when i say...

that i dont have volleyball skills... i mean i dont have volleyball skills. i stink. especially after barely playing then going for a few months without... then picking up a game. i hit the ball everywhere but where it was supposed to go, and onto the roof more than my fair share. even the kids were whispering. ha

but luckily today wasnt only about volleyball. today was kathias 18th birthday!

ive been hearing about this for the past month. its a big deal for her to turn 18, now she gets a little bit more freedom at her house. she can go out with her friends, maybe come to my birthday next year, which she couldnt do when she was 17 because it was after her curfew of 8. :S

today i went over to their house and spent.... a good.... near to 7 hours in the neighborhood and with the family. i usually go over and spend an hour and a half or so. but today kathia told me to come over at 3 for her birthday. i told her that nothing would stand in my way because it was her birthday.... and then when i arrived... there was nothing anywhere near being a birthday party anywhere near us. but just the same we had fun. well they had fun watching me play volleyball, although i dont think my team would describe it as fun.
later on we went back to the house... and eventually the party started. some friends of kathias whom im actually sure are really her 'fans' came over, and we sang an awkward happy birthday ... but well into the evening the awkwardness settled... more or less for me, and i settled in to watching family dynamics. i just love it. there are a lot of kids (grown up) in that family, with their own kids now. angie comes to church with me on sundays, and i think one of her uncles is going to accompany us this sunday. today he asked me what it was we did over there... i asked angie and she said... o... "estamos alli" ("we are there") its a natural response, which made me laugh, and i told him he should come find out for himself.

after the friends left tonight and it was just family... acutally... i;m not a part of the family, but they treat me like one.. i enjoyed watching the family spend time together. especially because their interactions are just so untraditional from what i know. usually the families are pretty broken.. but tonight all the siblings that are in peru were there with their kids... the mom and dad up in years but still together admiring the family, kathia and the previously mentioned uncle both still single but still loving on the family and all the nieces and nephews, the family whose husband and wife looked incredibly in love with each other with two healthy baby girls. they may have crazy lives... but for this night, those hours inside that home... they were just all there, enjoying one another. im really glad i got to be a part of that.

more is to be shared than stories about how horrible the new girl plays volley in that neighborhood, in that house. :)