These last few weeks have been a little busier than most. We had our first set of interns arrive for the summer: Ally, Katie and Annalee. And they are pretty much amazing! We also just had our first team for the summer. It was a group from Grove City College in Pennsylvania and one individual from North Dakota. It was a great team- very genuine and excited to really dig in. We had about 5 ladies that came with Annalee and myself to what's been deemed the social services site in Las Fuentes. It was really encouraging to have more people around to give more individualized attention to a greater amount of kids. During these two weeks with this team, I also felt a lot of confirmation for how much I really do like SI and how they go about things. One of the times that this was especially confirmed was when another team from the states (not SI affiliated), came into Las Fuentes to give a soccer clinic/camp for a few hours one afternoon. And this is not to say that short term missions doesn't have its place, because it has definitely had a significant role in my life and plays a large part in SI. However, I've grown to appreciate even more the way SI does things because of the short term teams they bring to work alongside those who have an established place in such communities. With this team that came to do the soccer camp, we SI-ers were there, as well, so that we could help out if needed. During the camp, one of the kids thats been part of some of our programming before, Julio, fell and hurt his arm. In this case, I was happy to have had a previous relationship with this kid, because the people running the soccer camp didn't really know what to do in this situation, especially since Julio was so upset and afraid to tell his parents. So, the other SI ladies and I were able to walk him to his house and explain all of what had happened to his parents. Upon getting there, Julio just burst into tears and I explained to his mom and aunts what had happened. They told me that the problem was that they didn't have any insurance, but his mom was going to make some calls to figure some stuff out. The next day, we saw Julio. He had a cast on his arm and a smile on his face. Everything with the doctor had worked out fine. I, and the other ladies, were happy to be able to follow through in this situation and prove to Julio and his family that we really to want to be a diving in presence in their lives, rather than a dive bomb type of "relationship." I think what makes SI legitimate is the fact that we do have the in-country staff that are working in the communities day-in and day-out, so that when short term teams come through SI, they have that built-in trust because they come in and are associated with the already present relationship in that community. And this is what I love. =)
Below are some pictures from this last group and all of our various activities:
Erika, Olga and Hannah working on bracelets that materials had been donated for.
Post-aerobicizing!
At the Play with the kiddos! Flipping a coin to see who's up to bat first.
It can prove to be a very stretching experience, as Annalee is demonstrating so well!
Angie and Ariel survived the famous "tower hike!"
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