Tico Tuesday, October 27

Happy Tuesday!
This is the church that 27 people from CCI (my church here) and 7 people from Summerville Presbyterian Church (of SC, USA) served at this past weekend. As you can see, we had a very wet experience! It was really good though-we gave out clothing to hundreds of people, had a dentist and two doctors see over a hundred people and extract 31 teeth, cut 32 peoples' hair, ran an activity for close to 200 kids, had 7 couples get married, and had several people come to know Christ. We also purchased a lot of boots-can you imagine buying rubber boots in the US for under $8-and they didn't leak all day!
More stories to come! Many will likely be posted on the blog http://smithcj1.blogspot.com/
Have a great rest of the week!
Carrie

I wish I had picture of my boot buying story, but here are a couple from beforehand. Everything was flooded, so I planned on just going barefoot. I was told that I might get hongos (fungus), but I figured it would go away and that it wasn't that big a deal. But then I stepped into the water and had ants crawling all over me and biting me. So I thought I might get away with this alternative:
This is my friend Vivi and me before we gave in to buying boots. I think we were both really glad we did! We had to go through this puddle to buy boots, so somebody lent us a bike so we wouldn't soak out feet walking through it.
I wish the picture could show just how deep the water was. Everyone in México de Upala gets around on foot, bike or motorcycle. Cars wouldn't be able to make it and 4x4s are too expensive. So, I got to ride on the frame of the bike across the puddle while my friend Jorge pedaled. It was hilarious and I'm really sad there are no pictures to show it. So, he, Fernanda, Daniel and I went and bought our cheap boots from the pulpería (corner store). Jorge and I shared a new, dry pair of socks too. They only had one pair left, and I only had one wet foot, so I gave him the other one. All the rain and everyone buying boots was a definite bonding experience. Jorge relayed us all back from the pulpería on the bike so we'd get back to work faster. It was unforgettable!