Not Just Any Friday

Friday has been as eventful as our other days. Some parts of the day were familiar, but it also had its unique elements. Elesar, our chef, prepared a tasty breakfast, and Spanish class proceeded as normal. I was reminded that we only have one more day left at Los Colibris. The thought of leaving loomed over me like dark clouds – we have been very spoiled here at Los Colibris. The chefs prepare a feast each breakfast and lunch, the views are glorious at all times, and the weather is nothing but perfect. It is hard to think about leaving.

A bible lesson quote that stood out to me this morning from this week’s lesson on Sacrament was, “Simply asking that we may love God will never make us love Him; but the longing to be better and holier, expressed in daily watchfulness and in striving to assimilate more of the divine character, will mould and fashion us anew, until we awake in His likeness.” For me, this quote sums up most of the things I pray about: striving to assimilate more of the divine character.

Monica, my Spanish teacher, is very sweet, and everyone in our group feels sad to leave her mother-like love. When I first heard the schedule and the four hours of Spanish we would study each morning, I was apprehensive, but it was apparent to me after the first class that Monica took this the length of the lessons into account. Every day she has prepared lots of games like Uno, Bingo, Guess Who, and a traditional Spanish number game.After class today we grabbed our to-go lunch and hopped in the van. We rode along a dusty road to a place you wouldn’t imagine would be there if you saw the turn-off from the highway. We pulled over and trekked through a forest of palm trees. The trail opened into a beach in a cove about 0.4 miles wide. It was a perfect day to be there – hardly any people were there, the sun was alone in the sky, and the water wasn’t too cold once you stayed in it for a while. The waves curled in front of you and gave you two choices – to dive under and let the water pass over you, or to try and truck it above water.

After removing all the sand from between our toes and driving back to town, we arrived in the Todos Santos plaza. As we gathered, Joel announced that he had organized a scavenger hunt. The questions were all about local places and, of course, they were in Spanish. We stopped at bodegas and ice cream shops as we asked kind local strangers funny questions like, “What is the name of the Todos Santos baseball team mascot?” We all raced to meet back at the plaza at 5:45 to finish. After dinner at “super quesadillas” we met by the pool and debriefed our favorite interactions from the day.

It was another great day full of delicious meals, a beautiful sunset, and inspiring ideas.

-Gabe