Saturday was one of the first real days off that we have gotten in the 6 weeks that we have been here. It was supposed to be a relaxing day of rest and rejuvenation and a day to not think about work. It definitely started off that way!
To begin we went to a WONDERFUL beach and had a blast swimming and playing in the waves and talking and sun bathing. It was just the best morning ever. There weren't a lot of people at the beach, which was nice because it was a Saturday.
Then, we couldn't decide what to do so we went to some caves that are here in Arecibo! We parked in the back of the parking lot because it was pretty full (bad idea), then headed back to the cave. It wasn't anything super deep or anything like that but it has the most hieroglyphics in any cave in... Puerto Rico... maybe just the area. So there are a bunch of carved hieroglyphics and they all looked like aliens! It was crazy. One was a baby in a bassinet but the other ones looked like aliens.
There is a place to get on top of the cave and look out at the ocean and it was BEAUTIFUL! Oh my goodness what a view! I loved it. There was a place to jump in the water and swim a bit too... we indulged and did that as well. :)
When we got done in the cave and swimming we went out to our van and realized that we were missing a window... and a purse, wallet, and backpack. There was glass everywhere. Someone broke our window and stole one of our community friends' purse and also my wallet and back pack. Really lame. My backpack had my license and credit cards and some cash and my passport too. Now I have to start the long process of getting all of that taken care of. Cards are cancelled but I have to wait until Tuesday to do anything with my license and I can hopefully talk to someone about my passport tomorrow. We shall see.
I was doing my best to try and look at the bright side of things, like the fact that I hadn't brought my computer or my camera. But it was difficult. I know that they are just things but a lot of what was taken had a lot of sentimental value for me. Specifically, there was a rock that I found once, while having a bad day, and it was shaped like a cross. I take/took that rock with me everywhere and it was in my backpack. I'm really sad that I don't have it anymore because it was a sort of good luck charm (even though I don't really believe in luck, haha). But then they also got my iPod. I think that was the most frustrating part. I had a really good Spanish/English dictionary (that I use all the time) on there and a list of names and descriptions for people at our ministry sites and Spanish words to remember and a bunch of little things that I had written... oh well.
Our theme for the summer is "Be Different" and Wednesday's theme is "React Different." I have been trying my best to react different and not be upset, especially because we had another theft incident at one of our evening activities this passed week where there was another an broken into and a girl's camera was stolen and she reacted wonderfully. So I feel like I have some big shoes to fill! I did get to take an impromptu road trip to San Juan with my Site Director and we had a pretty good time lol. So yes, I also learned to always put my belongings in the trunk while I am somewhere. Even if they are under a seat, people will be able to see them.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
The 4th of July
Today was the fourth of July and yet again we have a wonderful group :)
Today was awesome because we spent the day at one of my favorite missions that we partner with! We were at Betesda. I can't remember if I have mentioned this one before but it is a rehabilitation center for men over the age of 18. The majority of them are under the age of 25, although there are some that are older. It is a rehabilitation center but it isn't just for drugs. All of the participants at some point in time in their life have made a bad decision. Because of that decision that they made they we sentenced to time in jail. Israel (the man who runs the facility) hears about the guys and meets with them and if he sees potential and truly thinks that they would benefit from his facility he petitions for them to come to Betesda. They live and work at this place. In order to raise money for everything they make cakes and other pastries and sell them! They are DELICIOUS! I just love it.
The guys don't have many opportunities to see their families so they really enjoy having YouthWorks bring groups to meet with them. It is difficult because the majority of them don't speak a lot of English and the majority of the YouthWorks participants don't speak a lot of Spanish. It is amazing however, to see how relationships build between people who can't verbally communicate. One of their favorite pass times is to play basketball with the students that come. They are ridiculously good at basketball! I love to watch and I even play sometimes. I just love it.
So today, my group was there all morning and we played basketball and I explained (in Spanish - ps I'm pretty awesome I'm not gonna lie :P) how to play KEMPS to one of the guys and a group of us played KEMPS. It was pretty fun. He would ask some questions though and I didn't know what he said and that was embarrassing. Lol. I am getting so much better (mejorando - bettering) at Spanish! I am loving it! I am getting more confident at being able to hold a decent conversation. I'm still not good by ANY means of the word but I am getting there. I surprise myself sometimes. I think that a big part of it is that I am finally getting used to the accent that Puerto Ricans have, so that helps a lot. I can't believe that we just have a little under 5 weeks left. It seems like we just got here. I love it here.
After lunch we met up with the rest of the students and went to an awesome swimming hole in the river and went swimming. It was disappointing because there were some awesome rocks that we really wanted to jump off of... but it is YouthWorks policy that you can't do anything potentially dangerous like that. Lame sauce. But we still had an amazing time! I think that the kids did too :)
After this, we went back to Betesda and had a little cook out and ate hot dogs and hamburgers and played games and talked and just had an amazing time. I love this ministry and everything that it does! I am so happy that I was able to be placed there. I'm not going there tomorrow but I will hopefully return on Wednesday haha :)
Miss and love you all!
Today was awesome because we spent the day at one of my favorite missions that we partner with! We were at Betesda. I can't remember if I have mentioned this one before but it is a rehabilitation center for men over the age of 18. The majority of them are under the age of 25, although there are some that are older. It is a rehabilitation center but it isn't just for drugs. All of the participants at some point in time in their life have made a bad decision. Because of that decision that they made they we sentenced to time in jail. Israel (the man who runs the facility) hears about the guys and meets with them and if he sees potential and truly thinks that they would benefit from his facility he petitions for them to come to Betesda. They live and work at this place. In order to raise money for everything they make cakes and other pastries and sell them! They are DELICIOUS! I just love it.
The guys don't have many opportunities to see their families so they really enjoy having YouthWorks bring groups to meet with them. It is difficult because the majority of them don't speak a lot of English and the majority of the YouthWorks participants don't speak a lot of Spanish. It is amazing however, to see how relationships build between people who can't verbally communicate. One of their favorite pass times is to play basketball with the students that come. They are ridiculously good at basketball! I love to watch and I even play sometimes. I just love it.
So today, my group was there all morning and we played basketball and I explained (in Spanish - ps I'm pretty awesome I'm not gonna lie :P) how to play KEMPS to one of the guys and a group of us played KEMPS. It was pretty fun. He would ask some questions though and I didn't know what he said and that was embarrassing. Lol. I am getting so much better (mejorando - bettering) at Spanish! I am loving it! I am getting more confident at being able to hold a decent conversation. I'm still not good by ANY means of the word but I am getting there. I surprise myself sometimes. I think that a big part of it is that I am finally getting used to the accent that Puerto Ricans have, so that helps a lot. I can't believe that we just have a little under 5 weeks left. It seems like we just got here. I love it here.
After lunch we met up with the rest of the students and went to an awesome swimming hole in the river and went swimming. It was disappointing because there were some awesome rocks that we really wanted to jump off of... but it is YouthWorks policy that you can't do anything potentially dangerous like that. Lame sauce. But we still had an amazing time! I think that the kids did too :)
After this, we went back to Betesda and had a little cook out and ate hot dogs and hamburgers and played games and talked and just had an amazing time. I love this ministry and everything that it does! I am so happy that I was able to be placed there. I'm not going there tomorrow but I will hopefully return on Wednesday haha :)
Miss and love you all!
Friday, July 1, 2011
Pranks!
This most recent group that we had was just absolutely amazing. I am going to miss them a ton!
One especially awesome thing was that they included me in a prank on one of their leaders. I was thrilled. It went well.
In payback, for their leader, I gave them a little prank of my own (insert evil laughter). We have a Puerto Rican friend who comes and helps us out some nights and gives them information about Arecibo and Puerto Rico. My team and Julio, our friend, have gotten pretty close so we like to joke around. He was coming to give his talk to the kids at the Plaza one night and I told 5 of the guys on the trip that a really cool personal greeting that you give a good friend is "nalgas," which is something that you would say to a really good friend so show that you care about them! They were so excited to use it on Julio! Little did they know that "nalgas" actually is a word for your bum. It isn't a crude word at all, just a funny one. So, when Julio came up the stairs they all waved at him as said, "HOLA!! NALGAS!" Julio gave them the weirdest look and it was just priceless. My team and I just started cracking up. The guys didn't really realize what happened so they said it again in a slightly confused tone. Then they realized that something was up and asked us what the word really meant. SO FUNNY! We got a real laugh out of it :D. I love pranks. It was especially awesome because we got to prank Julio at the same time by doing it!
I am really going to miss this group.
One especially awesome thing was that they included me in a prank on one of their leaders. I was thrilled. It went well.
In payback, for their leader, I gave them a little prank of my own (insert evil laughter). We have a Puerto Rican friend who comes and helps us out some nights and gives them information about Arecibo and Puerto Rico. My team and Julio, our friend, have gotten pretty close so we like to joke around. He was coming to give his talk to the kids at the Plaza one night and I told 5 of the guys on the trip that a really cool personal greeting that you give a good friend is "nalgas," which is something that you would say to a really good friend so show that you care about them! They were so excited to use it on Julio! Little did they know that "nalgas" actually is a word for your bum. It isn't a crude word at all, just a funny one. So, when Julio came up the stairs they all waved at him as said, "HOLA!! NALGAS!" Julio gave them the weirdest look and it was just priceless. My team and I just started cracking up. The guys didn't really realize what happened so they said it again in a slightly confused tone. Then they realized that something was up and asked us what the word really meant. SO FUNNY! We got a real laugh out of it :D. I love pranks. It was especially awesome because we got to prank Julio at the same time by doing it!
I am really going to miss this group.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Sitting at Burger King using some Wi Fi
So... here I am, on my time off. It is really weird having time off because I sometimes forget that this is really a job. This is the first time that I have had "time off" so, I don't really know what to do. I decided to come to Burger King and get on the internet because it has been a while since I have been able to do that.
I am loving this new group. It is so hard because the last group was so amazing, but this one is just splendid as well! I am hoping that every group is just as awesome :D
The cool thing about this group is that they are all from the same church. So, there are 29 people from the same church rather than 42 people from 2 churches. It completely changes the dynamics and it is interesting. I like it :)
This week I have been working at a place called Misión Betesda. It has been awesome. It is a rehab/jail alternative for adult males, the majority of who are in their late teens or early 20s. I have been the main "translator" while I have been there. That has been interesting. It hasn't been going all that well :P but today, I explained how to play horse in Spanish and I think the guy understood haha. That or he already knew how to play and was just humoring me while I was trying to explain it haha :D.
I haven't said anything quite as embarrassing as "quiere sentir" yet though so that is exciting! The guys there are really great and I have enjoyed getting to know them the little bit that I have. It is hard because of the language barrier, but they love playing basketball with the youth that come, so we have been able to get to know them through that. They are SO GOOD! Some of the things that they do are just incredible! I wish that I was better at basketball, but it has been so much fun trying haha! I am getting a little better, that or I am just playing and not caring quite as much haha :)
I am loving it here still and I can't wait to see what God has in store for the next 5 weeks!
I am loving this new group. It is so hard because the last group was so amazing, but this one is just splendid as well! I am hoping that every group is just as awesome :D
The cool thing about this group is that they are all from the same church. So, there are 29 people from the same church rather than 42 people from 2 churches. It completely changes the dynamics and it is interesting. I like it :)
This week I have been working at a place called Misión Betesda. It has been awesome. It is a rehab/jail alternative for adult males, the majority of who are in their late teens or early 20s. I have been the main "translator" while I have been there. That has been interesting. It hasn't been going all that well :P but today, I explained how to play horse in Spanish and I think the guy understood haha. That or he already knew how to play and was just humoring me while I was trying to explain it haha :D.
I haven't said anything quite as embarrassing as "quiere sentir" yet though so that is exciting! The guys there are really great and I have enjoyed getting to know them the little bit that I have. It is hard because of the language barrier, but they love playing basketball with the youth that come, so we have been able to get to know them through that. They are SO GOOD! Some of the things that they do are just incredible! I wish that I was better at basketball, but it has been so much fun trying haha! I am getting a little better, that or I am just playing and not caring quite as much haha :)
I am loving it here still and I can't wait to see what God has in store for the next 5 weeks!
This is just an example of the amazing skies that take place in Puerto Rico.
Breathtaking. Especially at sunset.
Another example of the sky at sunset.
The clouds here are just ridiculously amazing.
This is our "fun picture" haha :) I love my team (Me, Adrienne, Josh, Jenna)
We all went to a dam!
Becky (Area Director/Awesome Sauce), Julio/July (who is one of our friends from the community), Adrienne, Josh, Jenna, Me
I just had to add this one because I just now realized that Adrienne and I, and Josh and Jenna have the same exact faces... I'm not sure if this was planned...
The "good" team picture!
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Day 32 of YouthWorks / Day 6 of Programming –
The groups left today. It was so sad to watch them leave! Such a great group of adult leader, students, and just everything in general! So wonderful! We did a quick clean up of the site and had a running breakfast! Then off they went. Afterwards we, as a group, finished what wasn’t cleaned and then we were able to read the notes that the students left for us, which was exciting :). Each Friday we also get an hour to “rest,” or do what ever we find to be restful. Today I found finishing some blog entries to be restful. I also took a short nap and a shower, lol.
So, now we still have SO much to do today! We need to do laundry, so shopping for the next group that is arriving on Sunday and get the site ready for them as well! I hope that we get everything done today because if we do we get to have a whole day off on Saturday!! I could really use that. I am thinking maybe a day at the beach or at the very least going somewhere with internet so that I can catch up on some facebook and e-mails.
Miss you all!
YouthWorks Day 32 / Programming Day 5 –
Today was AWESOME!! Not only was it my birthday, it was Josh (the other male leader)’s birthday as well! So crazy! We are exactly one year apart. He is a year older than I am. Today we drove around to three different ministry sites and just had an all around awesome day. It was really nice because I was able to spend some time with some of the kids that I didn’t normally get to spend time with during the day. I also got to see three ministry sites in action that I haven’t gotten to see yet.
Around 1:45 we ended up at Reto Juveniel, which is an awesome ministry that houses 10 guys under the age of 18. They are at Reto instead of going to prison. They work really hard maintaining their living area and learn about Jesus and how to fix their lives. It also works as a rehab center. This place is EXACTLY what I want to do with my life in the future! It is so wonderful. I would love to work at this ministry in the future. The guys there are just awesome and the work that Gilbert (the leader) does is so amazing. It is also right on the beach, which is nothing to complain about. So for the afternoon we were playing with games with the guys and then we went swimming/wading in the ocean. The waves were so intense so we basically just played in the waves, which was pretty awesome, I’m not gonna lie. Then, the rest of the group came and we swam some more and then we had a cook out with them. We grilled out with hot dogs and hamburgers and it was delicious!
Afterwards, we came back to the church and had a foot washing service with the kids. I don’t normally get choked up about foot washing but this time it was just so amazing. We all had such an awesome connection with the kids and the leaders as well that it was just so meaningful and such an amazing experience.
Afterwards, Josh and I got called into the staff area for “one more short meeting” because Adrienne “needed to talk to us.” I was a little nervous because my guilty conscience went crazy and I was going over everything I had done in the day trying to think of what I could have possibly done! Then we walk in and our Puerto Rican friends yelled, “SURPRISE!” Oh my goodness was I surprised! Julio, Angie, Lucy, Daniel and Luigi were all there and they brought us two (delicious) ice cream cakes. WONDERFUL! They are all just such awesome people! I loved getting to see them and they were the cherry on top of my already beautiful day!
Over all I would say this is definitely in the top 3 of my birthdays!
YouthWorks Day 31 / Programming Day 4 –
Today I was moved to our Salvation Army site rather than our site at CIIPAP. I was really nervous at first because they originally asked for a Spanish speaker so that they could translate everything. I’m definitely not translator material yet. So the day started off kind of rough. But, then when I finally got my head out of my bum and just did it, it was awesome. I had a great time there and made some great friends with the kids! It even worked out that I didn’t need to do any translating, except for minor things when the kids would want to say something to one of the youth kids.
Today I had an interesting experience that I thought had a nice parallel in my life. We were having pizza for supper and we buy them from Sam’s Club. So, I offered to go pick up the 13 pizzas. We called ahead a bunch and told them that we would be there at 4:30. Well, I got there at 4:15 and waited in line for almost half an hour. Then I got to the front and told them what I was there to pick up and then I waited for another 45 minutes before actually getting the pizzas. I was watching them SLOWLY go through the pizza oven, it was one of those on a conveyor belt type thing. So as they were ever so slowly coming through and taking so long I took the time to pray and reflect because as staff we don’t get quite as much time to do that as you would think. So I was sitting there praying and I realized that sometimes I am like the pizzas in the over and God is sitting in the lobby waiting for me to get done. I’m assuming that he is a little more patient than I am though, lol. It seems like while I am taking my happy time getting ready, or following his plan or doing what he has asked me to do, he is sitting there waiting for me. Sometimes I take a while to get done, like the pizza.
Tonight, we ate pizza and then went to the plaza. We heard about the history of Arecibo and a bit about Puerto Rico as well! Julio, one of our friends from the community (who also runs Sicomoro) was the person who spoke for us. It was great. They are selling shirts to help to raise money for their organization and the kids almost bought them completely out!! It was so awesome! They have such a good cause too J I can’t wait to buy some things to support them :).
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