First Day

Words cannot describe how anxious I was when we were on our way to go to Esquela Especial and meet the students for the first time! It felt like my first day at Stone Creek all over again. Jenna and I were assigned to Senora Yahoska's class. I fell in love with that classroom the second I walked in. It's because the second I walked into that classroom, I was greeted with hugs from everyone and even some kisses from students whom I hadn't even met yet.

It has only been one day and I already have my secret favorites. Conchita, and Ramon, are very quiet and gentle. They love giving you hugs, and they are both very smart. Marling and I are tight. After a few hours of helping Marling she told me to stick my hand out. I did it because I thought she was going to shake my hand. Instead she gave me knuckles! I was the happiest person in the world at that point. At one point Marling had me in a full on headlock because she did not want me to help anyone else. And there is no possible way I could forget about Yoysi. Yoysi is quite the character. She is hyperactive, she is very loud, physical, and it may not look like it, but she is so caring.

At recess/lunch I was playing soccer with some of the deaf students. I am still a little unsure of their names but they are killer soccer players. I was astounded by how good they are. There was a boy who was 14 years old who was much better than me. Now as most of you know I am not the greatest soccer player in the Eagle Valley but still this kid had some talent.

I am so thankful to be here and I can't wait to have another amazing day tomorrow!

Lesson Learned

Sunday morning did not start out very well. It started with Douglas and I sleeping through both of our alarms and scrambling to get ready just to be on time for breakfast. Since we over-slept I did not have time to finish and post my blog. Since my post on my blog was late I had to pick up trash at the beach for two hours, and when I got back I was allowed to eat breakfast.

Sadly since it was a Sunday Esquela Especial was closed. Instead we organized all the donation bags and went to the market to buy more supplies for the gift bags we are going to give to the kids. Once we had all the supplies at the hotel we put together 90 gift bags! In each gift bag there were cookies, hand soap, beans, rice, detergent, and body soap. It may not sound like a lot to you but it is a ton to them.   I can't wait to give these gift bags to the kids tomorrow.

Curiosity

After two flights and about 4 hours of sleep I woke up on Saturday the 28th with a lot of curious thoughts. I don’t think I have ever been more hyper after four hours of sleep while we were on the way to Esquela Especial.  Once we arrived and got to meet most of the teachers and got to look around the school, all of my questions about the school were answered. I came to this conclusion about the school: Esquela Especial is a lot bigger than I expected, it has multiple rooms with banana trees growing all over the place. The teachers are amazing, they are so nice and grateful that we were there to help. Even though we just met them all we were greeted with smiles and laughter. They also have a great sense of humor. 

Due to the fact that it was a Saturday, we were not able to see the kids. Instead we cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned. I don’t think I have cleaned so much in my life, and thank God we did. Esquela Especial needed a good cleaning. While we were cleaning, I was getting the strangest looks from people outside the school. There was a moment when we were working and these people started staring at us right outside the windows, talking about us. So I asked Lisa Marie why these people were giving us such weird looks. She said, “They are confused. They don’t know why you are cleaning and helping when we are not getting paid. Unlike the United States, there are rarely volunteers working here.”

I am already so thankful to be here and I haven’t even met the kids! Since the 29th is a Sunday, the school will be closed all day so we will be getting all the donations ready for the kids.


P.S HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY MALLORY SKIDMORE!

Anxious

As the days get closer and closer I get more and more anxious for my trip to Nicaragua. Everyday I wonder, what will the kids look like? Will I connect with them? Will they connect with me? But what I am mainly anxious about is to see what kind of lives these kids have. I have seen children in vail that have disabilities but they get love from their parents, medical attention, special ed classes, etc., etc., These kids have the same disabilities but not the medical support, or education that the kids in the vail valley have.