On Sundays all our meals are on us because the cafeteria is closed. So the hospitality committee went out and bought a whole bunch of breakfast food at Wal-Mart. Low and behold, as I walk into the lounge, I see what seems to be Cheerios, but strangely with much different packaging. I look closer and I find that these suspicious rounded O's are 'Scooters.' I inspected the packaging further and found the preposterous comment shown above. Better than Cheerios?! I kid you not, half at me was enraged by such an inflammatory comment and the other half strangely intrigued. So like any other self-respecting scientist (the debate whether medicine is a science can be made later) I tried some of these ridiculously named O's. Before I tell you how delicious or truly unappetizing they were, lets review my credentials. I have, for the past 7-8 years, eaten Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast every morning and occasionally for dinner as well. I finish a single box in approximately 3 days and have created such a furry that my father now says, "I only have 12 boxes downstairs, I'll get some more tomorrow when I go out." Futhermore, in the little research I've done, I've found that 4 out of 5 Biblical scholars agree that the manna provided by God each morning to the Isrealites was most probably Honey Nut Cheerios. If its good enough for God, its good enough for me. That all being said, I feel distinguished enough to determine the authenticity of the brand named Scooters. The short of it, they were horrible. I don't think I've actually tasted anything quite as bad and I used to not only make mud pies as a child, I ate mud pies as a child. Wait, hold on... excuse me... sorry, I threw up a little in my mouth writing about Scooters.

On to more serious, but equally important things. There at 5 churches in the area that members of our group attend. I was assigned to Iglies Baptista Los Vecinos. By the title I'm sure you can see that this is a Spanish speaking church and mark knows, well, zero Spanish (funny aside, I actually asked one of the guys how to say thank you in Spanish... haha, I love my idiocracy... yes, I just made that up, but in medicine we hold dearly to that priviledge). It was a great church, everyone came up to us (there were 7 of us) to say hi and welcome us. They seemed so very appreciative of what SMI has done in the past. Attending Spirit and Truth the last year or so was definitely a blessing because there were numerous similarities in size, service, and to a degree language. The church provided a translator for us, which I thought to be extremely generous of them. The pastor preached on many different passages, centering mostly on love and empathy for others. A timely sermon given our purpose for being down here.

the previous blog was written last night during a leaders meeting. it needs no explaination. I believe Ezra did a fantastic job in capturing my frustration with spending 60 minutes (11pm-12am) in a meeting and accomplishing very little.

i need to make a quick comment on the game called Mafia. has anyone heard of it? I never had until a few nights ago. It is a huge favorite of the SMIers down here. Basically, there is a group of at least 5 'townspeople.' One is a mafia who is killing of the townspeople one by one, another is a cop who is trying to discern who the mafia is, and the other people are just townspeople. That is the theory of the game mafia. In practice, its a bunch of people in a circle arguing over who is the mafia. I dont think i've seen anything so ridiculous. Oh wait, yes I have... see above picture. I think its just my personality, but I mean really, why would I spend my time sitting around and arguing with you over something so trivial. Not to mention that someone cant even get out a full sentence without someone else blurting in... that would iritate me. So i happily sit on the sidelines and giggle at how silly I think they're being.

Continue to pray brothers and sisters. My group (continuity) has a lot to do today and tomorrow. We have the translator social tonight as well as the first monday night meeting with everyone. Keep us in your prayers as we get the last details figured out. Read Psalm 139 this morning. Keep praying for my group of guys and myself. talk to you soon.