Fiesta Loca

So the big celebration was yesterday and it was insane. I would say there were somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 people there. The last few days have been long and I have been exhausted at the end of everyday. This last week we did a lot of work at the property to get everything ready for the celebration. I have done so much manual labor the last week that my hands are all calloused and blistered but it was worth it. Saturday morning was by far the coolest experience I have had yet in Honduras. The party didn't start until 3 but at 9 in the morning many of the Hondurans and Ed and I went up to the ministry to help out. It was awesome to see all the Hondurans working together and right along side us gringos to set up for the big event. We had to move a lot of bricks and the Hondurans formed an assembly line with people of all ages passing bricks to clear the yard. There was a great sense of community among everyone there and it felt good to be a part of that. Oh yeah and big bad Kenny killed a snake with a brick. Im so manly. Back to the fiesta. My specific job during the celebration was to check in and out bicycles of the Hondurans and we gave tickets with numbers to people that matched the numbers on their bikes so that no one would steal someone elses bike. I think I did a good job because no one got their bike stolen. The party itself was crazy and the speakers spoke too long and there were so many kids there that it was rediculous to expect them to sit still for that long. The kids got restless and then disrespectful towards those in charge of keeping them in order so that was a bit saddening. many of the kids didnt come with parents so it is always hard to control all of them. Other than that the party went well and the building was dedicated and I am glad the whole event is over with. The other awesome thing that has happened in the past week is my connecting with a young boy named Christian from the community. I call him my shadow becuase whenever I am around hes right next to me or climbling all over me. His mother asked Val the other day if I was part of her family and after Val explained my role in her family Christian's mother asked her to thank me and explained that Christian's father is very distant and sometimes mean to him so he doesnt have a good male role model. She told Val to thank me for my love for him and my willingness to always hold him and play with him. I cant help it really, the little guy melts my heart. He even tried to follow me home today after church to play longer and I had to tell him we couldnt go to my house (the landlord doesnt want Hondurans in the house becuase she doesnt want the house to get robbed) so instead I walked him to his house with his family. He invited me to lunch but I had to decline becuase I knew the family did not have much to eat becuase they have atleast 5 kids that I know of. He argued with me and his family laughed as I said no and he said si about 20 times. He talked to me the whole way to his house(which was probably a mile and a half from church) and I didnt understand a lot of it but I just listened and responded when I knew what he was talking about. I walked back through town by myself and prayed for the family I had just walked home and by the time I got home I was exhausted so I ate and passed out. All the work from this last week finally caught up with me. Oh yeah I also encouraged a 25 year old american from Alabama who is down here on a work team to come to Honduras for more missions work. He is thinking about coming and working with the local ministry for atleast a year so that was pretty exciting as well. Well its about dinner time. God bless all of you and thank you for your prayers for the crazy party yesterday. Adios