I'm writing this on my phone while on the bus, in traffic, on the way back from doing some shopping. There's a decent amount of traffic here everyday which seems like a bad thing at first, but, we've had some seriously fun games of Mafia, Contact and Ghost (you'll probably get an explanation of those at the end of the week). At the market we were just shopping at, I got some weird stretchy pants, this super awesome belt, and some magnets for my brothers. Things like that aren't super expensive here which has been really fun so far. 

Today we did some touristy things with the kids of Hogar de Paz- one of the ministries we worked with yesterday- like visiting Monserrat, the house of Simon Bolivar, and a gold museum. At the beginning of the day, we each picked a random kid from the ministry and it was our job to look out for them throughout the day. The little boy I was with was named Juan Camilo. On the bus ride he barely spoke and ended up falling asleep in my lap before we even got to the first site. I thought, "wow this is gonna be really easy", and "he's so peaceful and calm". I was so wrong. I think I ran like 7 miles today trying to keep up with this kid, whether he was running to get somewhere or just running to run from me. My patience was really tested. There were points when I got frustrated and wanted to either yell at him or just give him to Michael- because just about every kid here is in love with him. But every time I caught up to him, he would walk up to me, grab my hand and start walking again and it was impossible to be mad at him at all. 

At the end of the day when the kids were leaving, there weren't tears, but it was definitely a little sad. Taylor- who really bonded with the little girl he was with- said, "Wow this is what it must feel like to send a kid off to college." Even though that's probably not accurate at all, we can all agree that we had seriously grown to love these kids in the short time we were with them. 

I was not too optimistic when today started and by the end of it, it felt like I was sending a kid I met less than 24 hours ago off to college (sort of). God never ceases to amaze me in the ways he works through people, whether it's a high schooler on a missions trip or an 8 year old running around a mountain. I've grown closer to everyone from AACS on this trip so far and everyone we've met here and I can't wait to see what the next three days have in store :) 

-Sophie Thompson