Trabajando Todo El Día

DAY SIX: Tuesday, March 22, 2011

This would be the "bathroom" at
the Community Center

This was our first day of service.  We started out in Los Tornos by taking a little tour of the village.  And, it was considerably little.  The main thing is the community center, which is basically just this huge hall which doubles as an indoor soccer/basketball court, and a kitchen, "bathrooms" and a little storage.  Then you get to the school.  There's one building for kindergarten, and then another where they teach 1st through 6th grades.  They just barely got another teacher, so now there are two.  And you've got the little health clinic a little way down the road, which a doctor comes to once or twice a month to perform all of their medical needs.  Other than that, there were pretty much just houses, though we didn't really get to see any of them.

Once we were done with our tour, we got right to work.  Some people worked on carpentry and electrical stuff, or helped in the kitchen, but the primary job was painting, so that's where most of us went.  It was a lot of painting to do, but between the twenty or so of us that were doing, it actually went pretty fast.  Some people were obviously better painters than others, but we got used to it and got good at it.  It started out being orange with black at the bottom where it would get dirty.  We painted the walls blue to cover the orange, then a turquoise-ish color at the bottom with an orange striped in between.  It actually did look pretty nice.

We also had a break at lunch and had time to play with the kids.  They actually have a pretty cool wood playground.  I could do the monkey bards, which is rather an accomplishment for me.  I played on there for a while, and then went to play soccer.  Some of these kids were ridiculous!  I couldn't believe how good they were.  I was able to score a goal, but that's because Tyler was the goalie haha  Shiwani actually did pretty good...I think she scored twice, which is definitely saying something.






DAY SEVEN:  Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Maybe not the best picture, but here is an example of a Ke$ha hand.

Basically, another painting day.  The painted was pretty watered down, and painting over orange required multiple coats.  So, that's pretty much we did again.  Some of us broke off, though and went to paint the fence.  We were really just painting it back to its original silver, perhaps a bit shinier, so that it wouldn't rust.  There is no really good way to paint a chain link fence without getting it all over your hands.  My hand were coated in silver.  I called them my Ke$ha hands.  That was possibly the worst job I did the whole time there, but it had to be done, so it was done.  I worked a lot more outside this day, partially because of the fence, but we were also painting the walls outside.




I was able to talk with some of the kids more, too.  They taught Shiwani how to count in Spanish, and both of us el alfabeto.  It was hard to talk to them in Spanish, and we all got frustrated when I couldn't understand what they were saying.  I was actually pretty proud of myself because I was able to figure out most of the conversation, though it was with a lot of help from Isabel.  The two girls by me in this picture "liked" Tyler and me.  The lighter-haired one on the right liked Tyler, and the one on the left liked me.  They told me that I had "ojos lindos."  I was asked to dance for the last night there, but when she realized how bad of a dancer I am, she literally stopped, turned around, and walked away without saying anything.


DAY EIGHT:  Thursday, March 24, 2011

Our last day.  Lauren and I had talked about how we wanted to be in the kitchen one of the days because we both know a little Spanish, so we thought it would be good practice.  Between the two of us, we figured we'd be able to understand the majority of what the ladies were saying.  Well, they talk so fast, so we missed a lot.  But, I think we managed to get most of the important stuff.  We cut fruit and vegetables, peeled plantains (which SUCKS), made arroz con pollo, and some other stuff.  I can't remember what it was called, but for lunch it was like slices of ham and green beans  fried into some scrambled eggs.  It was actually pretty good.  That's where I spent pretty much the whole day.


Being our last day there, the locals put on this huge banquet/dance party thing for us that night.  It was super awkward because they set up this really nice table for us in the front with gorgeous flowers and everything.  Then they just had lawn chairs set up facing us on the other side of the community center, so they were basically an audience to us.  The food was way good, though!  That's when we had a lot of the stuff we were making in the kitchen that day.  And, there were three cakes!  I could not handle all the food they were giving us.

Following dinner, we all just danced.  By all, I mean about half of our group and most of the local girls, a couple of the women joined in for a while.  I am horrible, but I made an effort.  I had some good hip action going for a couple seconds, but then I lost it!!  I don't know what happened.  We kind of bonded with the locals during this time, even though we didn't really even talk to them a ton because of the language barrier.  It was really hard to say goodbye actually.  There were some tears at the end of the night when people were making speeches.  They ended by giving us some gifts, and we were gone.


DAY NINE:  Friday, March 25, 2011


Right after the party, we went back to the hotel and got ready to leave.  Some people took naps; I think I unintentionally dozed off for a little bit.  Then we went and loaded the bus at 12:30 AM.  We were so tired.  Shiwani, Tim, and I were responsible for the group reflection that day, so we did it right away on the bus.  It was a little shaky, but still good I think.  So, we had our four hour bus trip, which I was able to at least half-sleep through, and then we got to the airport.  


Our flight left at 6:30.  We were all trying to get some sleep and still finish our journals so we could turn them in that day.  It was pretty hectic, but it all worked out.  I sat by Shiwani and Tyler on the flight to Denver, so we got some good discussion about the trip, and other stuff, too, of course.


Needless to say, this was an amazing trip!  I have talked to a lot of people about the experience, and some people I've told it was amazing but really stressful.  I'm not going to lie, it was definitely stressful and tiring.  But, I love being able to go, and am so glad I had the opportunity!  I learned so much from just my week there.  It definitely sounds cliche for me to say, but it changed my perspective on life.  I look at things so differently now, and have already made some changes in how I live my life.  I can honestly say that this was one of the best experiences of my live thus far!

p.s. If you want to hear more or need any specific details about anything, contact me and I would be happy to share!!