Everybody laughs in the same language.

Now that I'm feeling alive again, guess it's time to get back into the blogging.

It's harder than I thought to have to document all my thoughts/feelings on this thing. The past week (yes, only 1 week!) has been an emotional rollercoaster, my brain is having a hard time keeping up. I tend to find myself having random outbreaks in which all I can think about is crying- but then there are moments that everything disappears and I manage to get a grip on my surroundings for at least an hour or two.

In saying this, this weekend has acutally been quite nice. We have spent most of it at the local church (Evelyn's uncle is the head pastor here). The people are lovely, and very welcoming. All but one have absolutely no knowledge of English, so I've been racking my brain trying to get my point across, however I can feel my Spanish is becoming more fluent and it's becoming easier to communicate. I am looking forward to working with Machala Baptist Church and getting to know that locals for the next (almost) two weeks that I will be here in Machala.

Contributing to the day's general 'good-feeling' is that tonight has been the first night that I have acutally laughed. Laughed hard.
Evelyn, a friend of hers and I went to the 'park' for ice-cream this evening. Now, when I say park, I mean massive traffic island with a ferris wheel and two massive fountains on either side- and no, it's not a Luna Park, it's just a park (evidently). People were everywhere. The girls made me try 'fried gelato'- some foul mix of pistacchio ice-cream dipped in an oily batter- a pathetic excuse for a desert. (Hello, you're dealing with an Italian here- I have tasted possibly the best ice-cream in the world, and you have no idea what you are doing- sorry). After this, we proceeded to walk around the fountains and bright lights. Note: I love that this city has dirt tracks as roads, but they have parks that resemble the Melbourne Show. Really?
Anyway, after exploring a little, me being the kid I am suggested that we take a ride on the choo-choo train that was choo-chooing around the streets, and OH MAN, what an idea. This thing was like Puffing Billy on crack, except without all the scenery and stuff. I can't believe that mothers acutally let their kids on it! I could have sworn we were ripping corners at about 60kms....such fun, such fun. You can imagine how temped I was to yell out 'rip a burn-out!' (classic Sunbury style), however I held myself back for fear of confused looks and people thinking I could potentially be trying to terrorise their children. I let that temptation slide....and somewhere between our screams and hanging out the side of a tiny carriage hanging on for our lives, I realised... everybody laughs in the same language.

Futher, something to report for you other 'churchies' like me out there- God showed me something really awesome during the service today-
It all began last night. I was having one of my ICM's (Irrational Cri Moments) as I lay down to go to sleep. I was hysterically sobbing for really no reason at all, except that I am a massive fuck-up and I always hurt Him who loves me the most (you guys get me, yeah?) yada, yada, yada- cry me a freaking river. Anyway, I prayed- really hard- for God to start answering some mega mega requests that I have asked of Him as of late. Most of them are fairly long-shot, but we all know that He can do anything.
Anyway, this morning, as I listened to the pastor preaching in Spanish, and flipped back and forth through my English bible trying to keep up with the passages he was reading, he read out something really special-

'Have faith in God...whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him..'
- Mark 11:22

Do not doubt in your heart. Do not doubt in your heart. Do not doubt in your heart.
Thanks mate- I'll try my best.

That's all for today dear friends. The mozzies are telling me it's time for a cold shower before sleep.

Talk soon,
Love, Crissi.