Cows in the Outfield

We celebrated Jon Olvera's birthday on Friday. His wife Trish, Mark and our teachers went to the farmers market and purchased everything we needed to make baleadas, pupusas, frijoles and the different types of flour for the tortillas. Our teachers, and several of the women working here, helped us make everything. It was quite a process, but well worth it! Following that I went to an orphanage outside of Seguat that I have been so excited about visiting since before we got here. I can't wait to tell you about this place!

Saturday was a beautiful day. The sun was warm, the evening cool. I guess that describes just about every day we've had so far. We did sleep in a bit. My brain was fried and I was completely exhausted by Friday evening. Barbe's surgery, sleeping at the hospital and Spanish classes...my operating system just wouldn't process one more verb.

We started the day by joining a number of the folks here at SEBCAH out in the bean field. The seminary has quite a lot of unused farm land and Travis and Julie Hester have been working at turning some of it into bean fields in order to supply the seminary's kitchen with organically grown beans. It was good to see people socializing as we worked our way down the rows together. Thanks to everyone for their help, including the Fogals and their group from California. I love your excitement about being here!

Later that afternoon we took all the kids from SEBCAH and went to the baseball/soccer field near La Escuela Bilingue where Julie teaches. Baseball is not played much here, soccer being the national sport, but Travis has been coaching the boys from SEBCAH and some of the boys from the Bilingual School every week. This was the first game. Everyone had a lot of fun and it was amazing to see some of the kids really begin to "get" it. As you can see from the photo, some of our outfield consisted of cows. One of the boys hit a home run sending the ball right under one of the cows noses. As the outfielder ran to retrieve the ball I could see he was nervous. Being the jokester that I am a couldn't help myself. I yelled, "!Cuidado! es un toro". (Careful, it's a bull!) We all had a good laugh as he pulled up short and carefully inched forward. The teams ended the game with a prayer huddle. Travis is doing such great job with the kids. Keep up the good work Travis! I'm really hoping you'll put together a men's softball league. LOL

SEBCAH vs Escuela Bilingue 2/18/2012

Special thanks to all those who donated uniforms and equipment. It couldn't have happened without you!
Photos courtesy of Julie Hester