I love lists

So I have a few things to discuss, they are as follows:
Food/Cooking
Games
Sleep-over
And probably more that I will remember later

First off, cooking has been fun, but crazy. Apparently potatoes are incredibly cheap here, but the culture is to eat tons of rice. I made french fries, and my dominican family here LOVED them. It´s very easy, so the next day, Eunice made them again. I also made hamburgers with the fries, and they were incredulous that the beef was so good (I used ground beef, not premade nastiness), and they didn´t know you could cook beef without water or oil or butter. They were impressed, I felt cool. Also, I made mashed potatoes, and they loved those too. Which is good, cause man I love mashed potatoes. One thing here is that if something comes from the ground (i.e. carrot, beet, potato, yuca, etc.) they ALWAYS peel it, and of course, I made the potatoes without peeling them because peeling is a waste of time IMO, but Eunice kind of had a little panic attack when I was making mashed potatoes and they were boiling with the peel on. She was not going to eat them like that, so I took some out and took off the peel (´cause it is easier that way) and then mashed them like that. She seemed to be greatful, which is good, but it was like, a big deal! Everyone was kind of like ...the American LEFT THE PEEL ON!!! and that was kind of funny to me.
Also, I have been trying to make a birthday cake for my friend Eliza (who I told you about a million times), and it has been a struggle because everytime I think I have the right ingredients, I realize that something is wrong. I am going to try to get over to the supermarket and get something else, but it´s crazy. For real...also, when I made cookies, the dough was SO gooey. Usually you can mold them into balls (ginger snaps), and like, everytime we dropped on in the sugar it looked like an alien from a will smith movie...scary. (btw I thought of you all on the 4th of July, speaking of Independence day). I think it was because it was pretty hot, and room temp. here is the temp. outside, so it was hard to make the cookies. And at first, i just kept adding flour, but then it got to the point where I just didn´t know what to do, so we just did it that way, and yeah, the first batch was like ginger bread, then I didn´t leave them in as long and they were great. So yeah, crazy climate!

I brought Spanish scrabble with me. Which has been AWESOME, but I am missing X, which is very sad. because maybe, I would have won a couple times if I had had it...haha, jk. But for real, it´s definitely a hit. They love it. I am going to try to get Pat to bring down another copy or two, because they really like it. Dominoes is really popular to play, and there are a few card games, but it seems like board games are few and far between...especially ones where you have to think. But man sometimes they are kicking my butt, and sometimes I am doing great, it´s really tough, because I know the game, and they know the language. haha. But yeah, it´s really fun, so we´ve been playing a lot. Oh, and they watch me shuffle cards like I am an alien. It´s very silly. I love it.

Yeah, so last night, OH RIGHT, before that. So on Wednesday when we normally have the like youth group thing, that my friend Hanoy runs, instead of doing like a little meeting, we decided we would walk up to the "casita blanca" which was a house of a former president, and when he died he left it to the government, which now uses it for a place for addicts. They have a couple different workshops and a bakery where the men work outside in the back and then they sleep in the house. So the only thing was, I didn´t quite realize that what separated me from the casita was approx. 2.5 mountains, which we climbed for an hour there and a little less back. It was nuts. I am not kidding. And you probably know that I am not the athletic type, so I was kind of like...uhhhh....*huff huff puff puff* *gasp*...you get the idea. But we got there and I was proud of us. Of course we had four boys about 12 yrs old and they LOVED it, so that makes me happy.


Okay, so then the next day, I made ginger snaps, and then that night we had a sleepover with all the teenage girls (except Hanoy, sadface, and I don´t really know why she didn´t come), and it was a blast. We did a bible study of James and talked about it, and then talked about this vision this lady had, and what we thought, and then they asked me about my walk with God and my testimony, and I got to share with them a little bit about myself, and I got to know them better too. Which was awesome. I loved it. We all slept on the floor, even though my bed was right there...but then at 5am there was a cockroach (cucaracha) and I shot up and ran to my bed and slept for another like 5 hours. it was scary.
Then I called my mom and we talked for a little bit.
Then I came here to write to you all.

I will try the supermarket soon for the ingredients to make a bizcocho (birthday cake) for Eunice, Eunice, and Eliza (yes two Eunices, I know!)

Anyway, I am having an awesome time and have some plans to continue my ministry here with Wilman´s church. I would like to try and form a partnership with a church from the states and the church here and I have a fundraising goal that´s totally nuts but would accomplish CRAZY amounts of awesome things down here. We will see where it all goes, but I would love to see this church continue to grow, because there´s only so much that the government down here can do, and it uses all the money it can to help but that never can feed enough people. You know?
Hopefully this all makes sense. In anycase, If you happen to know of Pastors who I can be in touch with about getting some money down here to help this church out, give them my contact info, and i will be in touch.

Thanks again, as always for your prayers and support.
I love you all. Dios les bendiga muchísimo!

Nora (roll that r ;)