Quinciñera, Monday!

This morning we got the great pleasure of getting a little dressed up for a very special occasion. As you may or may not know, the money that we left behind last year went to building a house for a family, a woman and her two daughters, in the worst of poverty. The older daughter, Maria, had mentioned this past summer that she was turning fifteen soon and that her biggest dream in life was to have a quinciñera (much like a sweet sixteen party to us).

So, today we made her dream become a reality.

We loaded the bus with balloons, cake, and a ball gown for Maria and we made our way to pick up the birthday girl. Maria seemed so nervous the whole time, her little sister Marta was so excited! We bought them all a new outfit to wear and did their make up for them. Then, we turned on some music and got the party started. Maria paraded into the room as our jaws dropped. At her request, we ate Pollo Campero for lunch and then we sang Happy Birthday, first in Spanish and then in English. Lastly, Maria took a smack at the piñata and Marta finished it up for her with great force.





When we took the family home, I was anxious to see the work our money had done.

Although the one room, wooden home may not seem like much, it did tremendous things.

It really put things into perspective to get to see our organization's name engraved on a plaque on the side of this life-changing home.

It's humbling to know that our hard work had created a total 180 in the lives of this family.



Next, we went to San Martin, the special needs orphanage, and to the AIDS orphanage. We had the time of our lives dancing to Justin Bieber and Michael Jackson with the special needs and we finished up by handing out treat bags and cookies. At the AIDS orphanage we played a long game of duck, duck, goose and jumped our tails off with the jump rope.

 

To finish up our day, we went up the mountain for papusas and to do a little souvenir shopping.

We all looked back on the trip we have had and laughed about the memories that have been made. We've had a great time touching the lives of others and have developed improved perspectives on the lives that we live. We got our fair share of goodbye pictures with our amazing host family and translators that we may not see tomorrow.

There's no way that we can thank any of them enough for their help in this journey!