July 27 2010

Fourteen little Americans sharing about heaven,
A virus came and got a few and then there were eleven.
Eleven little Americans just playing for a score,
The night swept away seven, and then there were just four.
Four little Americans just praying for their health,
Hopefully by morning they will still have all their stealth.


Yes sadly enough a few hours after midnight Elizabeth was hit very badly by the virus that seems very fond of us. Soon after Elizabeth was accompanied by her roomate Maison followed by Emily. As the sun began to rise the mommy for the night Coach Wyatt was soon infected (she is now out of bed solely so that Adam will not pack their bag). Laura Lee and Sidney were not far behind. The recovered sicklings and the nonsicklings (Olivia, Coach Hatch, Adam, Clint, Evans, Laurel, and me) headed off to Universidad Evangelica El Salvador to play two games in a round robin tournament. Because of our lack of resources we combined with Bill*s (very sorry about the asterisk I cannot find an apostrophe on this wacked out keyboard) team and MK the tall, athletic girl in our pictures that plays at state. That ended up being a good thing cause most of his team did not show up. We lost the first game to a very good team but only by 5, and we won the second game by 20. We were second in the tournament and I was able to share my testimony with the other teams as we hung out and ate pizza. We headed back to the hotel to check on the sicklings and take a siesta. The healthy ones woke up and ate with Bill and his family at the biggest Pizza Hut we have ever seen and then picked up Maison who was feeling better and checked out a view of the city. Even though it was cloudy and rainy we could see how massive this city is. Now we are packing up, the sicklings are out of bed, and we are saying goodbye to El Salvador and Central America. We will see yall tomorrow night around 8:30! Wish us luck on our last night and as we navigate through the airports.

Ann Walton

I will leave you with our quote of the day: "I feel like I*ve had a colonoscopy I*m so cleaned out"
The quoter shall remain nameless by request.

Greetings from El Salvador! Today was an interesting day, to say the least. While it was yet another wonderful day down South, we ran into some road blocks along the way. It all began this morning at six fifteen. Without going into any nasty details, let us just say Olivia had a run in with a stomach bug. A very angry stomach bug. Coach Hatch was on top of the situation, bed hair and all, as she requested aid from Coach Wyatt to deal with the tummy troubles. Later that day, the brave hero Ann Walton, suffered a similar fate as Olivia, decorating the sidewalk with her breakfast. The rest of the crew left the two wounded ambassadors in the safe hands of Kim Maner. We then headed on to a local university, where we learned new ways to play with toilet paper while at the same time getting to know some pretty groovy individuals. We visited two classes at the college, both of which were learning English. It was super fun getting to interact with them and learn more about their culture (PS they like video games too!!) After finishing up our college adventure we trecked onward towards a local mall. Everyone really enjoyed eating chocolate and gelato from a local shop. After perusing the mall's vast variety of shopping opportunities, we decided to take a trip on the carousel. Little did we know it would lead to nearly fatal injuries, with Evans suffering from a major nose bleed and Wade experiencing extreme dizziness from a spinning tea cup of doom. While we were gathering what was left of our dignity from the carousel, Laura Lee, Coach Wyatt, and Sidney decided to indulge themselves in some nutella yumminess from a nearby crepe stand called Crepe Lovers. It was delicious, or so I was told! Carousel induced injuries and nutella behind us, we headed back to check on Olivia and Ann Walton. Relieved to find Ann Walton had defeated her troubled tummy, we celebrated with a hearty meal. After lunch, Ann Walton joined the pack as we made our way to a rad market. Purchases included: multiple machetes, a few instruments, some head gear, and many MANY accessories. Best of all, after all the shopping was said and done, we were able to experience, for the first time this trip, a legit siesta (AKA a really good nap). After catching some quality z's, we suited up and prepared for our game this evening. Unforunately, Clint Hatch was unable to join us as he suffered from being too hot (with fever). With Olivia back in the group, we soon arrived at the Olympic training facility where our game was to take place. We had heard rumors that the team was talented, but little did we know they were the Dandy Dozen of El Salvador. The game was called with six minutes left, due to rain leaking through the roof (but really it was because of our twenty plus point deficit and their fear that a comeback was soon to be on the horizon). Laurel gave her testimony and we were touched to hear the coach of the El Salvador team thank us and insist more Americans come visit to share the good news of Christ through such activities as basketball. Facing fierce rain and slow moving pastry trucks, we were able to make it back to the Maner's house for a traditional El Salvador meal. Let me just say, IT WAS AMMMAAAZZZIIIIINNNNGGG!!! Pupusas (too awesome to be described), beans and rice, chicken, and chocolate cake were on the menu. After a quick meeting at the hotel, we are now getting ready to go to bed before our action-packed day of tournament basketball begins! Can someone say, LET'S GET READY TO RUUMMBLLLEE! But seriously, we got free t-shirts, so if all else fails we will be pretty darn ballin in our new get-ups. Can't wait to show you guys on Wednesday! Adios!

Written and Edited by: Emily 'Rocking' Russell and Maison 'Legit' Lowery

Last picture with the great kids at the El Salvadoran Orphanage. The kids were amazing, and we had a great time hanging out with them. These kids will probably never be adopted, so please pray that God will send people to help them and love them in a way where they feel like they matter!

Feliz Domingo de El Salvador! Our first and only Sunday in the Southern hemisphere went fabulously and we really enjoyed getting to relax after several very busy days. We woke up this morning to weather that was disappointingly more hot and humid than Guatemala, but the adorable church we went to made that seem irrelevant. Bill drove us about 45 minutes outside the city to a small local church with a congregation that was very welcoming and passionate about Christ. Emily and Sidney shared their testamonies with the crowd and were a big hit. They were actually referenced in the sermon a little while later. That was one of the few parts of the service most of us had any clue as to what was going on because everything was in Spanish. After the service, we went to Bill´s house to have a snack before we went to the orphanage. He, his wife, and his children are some of the nicest people I´ve ever met, so every meal we eat over there is delightful. The orphanage he took us to is for children from birth up to seventeen years. Many of the older ones were gone because they were at church in the city, but the thirty or so younger kids that were there we really enjoyed. The kids loved all our toys, clothes, and goodies we brought with us, but were impressively unselfish and polite. They loved posing for all the pictures we all wanted to take with them and a couple enjoyed using our cameras to take pictures for us also. We headed to beach once we finished at the orphanage where many of us saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time. Let´s just say that it is NOTHING like Destin. First, the sand is black. Second, going more than knee deep in the water is like entering a war zone and one risks tearing a ligament. Third, there are sooooo many rocks. They're everywhere. All these factors made for a fun experience. Getting obliterated by waves occupied us for a good thirty minutes, but then we had to go remove all the little pebbles and black sand from our suites. Several of us petted the baboon after that and Laurel would like for it to be known that its baby´s name will be Laurel. The other event of the day was when I, Laura Lee, decided to get in one of the hammocks that were available in our cabannas. I sat down, turned, laid, and it split right in half and I hit the floor. It was rather hilarious to say the least. I escaped unscathed, Mom and Dad. Instead, my injury got transferred to Emily who got a small cut on her foot in one of the salt water pools. For anyone who hasn't seen them, they are rocks pools carved into the cliff faces that the waves fill up. Very cool. One of the rocks cut her foot, but she is tough and therefore fine. On our way up the Mount Everest like climb from the beach to the cabannas, we noticed a water slide. All of us, Coach Hatch and Wyatt, and Clint spent a while going down that in every position and combination we could imagine. The Train, as we named it, was the best. It consisted of me, Maison, Elizabeth, Olivia, Ann Walton, Coach Hatch, and Coach Wyatt all hanging onto one another and trying to not fly off the slide. We finally left the 'club' when it closed and headed back to our hotel and got ready to have dinner at the Maner's again. We had some great hot dogs and Emily and Sidney entertained us with an original rap about churros. The dorks in the group which are Ann Walton, Evans, and I along with Elizabeth had a theological discussion with Adam and Coach Wyatt over dinner. Parents, you would be proud. Now we are back at the hotel all safe and exhausted and are going to bed. Goodnight people.

Laura Lee

This is a link to our video from our trip to Guatemala. The quality isn't that great due to the fact that the size needed to be smaller in order to upload.

Greetings from San Salvador! We said goodbye to Thelma and Jose after an awesome pancake breakfast and have safely and successfully made it to our hotel. Yesterday was very eventful. We started off by visiting a Christian school and meeting new friends. Olivia and I both shared our testimonies with the students and the team showed them fun new drills. We all got the chance to visit the mall in Guatemala City. Laura Lee was brave enough to try the Spanish dessert called Churros. They turned out to be very delicious! Then we made our way over to the Antigua markets to do some shopping. Laura Lee, Evans, and Clint all bought machetes...imagine that! Laurel purchased about seven headbands while Ann Walton and Emily bought a few themselves. Maison and Sidney turned out to be very good hagglers. While walking back to our van, we were swarmed by street vendors. Adam was about to purchase one item from them when we discovered that it was illegal to do so. The street vendors finally understood the word ''no!'' Later that night, we finished our last basketball game in Guatemala. We came out undefeated for the Guatemalan portion of the trip! booyah! After the game, Jaimie and Luis, the Guatemalan preacher that worked with us, drove us to a nice Mexican restaurant. Ordering was quite an adventure even with Jaimie's help. Laurel ended up with fried bananas and queso that was very different from our American queso. After dinner we said our goodbyes to Luis. We headed back to the guest house to pack up and get prepared for the drive with ''Crazy Eddie'' to San Salvador.

Elizabeth

Our first full day was extremely successful ,and we have been thoroughly welcomed by all the people we have met. We are really enjoying our host family,Thelma and Jose, and they are so kind. We have been fed so well , Thelma made us the best juice and pancakes, and we are playing a lot of games. We are 4-0 in all of our basketball games ,and we also have been playing soccer here. We are 2-0 in our last soccer games. The people we have met today showed us a great time so far. We saw The national palace and the presidents home. We celebrated two birthdays, Olivia and Elizabeth, with cake and the "feliz cumpleanos song." We signed autographs and listened to Maison, Ann Walton, and Evans say their testimonies, and we received great responses from the people we ministered to. This morning at Colegio Toricelli we were able to see a prominent priest's home built a long time. We also saw parrots and the biggest spider of all time. Yay! Coach Wyatt fell and we got a big laugh! We met a lot of people and can't wait for tomorrow!

Laurel Bane

Woop woop! Can't wait for the rest of the week.

The girls after their win!

We have concluded our first day in Guatemala, and it has been quite an experience. Our flights throughout the day have gone smoothly. We thought we might have to run to catch our flight out of Houston because of a slight delay, but we ended up getting there with a few minutes to spare! We got to see gorgeous mountain ranges as we flew into Guatemala, and as we stepped off the plane we got to experience the 70 degree weather!

After claiming our luggage we met with Senor Jaime who took us into the large city of Guatemala City. The driving habits here are quite different from what we would experience in the United States. I think we may have had a close call or two with some scooters, but thankfully we had a skilled driver behind the wheel.

From there we finally made it to our guest house where we were greeted warmly and served a great mid-afternoon lunch after settling into our rooms.

Around 5:30 we headed out to our first basketball game against a national city team from Guatemala City. Their team was a hustling group, but we competed well and got our first international victory!

We arrived back to our guest home to a wonderful meal and team hangout time. We are grateful for what God is doing among us already. Looking forward to clinics and games tomorrow.

Thank you all for your prayers and support as we have been preparing to depart on our basketball mission trip to Guatemala and El Salvador. We are very excited about this opportunity and are hopeful that we will glorify God through our efforts. We hope to share the gospel and show His love by serving the people of these countries, and in turn be blessed by them.

Looking forward to a great trip in a few weeks...serving the Lord, showing His love to and sharing our faith with others, and growing closer as a team!