A Tiring, Yet Fun Day

Today was a day spent with the youth of the church. At 9:30 Kari and I went to the church to meet with the youth. From there we went to a HUGE park. The park was BEAUTIFUL and had something (or many things) for everyone. There were a lot of small soccer fields, baseball fields, tennis and basketball courts, there were walking/hiking trails, there were a lot of trees, and horseback riding, and there was even a long zipline (well actually it was a series of 7 lines that took you around the park).

Kari and I really didn't know what to expect. But when we got to the park, we just sat around for a while, then a dozen or so of the guys wanted to start a soccer game, so the pastor's son asked me join. I didn't have shoes (since I didn't know what we were going to be doing), so I know I made a complete fool of myself. In America we have decent grass to play on and in Peru its pretty smooth cement, but the field we were playing on was half dirt with many rocks and the grass was not smooth at all. So we'll just say I couldn't run, I couldn't stop, and I really couldn't do much of anything...good thing I warned them I wasn't good!!

The first time I touched the ball I was in the dirt pit and slipped. This caused me to fall down and get VERY dirty and scrap my hand (and later I found out my heel as well). Then my feet started to hurt from running on the rocks. I didn't do a completely horrible job, I did stop a few runs and prevented 1 goal, so I definitely contributed, but I can promise, it wasn't very pretty!!

After a while, we stopped and had lunch. Kari and I went to find a store so I could wash my hand (the bathrooms with water weren't open for me to use) and get me some lunch. We found a store - a very nice little market - and I was able to wash the dirt out my wound. Then we returned and talked with the adults a while before we went on to the next game.

Next we played Kickball. My team started ok, but then just went downhill...they just couldn't get a very good understanding of kickball. It was amusing to watch everyone though. We all shared a few very good laughs. (Again, I played barefoot, so I couldn't run nor stop very well.) In fact, since I couldn't stop very well, I actually plowed into one of the guys...I felt super bad, but he was just fine...we all laughed about it later...

After about an hour of this, we walked around the park and found where the zipline started. I loved walking around the park and wish it was closer to our house (we took 2 buses). It would be so nice to take walks around (it might have even inspired me to take up running...maybe...). Then around 3:30 we headed back home. Pastor Manuel and his family took Kari and I to Kari's (and my old) house. I was able to talk with Rosy a little, which made us both very happy!

Then I walked home and took a shower because I was FILTHY! It feels good to be clean and full (since I had soup as soon as my shower was done). Now, I just want to go to sleep so I'm rested for church tomorrow!!