Gardening day 2

August 5, 2015

Today we found out that God's Child needed some people to work with the babies and other people to garden.  Since I had already worked with the babies my two brothers and mom got to work with the babies today.  Much to my dissapointment dad and I got to garden again along with my sister who just played for most of the time, to be honest it was not all that fun but I made the best of it anyway.  We  carried a lot of dirt and planted a lot of flowers.  After we finished gardening, it was time to go home.  As we were talking about what we did mom mentioned that Nowemy (who I wrote about earlier) went home yesterday.  That was very exciting because that means that she is back to 100% health and is no longer malnourished/sick, at the same time though it was kind of sad because I would not get to see her again.  We then came back to Julia's for a 15 minute lunch before we were off to spanish lessons.  One of the reasons that we came on this trip was because we wanted to get away from all of our commitments and having to rush around, however, so far it has just been go go go.  Next week will be more relaxed though because we will not have spanish lessons or God's Child, which means that we will have our days completely free.  During our four hour spanish lesson my sister fell asleep. 

Afterwards we came back to Julia's at 5pm and just chilled/read until about 7 when we learned that Julia was throwing a fiesta (early birthday party) for my sister.  It was complete with a piñata and other people that we didn't know.  After destroying the piñata, Julia then served sandwiches, cake, chocolate covered bananas, and chocalate covered pineapple.  It was lots of fun.  Afterwards we all went to bed.

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Working with babies at God's Child

August 3, 2015 

Today we had some sort of a lemon cake for breakfast.  We then took a tuk tuk to God's Child because we had to carry big bags of supplies.  At God's Child we were informed that we would not be serving in the classrooms like we had hoped because the kids were testing all week.  Mom and I worked with the malnourished infants, while everyone else washed dishes.  Working with the babies was so much fun!!!  There was this one baby who was just all smiles, her name was Nowemy.

We then came back to Julia's for a quick lunch before we went to spanish lessons.  Spanish lessons were long, but they were also worth while.  We then went out for chips and guacamole.  And then we spent the rest of the night at Julia's.  

Hiking Pacaya

July 31, 2015
Today we woke up at about 7:30.  I then took the coldest shower of my life, and we had breakfast shortly after.  We walked again to God's Child, and learned that we would be serving vegetables to the mothers of the kids in the project.  God's Child is not an orphanage, it is a school where underprivileged kids can go to get an education.  The mothers were all so very happy and it was so much fun to be able to bless them in this way.  One woman's face just lit up in the biggest toothless grin ever when veggies were put into her basket.  One time my younger brother who is 11 was pulling up a basket of green leaves to get ready to serve, and the man in charge told him not to serve it because it was considered to be garbage so he put it back down and grabbed a new basket.  However, there was one lady who asked if she could have the "garbage" so the head man told us to give it to her.  She walked away looking happy as could be, but it made me so sad to think that she would have to ask for the garbage in order to feed her kids.  I could not even imagine what it could be like.  After we finished serving vegetables, we decided that we wanted to hike one of the nearby volcanos called Pacaya, and so we found a store that would guide you to the top.  It was about an hour and a half car ride there and about a two hour hike to the top.  We rented a horse for Samara.  We then had to fill out some sort of permission slip because it was a national park. That being done we started our climb up to the top.  There were a few spots with good view along the way.

However it was nothing compared to what the top looked like.

We then hiked down to the crater which was filled 100m deep with black lava rock.  We then found a vent and roasted marshmallows over it.  That was my first time having a lava marshmallow.  We then hiked back down and drove back to Antigua, where we had hamburgers for dinner.    

July 30, 2015
We woke up at 7:45am this morning.  We then had pancakes and watermelon for breakfast, the "syrup" that we had with the pancakes tasted like a mix of honey and fruit.  After breakfast we then got directions to God's Child, which is where we will be serving for the next week and a half.  We walked for about twenty minutes through town to get to God's Child.  The majority of the streets are cobblestone which looks really neat and rustic.  When we arrived at God's Child we recieved a tour.  They had all these neat plants that were all nicely trimmed and everything was beautiful.  After the tour we just hung out with the kids at God's Child for a while.  At about twelve it was time to go, so we just wandered through town for a while.  We had lunch at some kind of sports bar where we ordered a pizza and some quesadillas.  After lunch we hunted for spanish schools.  We found about five and will most likely take lessons at some point.  Then we went to a supermarket type store where we bought some granola bars and sim cards for my parent's phones.  After this we came back to the house for a bit and dropped off the granola bars.  My 9 year-old brother was begging for ice cream and so we went out and found an ice cream shop.  We are just resting at the house right now and despite it only being 4:00pm we are all tuckered out.

July 29, 2015

We left Minneapolis at 10:30am this morning and made it to the airport without any incidents.  We took one last photo and then said our goodbyes to our neighbors (they drove us).

It was kind of amusing to watch people stare at us while walking through the airport because they all have suit cases and we have these massive hiking backpacks.  While going through security I got flagged for a random security check.  When the TSA officer asked me to come over, I told my sister who is 3 years old that the officer was going to take me to jail.  At that point she just started bawling.  We stopped at subway on our way to the gate and then finished walking through the airport with our packs to the gate.  We almost got on the plane without any problems, however, when mom and dad tried to get on the plane they flagged them down and made them check their bags.  Our flight to Atlanta, Georgia was delayed about twenty minutes because of traffic.  That then made getting to our next flight very tight.  We rushed through the airport and made it just as they started boarding.  I got my last look at America for two months and we were off! 

After we got of the plane we went through customs and immigration very quickly and found our driver who was going to take us to where we were staying with a host family.  After about a forty minute drive we made it to the host families' house.  It was nice, we each had our own bed, clean water was provided, and we could take a hot shower every morning.  When Julia (pronounced hoolia) the, lady who owns the house, showed us to our rooms she decided that the adults would go in the room upstairs and the kids would go in the room downstairs.  However, mom and dad decided to stay on the safe side and split up, one parent in each room.  I think that Julia might have been offended by this.  I am exhausted, as it has been one long day of travel. 

Why I am Excited to Travel the World

      I am so excited to travel the world because I will have to leave my state and country and go outside of my comfort zone and experience things, see things, and do things that will all be new to me.  I will get to live in a completely new way, and experience new things.  I will get to meet new people, go to new places, and experience how other people live.

      Why I am not Excited to Travel the World

      Despite all of the amazing things that I will have the privilege of experiencing, I cannot say that I am disappointed at the same time.  I am majorly disappointed by the fact that going on a yearlong journey means missing out on so much back at home.  I am sure that the benefits will overcome the odds, however I am still skeptical about this as it is so unordinary.  I will be disappointed by the fact that I will not be able to physically see my friends for an entire year.  Hey, I guess that is why humans invented Skype!!  We will see a couple friends along the way through missionary connections that we have, but it will not be the same.  I am very involved in soccer and play year round so that will be a major disappointment.  I also have recently had guitar opportunities with the worship band at church, so I will be bummed by having to leave those so soon.  However, I am 100% positive that the benefits will outweigh the odds.