Today was my first full day at the orphanage and it was awesome! it started off this morning at morning circle which is where the kids break up in age groups and have a short devotional and sing songs. Of course it was in spanish so i didnt understand any of it! i got to meet the girls this morning and they were all so beautiful! i tried to say "My name is Rebekah" but instead i said "I love rebekah"...FAIL, but its okay because I worked on that one and got that figured out haha! when i would talk to the girls i picked up on some key words but not enough to fully comprehend! but I learned the phrase in spanish for "i dont know" and "i dont understand"! ill be using that a lot. another time i asked one of the girls her name in spanish she shook her finger at me and asked me in english what my name was hahah! i think its cool how the language is such a barrier, but im still able to love on these kids and communicate some with them! they are all so precious!!! while the kids are in school we played in the school yard with the special needs kids because tehy dont go to school. I really enjoyed getting to do that! And actually starting tomorrow I am going to work with the special needs children all day! I am waking up at 5:30 in the morning to help the older girls shower and get ready for the day and then i will help them again at 4:00 pm. They need our help because many of these girls are incapable of doing this. I am so excited to be able to serve in this way! thats all for now because i need to go to sleeep so i can wake up bright and early!
adios amigos!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Hola from Honduras!
Well, I made it safely to Honduras after a long day of traveling. My group flew out of the ATL airport on Monday morning and flew to Tegucigalpa. There was bad weather in Tegucigalpa so we flew to San Pedro Sulo (sp?) instead and wait for 2 hours. They said if the weather did not clear in 3 hours we would either have to find our own transportation to Tegucigalpa or fly back to Atlanta so we were kind of freaking out! But thankfully the weather cleared to we made it safely to Tegucigalpa. We went through customs and got picked up from the airport by our taxi bus from the orphanage. We stopped to get food at the Metro Mall and we saw Subway so of course I stopped (Mom, I'm making you proud)! Considering I don't speak any Spanish ordering food was a struggle. I did a whole lot of pointing and smiling and shaking my head. The whole situation was humerous. I didn't know how to say mustard so instead I said amirillo (sp?) which is yellow in Spanish! HAHA it was just a struggle! Our bus ride was about 3 hours to the Orphanage. The scenery was absolutely beautiful and so sad at the same time. I've never seen such poverty...it really broke my heart. It really looked like it was from a movie. We got to the orphanage last night and we just got settled in and went to bed. P.s. as i was getting ready for bed i heard a cow outside my window hahah!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
KAA...U KNOW
Well, I am done with kamp and it was an amazing summer! Definately a summer of learning, serving, and loving....hence the name of the blog! I was in Golden, Missouri for 5 weeks and loved every minute of it. It was amazing to see God change some of these kids lives in ways that I never thought was even possible. I had an amazing "co" (counselor) and her name is Amber Gibson. She is from Texas and she was absolutely wonderful. She has been coming to kamp for many years so it was really nice to have a veteran counselor, because she helped me so much! Amber and I had so much fun together. Being co-counselors is kind of like being married in the sense that you have 10 kids together and you are basically being a parent to these girls haha! Amber and I also went by "Ebony" and "Ivory" haha, I really learned a lot about the African American culture and I taught them about the white/caucasian culture. I always said that I was white and one of my kampers corrected me and said that I was caucasian and not white! haha. I got asked if other counselors were my sister all the time...and I always told my kampers that all white people don't look alike!
my favorite story from kamp is we had a girl and she was just angry at the world...rightfully so. Her mother was killed by the mother’s boyfriend 3 years ago; lived with grandparents and they are going through a divorce; victim of hurricane katrina; 5 older sisters that made fun of her her whole life; and other junk in her life. she pushed every button that we had the first day just to see what she could get away with. but we were consistent, strict, and loving (with the help of God) and didn’t allow her disrespectful attitude. i honestly think it was the first time she felt loved unconditionally. After the first day we never say her disrespectful attitude and it was awesome to see God change an attitude like that, and then on the 2nd to last day she came up and told me that she wanted to be saved! She really understood what it meant to be a Christian. She understood that she had to change the way she was living her life. I just pray that the change is permanant!
One of my kampers this past week was from Iraq and so she was the closest to white of all my kampers. I let her borrow my sunscreen hahah! Anyways she was really disrespectful and she had no idea. But she is the 2nd oldest of 8 kids so she raises herself and her siblings. She translates for her parents because they dont speak english, but she just didn’t know how to be a kid. it was really sad. on her thank you she said that her counselors taught her that there is always time to laugh. that really made my heart happy just because how much joy i get from laughing, it was wonderful to see God bring that kind of joy in her life.
Kids Across America is such a wonderful place, I enjoyed being a part of these kids lives. Some of the kids that came to kamp came from rough families/pasts but other kids came from good and loving families. It was awesome to be able to serve all types of kids and just love on them! This summer I really learned what it meant to serve selflessly and to put others before myself. It was great to see how I was exactly where the Lord wanted me this summer, even though I doubted it back when I was making my summer plans. I could not imagine spending my time anywhere else!
Now I am in Atlanta and I am heading to Honduras for a month! I am so excited and so nervous at the same time. I will be using this blog to update y'all while I am in Honduras! Hopefully I'll be able to update a little more about kamp!
my favorite story from kamp is we had a girl and she was just angry at the world...rightfully so. Her mother was killed by the mother’s boyfriend 3 years ago; lived with grandparents and they are going through a divorce; victim of hurricane katrina; 5 older sisters that made fun of her her whole life; and other junk in her life. she pushed every button that we had the first day just to see what she could get away with. but we were consistent, strict, and loving (with the help of God) and didn’t allow her disrespectful attitude. i honestly think it was the first time she felt loved unconditionally. After the first day we never say her disrespectful attitude and it was awesome to see God change an attitude like that, and then on the 2nd to last day she came up and told me that she wanted to be saved! She really understood what it meant to be a Christian. She understood that she had to change the way she was living her life. I just pray that the change is permanant!
One of my kampers this past week was from Iraq and so she was the closest to white of all my kampers. I let her borrow my sunscreen hahah! Anyways she was really disrespectful and she had no idea. But she is the 2nd oldest of 8 kids so she raises herself and her siblings. She translates for her parents because they dont speak english, but she just didn’t know how to be a kid. it was really sad. on her thank you she said that her counselors taught her that there is always time to laugh. that really made my heart happy just because how much joy i get from laughing, it was wonderful to see God bring that kind of joy in her life.
Kids Across America is such a wonderful place, I enjoyed being a part of these kids lives. Some of the kids that came to kamp came from rough families/pasts but other kids came from good and loving families. It was awesome to be able to serve all types of kids and just love on them! This summer I really learned what it meant to serve selflessly and to put others before myself. It was great to see how I was exactly where the Lord wanted me this summer, even though I doubted it back when I was making my summer plans. I could not imagine spending my time anywhere else!
Now I am in Atlanta and I am heading to Honduras for a month! I am so excited and so nervous at the same time. I will be using this blog to update y'all while I am in Honduras! Hopefully I'll be able to update a little more about kamp!
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