7-29-10

I don’t really know what day I left on so I am just going to start with the last thing I remember and that was Friday. Melissa decided that she was going to make some carne asada so we invited Tatan and Caleb over to join in on our feast. Before I talk about our awesome fiesta I have to share the awesome story that made this fiesta happen. So we had to get the meat for the carne asada so we went to the grocery store to get all our supplies. The hard part is that the meat is in kilos and of course America has it in pounds so we had to figure that out. Me and Elizabeth just let Melissa figure it out considering she is the brains for the both of us. We went up to the meat counter and told him we needed three kilos of carne asada. He just kind of stared at us then told us to follow him because he didn’t understand. We told him what we needed in Spanish so we weren’t really sure why he needed help translating. He took us to this ten year old boy in the store and we all just died laughing. We told him what we needed in English and the boy said the exact same thing we said to him earlier. We went back to the meat counter and he started pulling out the meat. the thing was he didn’t stop pulling out the meat he just kept putting more and more in the bad. He kept looking at us as if he was waiting for us to tell him to stop or something but we just said yeah three kilos. By the time he was finished pulling out all the meat we had a huge bag full. Melissa was still confident and said that it shrinks so it should still be right. We got the rest of our stuff and headed out. We got home and I still was in shock at how much meat we got. Me and Elizabeth went to work while Melissa prepared our fabulous dinner (or so we thought). A little later Melissa came over to the orphanage and her face was super red. She was making the salsa and in the process she got some pepper on her face and it was burning it super bad. I went back to the house with her to A. look for the blender I thought we had and B. try and find what was burning her face. We got back to the house and I tried everything and nothing was spicy and for me that’s a big deal haha so we still don’t know what caused her face to burn so bad. So after work Elizabeth and I came home to a whole bunch of meat … to me I was thinking well I guess it didn’t shrink as much as we thought it would. Then Melissa decided to share with us that she got our conversion wrong from kilos to pounds, instead of getting one pound of meat like we thought we needed we got six pounds lol just so you know that is a lot of meat. We set up a table and chairs outside and we were ready for our fiesta. Tatan and Caleb showed up late of course haha its Mexico but they weren’t too bad and they brought Tatan’s cousin who I had never met before. He didn’t know English so of course he didn’t understand half of what we were saying during dinner because we were speaking spanglish. It looked like he was having a good time though. After dinner Tatan invited us to go to the big championship soccer game. His brothers team was in the final game so he wanted to go to that. we had nothing else to do and getting out of the house is always a plus so we grabbed our stuff and left. We got to the game and it was absolutely packed haha. I was always use to having few fans at my games but this was the championship so everyone wanted to be there for it. it was an absolute blast and I am so glad I got to experience the culture even more. After the game everyone was celebrating everywhere, let me tell you el Porvenir was a very hopin place that night. We were walking back to our house with Tatan and his cousin (who we called Primo because we couldn’t pronounce his name and primo means cousin and Spanish so we thought it was a pretty good fit) and Melissa was telling a really funny story so I thought primo would like to hear it to so I decided to translate the story to him … let me tell you it did not go over very well. I got halfway through the story and Primo looked so confused so I stopped and asked him if he understood and he said kind of then looked at me and said “wait why do I have a problem?” and then I realized that I mixed up the ending of my verbs and instead of saying she has a problem I told him he had a problem so then that totally screwed up the whole story. We all died laughing and now it’s the joke that I scared off primo because when we almost got back to the house he saw one of his friends and left us lol. There was a party right next to our house haha we were so tempted to go it sounded really fun but it would have been a tad bit awkward for the three of us so we just hung out with Tatan outside and went star tripping which is a very interesting game. All in all it was a pretty awesome night and it was great to get out of our little orphanage bubble.
Nothing to big has gone on at the orphanage. We have lost seven kids since I got here and have only gained one so that’s kind of a bummer. I feel like we have no kids now and it would have been so great to see new ones come in. the most interesting thing I can think of is I had to dig two year old Mario out of the toilet the other day lol. There is a bathroom outside and usually the door is closed but one of the older kids left it open. We didn’t notice that Mario was not in the yard so I went over to look by side of the house by the bathroom and there was Mario in the toilet lol. The best part was his head was soaking wet which meant he stuck his head in the toilet before jumping in! Other than that nothing really big to report.
Tuesday was the most amazing day of this entire trip. There were two things to that I really wanted to do while I was in Mexico this summer the first was climb a mountain and the second was ride a horse. Well last week Tatan took us to climb a mountain so I could check that off the list but I still had not gotten to ride a horse yet. Melissa has a horse and she loves them so she wanted to ride a horse too. We were talking about it to Tatan and he said that he could maybe find some horses for us. We didn’t really think it was going to happen so Tuesday on our day off we weren’t really expecting him to come over. Around 3 o clock we heard this really loud neigh come from outside. Me and Melissa just looked at each other and Melissa said wow our neighbors horse has gotten really loud. Then next thing we know there is a horse right outside our window. We both jumped up in absolute awe and started screaming. We opened the door and outside was Tatan, his amigo and two horses … we were so excited! We didn’t know his amigo and he didn’t introduce us to him either so it was kind of awkward but we didn’t really care. They told us to pick a horse so I picked Tatan’s since I knew him but then they asked who was better at riding and that was obviously Melissa so we had to switch horses since his amigo’s horse was better trained. We got on the horses and they guys jumped on back and we were off. We passed the orphanage and all the kids went crazy and Tia Raquel got her video camera out and started taping us it was awesome. we rode to the other side of town where the soccer fields are and went through a gate and we were off on our adventure. it was seriously the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. We got on this sandy area and Tatan asked me if I was ok to run with the horse. I was a little freaked out but I was up for trying anything but amigo wasn’t really up for it so we switched and Tatan rode with me for that part. They way it works for double riding is one person rides on the saddle then the second person rides behind the saddle on the butt so I didn’t know how it would work when it came time for running because when I was riding with amigo he was literally sitting on his hands the whole time, I don’t know how he didn’t fall off. So I ran with the horse and it was the coolest thing ever and I didn’t even fall off and neither did Tatan so that was a plus too haha. we made it to the top of the hill/mountain and it was gorgeous. The guys jumped off and started climbing the rocks. I got a little nervous because they left me on a horse and were telling me to ride down a hill by myself haha but I did it and nothing went wrong. On our ride back While Tatan and Melissa were busy speaking in English I was stuck with amigo who only spoke Spanish. Considering my last experience with one of Tatan’s friends I wasn’t really in the social Spanish mood but I felt like I needed to say something haha. I asked all the questions I could with my little Spanish knowledge and I got to know him a little bit but it was still awkward haha. I think amigo just felt left out because he didn’t really understand what was being said most of the time. He also told me earlier that he had been working all day so maybe he was just tired … who knows.
So yeah I have had the most amazing experience here and I don’t really want to leave but school is coming around the corner and I guess I should get ready for that. tomorrow is my last day so I cant even believe it I feel like I just got here!

7-19-10

So after a week of recovering I can now say that I am feeling better, not perfect but definitely better than before. We got back from the states on Tuesday mid afternoon and so I had the rest of the day to get settled in. Walking into the door and seeing Melissa and Elizabeth was sooo nice. Even though taking a little vacation in the states was nice I sure did miss my ninos and my roommates. Wednesday I usually work but instead I went to Ensenada with Alison, Elizabeth, Melissa and the group. The group was taking their touristy day and invited us to go with them. We went to the Bufadora which is a blow hole. Let me tell you it sounds a lot cooler than what it was. To get to the Bufadora you have to walk through the market where you are constantly bombarded by Mexicans wanting you to come in their shop and buy their stuff. Melissa, Elizabeth and I went off by ourselves and walked through the tourist place and I am pretty sure we got called Barbie about ten times then charlies angels and beautiful a couple more times. It got pretty annoying because we didn’t want really want to buy anything cause we did all our shopping for that kind of stuff the week before. So after we saw the Bufadora Melissa, Elizabeth, Alison and I went to a cool restaurant called Habana Cabana. That was the first time that I had real food since I had been sick so I was excited. After we ate we had to leave so we could get back to the park in time for our VBS. Our VBS has been going really well. We started out with only six kids and now have gotten a little over 20 now. We have 3 little kids that come every night and they are from an Indian tribe called Oaxacan. They don’t speak Spanish so at first it was a little difficult to explain things to them. The little boy who is 3 though knows the most Spanish and the other day out of nowhere starting rambling off in Spanish … we were so excited. The sad thing about the three little kids is that they most likely won’t be able to go to school because they don’t have birth certificates. To go to school here you have to have a birth certificate and if you didn’t get one when you were born you have to buy one. Birth certificates are pretty expensive so they most likely wont be able to afford it.
Thursday was my first day back at work and it was awesome. I walked in and Lety was there waiting for me and gave me the biggest hug ever. It was so nice seeing all the kids again. It has gotten a lot hotter since I had been gone. The kids got out the pool and were playing in it when I got there. It was Elizabeth’s day off so it was just me and Melissa there. We ate outside then the kids went right back into the pool. Then out of nowhere it started to rain or should I say pour. It was weird because it does not rain in the summer so this was a big surprise for everyone. Me and Melissa then decided it would be fun to play in the rain so we got the kids and played in it for hours. The cook, Maria, told me that I should not be playing in the rain because I was sick. I thought about it then I decided I didn’t care because playing in the rain sounded way too much fun. I then went to the shed and got out the slip and slide, I thought the kids would enjoy it a lot and it was a hit. By the time we were finished playing in the rain Melissa and I were absolutely drenched so we went back to the house for new clothes. When I came back to the orphanage the group was there to play with the kids and say their goodbyes. They brought blankets for all the kids and had their names embroidered on them it was so sweet. Only one person in the group spoke Spanish so they needed my help for some translating. Gosh it’s so sad when I am their best help for translating haha. it was so entertaining though because there was this guy who thought that if he spoke English with a Spanish accent they would understand him better, it was so terrible to watch cause really he was just making a fool out of himself. Oh yeah I got more kisses from the creeper. He came up to me when I was at the park but I didn’t know he was behind me and he pulled me over and kissed me again. I was in shock at what happened so I got on my bike and rode away to get Phil and Alison haha. It is so weird and he is so creepy Phil said he was going to talk to Marcos (the pastor at our church) about it. He had a crush on the last intern from Illinois so who knows maybe it’s an Illinois thing.
So Friday came around and once again it was another wet day. Not because of the rain but because I got in the little baby pool with the kids. When I first got there all the older boys were in it and wanted me to get in with them. I didn’t really want to get wet so I said no pool today. Well I guess I thought wrong because thanks to Tia Zelena threw me in the pool. I was glad to be in the pool though because it was so stinkin hot out that was really nice to cool down. I ended up just playing with the kids in to pool for the rest of playtime outside. It was such a fun day. I am so thankful for the relationships I have with the Tia’s because we can joke around all day and it’s so fun. Zelena got the hose out and started spraying me so the war was on between us. It was great. We then bathed the kids and then put in a movie and ate dinner. It was a great way to end the day. When me and Elizabeth got off work we went home to get Melissa so we could go to the taco stand. It was so sad because I couldn’t eat that kind of food yet so I just went a long for fun. I can’t wait till next week when I can eat at the taco stand.
Saturday was soooo awesome. We went to el parque de ninos which is a water park/pool/zoo near porvenir. We didn’t know that we were going to el parque de ninos till Raquel told us we might need extra clothes for el parque (which means park). We just thought we were going to the regular park and we were thinking why on earth would we need extra clothes for the park then we realized we weren’t just going to the normal park haha. So we loaded all the ninos in the van and we were off to the water park. It’s weird because no one in Mexico has swimsuits haha. There was a couple of people that had on swimsuits but most people just had on t shirts and short some even had on jeans. We just played in the kiddie pool with all the little ninos but it was still so much fun. After we got out and got all the kids changed we went and looked at the animals. It was funny because for awhile it was just Melissa, Elizabeth and I looking at the animals then we saw the older boys coming over and we thought they were coming to look at the animals but really they were coming to get us because it was time to leave haha. How sad that the kids had to come get us to leave. So yeah that was a pretty successful day at el parque and to top it off we didn’t even lose a kid :) So after we got back it was time to bathe the babies the only problem was that we were down two tia’s which meant that me and Elizabeth were on our own for washing the babies. So while Elizabeth went to get the kids new clothes I undressed them all. By the time I got to the last child I was taking off his clothes and I got to his diaper and wow did it smell. For some reason this kid always has a poopie diaper right before bath time and it is sooo bad. I promise Mexican poop is so bad compared to American poop. Well anyway back to Mario’s poopie diaper. When I took it off it was sooo bad and there were like pieces of corn in it and I was so grossed out and I went to get wipes and they weren’t there. So I had to do it the Mexican way and wash his butt in the shower. Elizabeth and I successfully bathed all the babies and got them dressed we were proud.
Sunday nothing too fun happened or at least nothing I can remember. I had a stupid Spanish moment with one of the tia’s. Mario had another really bad diaper and I remembered the corn from yesterday so I tried telling Kati about it. I mixed up my words so instead of saying that Mario had corn in his diaper I said that he had a tree in his diaper. Kati just looked at me then went back to washing the babies. She seemed really confused and then I realized what I had said and I quickly corrected myself. We then died laughing at how I had mixed up my words. After work we all went to the local pizzeria to get have our first pizza since being down here. Since there were four of us we got the grande pizza. It was huge but we devoured it. when we got home we put in a movie but Melissa and Elyssa (the new intern) went to bed. By the time the movie ended me and Elizabeth were still not ready to go to bed so we stayed up talking and looking at the map puzzle we have till 2:30am. When we were looking at the map we were picking out what country we wanted to start our orphanage in. We decided Ghana was our best bet because they speak English haha. Melissa and Elizabeth started working on the details for our orphanage haha. Melissa is going to be the person that does the laundry, Elizabeth is going to be the cook and I am going to be in charge of the kids. Elizabeth has already started on her recipes of snakes and poptarts its pretty great lol.
Monday was my day off so I got to sleep in. I did a little cleaning before Melissa got off. When Melissa got back we decided to do something with our lives and go play basketball at the park. We played around for a little bit then the little Oaxcan kids showed up so we got to play with them for awhile. It really made my day that we got to hang out with them for a little bit. They are the most adorable kids and now that Lencho (the 3 year old boy) speaks more Spanish we can now communicate more! After VBS we went over to use the internet and then to our surprise of friends from church came over to hang out with us. We were so excited because we never had visitors before. We went back to our house and got all settled in when our new roommate told us it was too late to have people over. I was pretty annoyed not gonna lie because I have been here for over 2 months and this is the first time we have actually had friends come over. We have the perfect hang out house for stuff like that and its really hard because we all work till 8 so the only time we can have people over is late. So to please her we left and went and hung out at the park. We still had a pretty good time and it was really great to be able to hang out with other kids. I mean I love Melissa and Elizabeth but having other people to hang out with us is nice for a change. One of the kids name is Tatan and I have known him since my first week. He is fluent in English so he speaks spanglish with us and its awesome. Tatan learned his English from hanging out with the kids from the Ventana ministry. It has taken him four years but if you talked to him you wouldn’t even know the English is his second language. On our walk back home we decided that we should do something on Tuesday during the day since its mine and Melissa’s day off. We told them to just come over in the morning and we could figure something out.
So Tuesday morning came pretty fast and I was awoken by Melissa jumping on my bed telling me to get up and get ready for Tatan and Caleb because they were going to be here soon. I am not a morning person and I think she found that our really fast haha. soon after I rolled out of bed Tatan and Caleb arrived ready to go on our adventure. They asked what we wanted to do and right away I said I wanted to climb a mountain. They are all use to the mountains so climbing them never really crosses their mind. But since I am from Illinois where everything is flat I am so amazed by all the mountains. Since they couldn’t think of anything else to do they decided that we could go find a mountain to climb… I was soooo excited. We got on our bikes and started out on our adventure. It was a pretty long ride to the mountain and we didn’t really know where we could get access to the mountain because there is private property in front of all the mountains. Caleb told us to pull over and that we were going to hop a barbed wire fence and ride through a pasture. I just thought to myself how interesting this is going to be because I have never hopped a barbed wire fence lol. Caleb was the first one to go so he got himself and his bike over and then a car drove by so he hopped back over and stopped them. I didn’t really know what he was doing then but he ended up asking them if we can ride through their property because they have a gate and it would be a lot easier. The people had no problem with it so we followed them to their property. We were that much closer to climbing the mountain and I was so excited. We made it a little bit up the mountain and decided that it was a good time to ditch the bikes. It was definitely an adventure. There was no path so it pretty rough haha but I was so excited I didn’t even care that my legs were getting all scratched up. Halfway up the mountain Tatan said he was hungry haha it was a little too late to say that because we were definitely not turning back. So we finally made it up the mountain and I was so proud that I could finally say that I climbed the mountain. The trek down the mountain was so much easier because we found a path haha. Halfway down I realized that I was getting fried and I had no sunscreen. By the time we made it to our bikes I was soooo red and ready to head back and go to Esmerelda’s for some hamberguesa’s. that was definitely my funnest day off I had ever had and it’s kind of a bummer that we just now started to really hang out with other kids when we’re going to leave in less than 2 weeks. After VBS Elizabeth, Melissa and I decided that we wanted to make a fort so we pulled out the blankets and chairs and started to work on our soon to be awesome fort. We were total kids but we had a good time. While Elizabeth and Melissa constructed the tent I was in charge of making the hats, rules and decorations. So after a lot of glitter, construction paper, paper towel rolls and blankets our fort, hats and telescopes were complete. We then ate tortillas and had a tea party in our tent. It feels so nice to be a kid sometimes. I am definitely going to miss my awesome roommates way too much :(

7-11-10

So this past week has been very interesting haha. One of the last things I talked about in my last blog was about how I was still sick … well of course it didn’t get better it just got worse lol. Before I jump to Thursday when I got really sick I’m going to talk about Wednesday, the day I thought I was getting better.

So Wednesday morning the other two interns and I decided to go to Ensenada for the some shopping and touristy things. We ventured out to the bus stop around 8:15 the only problem was we weren’t really sure what the bus looked like or even if we were at the right bus stop lol. The video I posted is of us waiting for the bus wondering where are bus was because we were there on time and the bus wasn’t but of course its Mexico and nothing is on time. We made it on the bus and in my head I was thinking is this bus ride going to be as bad as the one I took when I was in Africa last year. Good news it wasn’t. we were the first to be picked up on the route so we got some good seats and were all ready to set out on this awesome adventure. The drive to Ensenada is only about 40 minutes but since we were riding the bus it took about an hour and thirty minutes. After numerous stops through the different towns we made it to the final stop. We got off at the bus stop -which was a little different than what I expected haha- and headed towards the giant Mexico flag. A piece of advice that we were told was that if you are ever lost just look for the giant flag in the sky and walk towards it. on our way to the flag we were also looking for starbucks because you have to take advantage of a starbucks if its there. After living in Porvenir for 7 weeks whenever something like that is offered one thing I learned is always take advantage. We couldn’t find it so we decided to ask someone if they knew where it was. We went into a grocery and asked one of the ladies that worked there but it was definitely a bad idea because she had no clue what a starbucks was and when we said coffee she started taking us back to the coffee section in their store. After trying to explain that it was a coffee restaurant we decided to just leave and find it on our own. We made it to the touristy section of Ensenada and no joke we turned the corner and everyone spoke English, probably the funniest thing of the day by far. At that moment we were ambushed by Mexicans trying to sell us things and all we wanted was some starbucks haha. After walking a little more through the different touristy streets we finally found it and we were so happy. We got ourselves some awesome coffee and then headed out to do some shopping and get ambushed by more Mexicans trying to sell us things. It was really funny because a cruise ship had stopped there for the day so there were a bunch of Americans there and they all thought we were a part of the cruise and kept offering us cruise bracelets and stuff. We then started speaking in Spanish to some of the workers and they went crazy, they were so excited to hear us speak Spanish. Now yes we don’t speak it very well but compared to all the people on the cruise we did pretty well. After too much money was spent on jewelry, blankets, and other stuff we decided to get some lunch. We walked a little bit out of the way of the touristy area and found a little taco place and best part about the restaurant was that it had a world cup game playing so I was all for eating there. The tacos were awesome of course but I knew I needed to be careful on what I ate because my stomach was still hurting and I wasn’t feeling 100% better yet so I couldn’t try anything new like the two other girls could. After we ate Melissa and Elizabeth really wanted to go see the movie eclipse so having no other choice I went to haha but it wasn’t that bad, a little weird but it was only $3 so I can’t really complain and who know I may even watch the two first movies when I get back to the states in August. After the movie we needed to get some groceries so once again we ventured out to find a grocery store. We knew there wouldn’t be one by the tourist section because what person on a cruise needs to buy groceries lol. Elizabeth and I decided that if we came here without Melissa we probably would not have made it off the bus so we gotta give a lot of the credit to Melissa for getting us around everywhere. The sad part was I had been to Ensenada twice and Melissa had never been there before. We got our groceries stopped off at a local bakery and then were headed home. We got a lot of stares on the ride home. There were a bunch of young guys behind us talking about us lol we could only make out a couple of words so weren’t really sure what they were saying but they couldn’t stop staring lol. About thirty minutes into the bus ride I started to feel really sick again yikes and then to top it off the bus got so full all three of us had to squeeze into one seat. Gosh by the time we got home I was feeling so nauseous and dizzy it was awful. The walk back to the house was awful and it wasn’t even that long but every step I took my stomach ached more and more. I had VBS that night to and I had taken work off to be able to go to Ensenada with the girls so I didn’t want to miss that too so I decided to toughen up and go to it. Probably not the brightest idea I have ever had because it seemed to have only made things worse. By the time I got home all I wanted to do was go to sleep but my stomach had other ideas.

Im pretty sure I was in the bathroom more than I was in my bed. After a long night of fevers, trips to the bathroom and no sleep I was absolutely exhausted. I knew something was really wrong with me so I went to talk to Alison. She took me to the local Doctor to see what she could do. We got there, she asked a few questions about my symptoms told me she was going to give me a shot to stop the vomiting the prescribed me some prescriptions and then I was off. The interesting thing to me was that she didn’t touch me once other than to give me the shot, she didn’t examine me or anything so pretty much I could have made up all those symptoms and it wouldn’t have mattered if I was really sick because she would have given it to me anyway. So we went back to the house and I tried to sleep, tried is the key word. I could not sleep worth my life so I ended up just laying in bed and watching One Tree Hill all day. For those of you who don’t know what One Tree Hill is, it is my favorite TV show so I was definitely glad to have that with me. Four disks later I finally fell asleep but only to be woken up 30 minutes later to Melissa and Elizabeth telling me that Danna and Joshua were being adopted and leaving in 45 minutes. I immediately started to freak out because I didn’t know how to handle what they just told me. Danna was my favorite little girl there. The week before I had to say goodbye to Isabel and that hurt a lot but I never thought I would have to say bye to Danna this soon and to top it off I was too sick to leave my house to say goodbye. I was an emotional wreck and I couldn’t even cry because it hurt my stomach too much. I was very thankful that Danna got a home but also so sad to know that she won’t be there when I return to work. I don’t understand DIF at all. It takes months maybe even years to be able to adopt a child but they only give the orphanage maybe a days notice that the kid is leaving and in this case only 45 minutes. How can you give a child 45 minutes to say goodbye to all her friends and pack up her stuff. I feel like that is just screwed up. So yeah especially after that news I was feeling even worse for the rest of the day. I woke up the next morning well I shouldn’t really say I woke up because I really didn’t sleep but anyway I still not feeling any better and still not getting any sleep or food in my body. We decided that it would probably be a good idea if I went to the states to see a doctor. We set out that morning for the states and man was that a bad car ride. Not all the roads to the border are paved so the roads that aren’t paved are bumpy and really bad for my stomach haha. I think it’s about a 2 hour trip to the border so with all the bumps and the windey roads I somehow made it without getting sick. We dropped our things off at the condo then headed to the emergency room and wow that was an experience for sure.

Oh the emergency room where do I start lol. So Alison dropped me off at the door since it really hurt to walk so she went to park the car while I registered for what I thought was going to be a long wait. As I was putting my name on the list the guy asked me the main questions like “what’s wrong” “where were you” and so on. I told him my symptoms then told him I was working at an orphanage in Mexico for the summer. He looked up at me with a puzzled look and asked me what I do in the orphanage. I told him that I just work with the kids and just love on them. At first he just stared at me then he told me how awesome that was and how impressed he was and so on then he told me that he was going to see what he could do about getting me in faster. I said thanks not really thinking he was really going to do anything until surprise surprise not even two minutes later they called my name. I headed back to the room and they asked me a few question did a couple of examinations then right away hooked me up to some saline. Evidently my heart rate was really fast meaning I was really dehydrated lol looks like you learn something new every day. So the question that I got the most was not “what are your symptoms” or “how are you feeling now” but “you work in Mexico? How old are you?” I guess everyone thought I was sixteen years old haha. One Doctor asked me if my mom came with me and when I said no I work at an orphanage in Mexico and that my mom is back in Illinois he asked me if I am old enough to work in an orphanage and live by myself. I looked at him and just laughed and said I am a sophomore in college I would hope I can handle myself. A little bit later Alison came in to be my mom for the rest of the night. I was glad that she was there it was nice having company. Six hours later, two bags of saline, a bunch of meds and a bunch of tests later I was finally released. It went by pretty fast for me but I felt bad for Alison, it takes an amazing person to sit in an emergency room for six hours when it’s not even your child. By the time we got home it was about 9:30 and with all the meds in my body I was sooo tired. I was so excited to wake up and see the sun. I pretty much made it through the whole night with no problem and that was the best feeling in the world. I still didn’t feel too great but I did feel better. Phil and Alison have a condo here in San Diego so Alison and I have been relaxing here for the weekend. It’s a really great place to relax because right outside the back door is a beautiful lake so all I have been doing is laying around and waiting to get better. Alison has been so amazing and has taken care of me so well I owe her so much. She told me she was glad that I had another appointment that way we could stay here till Monday and have time to relax haha. So yeah I have had an interesting week but even though it has been awful and painful there has been a couple of blessings that I have gotten while being here. I have gotten to talk to my family and friends since I have phone service, I have gotten to sleep in an amazing comfy bed and get some good needed sleep, I got to watch the final game of the world cup soccer game and I got to hang out with Alison and get to know her even more. So yeah I have my hopefully last doctor appointment tomorrow and then I should be on my way back to Porvenir!

7-6-10

So my Spanish has gotten so much better but it is still pretty bad at the same time haha. you hear those stories about people getting their words mixed up and end up either offending someone or making a total fool out of themselves well I can now say that that has happened to me… a lot. I always thought to myself how can someone really do that well now I know how. I’m sure I have made a fool out of myself many times but there are two times in particular that I remember and they both happened on Friday. The first one I meant to say “when I talk does it sound funny” but instead I said “when you talk you sound funny” at first I didn’t know why Zelena was staring at me and then I thought back to what I said and we both started cracking up laughing. Haha those verbs get so confusing and I forgot to change the ending which totally screwed the whole sentence up lol. The second one was when me and Zelena were outside watching the kids and we were going over Spanish and English together and she asked me what the weather was like and instead of saying “it’s sunny without a cloud in the sky” I said “it’s sunny with no sky” and all the kids started laughing at me and I couldn’t help but realize how funny I sound when I talk.
Another funny thing that happened was when we were giving all the babies a bath and as we give them baths the older boys come in and shower too. Well Brandon, one of the older boys left his shoes out and Tavita, who is two and not potty-trained was by his shoes and no joke I saw it all happen, she stood up over his shoes squatted and peed right in them then got up and waddled away. I couldn’t help but die laughing and no one else saw it so they all just stared at me wondering what I was laughing at. I told Jose (one of the older boys that wasn’t in the shower yet) and he started laughing too and then told Brandon all about it. it is now the joke that when its bath time Brandon needs to watch where he puts his shoes haha.
So now that I shared two funny moments with you now it’s time for an awkward moment. You all may just laugh but to me it was creepy and awkward haha. So there is this guy here that goes to the church and he likes me or something. Well the Ventana kids warned me about him before they left haha they said that he had liked one of the interns that came before me and that I may be the next candidate. He had come up and tried to talk to me when I first got here but lucky for me I didn’t speak Spanish very well so there really wasn’t much to be said. Well I had told Melissa and Elizabeth about him and that I think he likes me because he always tries to talk to me, haha I don’t know if they didn’t believe me how awkward it was or what but I saw him at the park and I said “hey guys can we go he is over there” and they just took their sweet ole time haha and so he saw me and came over. It was sooo awkward I don’t even know how to describe it. when he first walked over to us he asked me and then the other girls how we were doing and so he said “como estas” well then a couple minutes later after he asked me why he didn’t see me at church anymore (even though I am there every Sunday) he said “como estado?” Well I knew that it came from the same verb as estas so it had to mean the same thing but why would he ask me the same question in a different way? to me that just seemed weird because I had already told him I was fine so I said “no se” which means “I don’t know”. Haha so finally after an awkward couple of minutes he left and we all just started cracking up because it was so awkward. After he left we asked Zelena (one of the tia’s I work with who was also at the park) if como estas and como estado meant the same thing and she said yes. So pretty much he asked me how I was doing twice the first time I said good and the second time I said I don’t know haha. well to make this situation even more awkward we were at church on Sunday and it was the end of service and me and Elizabeth were walking out and then he came out of nowhere grabbed my hand and pulled me in for a kiss then ran away haha. It took me like 10 seconds to realize what just happened and then I looked at Elizabeth and we just started cracking up. So yeah that story right there wins by far as the most awkward moment ever haha.
The fourth of July was really awesome. I woke up thinking nothing special would really happen considering I am in Mexico but on Sunday we were invited to go to a fourth of July party put on by the directors of the ventana ministry. It started at 7 and we all brought deserts. They had a bunch of couches outside and then set up a projector so we could watch a movie under the stars. It was really cool. And then lucky for us it was Election Day for Mexico so we got fireworks too. It was a pretty awesome Fourth of July if I do say so myself.
So either mexico hates me or I just have the worst immune system ever because I am pretty sure I have been sick here more than I have been well. Monday started my day off and I woke up with a terrible stomach ache. I then went through the rest of the day with an icky feeling and my skin feeling sensitive to everything. I thought maybe I needed to get out and do something active so after Melissa got off work we went on a bike ride and when I got back I felt worse than before. It turns out I think I got the flu because I was absolutely freezing and I had like 3 blankets on me and Melissa was in shorts and a t shirt. I ended up not going to VBS because I felt too weak and sick to go. Thank goodness for Elizabeth and Melissa they are so awesome and did all of it by themselves. So I went to bed at like 8 but did not sleep a full two hours and I was constantly getting sick. So yeah not the funnest two days off ever but as long as I am ok by tomorrow I will be happy because Melissa, Elizabeth and I are going to Ensenada tomorrow woot woot … I will be better for that!
So yeah I just got the saddest news ever … Phil and Alison are stepping down from being the Mexican directors of Niño’s de Baja. They will be leaving in December eeekkkk that is way too soon :( and sooo sad so just pray for this mission that they can get 2 more amazing directors just like Phil and Alison … they for sure have some big
shoes to fill.

So the new picture is of Maria Isabel and her little brother Humberto who left the orphanage on Wednesday and the video is for you dad haha this is what soccer is like in el Porvenir.

7-1-10

So things here have been getting pretty busy since last week, I haven’t had time to write much. I don’t remember what day I left off with so I will just start with the beginning of my week. Let me introduce you to the new interns first because I will probably be talking a lot about them. Their names are Melissa and Elizabeth. They are from Camarillo California and go to Calpoly University. They are a year older than me and are sooo awesome. It is so nice having them here at the house and it is so great that I already feel like I know them so well. Melissa works the morning shift, 7am-2pm and Elizabeth works my shift 12pm-7pm. Sunday was their first time at church here and Melissa got to go to the Sunday school class since they take the kids to the early morning service and that’s before mine and Elizabeth’s shift starts. Me and Elizabeth made some amazing pancakes to start out our day then walked to church. The church service cracks me up because the minister there is American but if you didn’t know that then you would totally think he was Mexican. While service is going you will randomly hear him speak English and at first when he did it I didn’t really know that he was speaking English haha I just thought I was understanding Spanish a lot better. Anyway after church I went to work but I only worked for about 2 hours and then I had my last soccer game. Of course we got beat but we played really well and I scored the last goal so that was really cool. Since Melissa wasn’t working she came and watched haha I felt bad for her because we lost but it was still a good game. After my game and Elizabeth got off work we went to Hamberguesas Eslmerelda’s which is the hamburger place by our house and got some burgers. Once again it was amazing and totally worth it because for a huge meal its only like $3.

Monday was my day off of course and so I needed to start getting my lesson plans ready since the 6 week VBS was going to be starting in the park. I stayed up late the night before thinking that you know hey it’s my day off tomorrow I will get to sleep in but nooo I was woken up at 8 to pounding on my walls haha. The groups project for the week was to work on the outside of our house so for the whole day there was pounding and scraping. Since Melissa gets off work at 2 it’s like I have a day off with her too. While I was working on my lesson plans she decided to experiment and make some refried beans. Not knowing how much beans expand we ended making like 3 pots full of beans. So pretty much the whole day we made crafts and beans haha. The tortillas here are absolutely amazing! You by them at the store and they are fresh and hot so me and Melissa went to the store to pick up a few things and of course some tortillas. We ended up making an awesome dinner. We made taquitos, tortilla chips, rice and beans. I’m pretty proud I now know how to make Mexican food woot woot. After dinner we went to the park for the start of the VBS. I read from the Bible of the story of creation of day 1. My lesson plans for this week and next is all about creation. The kids loved the craft so that was exciting. Kids here in Mexico don’t get to do a lot of stuff like that so anything that has to do with crafts is very much loved. With my lesson plans I tried to be as creative as possible so that way they could have a big variety of new things. Day 1 of VBS was a success.

Tuesday was both mine and Melissa’s day off. We decided that maybe we should clean the house haha it was looking pretty bad. We cleaned and mopped the floors then did all the dishes. That took up a lot of our day and then we worked on our lesson plans for VBS that night. At VBS that night this little boy and girl were there and they were of course so adorable. They were a little different looking than the others and then Alison told us that they are Mohawkins. They don’t speak Spanish and of course they don’t speak English so we couldn’t really explain to them what to do. They are from an Indian tribe but moved to Porvenir and they live in a little shack behind a little taco stand. Niño’s de Baja has been supporting them a little here and there by giving them extra food and clothes. We had a couple more kids than the night before but Alison said by the 3rd week we should be getting more and more people. After the VBS we went home and decided to learn the Waka Waka dance haha. For those of you who don’t know what the waka waka dance is I will explain it to you. It is a song by Shakira and it was made for the world cup so being here in Mexico where soccer is such a big sport this song is played a lot. The older kids at the orphanage even learned it for a school program haha. so since I have the coolest roommates ever we decided to learn it and make a music video … it’s probably the funniest/most embarrassing movie ever but oh well it was a total blast.

Wednesday was by far the hardest day for me since I have been here. I found out the night before that two of the kids were leaving the orphanage. Isabel who is 5and Humberto who is 3 are brother and sister and were brought to Niño’s because their mother was a drug addict and continually left them home alone so their neighbor called DIF for neglect and they placed them at the orphanage. They have been at Niño’s for about 7 months so it was really hard for everyone to say goodbye. When I got to the orphanage I went straight to go and see Isabel. She looked at me with her beautiful eyes and said “Tia Diana Adios” and then came over and gave me the biggest hug ever. She looked especially cute that morning. She was in a beautiful white dress with her hair done. A couple minutes later I was sitting on her bed and she came up and sat on my lap and started crying. Out of all the people she came to me to cry too … not a good idea lol because I didn’t want to cry in front of her and with her crying in my arms it was so hard to contain myself. I just held her in my arms and let her cry while an occasional tear would roll down my cheek as well. By the time DIF came to get them everyone was really sad to see them go. We all gathered around and held hands while we prayed for them and their new home, we said our goodbyes and they were off. All the adults were crying and a couple of the older kids as well. Isabel was such a sweet heart and it was really hard saying bye to her but we were also so happy for her. After that all the kids just stayed outside to play but I noticed that Danna wasn’t so I went inside to look for her. She was on the couch with her face in the cushion. All the older kids were having a really hard time with them leaving because A. she was one of the older kids and she was friends with them and B. they also want a home too so seeing her go is just a reminder that they don’t have one. I went over to Danna and she crawled on to my lap. I asked her how she was and if she was really really sad that Isabel had left. She looked up with tears in her eyes and said “Si Mucho” which means “yes a lot.” She lay in my arms for about 30 minutes just crying. I couldn’t help but cry as well with her. After a while I finally got her to get up and go outside and try and have a little fun and as we were leaving little Brandon walked in (Brandon is 7 and is a total sweetheart) and gave me a hug and a kiss. Gosh how could you not feel better after that? The rest of the day was hard for everyone but we got through it. I have been here for 7 weeks and I have seen 5 kids go but this one was by far the hardest for me, I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like leaving to go home. These kids have become my family; I know everything about them I can even tell which baby is crying if I am in a different room haha sad I know. Melissa, Elizabeth and I joke around that when were not with the kids were talking about them so pretty much they are our life haha. I feel like if someone were to ask me if I had any kids I could be one of those parents that pulls out there wallet and out drop 19 pictures of 19 beautiful children and I could go on and on about them all day. So yeah that’s my life here I don’t really know what else to say other than this has been the best summer of my life. I feel like I have grown so much and had so many wonderful opportunities woot woot what an awesome summer.

6-26-10

It has been an awesome week for sure! The VBS went amazing and it’s nice to have other people in the house. The last night of the VBS there was a party or I should say FIESTA for all the kids and their families. Since it was still my shift I helped take the kids to the park. So we loaded up the 19 kids in the car and headed to the park. Wow that was the hardest thing I have ever done by far haha. Try taking 19 kids to a park with 5 adults and 2 of those adults (being me and the other intern) not being fluent in Spanish haha wooo it was a task for sure. We only lost one kid, Sarai, and that was for like 5 minutes. She ended up in some line she really wanted to play some games. After the all the kids got their turn on the bounce house it was time to get them settled down to eat. we had a table for all the little kids and the 5 older ones were kind of on their own. After all the kids ate and no one else was in line me and the two other interns got to eat and it was sooo good. I don’t think I could ever get sick of chicken, tacos, rice and beans. It was a total success and such a great thing for the community.
Thursday we were cleaning up from dinner and I went in the bathroom real quick and when I came out Isabelle came up to me and said “Tia Tia the police are here!” I didn’t even know how to respond to that lol. When I came out another said “Tia Diana the babies are outside!” I was gone for maybe 2 minutes and bam it was craziness. I saw that both Tias were outside and Elizabeth was sitting on the couch with some other kids so I decided to go get the babies from outside lol. Selena came in and told me to hurry and clean up but because Raquel was coming. Raquel is our boss and it was her day off so things are a little more relaxed when she isn’t there but within two minutes we had the whole dining room cleaned up and in place before she came in. so not knowing what was going on I finally got a chance to ask and found out it wasn’t the police it was just a lady from the state coming to check on a little girl named Sandra. Sandra was here for a short while last summer before leaving in September. Sadly, wherever she was placed was not good for her and when she returned she had bad burns on her foot and arm. No one knows any details really so that lady was checking her out.
Today was a great day, very relaxed and it went by very fast. Melissa and I did some laundry in the morning (Dory I don’t know how you do it every day). Imagine sorting out 19 kids clothes and putting them all away woo that’s a task for sure. We had lunch then Raquel put me in charge of the older girls. That was really fun! After we cleaned up the room we went outside to play. We learned a new handshake and then turned it into a game. A little later the college group from Ensenada came so that meant that we pretty much didn’t have to do anything. They brought a piñata for the kids some candy and then gave us all fresh fruit … it was GREAT! While they all played with the kids Selena helped me with some Spanish. I brought some of my notecards and we were going over the Spanish side and English side then Danna saw and wanted to play the game too. She told us that she was our teacher and it was the cutest thing ever. I don’t think I will ever have a favorite kid here because they are all so amazing and wonderful but Danna has a special place in my heart for sure. She is the most beautiful, crazy, energetic and wonderful girl. We made up a dance and she wants to do it all the time. She also loves to flip around with me so we flip and dance together and joke around all the time and it’s so much fun. After work we took a little trip to the store. Seriously though when I say the store I wish you could visualize what it is. I’m pretty sure there are gas stations that have more food than the store haha. We got some food and decided that one of these days were going to try and make a legit Mexican meal so this should be interesting. So I have this obsession with solitaire haha I can play for hours and I don’t really know of anyone else that does that. My roommate at school always made fun of me for playing it all the time. Well it turns out Elizabeth and Melissa, the other interns love solitaire so we were sitting in the living room for an hour playing solitaire on our computers and the whole time they were trash talking each other. I then decided that we were the biggest losers for sitting and playing solitaire for an hour and trash talking then Elizabeth gave the best quote by saying “we have already been to the store, what else is there to do in Porvenir!” That quote describes Porvenir perfectly. Porvenir has one store and three restaurants and one of them closes at five. It has one paved road and the rest is all dirt. Finding things to do in Porvenir is difficult but for some reason this little town has captured my heart. I wake up every morning with a smile on my face ready for my day. Everything is so easygoing here and it’s awesome. Angel, a boy at the orphanage wrote a letter to his special friend and asked Elizabeth to give it to Alison to send it in the mail for him. The kids have special friends in America that write them letters and send them gifts; I think I talked about that in my last blog. Anyway Alison has been gone for the past two days so it’s just been sitting here at our house. Well we got a little curious and decided to read it and I just wanted to go give him a hug and take him home with me, it said something like this. “Hello how are you? I wish to see you and I love you with all my heart and I know you love me too. My name is Angel” I couldn’t read it perfectly of course but combining the three of us together that’s what we got. I cried when I read that. I wish you guys knew Angel. Gosh it really just yanked on my heart. Angel is this super athletic boy who doesn’t really smile that much but loves to run and play. To know that this wonderful letter came from him is just wow. How could anyone not want such a sweet little boy? Once again such an eye opener at how much love these kids need from everyone. Porvenir you have captured my heart!!!

6-22-10

The VBS started this week and so far it has been awesome. A group from California comes down every year to put on this huge VBS for the community. It is a group of about 20 and only a couple of them speak Spanish but then there are four sisters that come as well to help translate everything. These four sisters grew up in the orphanage and now come back to help. They are in their twenties and either just graduated college or is still in college. The group came Saturday but I didn’t meet them until Sunday and that was only for a couple minutes because I then had a soccer game I had to go to. Monday I met them and they were so nice and welcoming. They invited me to every meal and to hang out with them whenever. I went over there for lunch on Monday and met everyone and it was awesome. They were very busy getting ready for the VBS. I was mainly there to help with whatever needed to be done. The first day was a success for sure we had about 80 kids which was awesome. After the VBS they invited Phil, Alison and I to dinner. It was amazing! I don’t even know what it was but it was sooo good. They are such a welcoming group it was really nice to have social time in English for once.
Today was the second day of the VBS and my day off. For some reason I am having problems sleeping at night. I am pretty sure every night for the past week I have maybe gotten four hours of sleep I don’t know why. I got up this morning at six and tried to force myself to keep sleeping but it didn’t work. I also think I have allergies or something because ever since I have gotten here I have had a stopped up nose and I am always sneezing … weird. Anyway there is a bug problem in my house. I told Phil about it a couple days ago but I think he forgot so I went and ask one of the workers for bug killer stuff haha and I did it in Spanish woohoo. I went to the VBS for awhile to help out and take some pictures. Tia Kati was there with the little kids playing on the playground so I hung out with them for awhile then decided to come back because Phil was supposed to be back with my package. I met the new interns they are awesome. It will be nice to have more people in this house. We all went over for dinner with the group again. They fixed STEAK!!! Once again it was amazing but I ate so much and then I had soccer practice ughh not a good idea. Practice for some reason was extra long tonight blaahh I thought I was going to die. Anyway got a busy week this week and I am sooo excited for it!!!!

6-20-10

Once again time took over and I haven’t really had time to write a blog everyday so I am just going to talk about what all has gone on since Friday. Friday me and the two Tia’s I work with (Selena and Kati) took the kids to the park. So we loaded up all 19 kids and the three of us in one minivan and headed to the park. It was a tight squeeze but we all fit and got there with no problem. At first me, Selena and Kati just sat on the benches with the little ones and watched but after awhile they dared me to go slide on the slide haha. This playground is a little different from the ones in the states, it’s a lot taller. So I took Tabita who had been sitting on my lap the whole time (she was too scared to go on the playground by herself) and we went down the huge curly slide and it was a success, Tabita loved it. The Tia’s were laughing because they didn’t think I would actually go (they obviously don’t know me that well yet haha). I then took Danna over to the bars to teach her how to flip on them (for those of you who don’t really know what I am talking about they are the bars that are kind of like uneven bars in gymnastics). I showed her what to do first and then in excitement she tried. After a couple tries she was flipping and swinging around all by herself. After a couple minutes of all the kids watching Danna do these cool tricks they all wanted to learn. So I had about ten kids (kids from the orphanage and then kids I didn’t even know) all saying “my turn my turn help me Tia Diana”. We did that for about an hour which was a real workout for my arms. The other Tia’s came over and were joking around that they were going to try so then I told Selena that she needs to do the monkey bars. It took her a couple tries but she finally made it across. It was funny for a couple reasons the first was because if you were to pass by the park you would see three women playing on the playground equipment like they were kids and then you would hear me trying to speak Spanish to them explaining what to do. Selena and I then had a contest with the older kids to see who could jump off the swing the highest. I have such an amazing job just think about what I get to do all day who could complain about that. After the park we brought the kids back and gave them baths then fed them dinner. Thursdays and Fridays are a little more relaxed because the head lady isn’t there working so Selena and Kati joke around a lot more and attempt to have conversations with me. I remember my first week here I was intimidated by them because I couldn’t talk to them so I just sat and ate with the kids but now I can somewhat talk to them so I sometimes just stay in the kitchen and joke around with them while the kids eat. The kids aren’t too happy about me not sitting with them for every meal but I do want to get to know Selena and Kati too.
Nothing really happened on Saturday. The group from the college came to do their community service and play with the kids so that meant that I wouldn’t really have to do anything but watch and make sure no one escaped haha. It’s so awesome how this group comes every other week to see these kids. Every time they come they bring some type of treat and food. Last time they brought a Piñata so the kids were really hoping for that again. They stayed pretty late so we couldn’t bathe the kids till about six which is usually when we feed them dinner. That was my Saturday nothing to big but still fun.
Today, I got up planning on going to church but a project I was working on for father’s day took a little longer than I thought because the internet is soooo slow. But I figured hey I can’t understand the preacher half the time anyway I will just have my own church here. So I listened to a podcast while I waited for the thing to load on my computer. By the time it got done it was mid service so I decided to just go over to the orphanage and help with the babies. I was there about an hour and then all the others returned from church. They all asked me why I wasn’t at church haha and I really didn’t know what to say so I just said I had to talk to my parents on the phone. After lunch Adrianna’s mom showed up to bring a cake for her Birthday. It was really nice of her; she is working really hard on showing Adrianna that she wants her back. She bought cake, jello and pop for all the kids. Her mom wasn’t allowed to stay for a long time though because it wasn’t visiting days. We stayed outside and played for awhile so I taught Danna a dance routine. She was in love with it and wanted to do it again and again. After awhile the group that is doing the VBS came to say hi to the kids. I was a little bummed that I couldn’t stay to meet them all but I had a game at 5 so I had to leave. The game was awesome! I am finally getting used to the court and I scored the first goal. I was very happy because I have never gotten to play forward in all the years that I have played so I was pretty proud to score. We lost but not by much and we played the best team so that was exciting. Tomorrow is my day off but I volunteered to help with the VBS so this should be fun!

5-17-10

So today I got up ready to go on my morning run and I couldn’t even stand without my calves burning. It looks like I was a little too active yesterday. Instead of running I decided to work on my Spanish a little. After a pretty easy morning I had to go to work. Let me rephrase that I GOT to go to work! What a great job I have. What can be better than PLAYING and acting like a child all day? The first hour I was there I played ring around the rosie (or something like that haha it was in Spanish so I didn’t really know what we were saying). After lunch I helped Maria (the cook) clean up the kitchen. It was a good time. As we were washing the dishes she would help me with my verbs. I am really glad that I got to go on that shopping trip with her on Tuesday because I feel a lot more comfortable around her now. After the kitchen was all clean I went outside to hang out with the kids. We played some hide and seek and some tag then we became exhausted (and by now my already burning claves were even worse haha) so we decided to take a little break. Ray and Berta came to say bye to the kids because they are leaving tomorrow morning, I am so sad. They are the sweetest people ever and I am so glad I got to meet them!
Later on the Tia’s brought out some cucumbers with chili salt on them haha. What an interesting snack. The two Tia’s I work with the most is Selena and Kati. They are so funny and so sweet. They joke around with me now that we are used to each other. They think it’s weird that I don’t like the chili salt on my fruit. The kids were digging in like they were eating popcorn or something. I decided to try it and after the fifth one I decided that it wasn’t bad but I would definitely rather eat something else if it was offered. After the two bowls were devoured by the kids there was nothing left but the cucumber juice and chili salt and all the kids fought over who got drink the rest. That totally crossed my line blaahhhh. Selena joked around and offered it to me but there was no way that I was going to drink that. Later on Selena, Kati and I sat around talking while the kids used all their energy in the yard. Well I should say I was attempting to talk. With the little vocabulary I do know we attempted to have a conversation which turned into them helping me with my Spanish some more. While going over the Spanish verbs they asked me to help them with English. It was a good time for sure. I feel really comfortable around them now and I am glad because the first two weeks I was here I was really intimidated by them lol.
I had soccer practice tonight but Kari wasn’t going to be able to go so I decided to go on my own. I rode my bike to the fields and I was a little late because my shift at the orphanage. But of course were on flexico time which means there is really no such thing as being late. Practice was supposed to be at 6:30 but we didn’t even really start till 7:15. It was a good practice, a lot a lot of conditioning (which of course killed my calves haha). By the time 8:15 rolled around and it was getting dark so I told them I had to go since I was riding my bike home alone and I promised my dad that I would be safe (so I left early for you dad haha). Yeah so by the time I got home I could barely walk … my calves hurt sooo bad!!!

6-16-10

Today was my day off woo hoo! I forced myself to sleep in cause I needed sleep bad. I went on a pretty long run in the afternoon. Everyone calls me crazy for running in the afternoon because it is so hot but I would rather run in the heat than not be able to sleep in. I decided that instead of resting on my day off I was going to try and be active most of the day so I forced myself to find things to do. I played a little soccer at the park and did a little gymnastics and that took up most of my day. When I went over to the orphanage to borrow a soccer ball I noticed that the ten balls they had were all flat so I went and got a pump to pump them all up. Rafael helped me. Rafael is only four so it took twice as long to pump them up but I knew he wanted to help and I was in no hurry.
It was Adrianna’s birthday today so I went over after lunch to take some pictures and help celebrate her birthday. Most of the kids all have sponsors so on their birthday they send them gifts. Phil and Alison also got her a present so she got two. Phil baked a delicious cake for her as well so I would say it was a pretty good birthday for her. All the kids gathered around as she opened her presents so she had many helpers even if she didn’t want help. Then it was time to eat the cake. It was a mess after they were all finished eating. Even though on my day offs I miss working at the orphanage today I was very happy I was off because it would have been my job to clean it all up.
For dinner I went over to the local hamburger place and got some dinner and finally got to watch a world cup game. What could be better than eating the best cheeseburgers and watching some amazing soccer? After dinner I went over to the daycare to check my email on my computer. As I was leaving the ladies at the daycare were leaving too and locked up the gate on their way out. As I was walking back to my house I realized I didn’t have my key. This meant that I had left them at the daycare. So my keys to unlock my house were locked in the daycare … it was kind of a big problem. I saw that both Alison and Phil’s cars were at the house so I went there to see if they could unlock the gate, but of course with all my luck no one came to the door. I sat outside their door for about 45 minutes then decided to go and jump the really tall fence at the daycare. As I got to the gate I thought I heard voices so I decided I shouldn’t jump the fence just in case someone doesn’t know me and freaks out that I am breaking in or something. I thought in my head of what to say if I saw someone to get them to come unlock the gate. No one really knows English and no one really knows who I am that works at the daycare but I decided to give it a try. I started yelling hola hola for about 2min then finally I saw the door to the daycare open and out walks Alison haha. Phil and Alison had been in the office the whole time.
Something that I really feel like has changed since being here is my fear of being alone. I am a people person and I love being around people constantly. I hated being alone I just didn’t know how to handle it. For some of you you may read this and think what is so hard about being alone well for me it was a fear, a big one haha. This fear has been tested tremendously while being here. First I started out living in a house all by myself then to top it off the time I do get to go be social I don’t speak the language very well. No one here was really my age and the kids that were here left the first week I was here. Since I didn’t really have much to do when I was at home alone after my shift I started reading more passages to take up time. My first two weeks here I really struggled with being alone but as the weeks went on my relationship with God grew. I realized what God was doing. He put in this situation so I could grow closer to Him. As I almost complete my first month here I have come quite use to being alone and I don’t mind it because really I am not alone God is with me. Never would I have gone to a restaurant by myself, gone on a bike ride adventure to who knows where or joined a soccer team where I don’t know anyone and no one speaks my language. There are so many things that I would not have done but God has really forced me out of my comfort zone. Now that I have gotten use to living alone I also need to prepare myself because the new interns come on Tuesday so no more being alone.

6-15-10

So my morning started at 7 am. Today was supposed to be my day off but since Dory went home for a couple of weeks I had to take her shift. Every other Monday the cook goes to Ensenada to go grocery shopping for the orphanage and the day care. Dory is the one that usually goes with her to help out but since she is gone they needed someone to go with her so they asked me. I was all up for it I mean I love Ensenada but there was one little problem … Maria speaks zero English and when she does talk she talks twice as fast as anyone I know haha. So I knew it was going to be a challenge but I decided to make the most of it and use that time to work on my Spanish. It’s about a forty minute drive to Ensenada so I just studied over my note cards and occasionally asked how to pronounce something. I didn’t really know what we were getting or how many stores we were going to and I didn’t really feel like asking either so I just went along with whatever I understood. The first store we went to was a Mexican grocery store where we got a lot of produce. We filled an entire cart with just vegetables and then we were off to the next store. The next store was Wal Mart haha it was a little different than the one in the states. It was also super busy and I was pushing the cart trying to catch up with her. Once again we filled up another cart full of food. At this point I thought we were finished only to come to find out that we had five more stores to go to. The last two places we went were the most interesting. The first one was a little store filled with different spices and beans and it was really cool. She bought me these pecan things that were sooo good. The last place we went to was the meat shop. It was so gross looking haha just this little building filled with all types of meat. After getting a basketful of meat we were ready to go. When we were in line we were standing next to a window full of different types of meat. I was looking at all the different kinds when I saw that one of the meats was Chicken feet! There were chicken feet just chilling in the little window waiting for people to buy them to eat. I was officially grossed out so then I asked Maria if she ate that and she said “Ah si si es muy Buena” in English “yes yes its very good”. I can’t even imagine eating chicken feet liver was enough for me. After the seven grocery stores and a huge van full of food we were ready to head back to Porvenir. On our way back Maria was helping me with my different verbs. Spanish verbs are so much harder I always mess something up with them. After some good laughs at me attempting to speak Spanish right and her trying to learn English we made it back. Never in my life have I ever seen so much food and gone grocery shopping for six hours.
I had soccer practice tonight and it was so much fun. He is starting to condition us more and I am so thankful for that. After running a little bit we got to scrimmage and it was so much fun. We scrimmaged for about an hour and for once in my life I got to play forward. On this court there are only five players and a goalie and so I am the only forward. It has taken me a couple weeks but I am finally used to playing on the indoor court and I love it.
Oh yeah ps there was an earth quake last night and scared me half to death. I have never really felt an earthquake before so this was a new experience. It was about 9 last night and I was watching a movie. There is a road behind my house and I could hear some four wheelers coming down the back road. Right after they passed my house started shaking. No joke the first thing that came to my mind was “I am about to get robbed” haha I am such a loser because there is no way on earth that anyone can shake an entire house. After like 20 seconds of my whole house shaking I realized that it was an earthquake.

6-13-10

I got up Sunday morning hoping to run that morning but when I looked at my watch I saw that I only had 30 minutes till church started so I jumped in the shower really quick. After getting ready really fast I saw that my watch was on a different mode and that I had three hours till church started haha. I had a good relaxing morning which was much needed. I went to church with Phil so I didn’t have to walk yay. Church was extra long it went till like 2. After church I went to the orphanage to work. We had lunch then Phil had planned a bike ride for all the older kids. The kids were so excited they had been talking about it for weeks. I got to go on the bike ride too so I was excited for that. We took seven kid’s age’s four to seven. The four year old had just gotten off his training wheels so he was very excited that he got to go this time. We set off on our journey and I would not call it a bike ride lol. We had a lot of stops because the younger ones kept falling and getting hurt. Rafael (the four year old) fell so many times I lost track but Phil was so awesome with him and each time he fell and started crying Phil would get off his bike pick him up and get him going again. The ground is sand which made it hard in some spots because the road would randomly have thick patches of sand which would freak out the kids because it would make them slide and slow down which caused some of them to freak out and fall. The older boys did awesome and when it was time to turn around they didn’t want to at all. Phil said that it was time to go back and if they made it back they could go get ice cream. That sure got them to go haha. We stopped at the local ice cream place and all the kids got to pick out an ice cream bar. They were all so excited they stuffed their faces with it.
I had to leave the bike ride after that because I had a soccer game. I got my uniform so I officially felt a part of the team. It was awesome and a lot different then what I am use to because its and indoor court. It goes a lot faster and it’s a lot more brutal. As long as you don’t use your arms you can pound the person in to the wall as hard as you want … it was AWESOME! We lost but it was so fun it didn’t even matter. It’s funny to me because everyone is yelling in Spanish but when I talk to Kari on the court I speak in English which is really cool because no one know what I’m saying. Oh the little things that entertains me.
After my game I came back and showered then Dory’s parents invited me to go out to eat with them in Guadalupe. Guadalupe is just the town over so it’s only like a five minute drive but it has more restaurants to choose from than Porvenir. They are so sweet and paid for my meal so that was really nice. We talked for awhile and I really got to know them more. What an awesome Christian family they are and it’s so great how much they support Dory and her mission here.

6-12-10

Sorry I have not written on here in awhile because all of a sudden I got really busy haha. Any way not to much has been going on at the orphanage but there was the big board meeting here so I was busy with that. The board meeting was on Saturday but people started coming on Thursday. Alison had a dinner for those who came on Thursday so I was invited to that to meet some of the board members. I had a really good time and really got to know some of the members. A couple that came down named Ray and Berta were there and they are the sweetest couple I have ever met. I got to sit next to Berta at dinner and she is absolutely hilarious and the funnest person to sit next to by far. I also got to meet the US directors of Niño’s de Baja and they are a great couple as well. After dinner I went to finish up the video for the board meeting. The video took me so much longer than what it should have because the internet is so slow here. That night I was at the daycare office working on it till around midnight just waiting for it to render. By the time it reached midnight I decided to just give up for the night and work on it more later.
Friday was a busy morning I went over to work on the video more before going to work and I am very glad I did because I got the final video downloaded so that night I would only have to burn it on DVD, or so I thought. Later that night I went over to start burning it when I realized that it needed to be converted in order to burn it. the internet was not working for anyone on our block so I realized that there would be no DVD’s to hand out to the board members like I thought. I got skype to work a little bit so I could talk to my dad and he said that he would just mail them out to all the board members so that was a big burden lifted from my shoulders. I gave up with that and went back to my house to work on the presentation board of all the kids. I got a late start on it so I didn’t get finsished till 3 am haha. Around 2 am the power went out for like 2 min and it scared me so bad. I had a movie playing while I was working on everything then all of a sudden boom the power was out and I was alone and scared in my dark house. Luckily it came back on so that was good.
Saturday morning was the board meeting so I got up at 7:30 to get ready and go to it. I walked over to the guest house with the big presentation board and I am sure that I looked like a complete loser considering the board was as tall as me and so carrying it I looked pretty awkward. I had three people stop me and ask me if I needed help lol I just said no because I didn’t think it was too far away. I wasn’t really sure where the guest house was because I hadn’t been there yet but I was following the directions Phil gave me the night before and 15 minutes later I got there lol. It was a longer walk than I thought it was especially with that big board but I made it so no big deal. I was one of the first people there so I set up my computer to show the video. As people came in they watched the video and I got a lot of compliments on it so that was a relief. I got to sit in on the board meeting for the morning session and I found it really interesting. Alison asked me to talk about what I did here as an intern so I did that. I am really glad that I got to be here for the board meeting because I really got to see how running a mission works and what it takes. There is so much that goes on that people don’t really know about. After the morning session I had to go to work. The college group came from Ensenada and so they entertained the kids all day so it was a pretty easy day. They brought this huge Shrek Piñata, sandwiches and fruit. They were so awesome with the kids I couldn’t help but smile when I saw all the love that the kids were getting from these people. They stayed quite a long time which really surprised me. After they left we took the little ones inside which and left the big boys outside to play with some of the board members. I supervised out there while the others were getting ready for bed. One little boy named Mario got to stay outside and he was having such a fun time being thrown that he pooped his pants. When I say pooped his pants I mean POOPED HIS PANTS! It was an absolute mess. The guy came over to me and said uhhh I think Mario had an accident so I went over to get him and it was everywhere. It was up his back, down his legs and even in his hair. How it got in his hair I will never understand. I took him inside to clean him up and it was probably the grossest thing I have ever seen by far. I took off his poopy shirt and pants and of course with him being a little kid he wanted to play around and stuck his hands down his diaper. So then I had a little boy covered in poop wanting to touch me and sit on my lap. Someone had moved the diaper wipes so I couldn’t find them so I started cleaning him up with toilet paper. His hands were the worst and it wasn’t like I could lift him up to wash his hands because his whole body was covered in poop. Finally someone brought me in wet wipes so I got him cleaned up a lot better. The grossest part was they didn’t even shower him wiping him off with wet wipes was good enough haha. So after that I got off my shift and went to the dinner with some of the board members. There were a couple of younger guys there so I talked to them for awhile then we decided to play a board game. It was nice having some younger people to hang out with so that was fun. I talked Judy Lloyd (the US director) about what it is that they do and stuff like that. I really like talking to her she is very nice and I can really tell how much she loves this mission and how much time her and her husband put into it.

Meet the Kids :)

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

6-8-10

The past two days have actually been busier than I thought they would be. Even though they were my days off I was working on a couple projects for this weekend and it was pretty time consuming. Yesterday I started my day off with doing some laundry. After it was out of the washer I got to hang it out on the line. That was the first time I had ever had to do that haha. Let me give you a little warning to those who have never hung their clothes out on a line. When hanging your whites make sure that you clip it on tight because there is nothing worse than having a clean wet white shirt fall onto the dirty sandy ground haha. A little later I went over to the orphanage to take pictures of the kids for a presentation for the big board meeting on Saturday. Since it was my day off the kids weren’t expecting me to be there so they were all curious on why I was there. I started taking pictures and video of all the kids and they loved it. There were a couple of kids that wanted nothing to do with the camera but most of them wanted their picture taken. I felt bad because they all wanted to play but I had to get the pictures done before Wednesday when I would be back at work. I went over to the daycare and started working on the video but the internet was so slow. It took forty five minutes just to load two pictures. It was getting late and cold outside and I still wasn’t even half way finished loading the pictures. Dory being the awesome person that she is let me come in her trailer and work on it in there. Thank you Dory haha. I got about half way finished and I decided to call it a night. A job that should have taken me maybe two hours took me over 5 hours and it was still not complete. It was really testing my patience but the next day when I showed Alison what I had done she loved it which encouraged me to get it finished.
Today I did a couple things at the house then headed to the daycare to work on the presentation a little more and edit some pictures. The internet was even slower than yesterday so I decided to wait until tonight to finish it. Around dinner time Dory and I went to the hamburger place that is just down the road. Oh my goodness it was so good. Between the taco stand and this hamburger place I know where I will be eating on my days off. After dinner I headed over to the daycare to hopefully finish up the projects. Phil let me into the office that way I could hook up to the ethronet cord inside so the internet would be a little faster. Thank goodness he did because it worked so amazing and I got it all done twice as fast. Earlier that day Alison gave me a little packet that gave all the details about the kids. It was such an eye opener reading about all the abuse, drugs and neglect that went on in all of these children’s homes. Tonight was a success and I got everything finished so I should be putting the video up here pretty soon. The video is called meet the kids so you guys can really see the personality of all the kids through this video.

6-6-10

Today was Sunday so I started my day off by going to church. I got a late start because I forgot that I had to walk to church again because Phil and Alison were out of town. The good thing about Mexico is that it is ok to be late. Mexico is on a time schedule called flexico which means things really don’t start on time. In fact I learned that it is good to be late to things because it’s a way of showing others that you don’t have power over them. Church was awesome and worship was so cool because a lot of the songs we sing at church in American they sing here but of course in Spanish.
We had to leave a little early because it is the first Sunday of the month which means it’s the one time a month where family members can come visit the kids. We had to hurry and get back to get them all fed before the families came. For families to come visit they have to be approved by the DIF and only one family showed up and it was Adriana’s mother. We were all inside for awhile while the two of them sat outside and ate. When the kids were all finished eating we went outside to play. For awhile I was the only adult out there so I was trying to watch the kids and Adriana at the same time. It was interesting watching the way Adriana acted towards her mom I noticed that she kept her distance and wouldn’t let her hold her. Her mom brought her snacks and goodies so that’s about as close she would get so she could have the good food. There were scratches on Adriana’s arm from the other day. Another little girl scratched her and the mom started making a big deal about it and then Donna started telling her about how the little girl scratched her while they were playing. The mom kept going on and on about it making it a huge deal which then resulted in Adriana freaking out and started crying and screaming. Her mom tried to comfort her but Adriana wanted nothing to do with her. Raquel (the head lady at the orphanage) was in and out the whole day checking on things so she came out to see what was going on. I can’t even imagine being that mother visiting her child and her child wanted nothing to do with her. It just makes me wonder why Adriana was even taken from her mother to begin with. Adriana is about4 years old and has been there for a year and a half. When I talked to Alison about it a little later she told me that Adriana’s mother has been trying to get her back for that past year making sure to visit her every first Sunday of every month. Something else that happened with this mother was that I was playing baseball with Raphael (he is about 5 years old) and he had that bat in his hand. When I threw the ball he went to hit it but the bat flew out of his arms and of course it flew and hit Adriana’s mother in the arm. This was a foam bat which flew out of a five year olds arms on accident so it wasn’t going very fast but she blew up and started freaking out on him. Of course Raquel wasn’t out there to see this so she started freaking out to me. I had no clue at all what she was saying but I am sure it was all exaggerated because it really wasn’t that big of a deal but I turned to Raphael and told him to say he was sorry but the poor kid was so freaked out he wouldn’t say anything. Luckily Raquel heard all the racket outside and came to the rescue haha.
I got off work early because I had my first soccer game today. I didn’t get to go to practice on Thursday because I was sick so I didn’t get the official time of our game. I remembered that they had said something about 5 o clock so I headed over to the fields then. Usually I would have Kari there to go with me but she is out of town so I was on my own. I got there and I got really excited because I saw a girl’s team there and I thought maybe I did really understand the right time. But of course none of those girls were on my team so obviously I misunderstood. I sat there for awhile waiting for my team to show up and by the time the first team finished they still weren’t there. A guy I recognized from church came up to me and introduced himself. I asked him if he knew what time the girl’s team for Porvenir played and he told me they play next so I decided to stay and wait for my team to show up. I waited for an hour and forty five minutes and still no team so I just gave up and went home haha. I did get to see some amazing teams play so it wasn’t a total waste of time. Oh the joys of not understanding Spanish very well haha. I told Phil all about it and we just laughed together he told me his first year here he did not know any Spanish and said as he was learning there were so many things that he misunderstood so I shouldn’t even worry about it. Tomorrow is my day off so I feel like maybe I’ll just sleep and rest the whole day so I can get over this annoying cold.

6-5-10

Sorry I have been slacking on my blogs for the past few days but I have a pretty good reason. Lucky for me I picked up some kind of sickness from the kids so I have been stuck at the house for the past two days. That past two days haven’t really been the most fun ever so I didn’t really feel the need to write about them and bore you all to death on how I did nothing.
Today was my first day back to work and it felt great. Though I still felt a little weak the smiles and hugs I got from all the kids sure made up for it all. The first thing I was asked was by Leti (a cute little 6 year old) “Tia Diana where have you been?” I explained to her that I was sick then she asked if I was better and I said yes so then she just started rambling on things for us to do since I was back. Between you and me I am pretty sure the only thing I understood was you can sit with me at lunch. It was a normal day we ate lunch then played outside. The older kids and I got the bikes out and rode around the neighborhood then the cows came out and Leti had a freak out moment. The neighbor has four cows and when its dry season like this the farmers just let the cows out to roam the town to find some sort of grass to eat. Well when he let them out they were very excited and freaked poor Leti out so bad. She jumped off her bike so fast and ran to me like it was the running of the bull’s haha it was definitely a “you had to of been there moment”.
People ask me who my favorite kid is at the orphanage and I can’t just tell them one kid because they are all so different and amazing. There is one girl though who jumps on me every moment possible and is with me ¾ of the day, her name is Donna (and yes mom me and Donna had a five minute conversation on how you guys have the same name lol it was awesome). Anyway Donna is the oldest girl she is 7 years old and she is my little gymnast buddy. She is a bundle of energy and is so much like me it’s awesome. Today we started to make a routine; flipping doing acrobatic things all over the yard it was definitely the highlight of my day. After doing that for about an hour we got so tired so we laid down in the grass to take a break. She then came over to me and cuddled up in my arms and said “tu es mi mamma” (in English “you are my mamma”) and then started acting like a baby. I don’t really know if she just wanted to play house or what but I just sat there with her cuddled up in my arms in awe at what just came out of this little girl’s mouth. Anyone working in an orphanage knows that the kids there don’t have parents anymore. The ones put in this orphanage are either there because they were abandoned or come from abusive homes. I can’t even imagine what all these poor little kids have had to go through before coming here to Ninos. I think this was the first day where it actually hit me that these kids don’t have a family and it killed me. I sat there with Donna in my arms for awhile just thanking God for blessing me with such an amazing family and most of all awesome parents who care for me more than anything. If I could have one wish for all these little ones it would be for God to bless them with an amazing Christian family like so many of us have been blessed with.
Speaking of adoption two little brothers got adopted yesterday yayay! It was such a bittersweet moment finding out that they were leaving us. Their names are Issac and Bryon and they are four and two. They DIF (adoption agency) came and picked them up yesterday morning and as they leave it’s a tradition that they both get new book bags to put some of their clothes in and a couple toys to have (it’s meant to be kind of like a security blanket as they start their new lives). All the kids surrounded them in a circle as they said a prayer for the little boys and their new family. I am so happy for these little guys but wow am I going to miss them terribly this summer. Today as we were getting all the chairs out for dinner there were two little seats left in the corner and I thought to myself who are we missing and so I started to look around for two little kids hiding somewhere when I remembered that those two little chairs will be empty for awhile or at least till we get two new little ninos in to join this amazing family.
Even though these kids don’t have a family anymore they are so blessed. The workers here give them so much love and so much care they are better off than a lot of other kids here in Mexico. These kids have ten wonderful Tia’s who care for them every day and love on them like they are their own kids. They live in a wonderful clean house with three meals a day and water service 24/7. That right there is more than a lot of kids get. Not to mention the Christ centered atmosphere these kids are raised in. I feel so honored when these kids call me Tia Diana (Tia in Spanish means aunt for those of you who don’t know) because I know I that I have the pleasure of being an aunt to 22+ wonderful kids this summer and they are about to change my life.