Cuba: Day Two

Today was another great day in Cuba. It was a late start for us four girls, three of which had to take a shower!! By the time we got to breakfast we were late! But it was all good in the omelet line! Yay! After we ate, we planned everything out and we decided what needed to be taken. We then gathered at the pool to leave, and found out that we had only one bus. David didn't come and so Andres came to pick us up. Ashleigh, Erin, and I were in one kid's group. Unfortunately, we were split up. So Ashleigh and I panicked because Erin was supposed to tell the story. By the time we got to Alamar, we saw Juan Carlos, Leonel, Daisy, Karen, and even Isaac. It was great to see everyone again and be home. Cristian and Jordan came later with Rosanna. After we got there, we started out lesson. We decided to do the bear hunt first, along with the chicken dance. Everything went great and it was HOT!!! Especially when we went to play beisbol it was very hot. That part was fun also. We were on a totally different field with a kung-fu stage! Yay! Ashleigh got hit in the leg which wasn't fun! Maureen, Leonel, and I walked down to the post office but we had to come back or else we would have had to wait thirty minutes! After that we headed to the house church to eat because I convinced Juan Carlos to take us back. The food was great (as usual)! Then it rained for three hours straight! We had the party outside at first and then we had to move it back inside because it rained. The dance party was GREAT!!! They played Rihanna, Sean Kingston, and Elvis! It was great! I got to dance with one of Juan Carlos Jr.'s friends who was really good! He told me that Juan Carlos Jr. was my boyfriend. The one thing he could say in English was "boyfriend." We also got to play some fun games!! I played one where I had to hold a bowl of merengue while Juan Carlos Jr. had to eat it without hands! I shoved the whole bowl in his face! The bowl stuck to his face as he pulled back! It was great! That was the most fun I've ever had! Once we got home and I took a shower and of course I couldn't get it to turn off! Lucky me! Well it's late! Night! Gloria a Dios!

Cuba: Day One

Today was a long and hard day that started at 12:47 am for me, and 4:00 am for the others. Of course of all people I'm the one that doesn't sleep, and that rolls around all night long. My aunt snored all night, so that didn't help either. We left at 4:00 am from the airport and headed out to Atlanta! The airport was packed with people moving to their planes. We got all of our luggage in without a problem and we boarded the plane easily. Take off was a little nerve racking, but Erin's laughter and support cheered me up! I seem to have a constant theme for this week. PEACE. The whole time on the planes I prayed for peace; and God gave it. We landed safely in Miami as we hurried to our concourse to meet Magaley. It turns out that the concourse is closed, and we are approached by a police officer with two guns. They weren't just any guns! One of them was a machine gun! It turned out that we were lost, and he escorted us around. His name was Heath, and he loves Jesus! How amazing! We sat and sat for an hour and a half. Magaley calls and says that she had a family emergency but is on her way. She finally showed up, and again they changed the concourse! We had to go halfway across the airport to get to the gate! And, by the time we got there, we had 15 minutes to get all of our baggage checked! It turned out that we all made it and got on the plane without a problem. Our plane was different this time; it was bigger. It held like 60 passengers! It made me a lot better about our flight. We arrived in Cuba at 12:08 pm and we preceded into the airport. We all got through quickly and smoothly. No problems at all! We got all of our luggage and prepared to meet Eduardo at the van. We met them and put our things in the two buses. It was really cool to be back again with "mi familia" in Cuba. Eduardo treated us to a special dinner of Cuban pizza! Delicioso! After we had fun and ate we went to see the Christ of Havana and we prayed over the city. It was a long, stressful day but a fun one. Gloria a Dios!

Strange Dreams...

Have you ever had a dream that was so real to you it was scary? You lay in bed at night thinking you are somewhere else, in another time. Well lately, I've been having those dreams often. Last night was really the first time in a long time I've had one of those dreams. Now that I think about it, it seemed like a vision. Like I got a second chance to do something, or accomplish something I never got the chance to do. As many of you know, my heart is in Cuba. I left it there many months ago on my first trip there on spring break. Ever since then, I have been dreaming about being there. Smelling the air, feeling the cool breeze of the ocean on my face, and the warmth of hugs and kisses from our brothers and sisters in Christ. I miss them dearly, and to this day I'm already excited about going back. My dreams have been so real, and when I wake up, I get up so happy because I think I'm in Cuba. Then I look around and my heart sinks to find that I'm at home in my bed. Well my dream last night was very bizarre. As everyone knows, our friend Leonel passed away. It happened so fast, and no one got to say goodbye. I dreamed that we were all in the funeral home sitting around. But what was weird was Leonel was sitting there with us. He wasn't dead, or in a casket; he was sitting there. And all I did was latch on to him. I could hear him talk, just like he was really beside me in real life. I sat there and just hugged him the whole time. We all knew he was going to die the next day in my dream. We all knew that we'd have to say goodbye to him. Everyone from the team was there and Juan Carlos, Rosanna, and the kids were there also. It was like everyone already knew what was going to happen. Now back to reality. After we got the news about Leonel, I would wake up in the mornings with wet eyes. I cried in my sleep. I was so sad, so empty. It's funny how you can be so close to a person that you barely know. It was like a family member passed away. But now after this dream, I have peace. I think that this was God's way of telling me that everything was ok. That I got my chance to say goodbye to him. They always say that God works in mysterious ways, and the Lord knows what I need. The whole trip I prayed for peace; and I got it! God is amazing! Gloria A Dios!

Cuba is in Less Than 48 Hours!!!

Ok so these last few days have been unbearable. I've been so tired and pumped at the same time, it's been crazy! Sunday night I couldn't sleep at all because I was so tired. This is why I try not to think about Cuba because I will get extremely pumped and I won't be able to calm down. These are times when I think I have ADD. But that's a completely other story! I'm still in shock that we leave Thursday afternoon. It feels like just yesterday we were signing up to go on the trip. My how time flies! School is crazy right now, because we have exams the next two days. Maybe that will take my mind off of Cuba. Thank the Lord that I'm not in Mr. Beaver's Spanish class, because he's giving them a SUPER hard exam! I'm going to pray for those Spanish one students! This has totally nothing to do with anything, but our school is probably the coldest school in the world! Our school has that system where at a certain date, the heat will shut off and the air stays on constantly! It's warmer outside than it is inside!! It's crazy and it makes me not want to learn and long for my warm bed. Ok, well here is a video I'd like you to see for no reason whatsoever, just because I say so...Mr. Beaver will appreciate this...



And this!

Random Thoughts from Engineering Class...

Ok so Mr. Littlejohn is hilarious because we were talking about religions, and Jenna was like, whose the Dali-Llama? She accidently said the Deli-Llama, and Mr. Littlejohn was like, oh he works down there at Subway! It was so funny! Today has been a very long day, and I have decided the my brains stops working after lunch. My class right after lunch is World History Honnors, and so I'm totally dead in there. We were talking about reincarnation and I was like, what's the religion where if you're bad you turn into a termite? And then after I asked that, I realized that it was from the movie End of the Spear...wow...good job Claire...well, the bell's about to ring! Bye!

TGIF!!

Today has been a seemingly uneventful day. I'm in Engineering right now and we have a substitute. He is pretty much deaf, and we have had him for a sub since like 3rd grade. Our teacher has a sinus infection so we are sitting here doing pretty much nothing. I'm super tired, and our teachers presume to give us a bunch of homework and a test on Monday!! It's simply unacceptable! I mean, the purpose of a weekend is to give us a break from school. Not send us home with more work than we did the whole week! This janitor man just waltzed in and took the fire extinguisher out of the case and wrote something down. I promise you that the janitors own this school. They do whatever they want, they sit around and talk, and they do pretty much nothing besides clean the tables. They held us back in class for like 5 minutes because this kid fell and busted his head on the wall. There was blood and they took him out on a stretcher. Wow, that kid had a bad day. I also have a cold that developed two nights ago and it continues to live on inside of me. The only sounds I've heard today are the constant sniffing and coughing. So as you can see these are the random thoughts that I have had for the past, oh 30 minutes or so. Exciting huh? I don't even know what we are supposed to be doing...I think we are supposed to be researching our topic. I already have mine, so it's all good. Today I sat with Elizabeth at lunch and she was like starving. I had some peanut butter cookies though! Yum! Umm...what else. Oh yeah! We have Saturday Servants tomorrow which is going to be awesome! I'm pumped to wrap burgers while my friend Stacy, aka George Foreman, grills the burgers and hot dogs. It's actually rather quiet in here for once. All of the freshman aren't playing stupid music or laughing about stuff that isn't funny. Half of the class period the other day they talked about their teachers last year in eighth grade and how Mr. Jackson had a heart attack in class. They were talking about the Engineering team last year and how Mr. Little was the best. I wanted to tell them that they didn't even know how great he was as a teacher! Now he doesn't teach, but instead he coaches the Engineering team. So yeah life is pretty boring as you can tell right now. It may be exciting for you to read my life thoughts, but for me it's not all that exciting. So that's about all for now. If I get bored between now and 3:40, maybe I'll write some more! Bye!

My New Favorite Song!!

Ok so this is most definitely my new favorite song! It's called. "Signature of Divine" by Need to Breathe. I heard this song on the new radio station Shine 96.7, which is great I might add, and it's amazing! Here are the lyrics if you would like to see them.

Cathedrals have tried in vain

To show the image of your face

But we are, by your design

The signature of divine

We’ll always sing your name

Forever and today

Yahweh, Yahweh

Great is your glory when you go before me

Oh, we sing

Holy, Holy

Your ways are lovely. So high above me.

Yahweh

The fortunes of kings and queens

Are wasted chasing what we’ve seen.

Cause we are, by your reprieve,

The beauty framed by your suffering

We’ll always sing your name

Forever and today

Yahweh, Yahweh

Great is your glory when you go before me

Oh, we sing

Holy, Holy

Your ways are lovely. So high above me

Yahweh

Take me, and pull me through.

Cause I can’t move without you.

I won’t leave you alone, you say.

It will be ok

Yahweh, Yahweh

Great is your glory when you go before me

Oh, we sing

Holy, Holy

Your ways are lovely. So high above me.

Yahweh.

Yahweh, Yahweh

Great is your glory when you go before me

Oh, we sing

Holy, Holy

Your ways are lovely. So high above me.

Yahweh

Ancient of Days

Yahweh!