Day 6: The Second Day in the Dump Community

After waking up, we went down to the chapel for our morning reflection. We were given questions to think about as we continued our service throughout the day. From there we went to breakfast, where we all enjoyed pancakes, eggs, fruit, and some more of that delicious Sunny D. After breakfast, we all hopped on the bus and prepared to separate into our different groups to do service. Some people went to the nursery, others to an all-girl grade school, and the rest to a co-ed grade school. I (Adam) went to the nursery.

Upon arriving at the school, we were taken to different classrooms and one of us was assigned to each room. I was in a room with 1^st graders, and was surprised at how glad they were to see me. I am sure when I was that young, if I saw someone new to me that did not even speak my language, I would be scared of them. None of these kids were scared; instead, they all welcomed me with hugs and a symphony of “Holas.” One of the girls even said “Hello” to me. I was surprised at her English, but then she even counted to ten in English.

Since there was no one else who spoke English in the room, I was concerned that there was going to be a language barrier between not only me and the kids, but me and the teacher as well. I do know a small amount of Spanish, but I was worried I would not be able to have a conversation with the kids and talk with them, or do what the teacher asked of me. This was not a problem, however, as their first activity was a song accompanied with a dance. I did not know any of the words, so I just danced along with the kids as they laughed at my “skills.” After we danced, they practiced the numbers one through seventy in Spanish. I was able to help with finding the number and putting it where it belongs. Afterwards, I was even able to teach the class the numbers one through twenty in English. The teacher found it somewhat funny, and I, along with the kids, found it enjoyable. After that, the kids practiced their cursive writing, and then proceeded to run around outside when they were finished with their work.

I was pulled into a game that I can only guess was tag, and had fun running around with the kids and smiling and laughing for what seemed like hours. Suddenly, there was a bell, and all of the kids ran outside and to the front of the building with the rest of the kids in the school. There, they presented the same song and dance that they had performed earlier, but it was all of the students of the school and they all seemed to really enjoy it. I know I did. After that they went to lunch, where I kept on eye on them, but sadly the time came for me to leave. I did not want to go! I had enjoyed those few hours with them so much. I cannot wait to go back again tomorrow to see their bright, smiling faces.

I (Bo) went to the all-girls school and had an interesting experience at the school. We first walked through the gate and met the principal.  She explained what classrooms we would be in and what we would be doing to help the students. Charlie and I went into a 1^st grade class; I was very nervous because I cannot speak Spanish very well. As soon as we walked into the classroom, all of the little girls were giggling and saying “Hola!” At first, Charlie and I didn’t know what we were doing so we sat at a table and talked to the little girls. The girls were very shy, but they soon started to feel more comfortable with us when we started to make silly faces and do goofy things.

After about 15 minutes, the teacher asked us if we could help the girls with their English with body parts, their family, and numbers. Even though Charlie and I weren’t the best teachers, the girls were having a blast! Out of nowhere a bell rang and all of the girls screamed and ran outside with their lunches. Charlie, Franklin, Alex, Mrs. Cabrera, and I walked outside and found some girls. We asked if she wanted to play a game, and they decided that they wanted to play Duck Duck Goose. All of the little girls were enjoying this so much, and they thought it was great that they were besting all of us older kids.

Then the little girls took our hands and wanted to show us a dance. After about five minutes, we chose to dance with them. I had no idea we would attract so many people, but it seemed like all the of girls watched us dance. Recess was about an hour long and it was hilarious to see all of the little girls yell and race to their classrooms. Charlie and I moved into the same classroom as Franklin and Alex. 

These girls were in 2^nd grade and were extremely hyper. We helped them make gifts for their fathers for Father’s Day and the girls giggled when I tried to speak Spanish. The girls also said my name was too hard, so I told the girls to call me “Pepe.” After about 15 minutes, the teacher let the girls play with us, so they started to tap my or Charlie’s back and we would run around trying to find out who it was. The girls had to leave in the next half hour which was very sad. All of them ran up to us and gave us hugs and waved goodbye.

After our service, we went back to the Coll school and made lunch. We relaxed for a bit, and shared some stories from service, then headed out to do some of our service involving physical work. They had planned to make another sidewalk, so we needed to make much more concrete. Most of the guys stayed and helped with the sidewalks and the concrete, but five of us went to go plaster some walls in a house that SJJ had been going to and working on for the past two years. They had a second story added on, and needed their drywall covered, so we finished the stairway landing area and some of the outside on the balcony.

Once back at the retreat house, we quickly got changed and prepared ourselves for another round of soccer. We moved the goals, and made the field longer and wider, and played three 5-on-5 teams. Thankfully, the weather was great all day and there was no threat of rain during service and our soccer playing.

After the soccer tournament, we sat down for another great dinner, this time with ribs, rice and corn, and fried yucca (a starchy food similar to french fries). Following dinner, we engaged in a deep group reflection during which we answered the questions presented to us earlier in the day. Today was a great day, and everyone is looking forward to tomorrow.

Written by Bo and Adam