Day 8 and Beyond

We had a truly blessed week in Colima, and I'm filled with gratitude for our jam-packed and all-too-short time at Hogar de Amor.

I am grateful for the time we got to spend with the kids playing games and doing crafts and eating so much great food. I am grateful for the time we got to spend with the caregivers sharing stories and hugs and laughing together and, yes, also eating (we do a lot of eating). I am grateful for the tasks we were able to complete to make the houses more comfortable and more beautiful. I am grateful for our time as a team, caring for each other, getting to know each other, and serving each other.

Every time we come, God does something different in each of us. This trip, as we were hiking down the canyon river on Thursday enjoying time in the jungle and in God's beauty and with people we love, I was struck with a beautiful lesson. 

I was thinking about the word "to wait" in Spanish, esperar. I was thinking about how this trip was categorized by waiting. The team waited 18 months to be able to take this trip. The caregivers waited and waited for the pandemic restrictions to lift - for the kids to be able to be back in school, for the homes to be out of lockdown, for other volunteers to be able to come and relieve these caregivers who work so hard. The kids have waited for their families to get healthy, waited for the next chapter in their stories. The staff has waited on donations to come, hoping that they would be able to pay the bills as the pandemic affected every aspect of their community. 

So much waiting. 

And yet there's something very cool about the word esperar. Not only does it mean "to wait," but it also means "to hope." The same word that you'd use to say "wait over here" you'd also use to say, "I hope we have a white Christmas." Waiting and hoping. Waiting in hope. How cool is it that the words are one and the same in Spanish?

It made me think of one of my favorite verses:

We wait in hope for the Lord;
    he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
    for we trust in his holy name.

Psalm 33:20-21

God does beautiful things in us through our active, hopeful waiting. I think part of the reason that this trip was so special was that we waited so long for this reunion with our Hogar de Amor family.

And now the cycle of hopeful waiting begins anew as we plan and anticipate our spring trip. Waiting, hoping, esperando.

Friday: Last day!

 Oh man was this day so fun, the last day is always the biggest, fun, and busiest, and the most emotional day for some of us.

We started out with a 8:30 breakfast market with all the leftover food we bought, it was cereal, yogurt drinks, bread with peanut butter, and granola bars. Quite yummy and creative if you ask me.

Once we finished breakfast we headed to the orphanage for our morning activities, this day we did music/games and crafts. 

For crafts we started out with scratch art and the kids loved that, they would scratch the peice of art and then they would make it for someone special and give it to them as a present to say thank you. Then we went to chalk art and now half the patio courtyard is covered in cute chalk drawings, mostly of butterflies, people and flags.

For Music we repeated a couple of things because Julie was out of Idea's, we started out with another round of An Austrian went yodeling but much faster since the kids knew how to play. We then went to Hozanna again with funny dance moves, and finally ended on playing Shoe Lookie which we didn't end up finishing before the  kids got bored.

After activities we went to work, we dropped two off at the Adolescent's to check the water heater and make sure it was working, some went back to the hotel because of how long the day before was and the were achy and the rest of us went to Unrau.

At Unrau in the morning before lunch we were able to touch up the places that needed black and white oil paint on it, we were able to almost finish one room with one coat on it and the other room half done. 

Then we went to Golondrina's for lunch which was super fun, we had chicken tacos with rice and himacha and that was so delicious, and then we hung out a little bit before the kids went to school and did photos while some people talked about the April trip.

Then we all went back to Unrau to finish the rooms, which we did in two hours and then we said goodbye to the boys and went to the hotel to pack up since we left so early in the morning.

Then we had an amazing surprise, some of the Leonell kids came to the hotel to give us cards and paintings Marco painted for each family. It was so heartwarming, the kids made each person a special card with all their names signed on it and with a diffrent painting that Marco had painted. It was so nice to see the kids from that house one last time before we left.

Once the kids had left we started to pack again and take showers after the pool and clean up.

Now we headed to Matriz for our final party before we say goodbye and leave, we obviously started out with the piñata for the kids, we had one star piñata for the smaller kids and a ninja turtle one for the older kids. The younger kids broke the star piñata pretty fast, but I think it's cause Pablo wanted them to feel strong.

But the ninja turtle took some hard waking, going through all the older kids and breaking a stick in the process, plus some of the Mission trip people Francisco finally ripped it open and let the kids get the candy. It was super fun to watch, and the kids were nice enough to share with the adults it was so cute.

We then went straight to dinner and had pizza and pasta with a side of orchada, let me tell you those kids sure do like katsup on everything, including their salad for the little ones. Mexico's an interesting place to try new food.

After dinner we played a balloon game where you would tie a balloon to your ankle with string and you would try and pop other people's balloon's by stepping on them and the last person or two people if it took too long got small prizes.

That game didn't last long, but it was still super fun. We also gave out Maracas that Lensie brought and partied in the dark for a second with the light up Maracas.

We then said our goodbyes, they started out with a circle and the team being inside of it and praying for us and what we did while we were hear. Then we broke apart and said our goodbyes or Hasta luegos if you weren't ready to say by yet. We had some laughs and tears and some silence too, it's all of the process and needed to be done. Because the kids did have to go to bed and it was late we made them quick and headed to the car and back to the hotel.

Then we went to bed and woke up at 2:00 in the morning to leave for the airport.

Overall it was an amazing trip and I can't wait to come back in April.

Thursday: Day 5

 Yesterday was SOOOOOO fun, we got to do so many fun things, it was another long day as well but it was so dang fun.

We started our day out with a 8:30 restaurant breakfast and nice slow time at the table to talk about our day as the food came.

After breakfast we headed over to the orphanage to do activites with the kids. Now those were some of my favorite games we had played. We did music and Sports.

For Sports we ended up playing 9 square which is basically a game made out of pvc pipes and creates 9 squares above you, then you have a ball and hit it over your square into somebody else's and you do that until somebody misses the ball and it hits the ground.

For music station we played a couple games, we started out with a circle on the ground and sung to a song called "Avalanche" about a yodeling Austrian on a mountain side. Then we went to a bouncy ball game and that was really fun cause we went fast and slow, then slow and fast until we were screaming and laughing. then we did a pattern game with our hands and that was really fun and fast as well, and our hands and legs were red after.

Once actvities were done we split up, since yesterday was a long day we had the option to go back to the hotel and rest or go to Unrau for like two hours to do some more work, so we split up most of us went to Unrau and then the others went back to the hotel and took a nap or just rested. 

Then we had lunch at the Senorita's and that was really good, we had chicken and rice and keylime pie. then since we had a little time before our tour guide jupiter came for the hike we did photos with the Senortia's who were there.

Now this next part was so fun and took the longest and has the most photos. We went on a river hike with the older Leonel kids. We drove about an hour to a small town called Camala or near camala and went hiking. It started with a steep downhill to the river and then we crossed a bridge and there in front of us and below us was a giant flowing river. It was so fun, with the kids as soon as we got down to the river they started walking through the river and ahead of he group. We had so much fun, some of the boys got down and lay in the water while they waited for the group, some people miss stepped and fell into the water, and some were super careful and took the bank instead of going straight through it.

Overall it was super fun and super tiring, we hiked for about two hours down the river and then hiked out and back around on a dry higher road. We then drove to Jupiter's small cafe in Camala for dinner. The adults had Coffe drinks and the kids had Chocolate shakes, for dinner we had a sandwhich with chiken and cheese and a side of chips.

Then we drove back about an hour some of us fell asleep in the car. We dropped off the kids at the orphanage and then headed back to the hotel to sleep.

Wednesday: Day 4

Today was another great day. 

It started out with a nice market breakfast with cereal and yogurt, it was a nice slow morning because last night was so busy we had the breakfast at 8:30.

Once we had breakfast we headed over to the orphange and started activites. Today we skipped music and just did sports and Crafts.

For sports we played with the giant parachute we played with at Casa cuna, we made the parachute go up really high and then down. We made giant mushrooms by sitting on the inside of the parachute and kept the air in. We added balls to the parachute and bounced them across it, and we also let it go up and then let go of it and it just flew and then fell to the ground. The kids really liked that cause the could chase the parachute as it flew and then it landed on top of them. 

For crafts today we did photo's with Wanying's Polaroid camera. Since we had so much film we let the kids take quite a few photos with who they wanted. Most of them wanted singles and a couple group photos it was very fun. Once they had the photos they wanted the could come and put a colorful sticky frame on it and then they would get a magnet so they could stick it to their bed or mirrior.

Once we were all done with activities we went to work, everyone but three team members went back to Unrau to paint while the other three continued at Adolescent's to continue the roof. 

At Unrau in the morning we were able to finish the metal bars in the front and get most of the back white wall done.

Once we finished working we headed over to Casa Cuna for lunch where we had delicious tacos, and got to play with the kids a little.

Then we split up. Some of us stayed and hung out with the Senorita's above Leonel, the three went back to Adolescent's and the rest went to Unrau to finish. Though since it was so hot we only ended up painting the parents bedroom blue because the white wall was too  hot and bright to work on. So the Six that went to Unrau not only finished the room in 2 hours but we also were able to get the boys some photos.

After Unrau we went back to the hotel and went swimmming cause we were all hot and did our Covid tests. 

Then we went back to Matriz for dinner for Raquel's birthday, we had delicious burritos made by the caregivers. We didn't really have dessert but we had chocolate kisses, and Steve decided to put lime on it and eat it, it wasn't too bad.

Then we came back to the hotel and went to bed and finished Covid test's for people who didn't finish.

Run across!

Parachute time

Decorating photos

Go Darla!

Painting the back wall

Aww look at those two

All the kids love Carlie

Senorita Crew!

The first paint on the wall!

Corner crew

Cutting in!

All together photo

Lime covered chocolate

Tuesday:Day 3

 Man this day was very fun and tiring, that's why it's published a little late we got back so late last night that I didn't have time to write the blog.

Lets see well because yesterday was so busy we started put with a market breakfast so it would be quick and we could get a good start with the kids. 

For the stations today we did Music/Games and sports, for music we free danced to a couple of songs in english with fun and funny motions that the kids followed too. Then we played this game with water balloons called Don't Drop The Baby. The baby was the water ballon and we were all in a circle with a number assigned to us and then someone would shout don't drop the baby and throw the balloon to that person and if they did't catch it then the balloon popped and the water went everywhere and then that person was out. We had many balloons so we could do it over again and everyone got the chance to catch the balloon.

For games we played with a tire tube, the game was someone would start in the middle of the tube and would have to try and tag people and for every person they tagged they went into the tube and that would keep happening until the could fit no more and it was stretched till the limits. After that they got into teams and races inside the tire tubes together and that was really fun to watch. They also played with a ball and played soccer as the teams with the tube and kicked it around.

Once we headed to our jobs, 7 of us went to Famoso and Golondrina's to finish the stairs and roof sealant, one group left right after breakfast to start on the Adolescent home roof before the sun got too hot. Then the final group went to Unaru the new boys home and started work there.

After work was done we went to Lenoll for lunch and got Adrianna's delicious and my favorite enchilada's, once lunch was done the group that went to the Adolescent's went back to the hotel to get some sleep because they were tired from working on a hot roof all morning while the others went to Unaru to do more painting.

At 5 we packed up and went back to the hotel for about an hour, to take a shower or a dip before we headed downtown for dinner and shopping to fill our needs.

Downtown was so fun, we went shopping for Piñata's and candy for the Matriz party on Friday. We got the Blue Ninja Turtle Leonardo and an Among Us Piñata with loads of different rent candy. Some of us got pottery, some just went around, and most of us got Candy for when we go home. After we were done shopping we headed to a restaurant that was connected to a hotel and ate on the rooftop, the food was amazing and we each got one free drink covered by our church.

Everyone in the tube

Who will get the ball?

Raise your hand's high

how dare they do that to Ben

finished product of Golondrina's roof.

Nice painting Kim

go Francisco 

Roll, Roll, Roll

Teamwork

Front bar painting!

oooo almost finished.

Yay second wall!

Those are some nice Piñata's

Beautiful Town View

Table pick

Team Pick at the Restaurant