Sunday

After eating breakfast like usual, we all got ready to go to church! We left in plenty of time to get to the 9:00 mass, but when we arrived, mass had already started. A few of us found spots within the congregation, and the rest of us stayed off to the side. After being there for a few minutes, everyone started walking out, and we realized mass was just ending!! We spoke to a Sister in the church and found out there was another mass at 9:30 luckily! There had been a few Catholic churches that we had been told we could go to, and I guess we went to the wrong one that didn't have a mass at 9:00. Everything worked out fine though!

The mass was said entirely in Spanish, so it was pretty hard to understand. I think the main things we understood were the Our Father and a song we learned in Spanish class called "Alabaré." I assume everything else the priest said was the same, but I'm not 100% sure, because there were definitely some things done differently. It's kind of hard to explain, but the church had a lot of pews with a cross section that divided it into two parts. As people arrived, we noticed that mostly kids sat in the front section, even if they came to mass with their families. Another odd thing is that the priest came down into the congregation to hand out what looked like bulletins during one of the readings. It had a very casual atmosphere too. I think the weirdest part was that people were talking the entire time. Not everyone was of course, but there was definitely a constant hum the whole time.

Communion was also pretty different. Everyone took Communion by mouth instead of in the hands, which is probably just more of a traditional way more than anything. The host was a little thinner and crunchier too in my opinion! The only person who gave out Communion was the priest, and we all went up in a single-file line. The procession of Communion was also really random; we didn't go up pew-by-pew. People just went up whenever they were ready, and less than half of the people there actually received Communion. All in all, it was just a different experience!

After church, most of the group went shopping around town, and a few of us went back to the hotel. We hung out around here for awhile, and everyone else explored the shops for a little bit. Since it's Sunday, not many stores were open. A lot of people choose not to open their stores or close them early. Eventually we all ate lunch, and then a few of us went back out to look at the shops more. When we finished, everyone went back to the hotel to get ready to go see the monkeys!

We left here in plenty of time to get to the bus stop this time, planning to take a cab to it, but since it's Sunday, it was hard to find one. So, we had to walk half of the way to the bus terminal, which took extra time. When we got to the bus terminal, we were still early, but the bus wasn't there. We found out that apparently it just leaves whenever it's full. So we had to take three taxis to Misahualli, which thankfully wasn't as far away as the city yesterday, because some people had to ride in the beds of the trucks again!

We got to Misahualli and walked down to the beach, which is where all the monkeys are. They were just swinging around on trees and crawling all over the ground casually. We tried feeding them an empanada, but they didn't seem too interested surprisingly. They really seemed to like bottles. If you would give one to them, they knew to unscrew the cap and put it up to their mouths. It was really cute! They would get a little fiesty with each other too and would roll around and wrestle. A few times they would bare their teeth though which was a little worrisome. Olivia and my dad were both really brave and let the monkeys jump up onto their arms to hang! There were also a few baby monkeys which were so cute!!

After a little time with the monkeys, they just went away. It may have been because it was starting to be dinner time, but we're not completely sure why. We decided to walk down more towards the water, and Alex got out his frisbee and started throwing it around. Some of the locals joined in, which was pretty cool. Mr. Hart, my dad, and Molly walked along the beach with the kids. When they came back, the kids were a little wet, because they dunked their heads into the river. Eventually Kayla (the volunteer coordinator) decided they could go ahead and get in the water. They really seemed to enjoy themselves (: They also really liked playing in the sand and all took turns burying each other. :)

After we were done in the water, we walked over to a restaurant called La Posada. While we were waiting for food, us seniors decided to look in the stores and ended up buying a few items. The food they had seemed pretty good for the most part! I have to say that my grilled cheese was a little lacking on the cheese, but it seems like finding good-tasting cheese here is kind of difficult, which was surprising to me. It's also been difficult to find tortillas and tortilla chips, which seemed a little odd.

After we ate, we played around with the kids in the little park area they had while we waited for Marshall (one of the founders of Bless An Orphan) to come get us. We got picked up and all piled into their van. He drove us back to the hotel, and everyone has pretty much settled in for the night. We were doing a couple loads of laundry, and then we realized the dryer stopped working. Unfortunately a couple of our sheets were in there, so it looks like some of us will have to sleep without them tonight. You just never know what to expect here (:

Tomorrow, we will head into the jungle to give supplies to the kids there and to learn about them. Since Bless An Orphans only has 7 children at the moment, they decided to take us to see some of the kids they could potentially be getting in the future. I can't wait to go tomorrow!! I think it is going to be a very interesting and eye-opening experience. :) Wish us luck!

¡Hasta luego!
-Kaitlyn