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 :)

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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.

6-2-10

So I stayed the night last night with the girls from the Ventana ministry and we got up this morning at 5:30 to go to early Morning Prayer. First thought when I woke up was what did I get myself into. It’s about a mile walk to the church so it’s not too bad but still at 5:30 in the morning I would rather be sleeping. We got to the church and there was about ten or so people there. It was so amazing and I am so glad I went. What a great way to start out my day! It’s about an hour long prayer session and it was exactly what I needed. I want to do this at least once a week, the only problem is that the girls from Ventana are leaving and I can’t go by myself so I may just have to do it here. After the early morning prayer I came back to my house and tried to sleep for about an hour but it was way too bright outside to do that so I decided to get on with my day. Today was my day off too so I really had nothing to do today. I didn’t really feel well this morning and I was really burnt so I decided to just stay inside and read for the day. Around 6 I went to church with Dori. I absolutely love the church I can’t seem to get enough of it. Everyone is so energetic and so in love with God it is so amazing. That was pretty much my day haha nothing to exciting but it was really good. I got some time to talk to Phil and Alison tonight so that was good. They are the most amazing people and are so great to talk too. Anyway yeah I just took some Nyquil so I am dosing fast so night.

6-1-10

Today marks my first official week here in el Porvenir. It was my day off today so considering I didn’t have anything else to do I decided to go explore and take some pictures. When I was walking on the main road everyone just kept staring at me haha I’m not really sure why but I’m guessing it’s because I am the new white girl in town. After walking for about an hour I decided to head back and as I was walking back I went past the Ventana campus and one of the kids was outside cleaning and stopped me so we talked for awhile then some others came over to talk. They invited me to hang out with them for the day so that was a relief I now had something to do. They leave on Saturday so they were all cleaning up the campus. I ran a couple errands with them then we all went and played some futbol. It was awesome we played against this Mexican team and I thought we would get killed considering it was all the whities against the Mexicans but we actually did really well. We only lost by 2 I think so I am pretty satisfied with that. After the game we went to the mall to pick up a couple items for dinner. At first when they said mall I was thinking you know something like a mall in America but no way. This was a small building that had some food items in the back and some clothes up front. I ate dinner with them and it was really good because I actually got to have a social life tonight. After dinner we hung out for awhile and then they found out that I have not been to the taco place yet so we took a little field trip to get one. It was so good and I feel like that is where a lot of my dinners will be haha. Instead of walking back in the dark to go home I just stayed the night there and it was a good change because I didn’t have to sleep alone for once.
I am really sad that they all leave on Saturday. I finally met some people and now they are leaving so that’s kind of a bummer. The girls were so nice and I really got to know them last night. One of them is pretty much exactly like me. We talked for a long time and it was just really encouraging with all that she had to say about el Porvenir and it makes me really excited to see what God has in store for me.

5-31-10

Today is Monday but it doesn’t really feel like it. I don’t really know what day it feels like haha. Tomorrow is my day off and at first when they told me I would have two days off I didn’t really understand why, I mean what else am I going to do with my time. I now understand. After working with kids seven hours a day you want your time to breathe and relax. I don’t really know what I am going to do because everyone else will be working but who knows maybe I’ll go on an adventure somewhere. Anyway nothing to exciting happened today I think it was the calmest day of the week. I went outside the gates with the older kids to play some soccer with the neighbors. I now understand why all the Mexican kids are so amazing at soccer. That’s the only sport that they have so they eat, breath and live for it. Even the ten year olds can juggle better than most Americans. After the boys got tired of 2 hours of soccer they started playing in the junk yard by the neighbor’s house. I didn’t really know if it was ok but the Tia’s (that’s Spanish for aunt, it’s what they call the lady workers) never said anything about it. We washed the kids and that was my day at the orphanage so yeah nothing too crazy. Earlier that day one of the social workers came and he tried talking to me but he was talking so fast I kind of just looked at him like I was the most confused person ever haha so he then spoke in English and I think it surprised everyone. We didn’t know why he was here though, whenever he comes it’s either to pick up one of the kids or drop a new one off so we were all curious on what was going on. It turns out he was just doing a check up on all the kids.
It’s really funny how different Mexico and America handle their children. I have already noticed so many things that America would freak out about. The first thing is if the kids drop their food on the floor they just let them eat it off the ground like it’s no problem. This includes dropping it outside on the grass or concrete. If this happened in America the child would be scolded if they ate something off the floor. Also they only use one cup for all the kids. When eating or playing outside there is a cup by the water tank and whenever a child wants a drink they just use the cup. When I was playing outside with the boys and the neighbors they were making pretend food and would use the water used to feed the cows. They would also stick rocks in their mouths and no one would really say anything, I thought that one was pretty interesting. When we were giving the little kids showers one of the boys kept sticking a toy in the toilet then getting it back out and putting it in his mouth and kept doing that for like five minutes and no one said anything to him haha. The last thing that I really noticed was that when I subbed at the daycare in America after changing a diaper we would have to change gloves clean the table then we were allowed to change another one. Here its shower all the babies together and change them wherever, who cares if you were just outside digging in the dirt. Those are just a few differences in cultures that I noticed today. I don’t really know which one I agree with because sometimes I do feel like America freaks out to much about germs and cleanliness but then again I would never want my child sticking a toy from the toilet in his mouth haha.
After I got off I came back to my house and decided to rearrange all the furniture to make it a little homier. It now looks more like a house maybe tomorrow I’ll go see if I can find some cheap things to decorate it with. I think I have a problem when it comes down to what the inside of my house looks like. In my room at home and my dorm room I have everything decorated perfectly and I now find myself doing it to the intern house. Good news my dad fixed my camera via skype lol oh how I love technology.