GRAN RIFA!

Some girls ready to do a traditional dance to entertain the crowds!

Saturday, at the Maria Auxiliadora, a large crowd gathered, to spend  all afternoon listening to music, playing volleyball, eating traditional food, and watching some traditional dances, until the final show, the Gran RIFA! [Great Raffle!]  As a fund-raiser, we raffled off a  washing machine, a fridge, two twin sized beds, and many other prizes, like clothes, irons, and random stuff that was donated.  Amid all the nervous silence waiting for the winning tickets, my name was called! “I won an iron!” I thought, but no, my name was called as one to be eliminated, ahhh, I could have had an Iron!  Despite the great disappointment ;-)  I was happy to finally have this long awaited event, because leading up to this week, we have been selling raffle tickets for what seems to be an eternity!  Me and Tracy had been taking groups of girls out into the city almost every day for the past month and a half, to sell their twenty raffle tickets each, and then to sell the raffle tickets of the sisters too!  Ironically people were often more willing to buy tickets from me, a foreigner, than Marinita, and Ruth Alicia, the smallest and cutest girls, who I thought would sell like crazy because of the cuteness factor!  The first week, I stumbled over the words as I tried to quickly name off the prizes before people walked away, but by the end I could spurt out the names as quickly as the girls.  However, I never seemed to overcome the stumbling over the sidewalks, and thus have quite a few bruises from running into things when I misjudged the very uneven sidewalk or missed a random haphazardly placed step  The tremendous amount of inclines and steps in the city were at least good exercise, but equaled bruises when added to both trying to sell to random people while walking and keeping an eye on the girls while they talked to random strangers!

Selling tickets around the city gave me another look at life here, and well, if yal think this time of economic hardshipis hard on American businesses, its even harder here.  The cost of ten Lempiras (roughly the equivalent of 60 cents) was way too pricy for many people [so you don’t ask them] and for others, the idea of having an electric appliance, though idyllic, it is quite repulsive because it would only mean an electric bill they couldn’t pay. Once again, I just want to reiterate, don’t feel guilty for your life, if you have a refrigerator, a bed, a washing machine, and three meals a day.  However,  what I hope you do is to Thank God for it, and be grateful for the blessings you have! And, then stop and think before you go and waste your money on useless things.  
Prayer Requests! Please pray that the Camp that I am putting on  for the kids who come to eat in the comedor comes along, becasue I am running into some difficulties.   It is going to be Nov. 16-18th for about 100 kids from 2-12 so I still need to find helpers!

Some girls hangin out with Sor Roselba in the Patio