On Saturday the 8th, my team arrived in Arequipa, Peru. Month 2 begins! 🙂
I have been reflecting a little on Month 1 and wanted to share a few things with you all.
Week 1:
I spent my first week in Atlanta, Georgia at Launch. We went through various sessions and trainings to prepare us for life on the field. On August 7th, my Squad left the airport in Atlanta and flew to Santiago, Chile. On August 8th, our Squad arrived in Santiago and then split into teams— we stayed in Santiago while others made their journey to Frutillar, Calama, and Antofogasta.
My team stayed at Casa Esperanza and began our first full ministry day on that Thursday, August 9th.
That Thursday and Friday, I spent time with one of my Squad Leaders, Alyssa, in a classroom with some of the youngest kiddos of Escuela Las Rosas.
Alyssa with one of the cutest, Fernando.
Highlights of that week:
- Spending time with awesome people during Launch.
- Dressing up with my team and participating in a “Day of Children” celebration
Week 2:
During week 2, our team had the privilege of spending time with Vision for Children’s President( the organization that supports Casa Esperanza), Kerry Mitras.
During this week, I spent time with my teammate Sarah in a classroom with some of the boys diagnosed with the most severe disabilities of the school.
Jose drawing characters from an iconic Mexican TV show— El Chavo del 8.
Highlights of that week:
- Getting to know more about my teammates as we all shared our testimonies.
- Spending time with Nicole and Maria (two of the young ladies living at Casa Esperanza) at Cerro San Cristobal as they did not have classes that Wednesday.
- Going to the local market with Nicole and eating a churro!
- Participating in “Comunidad Esperanza” and getting to spend some time talking to Kerry about my dreams.
Week 3:
During the third week, I went in to the Cooking workshop where many of the older students were learning vocational skills. The students learned to find recipes, buy their own ingredients during a field trip to the local supermarket (Lider, bought by Walmart), and then prepared their food for a presentation for the entire school that Friday.
This was also the week that we began to help with some deep cleaning tasks around the house.
Highlights of the week:
- On Wednesdays, Casa Esperanza opens its doors to the kids of the community and many of the children in orphanages for Bible Study and snacks. Our team led a short Bible Study.
- Thursday evening, my team had the opportunity to visit a local orphanage and learn more about the Orphan Crisis in Chile.
Me leading a fun game of “Simone says.” Also, I’m wearing way too many layers in this pic! Chilly in Chile, ya’ll.
- Thursday evening, I visited Nicole’s church. Saturday evening, I spent some time with Nicole’s youth group.
- Helping Ricardo, aka Richy, prepare food for his presentation. My fellow teacher friends will appreciate this— he was discouraged from not being able to properly place fruit on a skewer. So, we did some scaffolding. We started out by me placing the fruit on the stick and then asking him to slide it down. Then, I handed him the fruit and he placed it on the stick and slid it down. Then, I would say the name of the fruit in the order they were supposed to go in and he would grab it and place it on the stick and slide them on himself. In the end, he proudly exclaimed to his teacher, “Mira, Profe. Lo hice yo solo.” (Look, Teacher. I did it by myself)
Ricardo loving one of his friends 🙂
Week 4:
Sundays and Mondays are the days that my team scheduled for rest and adventure during our time in Chile. We traveled to Valparaiso, Chile together and spent some time exploring the artistic streets. I truly enjoyed these days as I got to bond with each of the amazing ladies of my team even more during this time.
This was a pretty busy week for me, particularly, because of my role as a Logistics Coordinator.
As one of the Logistics Coordinators, I help communicate and find information on country to country and continent to continent travel, such as visas, flight info, knowledge of basic ground transportation, cultural adjustments, and updating team info and locations; and planning Debriefs which includes helping teams get to debrief, booking lodging, distributing budget money to all teams, etc.
This was our last week in Santiago, Chile before our Squad was to come together for Debrief. And there were many things I needed to prepare for so I was not able to go to the school this week for two of the days.
Highlights of the week:
- HOT shower at our AirBnB in Valparaiso and figuring out how to get the water hot at Casa Esperanza the LAST day there!
- On our last day of ministry, our team went to cheer on Escuela Las Rosas in a local Olympics for Special Education Schools.
- Having a fun and chaotic Travel Day to Debrief.
- Quality time with teammates in Valparaiso.
Week 5: DEBRIEF
Debriefs on the World Race are a time where the entire squad comes together and we are joined by various leaders. This debrief, we were honored to have Chris, one of our E4 leaders; Tammy, our Squad Mentor; and John and Renee, our Squad Coaches.
Each morning, we had sessions to continue to edifying and equip us and our evenings were filled with worship and more wonderful sessions. During the week, we had time to explore San Pedro de Atacama, Chile and spend time with our entire squad and leaders.
Highlights of week 5:
- Eating Christy’s amazing dinners! She was a trooper and volunteered to be in charge of dinner for all 35 of us.
- My team buying me a piece of cheesecake and writing me a “thank you” card for my responsibilities as one of the Logistics Coordinators.
- Pressing in to Inner Healing with my Squad Leaders, Alyssa and Patrick, and my Squad Mentor, Tammy.
