Only Three Days Left...

TEAM JOURNAL FOR TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2011

QUOTE: "A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one dad."


This morning we started with our usual morning meeting, faced our usual morning traffic, and proceded to CDLN. We all had full schedules for the day. Larry spent the morning painting. He wore his orange painting shirt, which worked fined until he quit using orange paint and switched to green!

Ingrid joined Shanna and I in varnishing "banos" and then tables. In the afternoon she rejoined her young charges. After lunch and dishes Larry returned to his family for painting and homework - followed by his debut as a soccer goalie. We will tell no tails about his performance.

Shanna and I returned to try to help with homework, but when the cheering started with the arrival of high school students to tudor, we knew our efforts would not be up to those standards. After the homework some of the family adjourned to play soccer. This was after the high school students left, because due to the volume of homework there was no soccer with the high school kids. The soccer game varied between 3 and 17 participants. Don´t know how they kept track of who was on which team, or, if they did.

At about 5 our whole team visited the family where Michelle had been working. (We miss Michelle and Andrew.) About 20 3-5 year olds were stretched out on the hard floor sound asleep. When it was time to wake them for dinner it was a major effort to get them all on their feet, which did not necessarily mean awake. We joined them on the early dinner shift. Some of them continued their naps by putting their heads down on the dinner table. After dinner we atteded the Prayer Service, as we did last Tuesday. It would be nice to bottle all of that energy displayed in the chapel. The leaders were very young and did a very impressive job.

It is hard to believe, but, as Ingrid has reminded us there only 3 days left after today.

JOHN BAGGLEY

Donations Made My Service Possible

Last year, through the Global Volunteers website, I raised enough money for my trips to both Peru and Ecuador. The only thing I ended up paying for was my flight on both trips. How'd I do it?

I put a letter in my church bulletin and received an overwhelming amount of supplies that I was able to split between both trips for donations. I ended up bringing at least one extra suitcase on both trips filled with supplies for the children. When I signed up for the trips, I wrote a letter explaining what I was doing and why, asking for any sort of donation. I sent the letter to all my family close and extended as well as family friends, neighbors, teachers, distant relatives etc. I received an overwhelming response and received donations up until the week before I was to leave to Peru on my first trip.

I took the semester off from school last fall, and when I found Global Volunteers, it was a perfect fit. I found out about the program through a girl at my school who had done a trip to Brazil with her mother a few years ago. The fact that Global Volunteers provided me with the means to create a fundraising page was very helpful. It was perfect for me to fundraise through. Global Volunteers is the only volunteer program I found that allowed you to fully fundraise all of your costs and helped you in doing so. All other programs were much more expensive and more of a volunteer 'vacation' rather than a strictly volunteer trip.

This has been a wonderful, fulfilling memory for me. I encourage you to do it.
-Meagan Minott

The First Day at CDLN

TEAM JOURNAL MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2011

WRITTEN BY VOLUNTEER ANDREW

QUOTE FOR THE DAY: "Dance with whatever shows up." ~ Michelle

Today was eventful and tiring. Tatya gave us a detailed tour of the orphanage, and then dropped us off at our families.

While the children were in school, we helped around the house: making beds, sewing, and sorting books. Lunch was delicious, and it was fun to watch the kids gratefully gulp down their food after a long day of school. Some of us stayed to wash the dishes, while others took the kids back to their buildings. Afterwards, the kids went ballistic. There was a lot of yelling and excitement, especially because an English school from Peru came by and played with them.

Most of us grew tired, and were glad to see Tatya's face at the end of the day. It felt good to take a shower back at the room, and then we went out for our first real Peruvian meal, which was fantastic.

I think I speak for all of us when I say that it was a great day.