Starting out Sunday morning with pancakes...perfect. We headed off to SBV for church. Worship at the chapel in SBV is quite different than at St. David's! Oh, we have the acolyte, the clergy (Judy the deacon this Sunday) the choir, and the parishioners. And yet. So different.
Alex (the younger) led the procession with the cross as the Hondurans sang the processional hymn, a lively one full of rhythm. Judy, the Deacon who was celebrating, followed the cross singing and clapping to the beat with great joy and energy. The choir was an electric guitar, the new male weekend director Milton, Jonibel on bongo, Daniel and Sergio singing. The average age of the parishioners is about 81/2 yrs old! All were singing, swaying, and clapping with all the hymns. David read the OT lesson, Julio led us in the Psalm, one of the caretakers read the Epistle and our own Pamm read the Gospel. Judy preached a sermon exhorting us all to treat everyone equally, that God loves us all and that we should never look down on the poor. Keep in mind she was preaching to the Hondurans...we just happened to be there. It is always so humbling to hear a sermon like that in Honduras. By our standards, they are the poor - there is so much they don't have. They, on the hand, are so keenly aware of their blessings and how much they DO have, they pray for the truly poor. Wonderful, they are such great role models for us.
After church, we corralled the kids to take a new group shot in front of cottage 1! So many more kids this time! Little Maria Mercedes had patience for one shot and then she toddled off! Yolani was loving the excitement, grinning, holding her face up to the sun.
We headed back into town to have lunch and then go to Valle of the Angels for our requisite shopping trip. We had pizza! Pamm had a counter to one of Suzy's facebook posts saying, "My American son visiting in Honduras loved the Italian food!" Jan has been in seventh heaven since we got her because Erlin, her adopted son whom she met and fell in love with in June, spent the weekend with us. He is 19 and very sweet and a bottomless pit! He ate 2 pieces of pizza, a massive serving of lasagne, and a huge tub of ice cream!
Valle was hopping today because they were celebrating the birthday of something. Either of the city itself or Angels... I wasn't aware Angels had birthdays but I guess any excuse for a party works! There were street vendors everywhere and lots of Honduran families enjoying the festivities and the food. My friend and shopkeeper John decided that we needed a police escort since it was so crowded. We totally didn't but I didn't want to hurt their feelings. We felt so conspicuous and so GRINGOS... There was a band in the town square complete with a tuba! Bonnie will be so proud of me because I didn't even spend all the shopping money allocated for this trip! I am in charge of the money this trip which is very scary. So far so good. I haven't spent our departure tax yet.
Papusas for dinner. Yum. Perfect way to end the day!
Blessings to all, so wish you were here!
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| Wendy helping Yolani clap with the hymn |
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