Day 2

I'm not sure I'll even be able to remember and describe all that I want to say about what has gone on since I've been here. I just love it sooooooo very much! But there have been a few ups and downs since I have arrived.

Good news on the luggage situation! It came to the airport tonight and at some point tomorrow I will get to go pick it up with Don Manuel, the really sweet driver who picked me up from the airport. He knows the Hospitals of Hope workers well and drove us to an orphanage today. But before I get to today, I must update on yesterday!

When I arrived I wasn't too exhausted & decided to stay on a normal sleep schedule so I didn't take a nap. A few hours after I was welcomed by many other lovely volunteers, we went to this orphanage together. It's a private orphanage (I believe it was called Hogar del amor--or place of love but not sure) and it only had children under 3 years old! So we got to play with the babies and toddlers who are so very precious! I got to feed a little girl named Sofia her bottle and then I helped finish feeding Erik, who was a twin. He was about 2-3 months old (I forget). We also played with the toddlers and they were fun too. They just love the attention and we were all deeply saddened when told it was time to leave. We were told that we will be returning, which makes me very happy because I didn't take my camera, which I totally regret.

Today was my first day in the hospital... it's actually fairly slow. We got there at 9am and waited for the doctors. I was given a tour by a couple of other volunteers and then I ended up helping some of the other girls take vitals. I'm trying really hard to use my Spanish and get more proficient in that... towards the end I got to observe a pediatrician with a few patients too.

Currently volunteering with me are a couple from Missouri, Jessica who is a Spanish teacher and her husband Kevin who is a second year family medicine resident. My roommate in the guesthouse is Leila and she is a nursing student from Georgia. The other four girls are from Wheaton College, Charlotte, Megan and Amy are pre-medicine students and Katherine is pre-nursing. My host family is Tomás and Iris, and their little girl Ester. Iris is not bilingual so I'm learning a lot of my Spanish through interactions with her. I find that I understand a lot, it's just the speaking I'm trying to get down. Tomás is bilingual and he's usually working in town so we see him in the evenings. Ester is adorable and fully of energy! She was really excited that I was coming and Jessica said she kept calling me Mi cole (mee col in Spanish, which translates to "my cole"). She's a lot of fun to have around and we love to play with her!

Today after we had lunch, we went to another orphanage. This time, it was for boys only, ages 3-18. We introduced ourselves, and then we gave them little toys and played outside with them. Some of them played futbol (soccer) and the rest of us played on the playground with the younger ones. I got to play with Josue who was just precious! He would take my hand and follow me wherever I went. I was taking a picture, and when I moved to take it from a different angle, he picked up his toy, followed me, and sat back down close to me, resuming his play with the toy. I didn't want to leave him there! I have a picture of his unbelievable smile that I will hopefully be able to post soon!

Random funny story: Before we left, one of the volunteer hosts gave us a tour of the building. I saw someone who looked strangely familiar, and then I heard her say his name. (Jimmy) Turns out I had actually gone to high school with him and we talked for a minute, realizing we both now live in Tallahassee. Later on the host mentioned that the next group coming would be from Christ Fellowship Church in West Palm Beach, which is where I attended during most of my college years. I couldn't believe it. It truly is a small world!

Tonight we had devotions which was great. Kevin shared Psalm 23 and Iris shared with us a great deal in reflection of that. I really am excited to get to know her better because her faith seems so great and she does so much for us, including making meals and planning our afternoon visits/trips. She has a wonderful heart and I hope to learn a lot from her, both linguistically and spirtually. My favorite part was singing our worship songs in English & Spanish. It's so cool when you can do it in two languages!

Well, it's getting late and I know that I am exhausted. If you read this, you are probably exhausted from reading all this! Sorry I get a little wordy sometimes. But, this tends to happen when one gets excited, right?

I have to say that I love it here and I'm so excited to get to be here for a while. I do have one other logistical situation to take care of that you can be praying for. My plane ticket was mistakenly booked for June 24th rather than July 24th. Everything else in my account is taken care of for 6 weeks, but it costs $240 to change my ticket. I'm trying to figure out how best I can fix this and I'm looking into several options. It may mean that some of that money is taken out of my account for housing/food and may shorten my trip a bit. Or I might just pay the $240 out of pocket. Please pray for guidance and provision... I am not worried but it is something I need to take care of soon.

This is something worth mentioning that I almost forgot: I got to shower today. It's too cold to do it in the morning or evening, so I waited until this afternoon (and once I knew my luggage was coming so I didn't waste my 1 pair of clean clothes from my carryon). I tell you, it's the little things in life. :-) Turns out, it's so cold here most don't shower every day anyway, but it was nice to get the airport grime off of me finally! ;-) Sorry if that was TMI but missions trips tend to be that way.

Blessings be with you! Adios!