Today started like every other, waking up for breakfast at 7:00 am. We had options for omelets, and a bunch of other delicious breakfast foods. We got ready to leave and hopped on the bus at 8:30 to head to Palmira Training Center. It was great to see all the familiar faces that we’ve grown to love so much. It’s hard to think about it being one of the last times we will see a lot of them, but nevertheless it was a fun day.

This morning, when we got there a bunch of the children from the church greeted us with smiling faces. We pulled out all the tricks and surprises we had planned for them, and watched their faces light up when someone blew bubbles or got their face painted. They were also huge fans of the game keep it up with balloons. Some of the girls enjoyed getting their hair and nails done, and receiving animal shaped balloons (thanks to Ryan Friesen & Sam Zhang).

After lunch we went to a nearby baseball diamond, and played a riveting, and “very competitive” game of baseball against the Cuban youth and pastors. We had a rough start so after the first five minutes we mixed up the teams a little bit. Two game highlights were definitely Mike’s home run hit that saved our team from a devastating loss (still a loss, just not as bad), and Christer’s two pop fly catches in a row. In the stands there was a lot of chit chat, making Rianna run back and forth across the stands for over three hours translating. Needless to say, all this talking means less voices, and new relationships.

Tonight, was an earlier night, and we got some time to ourselves. Some of us even got to pet a pelican (ask us when we get home😉), and as a team we had dinner and got to talk about our ‘roses’ and ‘thorns’. Then we went our separate ways to get a good night’s rest before this next week begins.

~Amanda & Brooklyn