Oh the Weekend....

I often find that weekends are the busiest time of the week for me.  During the weekdays, I'm usually at home trying to get some reading done, answering those elusive emails (oh...sorry to those who are still waiting!), grocery shopping, meeting/prayer with our team, trying to do some organizing and planning for home assignment, and other various "stuff"....it's different every week.  But come the weekend, I'm not home very much!  This past Friday, we had a team meeting at the Hieberts' house, then I went out for supper with the Angers, the new family who has joined our team here in Caracas.  It was a great opportunity to just spend some "fun" time with them.  Saturday morning I was up and drove over to Altamira in the rain to meet up with the English conversation group I'm a part of.  It's always great, and as usual, what is planned for 2 hours together turned into about 6 hours together!  We met under a big tent at the park in the rain, crashing the group having cuatro lessons (Venezuela's national instrument), then walked to a restaurant for lunch, and finished the afternoon at the square in Los Palos Grandes for a music festival.  I did take a short video (see below) of a Venezuelan drum group, but the quality and sound are not great.  Although we do spend a few hours in English, the second half of our time together is usually in Spanish, which helps me in my own language learning.  Sunday I was up early (for me!), on my way to pick up the Hiebert family to head to Chuao Alliance Church for a visit, but my car broke down on the way.  Actually I didn't realize my car died right away, as it happened while I was driving down a hill.  When I went to give some gas, I realized nothing was happening!  I was able to pull over safely at a gas station and stop before I lost all the power steering.  A few hours later, I was towed to the Hieberts and although we missed church, it turned into a nice afternoon watching the Lego movie together and going for lunch at our favourite pasta place.  But the stress of the car and the busyness of the weekend finally caught up with me last night and at 9:30 I couldn't keep my eyes open....and I will admit, I slept for 11 hours last night!  I'm thankful for my weekends; although I always end them exhausted, they also fill my heart up!