. It will be a surprise when she walks in and everyone is expecting a blue gown! I wish I could be here in October for her special day.

It was an uneventful evening for the missionaries, including myself, because the older girls went to watch this horrible chick flick called “The Prince and Me.” Personally, I was glad to be exempt from this activity.

Today was fairly uneventful, sans the Dormition Vigil, as well. I organized everything I have to give Madre, including the printer. We are trying to get ice cream for the kids in celebration of the feast day and our departure, but other, more important things came up when I was supposed to go with Jorge to Pops. These things can be expected, especially in Latin America—plans can change on a dime.

I had a nice little talk with Father Mathias after lunch today. He is from the Carpatho-Russian diocese (it was so exciting to hear the Carpatho-Russian chants in church—made me feel like I was home), so he knows Father Tomas Klein, our parish priest at Epiphany of Our Lord in Huntingdon. Besides his piety, he is very personable and genuine. I wish him all the best in the upcoming October elections.

We had Vigil for the Dormition of the Theotokos this evening. It was about 2 1/2 hours long. We did a mix of English and Spanish. Everyone had little candles, that unfortunately caused several accidents--no casualties included. We even had a procession around the entire hogar. It was beautiful.

After vigil, we had a quick supper of leftovers from lunch, which was my favorite meal here: Berenjena (eggplant) with a tomato and cilantro salsa. Delicious. I asked the cooks how you make it and its so simple. Looks like we'll be eating a lot of Ecuadorian (my host mom was a cook too) and Guatemalan cuisine during Lent this year in our apartment!

I think it’s starting to sink in that I am leaving Monday morning. This morning, I was up early so I was walking some of the girls and they asked me when I am coming back—something I really have no honest answer for. When we were working in the carpenteria this afternoon, one of them said to me, “Larissa, I have bad news.” My first thoughts are, uh oh, what did I forget to do or what didn’t I do right. It turns out that her bad news was that we only have 2 more days together. The little boys cope a little differently. Some tell me their birthdays and that I need to write it down right that second and can never forget. Others tell me they are glad I am going because then they can eat my portion of food (but then succumb to the truth with big hugs). Because tomorrow we will only have one day left, the girls started singing the song "one day" to us. Oh man, am I going to miss these little chapinos.