First day of serving in the Valley!

Hey friends and family! I hope everyone of you is doing well. Today was the first day of our intern "work" you could say. Our work day started at 7:30 a.m. Rebecca (one of the Buckner case managers) picked us up. Today was the first day of serving free food to the children since it is summer now for the kids. Not many of the poeple living in the Colonias new about the program since it was the first day. We had a few younger kids come to breakfast and a lot more come for lunch. The parents of the little ones are not very fluent in English so I didn't really get to communicate with them. Once the kids are about the age of 10 they are able to speak good english which is a sigh of relief to me! lol. Everyone who we have met that works with Buckner is bilingual. I sure wish I was bilungual...it is such a great thing to have here in Texas! Especially with the culture of the Valley. After we cleaned up and helped the children eat breakfast we hopped in a church bus (not really knowing what was going on-which is typical) and rode along side a church from Houston Texas who is staying here until Thursday to serve and construct houses in the Colonias. There was about 30 high school aged kids and a few adults in the two buses that we went with. We went to a Penticostal church where they will be doing VBS and where we (the interns) will be helping wash the kids feet and to give them new shoes (a service part of buckner called "Shoes for Orphans Soles". After we did that we drove to the Colonias and were instructed to pass out flyers to people about the free breakfast and lunch. Comidads or something like that means food in spanish so I went door to door (with a few other people from the church group) handing out the flyers and saying comidad...lol. After sweating and stepping on a lot of "stickers" we got picked up by the church bus. After that we were taken back to the Community Transformation Center (aka CTC) and we just cleaned the play area and windows and seats. Ricardo (the Buckner Colonias director is a neat freak like me so we understood each other, lol) All the staff here are great. Ricardo is always joking and just soo friendly to everyone. The other case managers/mission site coordinators are wonderful as well! Buckner is doing such a great thing here and I am soooo happy to be a part of this for a month!!! Around lunch time we had a lot of children and some teenagers come in. Ricardo introduced us and the two other ladies that helped serve the food and keep tally of it. We had them wash their hands and then distributed the food. I was trying so hard to say wash your hands in spanish and i was asking kids their names...some middle school aged girls were laughing at me. It is funny because I forgot that they knew english pretty well. I told them I was working on my Spanish. It was so awesome to see the kids happy and smiling as they were eating lunch. It's such a small act of kindness but it goes a long way when you show them love and attention and help them out by giving them food. Some of the little girls were just sooo precious. Some kids came in with one sock, some with only a diaper on, and some with dirt on them. These children are living in extreme poverty...i'm so thankful that I can be a part of this and to serve them in a little way. After lunch we went to a meeting with Ricardo, Jorge (the main guy over the valley-who was just so much fun!) The culture of people in the valley is so laid back and very welcoming. They love to have fun, even here on the job. This seems like a great job to have! Jorge actually was just in Philpi West Virginia for a  World Vision meeting I believe. He actually knew something about WV when I told him where I was from. He mentioned the mountains, lol. Most people have nothign to say about WV when I tell them that's where I'm from. lol. At the meeting we talked about what we will be doing in the next 4 weeks. This week we will be serving food ( I will be inside with Rebecca) Samantha and Issac are probably going to be outside doing construction. I don't know how I got so lucky...but I'm not complaining! This thursday is when we will be washing children's feet and distributing shoes. I cannot wait to be a part of that humbling experience! Next week we will be doing bible school for about 150 kids! Then next weekend we will get to go to South Padrae (don't know if that's spelled right) Island on Friday and Saturday. It is on the gulf coat of Texas. Then the last week we might be doing a health fair. I mentioned to the staff that I would like to do some dental education. They said that would be great. I will probably do it at bible school and the last week. At the CTC they have health education...it would be great to get to work at a place like that where I can be a part of the community transformation. I will get to meet a dentist who is intersted in brining a mobile dental unit into the colonias. I am looking forward to talking with him and just seeing what all he does. Who knows..I could end up in Texas working with some of these people one day? I'm a dreamer:) After our meeting with the staff we worked in the warehouse sorting through the sizes of shoes for the children that we will be seeing on Thursday. And we played around a little and had some fun while the staff was having their meeting without the interns. All in all, today was a GREAT first day! I am learning a little bit of Spanish and actually retaining it. lol. It is sunny here and very hot but I absolutely love it. It is great to be a part of helping these people. I'm looking forward to getting to know them better as well as all the great Buckner staff. Oh and Issac the other intern is from Korea...tonight he is going to make Samantha and I, as well as himself dinner. yum yum :) Have a great evening everyone!