This morning started earlier than most so that we could start the cultural day before the day became too hot. Since right now the sports court has no roof, the dances and school events must take place outside under the hot, “near the equator” sun. We went into the classrooms for one final time and worked with the students on their English skills. It’s shocking that we’ve already been here 8 days and our time is coming to an end.
Earlier this year, the 7th grade class decided they wanted to have a flag at their school, so they raised the money to cement an area off and bought a flag pole and flag. They painted around the area to make it look nice and neat. Today they dedicated the flag to the school and the students from the 7th grade class were represented as well as the students with the highest academic scores. La Catracha Day (cultural festival) took place with games after – there was regional Honduras food there, songs, dances, skits, and the teachers asked for one last dance with our team so we performed the dance we’d been working on all week in front of the entire school and their families. It was an amazing way to end a fabulous week. 
AJ, our youngest team member, had been thinking about sponsoring a student all week. He really wanted to make a connection before making a decision. Last night, we sat down and looked through the list of students needing sponsorship. AJ didn’t recognize any of the names and was a little sad thinking perhaps it was a door shutting. He next went through the pictures I have of all of the students, and found a little boy he had played marbles with, Samuel, earlier that morning. When he checked it with the list of students awaiting a sponsor, he found him there. Samuel’s mother volunteers most days in the school, mopping and cleaning. Her older children volunteered to help us paint. Her name 
is Leslie, and she greets everyone with the most beautiful smile in the world. AJ was so excited and couldn’t wait to let Samuel know that he would be his padrino (sponsor dad). His mom cried when she found out because while they were on the list, they were still getting funds for school fees, but they didn’t have a personal sponsor to make a personal relationship. They LOVED knowing that AJ and Samuel would now be praying for each other and writing letters to each other. 