Daily life...

There are some parts of daily life here that are very similar for us to life back in the States and we can easily forget that we are in a foreign country. And then there are the out-of-the-ordinary things that happen that make me smile and think how very much I will miss life here when I someday am back in the States. Last night after church we had such an event.

Last night was Wednesday night which means we have services in a member's home. Last night we met at Felicita's house. For those of you who have been here, you'll remember that her house is 98 steps down from the top of a tall hill. Our family had decided to get some pupusas from Reina after church so that our girls could enjoy a more typical meal. So after church we headed to Reina's, part of a group of about 30 people heading that direction.

Now, the fastest way to Reina's from Felicita's is not to climb back up the 98 steps (whew!) but rather to go down the few more and then cut across and down and over some very rough terrain and paths. During the day these paths are difficult. At night in the dark they're a bit more, well...challenging. But we had a large group together and the locals know the paths well and were very helpful. At one point, one of the visitors who had come last night directed the leader of our group to follow him through a "short cut" down the hill. This short cut involved actually cutting through the house of a family member. Literally. They opened a door on one side and we paraded through the house/tienda and out another door on the other side. A shortcut THROUGH a house. Priceless.

Then as we headed out of the house and down a path we came to a small bamboo bridge. I started to cross the bridge and there was a lot of yelling going on and couldn't understand it as so many were yelling at once but I was able to understand someone hollering, "Adobes!" and there were obviously adobe bricks to the side of the bridge so I assumed they meant to step on the bricks instead of the bridge. So I did. I found out the hard way (or soft/squishy way) that "adobes" can mean "Look. There are adobe bricks, completed-and-hard-baked-and-dried-in-the-sun." OR it can mean, "Look out! There are some freshly-made-and-still-wet-and-squishy adobe bricks." Last night, it meant the latter.

I found this out when my first foot was only halfway squished in, so I was able to quickly recover but I felt terrible for squishing someone's hard work. Teresa and Ruth were in front of me and said some of the locals had made the same mistake. I asked why no one hollered, "Wet bricks!" or "Cuidado!" or something and Teresa said she had but that I couldn't hear her over everyone else. I then found out later that Modesto, a local, had stepped in two bricks, with both feet, with full weight--a far bigger mistake than mine. And Jose had apologized to the owner of the bricks and asked if we needed to come back today to help him with them and he said not to worry. (Whew!)

It was one of those short journeys that fills me with memories and smiles. So very different than our journeys home in our minivan after church in the States. Strangely, just a bit sweeter and a lot more memorable, adobe-dipped shoes and all.