Read my archived posts! Click Here
|
Saturday, March 18, 2006
|
Thursday 16th 2006
Thursday when I found out what we were doing I found myself to be somewhat disappointed. I had my hopes up to go to the womens shelter that day. Well after breakfast Ashley informed us that we were going to be going back to Rosearito and finish up some more construction work. A lot of us ended up having to go back to our rooms and change into our work clothes before we left because nobody knew of the schedule change until 10 minutes before we left. At first it was somewhat disheartening. On the drive over, I got myself excited again though just to think about how many weeks ahead of schedule the project would be. I was still sore and wasn't ready to do very much manual labor, but I was ready to work. After getting there my first job was on the team that moved a dirt pile into an area where they needed more dirt. The pile was right below the spot that needed it, so we didn't use a wheelbarrow or anything. We instead put dirt in 5gallon buckets and lifted them up over the ledge and put the dirt where it went. My job was lifting the buckets up over the ledge. I was only able to do that for about two hours before I had to stop. While we were moving the dirt piles, in the background behind us, one of the guys was trying to re-park a schoolbus. For some reason he was backing it up and the back end went over a ledge with a large pile of loose dirt. The bad part was that it was also down hill, so he got to one point while trying to get himself out that the bus almost tiped over and rolled down the hill. If it would have tiped and rolled, it would have ended up hitting one of the finished buildings and most likely damaged it pretty bad. The girls were all screaming anytime he tried to gas it to get out as the bus leaned almost 45 degress. The driver finaly quit and jumped out of the bus, he then had some of us get behind and start to dig out the loose dirt that was under the wheels. Then once he had what he thought was a clear enough path he then had us all pile on the bus and push up against the opposite side of the bus for extra weight and balance. It was a little nerve racking knowing how close to tiping that bus was and climing on it anyway. But with the dirt pile gone and the extra wieght he was able to get himself out alright. But it was a trying experience for sure to see who would get on and who wouldn't. Allie actually got on the bus too. I was proud of her for that. Looking back it was funny to see how such a simple thing of re-parking a bus turned into a huge ordeal. Anyway, it made a good memory. So.. back to work we went. After I gave up on lifting the buckets I ended up going with a team to clean out a storage area that had random stuff and dust everywhere. Our goal was to make a big open area inside where we could eat lunch. Sounded like they wanted to make it thier permanant lunch place even after we left though. But that turned out to be a decent assignment for me as my arms were pretty much jello at that point. We finished that job just in time for lunch too.. it worked out perfectly. The lunch came in just as the last full dust pan went out. After a good lunch, back to work we went. We worked for another two hours or so on moving dirt piles into areas that needed to be leveled. It ended up being really nice though when the guy in charge said.. "Ok lets go" about two hours early. I knew I was ready to go at that point. So we all quit working, but we still didn't leave right away. One group wanted to go on a hike for some reason. I was completely out of leg energy so I wouldn't have been able to walk up a steep hill. But still a group of about 11 headed up a nearby mountain to check out the view. Apparently they had a great time though. For those that stayed behind, we ended up waiting for about an hour and a half for them to get back. We just sat around the whole time. SOmeone ended up bringing us some fresh picked oranges though so We ate those while we waited. Allie even liked the fresh picked oranages and that was cool because normally she doesn't like oranges at all. I don't understand that though because she likes mandrine and clementine oranges and they're basicly the same thing. Oh well.. The world may never know... So finally the group returned from the mountain hike and we hit the road back to the orphanage. On the way back we stopped at a candy store to pick up some filler for a pinada we were doing later that night with the kids. It was a huge bulk candy store and it was like a small wearhouse full of sugary goodness. Ashley gave us the opportunity to pick out two packages of something per person and give it to her for purchase as part of the childrens pinata filler. We were actually there for awhile before everybody decided and we were checked out. So anyway, we had to sneak all the chocolate and stuff back into the orphanage without any of the kids seeing. It worked out well though because the kids were in a chapel service by the time we got back. Shortly after dinner we started the party. It was going to be our last night for quality time with the kids so we made it a great time for them. The pinata was fun and it didn't take long before it was broken. We also were on ledges around the orphanage throwing candy down from there too since it didn't all fit in the pinata. It was a mad house for awhile with them all scurrying about gathering up as much as they could. After things calmed down a little bit we brought them all into the chapel to do a little craft with them. We had them make little picture frames and they could decorate them with stickers and stuff. A lot of them were too interested in the candy to care about that though. After we gave them some time to do that, Allie and I then handed out the toys we brought from our church. We tried best we could to make sure the girls got toys they could play with and the boys got all the cars and stuff. There was just quite not enough girl toys though, so a few of the girls got cars too. But I don't think they really minded that much. They were just happy to get stuff. They started out in a single file line to try and get stuff from us, but that didn't last very long at all. Soon I was swarmed with boys grabbing for stuff. There was enough for everyone to get two I think. I started with one each but by the time I got done with handing them all one, there was still quite a bit left. I think they all ended up getting at least two. It was very cool to see the smiles on thier faces. The rest of the evening we just played with them as much as possible since we wouldn't have much time Friday. It was a great night and the kids and us all had a great time. God really used us to bless the kids here this week. After all the kids went to bed I was ready to get to bed also. Ashley told us we were supposed to have a meeting later on though so I tried to stay awake for that. SOme of the older orphanage girls were doing all the other girls' hair on our team with braids and things. So Ashley was going to wait until they finished everyones hair. Turns out that after they were all done, she decided not to have a meeting because a lot of people had already gone to sleep. That was kind of disappointing because I was really tired and could have gone to bed like an hour and a half earlier. Plus if we would have had a meeting I would have had some fun stuff to share with the group that time and I never got another chance to do it. Oh well, things happen I guess. I was able to see one of the girls start the process on Allie's hair though before I went to bed. That was cool so I could get a picture of it. Anyway, I went to bed after that finally and I think I was asleep almost as soon as I hit the pillow.
|
|
posted by Jeremy Dillinger @ 8:04 AM
|
Read my archived posts! Click Here
|
