Gracias a Dios

That's a John Keating song. And if you're an American in community, you probably know it pretty well in English. Visiting the community was absolutely fabulous. I got to practice my Spanish all weekend; about the only English I heard was "Speak Spanish?" and when I replied "Si" that was the end of the English. Most of them don't speak English at all. But I needed the practice/immersion.
One of my best/happiest moments there came Saturday night. I was at a prayer vigil the youth were having and we were eating dinner. Over dinner, Rosario (the wife of one of the coordinators) took out the In Spirit and Truth CD and we were all looking at it. And they were asking me if I knew all the songs on it. (I do.) They know some of the songs but most of them don't speak English very well. But they all know "Take Us Higher Up" by Ed Conlin from On Holiday last summer (2007) but they couldn't remember the tune. So they asked me to start singing it for them. So I did and suddenly I had a table of about 15-20 Spaniards singing that song.
The whole weekend was absolutely wonderful and I plan on returning. (I think they expect me to.) It was a real blessing and very good for my soul.

In other news, last night we learned that Cecilia can get REALLY pissed off in Spanish. Last night I was playing Memory with Daniela who HATES to lose at anything and so she cheats like there's no tomorrow. So after telling her to please stop cheating or I wouldn't play with her anymore, I just got up from the table and left, taking my cards with me because she wanted to claim them for her own. And then she and Gabriel chased me to my room screaming at me and trying to hit me. So then, in the middle of the kitchen (in front of their parents) I told her that I wouldn't play with her until she stopped cheating. Umm...that went over well. So I went to my room to do homework and then she got a lecture from her dad. Her mom thinks that kids don't really understand things until about age ten but her dad just wants her to learn to stop cheating.
And she apologized and things were much better by dinner time.

In other news, I had my first migraine in Spain yesterday. That was NOT fun.