Sunday, April 11, 2010

Day #5 - WARNING: Long journaling day!

On Thursday, I really had time to reflect on what had happened and WANTED to (finally!). Four pages of my journal later - here I am! I'm going to share a portion of this with you, since it is a little more personal.

"This week is quickly coming to an end but I think today was my favorite day so far. This morning we went to a couple neighbor's houses in AJS - Wellington and Gabrielle. Wellington* is one of the guards at the other house. They are just so genuinely kind, which is something I have almost been brought to tears by all week. Their willingness to say their door is always open when they are just meeting us is something so uncommon to me...Him and his wife asked a lot of good questions and hard ones too, including how he was interested in the prevalence of suicide in the US. It sparked a lot of tension in the group and debate during discussion tonight...
Next we went to Gabrielle and Theresa's home - an 80 and 68 year old couple simply doign what they do to stay afloat. Gabrielle went around and wanted to know our names and then told most of us we have strong (or sort of strong, in my case) characters. They gave us coke and cookies, and Gabrielle showed us his leather collection, and let us stamp letters and symbols onto some. The spirit that he had was amazing and so inspiring. And even though we did not get much time with them, I was so impressed by their welcoming attitude, kind spirit, and overall generousity... After that we hopped in the van and went to our mystery location...Nuevo Mundo! It was the most gorgeous school ever! We got ot talk to Pat, one of the people who started the school... the school has around 1200 student in the morning and 400 in the afternoon, who are mostly kids from Duran that get bussed in and go for free... It was one of the most amazing schools I have ever seen with one of the most enlightening woman I have ever had the privelege to speak with.
In the afternoon we got to go back to Semillas, do a scavenger hunt, and then played soccer on some teams with kids, and then again after the program with the older helpers - ayudantes. It was so fun and sweaty, and just a good ol' time! Going back to Semillas was the best since it was the group of kids that we felt we got closest with. We really got to work closesly with kids of all ages in the hunt groups and had some authority, which was different. It was also the day that they chose which kids got to go on the field trip (to see Alice in Wonderland at the Cinemaplex), and could only bring 12. It was so sad to see some kids heart broken, as they had behaved all week. The field trips they do are things that these kids could never afford to do, so it is a real treat for them!"

* Wellington had Hansen's disease and spent a little time at Damien House. The house him and his family currently live in was provided to him by Sister Annie (owner of Damien house) and he very humble to have that provided to him.

I really enjoyed Semillas, since I loveeee working with children. To have all these little kids hanging all over me was such a joy, minus the obnoxious ones! But it was so fun and enjoyable, and a great way to wrap up the week.

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