Honduras 2024!

  I’ve finally caught up with blogging. I am writing this post on Sunday of week seven! This week didn’t start off very well since the Union team left. However, on Sunday I found out that a young volunteer would be coming down and that he’d be situated in my house until Friday. The day he arrived(Monday,) I got to meet him at the Cancha(the cement court we play soccer in.) His name is Ethan and he’s a 24 year old from Michigan who came down with his girlfriend Elianna. Elianna had been to the orphanage once before for a month. After playing in the Cancha, Ethan told me that he had brought his drone and asked if I knew a good spot for him to set up. I told him and Elianna that we could set up on top of the water tower since it was a nice high point in the orphanage. So we split paths, I went to the water tower, and Ethan and Elianna went to get the drone. However, Ethan left his drone in the office so that “it wouldn’t get stolen,” but since it was already 6:00pm the office was lo...

          This week hits kind of deep for me. Week six down here has possibly been one of the best weeks of my life. On Saturday a new team arrived from Jackson, Tennessee. On Sunday morning one of the team members who later introduced himself as John gave the sermon and did a fantastic job. While listening to John's sermon, I glanced around the church and noticed that all the members looked so young(Their oldest member, Brad, doesn't look a day over 25) which took me by surprise because usually any team's average group age is in the 60’s. So I was looking forward to talking to them and exchanging stories with them! This story really starts on Tuesday night. The team hosted a team dinner where I was immediately the center of some very difficult questions! Tori was one of the first to introduce herself to me. And we had a quick conversation about where each of us were from, why we were at Emmanuel, and many other fun little ice breakers🤗. Tori had been do...

On Saturday my dad drove me down to Madison and before we went to the airport we stopped for poke(sushi soup, kinda) which has kind of been our thing since one of my volleyball tournaments in Chicago. After we ate we were off to the airport and as soon as my dad left I was all alone again. My flights back to Honduras were awful. My first flight, from Madison to Charlotte, had so much turbulence for the last 20 minutes of the flight. Yes, (John) I am afraid of wind. We touched down safely thankfully and my mom’s cousin Tyrone picked me up from the airport for my night stay in Charlotte. The first thing me and Tyrone did was visit my great aunt that I haven’t seen in ages, great aunt Vera! I had a fantastic visit and after we said goodbye, Tyrone took me to “Bojangles Chicken.” From there we went to Tyrone's house, watched basketball, ate chicken, and caught up with each other. It was a very comfortable stay and I was very fortunate to have the time to see that side of my family. In ...

On Saturday I left with the team members that had decided to stay for only one week as some of the group was hanging back for another week. When I left, Papí(founder of the orphanage) sent the team off with some encouraging words. I left the keys to my house with Danielle and parted from the orphanage. At the airport I sat with Matt and his wife and David and his wife. Matt's wife has been sponsoring a girl named Yessi for a long time and since she left the orphanage several years ago they agreed to meet up at the airport. While sitting with Yessi I asked her if she remembered my mom and her eyes lit up and told me that she remembers my mom very well along with my older sister Alina. It was a very cool experience being able to talk to her. However positive this was, the negative was that the flight that was coming to pick us up got delayed by an hour, shrinking my connection in Dallas to 30 minutes. Being an international flight I knew there was no chance I was making that connec...

  For my first blog post I want to start by thanking God for the incredible upbringing I’ve had that led me to where I am today. Thank you to all my family and friends that have supported me throughout this journey. For a little insight the first seven weeks of my trip are being blogged late. Hopefully I don't leave out any details!      I left home Friday, February 2nd, at around 5:30p.m. for an overnight stay in Chicago with my family. I was so nervous about what lied ahead, I'm not sure how I got any sleep. On top of this, I got the absolute pleasure of waking up at three in the morning for my five o'clock flight. In the morning, my mom and dad brought me to the airport because my siblings didn't want the pleasure of waking up at three in the morning. Anyways, I got to the airport on time and said bye to my parents. It wasn't until I was all alone waiting for my flight that I started to feel confident about my trip. From Chicago I flew to Charlotte, had a shor...