This week was the best holiday! It was kids day! Sumpango was celebrating kids day by setting fireworks off in the streets and having face paint. But over here at our ministry kids day is not for the faint of heart. Reindom and Whale Team 6 went all out at treating the kids of Santa Marta. Last week Reindom has shared with my team the reason why their ministry existed and why the worked with the village of Santa Marta. Santa Marta was often referred to as the Forgotten One because there was no one who really cared to help out Santa Marta. Until Reindom decided to reach out! But last Sunday thanks to Reindom’s and WT6 hard work and much planning the kids of Santa Marta were anything but forgotten.
The day started for us at 4am when we woke up and prepared a packed breakfast for all the niños y niñas. After packing everything up we loaded up roughly 30 volunteers, plus us, plus the regular Reindom full time people into the back of a truck and a couple tiny vans to go greet the kids in their town. As soon as we got to the town we were already showering gifts on the kids and it didn’t stop the entire day. We gave them t shirts and candy and we all blow up balloons and made a spirit tunnel to the busses for the kids to run through. We had 2 huge busses full of kids who had never been anywhere but their home village. I think I had as much fun watching them looking at this big new world pass before them as they had watching out the window.
We arrived at the zoo with much excitement. We split into small groups and started our exploring of the Guatemala City zoo, which was not small. I think I was just as excited to see the animals as the kids. My group was so excited to see the penguins. After every animal we saw the kids would chant “pingüino! pingüino!” Until we found them. The zoo included many of the rarest animals like dairy cows and Guinea pigs (they looked just like the ones you could have found in my bedroom when I was younger).
My limited Spanish came in handy since 60% of my Spanish knowledge is saying: “mirada! mirada!” And pointing at some animal. Or “¿Cuál es tu animal favorito?”
After the zoo all 100 kids and 60 volunteers headed to McDonald’s where the kids eat their very first cheese burger in probably the only McDonald’s they have ever seen.
At this point everyone was all so tired but that didn’t stop us. We headed over to a mega church somewhere nearby and they put on a giant show for the kids that included puppets and lights and balloons and even pizza and apple juice afterwards.
If we thought we were tired before lunch it wasn’t anything compared to the ride back home.
When everyone was counting heads and preparing to get in the busses to go back I noticed there was a little girl lying on the ground with tears in her eyes. I picked her up and the little I could understand from her Spanish was she missed her mom. I told her we were going back as best I could but she wasn’t satisfied until we were in the bus headed back. Once we were in the bus though, she was happy as can be and we colored in her coloring book all the way back.
That was probably the longest those kids have ever been away from home and the longest their mothers had been without their children. All the mothers welcomed us back with excitement.
We got back to our casa at 9pm and I immediately fell asleep. It was such a great day and I absolutely loved spoiling those kids all day! feliz dia del niño everybody! I hope those kids see the love Reindom and us racers showed to them and they know it is because of the love God shows to us.
