Thursday, March 16

In the morning, there were a few more kids that stayed behind. I got to play baseball with 2 of the Ramons, Jesus, Raeanna, and Susie. I totally suck and they laughed at me, but it was so much fun. We only had 3 people on my team, so when they were both on base, it was really hard to get a decent hit to bring one of them home. The picture below is of one of the Ramons (not my favorite) and Jesus.




After they were completely tired, we went over to the courtyard area, and a bunch of the younger kids were climbing on a small ficus tree. It's pretty interesting how many things you can do with 1 ficus tree. Arnolfo played a game to where he would try to get a frisbee stuck in it, and then I would have to get it down. Yet, overall, they enjoyed taking turns climbing on it more. The picture below is of Arnolfo.






During our lunch break, I got to take my one and only shower on the trip. By this time, I had been down there almost 2 full days. They had no hot water, so no one was too anxious to take one. Yet, I sucked it up and felt absolutely amazing afterwards.

I continued on my first "give it my all" day and went back to the orphanage. I met a little girl named America and I pushed her and Louis on the swings... Man, I forget how long some kids can swing when they don't have to do the work themselves. Yet, seeing the smiles on their faces and having them wait in line to have a turn to get pushed... is priceless.




After that, Susie met a little girl named Rosalinda and I tried to sneak in and get some bonding time in with her. She's 6, but she looks like she's four. She's absolutely beautiful....




Each day, our group tried to have some sort of organized activities for the kids where we could give to them. This was the painting fingernails day...and that's when Gloria's true colors came through. She's a 5 year old little girl that has received a lot of attention due to bad behavior in the past. I have never seen a kid throw so many tantrums and do so many disgusting things before... Yet, she needed love. Megan did a great job of showing her that, meanwhile, I just kept trying to show her the right way to act and then tried to reward her for that....Here is a picture of her with Megan.






Overall, it was an incredible day, and it was sad to leave because I am finally doing what I came here to do...