Good Grief Charlie Brown

Hello, Hola, such and such, its your great friend ANNALIESE speaking to you over the miraculous and mysterious interwebs. I have so much to tell you, just so much. Where do I begin?
Well i will just start with the best day of my life, which Michelle briefly talked about last time. It was the actual BEST day i have ever lived, I wish you all could have been there. If you were, then it would have been an gamillion times better!! We climbed, yes climbed, up a jungle river, with tarzan vines and big huge slippery rocks and refreshing water and I did so good I didnt even have to hold anyones hand. Me and Michelle were at the front, the only guy in front of us was the guide, he had a huge machete. Yeah I saw a real machete. It was huge.
He was just hacking away at vines and stuff oh man it was sweet. Anyway, me and Michelle have proved tougher and cooler than any of the big macho colombian dudes, we owned them all, doing stuff they wouldnt even try, like JUMPING OFF A CLIFF. Yes we did in fact jump off a huge cliff, dos times. That means two times. Only two other guys would try that, out of about sixty people. And then to top off the day, when we got to the end, we got to go UNDER A WATERFALL. Not a huge one, but a little one, so it was sooo sweet. That day was a dream come true. It was just great all around, we shared our testimonies and were blessed by the prayers we recieved from the youth and leaders.
We got back from the youth camp, after about one trillion pictures. You would think they have never met a white person before! Actually most of them havent, not in real life. The tourists that come to Colombia stay downtown, take taxis, eat at chain restaraunts. We get to see stuff that only Colombians see, such as sweet serenaders jumping on buses and cantor-ing (singing) at the top of their lungs for some paltry change. Its a very cool thing to see parts of this amazing country that no one else does. Anyway, once we got back, we stayed at Edwins, and he made us the most delicious supper in the world, big huge crepes full of meat and cheese and more meat and cheese and creamy sauce and other such stuff. We then got back to El Codito (a.k.a Little Elbow) where Castillo Fuerte is, where we are living, early the next morning. We did a house visit, sharing the hope of God and praying for provision for a family. We give them a gift of rice, lentils, canned meat, cooking oil and milk, read some Scripture passages and share some encouragement. Edwin says it is a huge blessing to the families we visit, even though we dont know what is going on half the time. Then we had lunch at a persons house from the church, then quickly to VBS, where we have 100 percent no clue what we are doing, but it is messy and loud and hilarious and fun. The kids love to practice their english, and we try to learn more spanish. There are even kids that will return the next day with items, animal toys, or books to try and learn more about english and laugh at us as we butcher spanish. Anyway, its a good time. The kids just love us, and the people here take such good care of us. We really feel undeserving of the attention we get and how the people give what little they have to make us more comfortable or happy. That has been truly a blessing, and God is teaching us patience, how to handle pressure, how to be grateful and how to love the people as he does. It has been a mindblowingly awesome and exausting and stressful week.
Today, however, we got to go to this huge park that is similar to Stanley park or Hawrelak park, and is called "the lungs of Bogata" because its where all the trees are. We played some full contact handball in the sand, ate some popcorn and lots of popsicles, and we all got quite the horrible sunburn. I would say especially Matthew, but then i would say especially Me, then I would say especially michelle and kyle. So really, we all got it bad, this sunburn, and this colombia fever. We miss you all, and we hope you are doing good and not worrying to much. Thank you so much for your prayers, God has definitely been protecting us. Please pray that these dang invisible bugs would leave me ALONE they are eating me alive and driving my brain up the wall!!! Shortly we will post pictures. I am not sure how shortly. Matt is currently asking Pastor Deanna, the beautiful pastor of Castillo Fuerte. We are at Oscar and Deannas house now for dinner, after bowling and falling asleep on the bus. Well I fell asleep on the bus. Sorry this is so long, I hope you are not bored. I think i will just keep typing away till Matteo comes back.. Yep its pretty awesome here....I like to eat the food. Oh he is back. he says "hopefully we will be able to put some pictures up..HD....USB mini....I should have brought my flash drive. Not flash drive, USB cable. Mini. I know I said flash drive but i meant to say cable. hahahaha anna you are hilarious. aaiii you are weird.." Matts own words, I promise. Except for the anna is hilarious part. : ) As you can see we are all getting along, talking stuff through, etcetera. We have fun. Have fun yourselves!! I hope people read this. Mom if you are there please comment. LOVE ANNALIESE JOY aka Añalisa