the little things

(the top picture is of the plaza outside of my apartment and the bottom picture is of a Senegalese lunch that a woman from Senegal cooked for us. She is good friends with people on the team here.)

Los pipos: That is the name of the coffee shop that I used to run by every day for the past 4 months. The reason I even took time to notice it is because of a person inside. Every morning as I was on my way back home this older man (who I am pretty sure owns and runs this coffee shop) would see me, throw his arms up and cheer me on and I'd smile and wave! It became a little tradition of ours. We never talked but we knew eachother, he always knew when to look out the windows for me as I would come running by. One day he even stepped outside and waited to give me 5. One of my favorite classes in college was Non-verbal Communication. We learned how you are always communicating by your actions, expressions, body movements and appearance ect. I finished my runs every morning smiling because of his encouragement though nothing was ever said… except for on the last day of my run in that neighborhood (before I moved). Instead of running by, smiling and waving I got the courage to go in. I was out of breath and sweating and thanked him for encouraging me every morning. We talked a few minutes, I told him next time I see him I would come in for a cup of coffee. Isn’t it cool yet kind of scary to think just how much affect you can have on someone with out saying a word?

La Linea: This is the name of the town where a lot of my friends are from. It is about 5 hours from Granada and it is a beach city in Cadiz. The fair was there this past weekend. For months they had been talking about me and our other friends coming for the fair. I had to travel by myself because I couldn’t come on the same day as everyone else. It was kind of adventurous though! I had to go by taxi, train and bus. It was really fun to be with everyone for one last time before they all split up to go to their own hometowns for the summer. My favorite moment was waking up the next morning and being with a bunch of the girls, it reminded me of my group of friends in high school when we’d all sleep over at someones house. I was just thinking, “wait, how did I get here again?? In this random city, in this group of friends that now just assumes and treats me (this random American girl) like I am one of them?” I have spent a lot of time observing them and their interactions. Based on their role in the group and their personalities I have made a parallel with some of them to each person in my group of friends from high school. For example, Maria is Jessi, Tania is Katie, Irene is Shannon, Pilar is Emily, ect. I’ve told them that and they really like it. They say, “molly, why am I so and so?” and I explain what I have seen in them and observed about them. I think it's cool because in my mind and maybe theirs it has brought 2 far apart worlds closer together. The next morning some of us laid out on the beach and right in front of us was Gibaltar, it was beautiful. My life feels random sometimes. Often I look around me and I just start laughing because some of these situations I get in here are SO different to what I’ve known. But every now and then I see these underlying similarites that facinate me… how all people are just people and we all really want the same things, we just go about seeking it out in about a million different ways... I don’t know, people intrigue me. I love people. Oprah says, "the common denomenator in the human experience is that everyone is asking, "do you see me? do you hear me? do I matter to you?" If we only really believed how much we matter to God and that we have everything we could ever dream in Jesus.

Calle Varela: This is the name of my new street. I have officially moved to the other side of Granada to my new apartment. I’ve been here about a week and I love it! I was so worried and sad about leaving my last place, but here God has been faithful, again… even when I didn’t have faith that he would be. Jamie, my new roommate has been great to live with! We’ve really had some good talks and found a lot of understanding and connection. She was a high school Spanish teacher in Iowa. We’ve made it a rule to only speak in Spanish in our home, so that is helping a lot… and when I think back to how I failed Spanish class in high school… its just so ironic I am living with a Spanish teacher in Spain! I am so thankful for being here.