Dia de Mujeres

Yesterday was Dia de Mujeres - Women's Day.  (When I asked one of the men when Dia de Hombres is he said there isn't one.  One of the women muttered, every day is!)  Leamarie and I attended a party given by the male staff members for the female staff members at the Flor office location. 

But first, the leadership team meeting... The leadership team convened at Casa LAMB at 9 in the morning.  Present were: Suzy, founder; David, new Director, Evelyn, Finance Manager, Suyapa, Director of the Flor day care, Arely, Director of SBV, Dony, Lawyer, David Suazo, Director of She Dances, and me.  The purpose of the meeting was twofold - to announce David's promotion and to have a time of shared devotion.  Suzy began by playing her guitar while everyone sang praise songs.  Seeing them so completely immersed in praising God was a beautiful sight.  In fact, after a break I asked if I could take pictures of them during the next song because I wanted to share the experience with all of you.  I just wish you could be here.  The women have beautiful voices and their singing really becomes prayer.

Jackie	Jackie, Arely, Evelyn	Arely
Dony and Suyapa	Suzy, David Suazo, Dony	Evelyn and David

Everyone seemed happy and very supportive of David's new position. It is wonderful to see David immediately live into this leadership role. He has a deeper level of confidence and peace than I have ever seen in him. Although Gladys will be missed, I believe LAMB is entering a new and exciting season.

Speaking of leadership...we finished the meeting and went to Flor for the Dia de Mujeres celebration. This was David's first official act as new director - to preside over the party. He stepped right up, or leaned right into it:

Yes, he really threw himself into it completely:

And all the women immediately endorsed his new position:

However, Dony wanted to make sure we knew he is still a force to be reckoned with:

Actually, we were playing a game amidst great hilarity.  It was a twist on Simon Says.  "Mariachi Dony" played lively music on his guitar while David contorted and danced. The women had to follow his exact movements and then completely freeze when the music stopped.  David would examine each frozen woman and if she even blinked she had to sit down.  David was so funny, so relaxed, so charming.  Everyone had a blast.  The women particularly enjoyed having lunch served to them by the men who really played it up.  There is so much joy and love in this place with these people.  It is like jumping into the deep end of a pool filled with faith, love, hope and joy. 

After the party, Leamarie and I took our first unchaperoned trip in a taxi and to the mall!   We even asked the taxi driver to take us to get copies of keys made.  So, the way you do that is you find somebody who has set up a little shop on the street.  Dennis, our taxi driver, pulled up on the sidewalk of the very busy street. The key maker came up to the car and we handed him the keys.  A couple minutes later, he came back with 2 sets of keys.  We never got out of the car.


Spanish update: My spanish continues to improve. I am able to follow more spoken language and can cobble together more semi-coherent sentences.

I wish I could put this experience in an aerosol bottle and "spray it on" all of you so you could experience this with me...