Now the sour part… June 2, 2007

It amazed me the joy these people had, especially after seeing some of the places where they lived…

The following family lived in a small two bedroom shack on the edge of town. They had about 6 kids running around, most with no clothes or shoes.

During the week we also encountered a lot of injuries during the trip. We spent alot of time cleaning wounds, which were typically caked in dirt. It was sad to see the lack of education in simple first aid. What amazed me though was the kids still had a smile on their face even though their wounds were infected with dirt! If you don’t like to see blood..you may want to not look at the next couple of pictures….

This kid had trench foot. We cleaned it two days in a row..and each day we asked him to make sure to stay off of his foot, and each day, he would be out playing in his barefeet in the dirt.

Kids, Kids, and more Kids! June 2, 2007

Here are some of our favorite picks…these kids never stopped being joyful!

Me and Andrea. This girl was part of a family that was one of the poorest in La Acequia. She and her 9 other brothers and sisters live with their mom and grandmother in basically a one room shack. Her smiles never ceased.

Our favorite kid was named Jorgito. He had a broken finger which we try to care for during the week. We nicknamed Jorgito, Taz, because he was like a little tazmanian devil running around. He never stopped and was hilarious. Despite his broken finger, which he held up in the air as he ran around, he never stopped smiling!

Miguel stood out above the rest! He was a caring, thoughtful young boy who never stopped smiling. He nicked named eric Zidane because he looked like the French Soccer player Zinedine Zindane! He was excited to score on Eric when we played soccer!

Heide was another great little girl. She always sat with me at church and wrapped her arms around me and just say their. She was the sweetest thing with the sweetest spirit!

La Acequia June 2, 2007

We pulled into the town square and were welcomed not only by a ton of people, but by fireworks!

The people and the kids were all smiling and so happy that we had come. I couldn’t help but feel awkward as I stepped off the bus and everyone of the kids stared at me…because I had bloned hair…something they rarely see!

The kids from the start were a blast. I jumped in and started trying to communicating with them, learning quickly that spainish wasn’t coming back to me as easily as I had thought. We played games and soon the kids wouldn’t leave our side.

Eric was bombarded with kids shouting, “Photo, Photo” and screeched with joy as they actually saw themseleves in the digital camera screen. That first night we played with the kids until dinner.

2 hours and 8 minutes later May 8, 2007

So I finished. I didn’t feel very good actually. Well the finish did…but for some reason, I just wasn’t having a good running day! I just didn’t feel good the entire race. That being said, I was proud to finish in under 10 minutes per mile.

The race was beautiful and it was great to run with my friends. We all finished at about the same time. We were all exhausted, but it was a great time.

Thank you all for your support and love through this race.

The next journey….Honduras….11 days. Wow!

t-minus 19 days! April 18, 2007

19 days until the race! To be honest, I am sorda tired of running, especially since the weather still isn’t warm up here! Its April for goodness sake!

Please send any kind of support to:
Attn: New Life Fellowship
661 Hawknest Court
State College, PA 16801

Thank you all for taking this journey with me. I hope that through this you have learned information about poverty and the issues of injustice in this world. I have listed some websites that I have found helpful as I continue to educate myself on injustice and oppression in this world and ways that I can be involved to help. I encourage each one of you to step out of the comfortable lives we live and explore ways to help change this world. I believe all of creation is being redeemed and we can be a part of it.

Oxfam: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/
Bread for the World: http://www.bread.org/
World Relief: http://www.wr.org/
World Vision: http://www.worldvision.org/
One Campaign: http://one.org
Your local Food Bank
http://www.justiceandcompassion.com/

Love to all