Volunteers on Volunteers *Week 7*

 

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 locked. Thankfully, they came up to the water tower anyway just to have a conversation with me. We were up there talking for about an hour and a half before a guard shined his flashlight on us which is not a great feeling. So we got down and went to our houses.

On Tuesday I got to meet two other volunteers from Oklahoma that are here for 2 weeks; Eric and Deanna. While talking with them, Eric told me that there would be two more volunteers coming on Saturday, which is really exciting since I’ve been the only volunteer here for about a month now. On Tuesday evening, Ethan used his drone to take a video of all the kids standing on the hill in front of the hotel. He promised to send it to me when he finished it, so maybe I can get it on the blog at some point in the future! The days to follow Ethan played soccer in the Cancha with me and the Grandecitos(he was on Maycol’s team.) Neither Ethan nor Elianna were assigned somewhere specific, so they roamed around helping anyone that needed their help, which was so cool especially when I got to hear the stories on how they helped out on any given day. On Wednesday, Ethan and Elianna invited me to make dinner with them and we made bean pupusas(+pb&j pupusas of course.) We had a fantastic night and were able to call John and Tori from the Union Team. Then later that night when I was back at my house, Tori video called me so that I could watch John and Luke play Ultimate Frisbee. Unfortunately they lost but I still got to talk to Luke, John, Mei, Bethany, Caroline, and Tori, which is always such a pleasure.

On Thursday night I got to eat dinner with E&E again and we had beans with cheese, chips, and avocado. John called me that night so we also got to watch Tori and Bethany play in their ultimate Frisbee game and they won! Once the game was over Ethan, Elianna, and I took a picture and exchanged contacts so we could all keep in touch since they would be gone before I was awake on Friday. Me and Ethan went back to the house and had a really incredible conversation with each other that was able to open both our eyes to some things we hadn’t seen before. Then we thanked each other for time spent together and he went off to bed.

On Friday I got a lot of time to catch up on my blog since there were many lulls of time in the wood shop. When I got home that night, John called me again so that I could watch the sing sisters perform at open mic night at Union. They sang the same song that they sang in church down here, “Dame Tus Ojos” and smashed it once again! On Saturday Leigh and Patrick, her husband, came to the orphanage but I didn’t get to meet them that day and the rest of Saturday was pretty slow. However, Sunday(Today) I got to talk to Leah, Anna, and John, which was super exciting! But 30 minutes after we hung up, there was a huge storm that had started. I went outside and stood in the rain for a while since I love the way it rains down here. Turns out I was actually standing in a tornado, they just don’t have sirens for that kind of stuff down here. When I got back into my house the power shut off and moments later I got a call from Danielle(American staff member) asking if I was okay. I told her I was fine but then she told me that multiple trees had fallen and multiple roofs had been ripped off their houses so I asked her how I could help and she told me to find Raleigh(another American staff member). I found him at Papí and Mamí’s hill where a tree had crashed in the middle of their long driveway, blocking them from driving out of their house. From there we drove to the dental clinic which wasn’t in great shape and was very humid inside. Luckily the dental clinic had two roofs but the floor was still soaked so we decided that it was in good enough condition that we could take care of it in the morning. So from there we went to one of the staff housing units to find out that Mirna and Hector’s house had taken a beating, so Raleigh dropped me off and I helped them move their stuff into Moncho’s old house. When we "finished" I went back to my house and the power was still off so I ended up sleeping on the couch since it was a lot cooler. Now that I'm all caught up on my blog I can't wait to post it for y'all and continue writing!! To be continued...


Ethan and Elianna stood on stools because
I'm way too tall for regular photos. On
Elianna's way up she hit her head on the
stove fan. But I forgot to cover the light with
my head. So I couldn't only use this photo
#prayersforElianna

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