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.