On Tuesday, April 11, 2017, we were all a bit late getting back to the orphanage from zip lining and La Bufadora (the blowhole), but that was offset by everyone else being late getting there, too, so it all worked out. ¡Viva Mexico!
That afternoon our work at the orphanage officially started with a kick-off meeting with our trip leader Samantha. Then the time finally came to meet the niños at the orphanage.
Most of the children were all running around the playground and seemed fairly used to having a bunch of volunteers come out and play with them. The students from Linette's Spanish I class were suddenly highly motivated to know more Spanish, and they kept asking Linette "How do you say...?" and then running back to try it out.
Some of the kids latched onto volunteers immediately, and others had to be approached with more care.
I sat on the swing next to two girls named Amelia and Gabriela. When I heard someone refer to one of the children as "Daniela", I told these girls that I had a daughter whose name was "Erika Danielle". Amelia asked what Erika's "apellido" (ah-peh-YEE-do) was. I didn't know that word, so she said, "Erika, Danielle, ¿Que?" Ah, "surname," I realized.
"Wilson," I told her. Amelia's eyes got big with surprise. "That's my surname, too!!" she exclaimed (in Spanish). Then she proceeded to tell me about her various relatives whose surnames are Wilson.
That night the orphanage fed us fish tacos. Sienna and I sat with a group of the children while we ate. The salsa for the tacos had no spoon available, so we both just sort of poured some on. It turned out to be pure red peppers, and it was distressfully hot. Later someone asked what kind of fish was in the tacos, and they said it was little sharks. "Make sense," I said. "Because with that salsa, those tacos had some bite!"
We had a campfire that night where we did s'mores and had people volunteer for the various work assignments the next day.
Linette led the group in singing Soy un hijo de Dios (I am a Child of God).
The volunteers had their own kitchen, so Samantha told us what food was for meals and which stuff we were free to eat whenever we felt like it (which was most of it).
The volunteers' dining area was the hang-out spot after hours before filing off into the segregated sleeping dorms.
Linette went jogging each morning. On the second morning, some of the orphanage's dogs followed her group jogging to keep them company (and occasionally get in their way).
Wednesday morning we all did work assignments. I worked with Paul Hardy on electrical wiring in one of the buildings. We had to disconnect one of the lights from the rest, now that it was in a room to be used for showering, and put it on its own switch. It took half the morning just to figure out what the previous people had done and figure out what the plan was.
While looking at the wires in the attic, we found where someone had dangerously left live wires exposed and laying on the insulation.
So I rewired that part to make it hopefully much safer.
Jared, Mikayla and Linette moved piles of sand, so they got a better workout.
When it was time to go to lunch at the taco shop, that sounded like a terrible idea to me. Lying down seemed much better. But I went, and then felt gross, and then lost it, and then felt much better. So much so that I went across the street with Jared and Mikayla and got an cookies-n-cream ice cream cone, "to replenish my cookie supply." o.O
We went to the beach that afternoon, and we kept seeing these beautiful flowers everywhere. (I'll bet my mom knows what kind they are). I kept being amazed each time. (Update: Yep, my mom says bougainvilleas.)
We accidentally went to a small, secluded beach at a resort in a cove, instead of one with waves that the kids had been hoping to use their boogey boards at; and the children from the orphanage who were going to join us got lost and went back; so that was a disappointment for some.
But we made the most of it and built some gigantic sand castles.
I noticed air holes in the sand near the water, and told the kids that there were probably clams down there. So they dug maniacally.
On the second hole they dug, they pulled up a huge clam, spitting water at us!
The kids went to town, digging dozens of holes, and pulling out a bunch of clams and sand dollars.
So everyone had fun who decided to.
Next we went to Costco and Wal-Mart in Ensenada to spend the money we had collected for Jared's Eagle project.
We ended up buying 4 cribs and mattresses, 2 high chairs, a play pen, and some other stuff.
It took a couple tries to arrange everything so it would all fit into the van, but we pulled it off. It has still never let us down!
That evening everyone went to a great restaurant that had piles of meat and stuff to make tacos from.
Even though I was still a recovering tacoholic, it was too tasty not to have a couple of them. (Jared had 9, I believe).
Then the band came by and asked if I'd like them to play a song for 5 bucks. I told them to play something romantic for my true love right over there. So they gathered around Linette and went for it. :)
It was fun seeing the youth gathering to play games that evening.
Thursday morning, Sienna and Mikayla joined in on the ditch-digging crew, preparing for the foundation of a new building that will be built there.
Sienna also helped with filling holes in the driveway.
I wasn't quite up for tacos at lunch, so I settled for a double ice cream. I had fun learning what all the flavors were and then translating for everyone. One was "vino" (wine). When pressed, they said that it indeed had alcoholic wine in it (since we were in "wine country"). We asked, "Well, then, kids can't have it, then?"
"Welll...." they sort of said.
"Well, but Mormons can't have it?"
"Oh, no," they readily agreed. (This was all in Spanish, of course, and it's how I understood the conversations went).
That afternoon we got to go to the zoo with the children from our orphanage and another one. Linette got to go around with this little girl.
There was a little railing in front of the tiger cage. I thought the warning sign was pretty unambiguous. ("Please don't stick your fingers in here. These animals BITE!")
The emu had little babies that were cute.
And the wolves were all messing around with each other, and then this zookeeper put one on a leash and took it for a walk. One fun thing about Mexico is they let you do pretty much anything.
Sienna was great with the kids.
This camel was known for mugging the camera, and it didn't disappoint.
This little boy was named Saíd (sah-EED). He didn't want to go with the family who was watching him, but insisted on going to see the hipopótamo. So I agreed to watch him.
The hippo had a baby, which was cute.
That night with the volunteers we had an "inside-side" (it's like a fireside, but inside). We played a game where everyone writes their name and something unique about themselves, and then 3 people sit up front, one of the 3 things is read, and you have to guess which one it's really about. All 3 answer questions as though it were them and try to convince you.
These three dads went up, and we had to guess which one used to wear his sister's underwear. All 3 got way into it. ("Why did you wear her underwear?" "Mine didn't have Care Bears", "I ran out", "It was the fabric!") We were dying.
When it finally came time for the real wearer of his sister's underwear to stand up, all three stood up in unison, which was even more hilarious!
These kids caught a toad!
And here is my French toast with a palette of fine yogurts.
Friday was the day we all decided to wear our "A Child's Hope" T-shirts.
Jared helped a crew remove the rest of the building that was being used to create a different building.
Then we went to lunch to celebrate the completion of all of the work projects (quite a bit more than they had expected our group to be able to do).
After lunch the youth volunteers hid Easter eggs for the children.
The niños were way excited for the Easter egg hunt.
And then we spent the rest of the afternoon playing with the kids one last time.
It turns out that I can do the teeter-totter with Jared, Sienna and Mikayla, all at the same time.
The dogs at the orphanage kept looking dead, but they kept being alive.
Some of the kids had fun with crafts.
That afternoon Jared presented the orphanage with all the stuff we had brought and purchased.
That evening we had (get ready for it...)...tacos!
It was a fiesta, and they had some guys come in and do al pastor tacos for us (my favorite kind!).
The guy in charge of the orphanage apparently grew up there (as did his wife), and was a great guy. He also said that the laws had just changed to allow adoptions outside of Mexico.
We donated some games to the other orphanage that joined us for the fiesta. We couldn't even get to the van with all of them before some of the kids got really excited and wanted to play with some of them, so we kept a few out for them.
Adam Strong had something like 9 tacos again that night. (Not all of them made it home with him the next day, however... :/)
And here's a picture of our whole group. (And one special needs guy named Marcos who lives at the orphanage that jumped in the picture with us).
And here is a picture of Linette with the 9 students from her Spanish class (plus one more guy who just jumped in. There's always one, it appears.)
The fiesta included a bouncy house and a mechanical bull.
After dinner, the volunteers played a game of soccer with the local kids, who were way, way better in most cases.
There was also a dance going on that evening, and several of the volunteers joined in.
We had one last "inside-side" (nobody wanted to get smokey, as several had already showered), where people shared what was hardest and best about their experience.
The favorite part for most people was playing with the children. It was cute when one kid said that, and another kid said, "Me, dos!"
One of the moms said that the hardest thing was when she heard about the ability to adopt the kids, and then the girl she had her eye on turned out to be the manager's daughter.
Saturday morning I awoke at 3:30am due to a bit of snoring by my neighbor. Then a bunch of people got up at 4:30 and spent 30 minutes packing up. We were planning to get up at 5:30am, but I got a text from Linette at 5am saying she was awake and should we go. "Me too. Let's head," I said.
So we drove all the way from Mexico to Riverton that day. Everyone but me was asleep fairly early on, which was fine. Linette spelled me a couple times when it got painful to stay awake.
On the way home we stopped in at Kelsi's apartment in Provo, and met Kelsi's friend Jake-Matt and his brother Matt-Jake. (Long story. And not true.)
Jared's hair took a beating on the trip.
It was so good to get home, where you could drink out of the tap, flush your toilet paper, and walk around the house in bare feet, even if there was a lot of laundry in our near future.
It was a great trip. My favorite parts were getting to know some of the children, and also getting to know the other volunteers and working side by side with them. It was so great for the Spanish students to be in a situation where they actually needed the language and wanted to be better at it. And it was even better for everyone to see what life was like for those children. On the one hand, it helps them appreciate the things they have that others don't enjoy. On the other hand, it also helps them to see that people can be just about as happy without all the luxuries—sometimes more so. The most important thing is how we all love each other. It's always good to see how other people live, eat, play and interact, so that we can see that there are many different ways to live, and they are all great in their own ways.
