Today? Anything special? Why?
At least that's what everyone made Norma, the preacher, Jose's, wife, think. All day, she thought everyone forgot it was her 25th birthday. We felt bad not telling her happy birthday when we talked to her. She was so surprised when we were hiding around the corner in the house with the beautiful (and yummy!) cake! (Sorry this is sideways...)

It was a lot of fun. Also fun? Wathcing Nathan and Jose playing around together :)
And here is the two of us with Jose and Norma :)

Not a very long post at all today... But anyway :)
More to be posted later!
su amiga,
Ruth Erin

Sorry, I didn't get around to posting last night.
Weather forecast for La Palma as given by Selina Thornton and I: "Rainy with a chance of Rain" or "Torrential downpour-y with no chance of stopping". :)
Every afternoon, sometime around 2 it starts to rain. Within 10 minutes of that it starts to pour. Yesterday, It was so loud you could hardly hear yourself think! I had to yell just to talk to my family when we were inside. Which is difficult, because I got a really sore throat yesterday morning, and it hurts to talk. :P
We went out shopping again yesterday morning and got our Tigo cell phones that work here, mostly for calling each other to make sure of where we are. Then Dad and Nathan went on home after lunch. Mom took me shopping to get paper clips and string. I figure that if I'm going to be away from everyone, why not at least have their pictures up in my room? I have tons of pictures that I packed into my carry on, and I used paperclips to put them onto strings and hung the strings on my walls. I don't have much blank wall left on my half of the room, and I like it :).
The rest of the day was spent inside because of the rain. It started lightly raining at 2:10, and by 2:15 it was pouring. Imagine my shock. Mom and I had just reached the church campus area about then and made it inside just before it started. Mom has a couple of ladies from the church coming over today for cooking. Not sure what else is on the agenda yet...
More to be posted later!
su amiga,
Ruth Erin

Random fact of the day? Coconut milk is clear! They actually call it "agua de coco" which would be coconut water... Who knew? Haha, we bought a freshly picked coconut on the way here from San Salvador, and the hotel chopped off the top and brought us a glass of it with breakfast. I don't think any of us actually liked it...

After we finished breakfast, Ruth (no, I am not talking in third person) helped us get the rest of our stuff from the hotel to our new place. She took Mom and I shopping, and we left Dad and Nathan to get some stuff situated at home. Today was my first experience in the market! It's kind of inside, but kind of outside. I'm not sure how to explain it. There are tons of tables inside, piled high with fresh vegetables. Others have meat, cheeses, beans, whatever you want. What I was most excited by, was the huge boquets of flowers, like my personal favorite, calla lilies. These gorgeous bunches of flowers that would be really expensive in the States, are only a dollar! I bought some calla lilies. A boquet of 13 freshly picked calla lilies for one dollar :)Here they are on our kitchen table:
Don't you love the fancy vase they're in? ;)
And we almost made it through our whole shopping trip before the weather came in. Guess what we got more of today? Yep, torrential downpours. I seriously don't think there is a single dry thing in the whole city. It was raining so hard I couldn't see out the window, and I could hardly hear myself think! lol
We had a singing service at the building tonight. It's impressive how many of the people will walk all these hills and stuff in the pounding rain for miles to come to services. And it's amazing to hear them singing out praises so loud, regardless of how they sound. :)
We're finally moved into our house, and I have a bed to call my own, with a new woven blanket we got at a little tienda near the market... I'm heading there soon :)
More to be posted later!
su amiga,
Ruth Erin