Sleep... Recover... Get Back in the Groove [friday]

Last night we returned from the Ch'ol jungle. Julie had prepared for us a huge meal of taco salad that was absolutely and phenomenally delicious! We were so zonked, though, that we beat a pretty hasty retreat to our beds afterward (although some of us not until after taking a long-pined-for hot shower ;-) ).This morning, well...let's just say the sun beat most of us up by a couple of hours. :-) Sleeping in was definitely a blessing after going-going-going all week long. I felt so refreshed!After finally arising from our mucho comfy beds and downing a mucho yummy breakfast, we got to work on finishing up our projects at the Terrell's house. The downstairs window caulk project now looks amazing, thanks to some very faithful workers! Hannah insisted that the windows get finished, even if she had to miss out on group excursions to the market in order to get it done. Way to inspire us with your determination, Hannah! :-) The guys also worked on some more upstairs construction. Rooms are really starting to take shape; getting the walls to a standing-up position was encouraging because it's visible progress. Definitely a bummer that we can't do more, but hopefully what we were able to get done was just that much less Nathan and Julie have to worry about doing.Today is also the day to get laundry done, and believe me, there is a LOT of it to be done! We have everyone's towels, blankets, AND dirty clothes to get clean, so we're working both washers and dryers like crazy. The vehicles have to get cleared out as well. You'd be surprised at what kinds of odd things you find in a Yukon's floorboard after a jungle trip! Many thanks to everyone who helped with the post-jungle clean-up! The phrase "many hands make light work" was proven quite accurate.Later in the afternoon, we were set free to roam the town! The team leaders decided to let the members go downtown and shop and find ourselves some supper on our own. It was so much fun having a little responsibility on our shoulders to fend for ourselves! I loved having the chance to make up our own agenda for the afternoon. And of course, if Amy K, David and I have anything to say about it, you can be sure there will be sushi involved. ;-) We went every chance we got! Hanasho (a little Japanese restaurant downtown) has become a very popular spot with a few of the GE team. Praise God for sushi...it illumines one's life to experience flavors one cannot hope to find in any other manner.After shopping, eating supper and stopping in at Cafe Selva (a really nice coffee shop in which many of the team purchased coffee beans or grounds by the kilo), we all headed over to Namandi - a restaurant that has rich hot chocolate, delicious crepes, and really fun live music on this particular night. We had a great time just laughing and visiting around a big round table. As a bonus, there was a special event going on at the restaurant at the time, so we got to reap the benefits of some very talented singers and musicians. (In my opinion, the musicians were far more talented than the singers...and I hear that's actually pretty common in Mexico, so I don't feel bad about saying so.)All in all, I was very grateful for the day. My assigned chore was to do laundry, which is my favorite chore EVER (that is, after vacuuming, but there's not much carpet in Mexico so there wasn't a need for that or else I would've volunteered), so the work part of the day was fun. Then adventuring down to the market for an afternoon on our own was absolutely a blast. Finishing the day off with good food, good music, and GREAT friends couldn't have been done better. I thank God for blessing me with joy in the simple things. May I realize everyday that He is the source of ultimate joy and that He is faithful to be by my side in my times of triumph and failure, celebration and sadness, much and little. May each of these turn my heart back to Him.For the team,Eden