El Salvador literally translates to “The Savior”. That’s quite the name for a country. I wount claim to know the whole country as I spent the whole month in a town called La Libertad (which means liberty or freedom). Here my team and another team, Brazen Hearts, stayed at an orphanage called Remar. There were 13 of us here to serve at the orphanage and love on these kids. When we arrived there were about 50 kids. By the time we were leaving that number increased to 62. Here is what a typical day looked like:
4:30am – Rise and Shine! (needless to say, it was not a joy to wake up at 4:30am every morning). If you had kitchen duty, this is when you made your way to the kitchen.
5:00am- Report to your assignment. For the guys it was at the farm feeding the chickens and whatever else they did. For everyone else, babies house, boys house, girls house or laundry. We helped the kids get ready for school and helped them with morning chores.
6:00am- breakfast
7:00am- kids go to school. School is right next door which is very convenient. The school is actually run by the orphanage and not only the kids from the orphanage attend but the majority of the students are kids from the community.
Also at 7:00am- we report to our second assignments. These included construction projects, more laundry, more kitchen, devotions at the school, helping at the kindergarden and at the preparatory classes.
12pm- report to the kitchen to help serve lunch. Lunch is donated and delivered daily except on fridays. Once the kids are served, we sit to eat. We then get a break after lunch.
2pm- return to whatever your morning assignment was prior to breakfast. This is a time to play with the little ones and help the older ones with homework.
4:30pm- if you are on dinner duty, report to the kitchen to help.
5pm- done with ministry for the day. Break time
6pm- report to the kitchen to help serve dinner.
7pm or sometimes 7:30pm- team time
9pm- doors are locked for each house. Bedtime.
Something worth noting- every friday is chicken killing day. At 2pm the older kids head to the chicken farm and slain, de-feather, de-gut and behead about 50 chickens. They grow and sell chickens as a way to help financially support the orphanage. Its quite something.
Tomorrow we head to Europe. It’s going to be a whole new world. Being in Central America the past 3 months have been like home to me. Never did I feel like a stranger. I understood every word spoken and could communicate wherever I went. The culture was not strange to me. This will not be the case in Europe. I know nothing about Albania or Bulgaria. Next month will truly be a challenge. I almost feel as if my race will truly begin. I will no longer be in my comfort zone and will be pushed in ways that I didn’t have to be these past 3 months… Bring it on!
Stay Blessed
Kim
(Chicken killing day. See them chickens in the cage behind me? They were done for by the afternoon)
