España 6/03/2010

--
La Gente de Espana-

David Robles: The pastor of the church in Leon. A TMS graduate, and our contact for coordinating the STM. The Timothy to Henry Tolopilo's Paul. Married to Loida, with two kids, 3 and 5.

Manuel: Our host at El Campamento. Loida's dad. He's been running the camp facility for many years. He speaks some English, and is a pastor (associate?) at the church. Married to Pili.

Pepin: El Jefe. He's neighbors with Manuel, and quite a handyman. He gave us nearly all our marching orders while we worked. Great sense of humor, very little English, and married to Blanca.
--

David got to witness to two people on the plane. A girl named "Mima" was local to L.A., and said she'd like to go to Foundation! Very cool.

La cocina tiene una perra, se llama "Nesca". En un otra idioma de Espana (Basque?), "Nesca" es mas o menos la palabra "chica". Es una perra buena y ahora, es mi amiga. Ella tiene siete anos, y se gusta cuando tiro la pelota. Hablo con Arturo en Ingles y Espanol. Arturo tiene mucho legendas de brujas y magicas en Mexico.

"Es mi dia primero!"
First work day. Painting. We moved a bunch of furniture, rugs, and awesome artwork to the downstairs back room of the house on Calle Mejor, and threw dropcloth everywhere.

Definition: La Casa de Calle Mejor. It was owned by a rich guy, and it is a huge mansion. Not a Mr. Burns or Daddy Warbucks kind of place, though. This place looked like old California. Spanish Califorina. Zorro California. The owner was NOT a believer, and in fact didn't like Pepin or the church. However, when the economy took a dive, he lost a lot, and wanted to sell off the place mas rapido. I can't remember the price, but it was probably half what the place was worth. It needed fixing up, but it is / is becoming Efeso, the bible institute that David Robles has been running. There's an excellently redone room upstairs that looks like one of the nicer classrooms at CSUN. Best I could figure it, Efeso works like the D.Min program at TMS; personal work and study + occasional weekends at the school. There are a lot of rooms upstairs that have been converted to be little motel-style rooms (bed, dresser, tiny bathroom / shower). That's where we come in.We're gonna paint all the rooms that Senior Pepin wants done. Ceilings, bathrooms, halls, stairways. Are we going to get dripped on? Splattered by paint? Muscles taxed? Bring it on.

Arturo did all the ceilings, and the rest of us are doing the walls and the touch-up. Worked a lot with Cathy today. I will forestall all the praise I want to heap on her... for now.
Cathy's Top Five (in no particular order):
Earth, Wind, and Fire
Third Day
MercyMe
Journey
60's Rock & classic Jazz
I hope to create something that when packaged bears the words "Strike Anywhere".

So, amongst the art we moved there was a great painting of the Queen (by marriage) of Belgium. She was / is Spanish, and according to Manuel, her husband set aside his kingship for 24 hours in the 1970s when abortion issues were being decided, so as to not hurt his conscience, seeing as he is / was Catholic. Interesting story, but weak-sauce morality for a king. Glad my King's always righteous.

As I write, it is so hard not to try to write in Spanish. Espanol esta en todo al mundo. My brain only wants to think of things I can express in both languages. It's hard to explain, and if you haven't felt it, I dare you to go on a missions trip and find it. Dare ya.

Oh, and for every meal there's excellent bread served. It's made fresh in town en la panaderia. (as I type this down, I still miss it). The coffee is the bomb. It's smoother and less acidic than what I'm used to from Starbucks, and whenever they have coffee, they also include a kettle of hot milk to add. I mix it half and half and add a spoon full of sugar. Bring it on, coffee purists; me gusto café con leche y azugar. Muy bien. Vale.
And their Coke has real sugar in it. Not corn syrup. It's in 330ml cans; they look a little smaller than in the States. The States... wow, look who's gone European.
The cereal served en el encampamento todo el group se gustamos. It's like corn flakes, cocoa krispies, sugary fritos, chocolate honey smacks and kix mixed together. I had it with every breakfast while we were in Toral.
Today we found out that David's mom had to go to the hospital. Stopping and praying for her as a group was awesome. I don't remember doing that in Malawi.
David Robles came this afternoon with Henry Tolopilo. Pastor Tolopilo may have eaten too much local prosciutto ham. So cool to see and talk to him in a different country. He's very quick and clever.

We worked all afternoon painting and Vera hummed hymns. Nothing against humming, but [Note to self: next time bring an iPod or something]. Arturo scared us all with his gung-ho scaffolding ideas.
We went for a walk late at night, and saw a castle that had been converted into a museum and bar with stork nests on top of its peaks.
We had amazing chicken and rice and potatoes for lunch, and quiche, snap peas, y flan con Pina por la cena.
Translating is a blast -- great kid, don't get cocky.
Oh, and I fell asleep tonight while reading and hit myself in the face with "Mere Christianity". Bonk.