Center Meeting with Connie--February 29, 2016

Even running on three hours of sleep, my extra day of 2016 was well spent. One of my favorite center meetings I have been too. I am sad they only meet once a month instead of every week. Brad and I went with Connie. She is the only girl mentor and speaks great English because she served her mission in Salt Lake. She is pretty funny and her centers are always really good. They always have lunch and make it a fun thing. She has a great relationship with her clients which I think makes a huge difference. On our way to the meeting we met with a few who are in arrears. It took awhile to get the meeting going because they had to collect the money and go to the bank and then come back for the lunch and what they call SDA. Connie does it and they women love it. The extra time gave us a lot of time to visit though and play with Nanay Esther's little three year old named Yda. Brad let the boys play games on his phone. Yda and I played with her bucket of toys for at least an hour. She loved to line them up and say the name of everything she placed in line. SDA means social development agenda. Connie does it to teach her new center a new skill, idea, or something to sell. Today she taught them how to make homemade Tocino. That took her quite awhile because it is supposed to marinate. The center came and we laughed a lot. They are a funny center and they loved us. Our message was a quick intro to interweave which will finally be getting rolled out in the next few weeks. We talked about saving and a little about record keeping. Along with the SDA I told them it is good to get new ideas and try to be different than everyone else. But then I explained that it is good to stick with something you are the best at and already know a lot about. I asked each Nanay to go around in a circle and say something they were the best at, a hobby, their families favorite thing she makes, what she enjoys doing, etc. It was a good discussion. For the next SDA next month they are going to all pitch in the cost and make homemade dish soap. Then they are going to split up the bottles and each sell some. The money is going to come back into the center as the centers group savings. I gave them all my number and Facebook and they seemed like they actually wanted my help maybe. It was a good day no matter how tired. Back to real life. Stinky rivers and poop-covered streets. I forgot to mention, on the bus ride to the airport yesterday the little shacks and neighborhoods along the beach looked a lot like the pictures Fig sent me of his mission. Super cool. And of course, humbling as ever.