a great saturday

Well after today I feel like I could be a spokesperson for 24 hour fitness or a candidate for Survivor or something. So we were supposed to be cleaning a church today, but our site coordinator, and only source of transportation these days, texted us last night and told us that his car was broken and at the service station. When we woke up this morning we were all feeling like we had a little bit of cabin fever! We thought of what we could do and could not seem to come up with any ideas that didn't require walking or chappas, so we decided to walk! When Dave Restrick took us to the beach a couple weeks ago, it seemed as if it was right down the street, so we put on our flip flops, took on the adventure, and headed for the beach.

We began walking.... and walking.... and walking. Down these difficult sand roads, around corners, and following our gut for direction. I might mention that there aren't any street signs, stop lights, or stop signs along these roads to the beach. We passed chickens, goats, many staring faces, a donkey, bikes, and houses. Before we knew it, we were about an hour and a half from the Seminary and facing the Indian Ocean. It was a beautiful day and we were able to buy a few souvenirs by the beach. We stopped in at a little restaurant for lunch and ate a snack and each had a coke. It was a nice treat, but also a quick one. We knew we needed to head back to the Seminary because we were not one hundred percent positive that we knew the entire way back to Seminary. It's difficult to decipher one street from another since they all look exactly the same. After some great guesses, we made it back before dark, along with our souvenirs and poor blistered feet. Oh, what an adventure! It was a good day, and we all got some much needed exercise.

After arriving, we changed our shoes and headed outside to play with the kids. They were waiting by our door, all anxious as always to kiss our cheeks and give us hugs. They all know our names now... so when they sit on our porch they call our names, "Kayll... All zun.... Chrishtina..." We love it more than anything. We played hand games until dark since the mosquitos are so bad at night. I am so thankful that we have them here. We are definitely looking forward to our after school program with them starting Monday!

Tomorrow we will be going to church, so I'm sure I'll have more stories to tell soon :) Thank you all so much for your prayers and encouragement! I have received comments and messages from some of you that I didn't even know had the link to my blog! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You're all so great. Keep me posted with what is going on with all of you and with things that I can also keep in prayer for you. I would love to be able to lift you guys up in prayer specifically and according to your needs. I'll write again soon.

Love Always, Allyson

ps. here are a few random pictures

I took this picture from the car. We were leaving Shop Rite (the grocery store) and people are always selling things at the entrance/exit. This man had his face at our window at one point trying to sell us this poor rabbit! Notice his paws are tied up. Sad day!

This is the salad that we avoid at all costs. With the typical loaf of bread (which is sooo good!)

We see women like this every day. This is talent! She's carrying water by the way.

Some of the kids when they first came in the house for movie night! More ended up coming and we had cookies and watched Chicken Run!

Bye!