Day 2

Name: Katie McClurg Date: 6/12/09

Today has been really fun because we got to go on a tour of the entire campus. It was amazing to see how self-sufficient they are and how much these kids can already do at such young ages. The best part for me so far was going to the babies’ house and getting to play with all of the cute little kids. They were all so welcoming and loved the attention from us, especially taking pictures with and of us. Then when we went on the playground with them I had to have Mr. Pohlen’s daughter Anna help translate to the kids, but even if they didn’t know what we were saying they went along with it. So far my Spanish has already improved so much and I think we all have made a lot of new friends.

Name: Brittni Palkert Date: 6/12/09

Hola Mami y Papi! My experience up until now has far exceeded my expectations. The kids are crazy, outgoing, and make silly jokes. Today, I asked a kid how he broke his arm and he told me that Molly Guerilla karate chopped his arm; they just say crazy things all the time, but many of their jokes I can’t understand which is a little frustrating. We have played duck, duck, goose, soccer, and in the sand where a little boy taught me how to say zebra, tiger, and giraffe in Spanish. Another thing the kids LOVE to do is take my camera! We’ll have to see how some of their pictures turn out… Lunch was muy delicioso and the kids surprisingly know much of the music we do; Selena, Daddy Yankee and even Hannah Montana. I feel like I’ve already been her for weeks and it’s only been a day and a half and I love it. Bye for now but we’ll keep you up to date on all the other adventures that occur later in the week! Love you J


Name: Devon FitzGerald Date: 6/12/09

Today was quite a day! It’s pretty hot here during the day, but at night it’s very cold. The kids are so much fun to play with, as soon as they see us it’s:“Como te llamas, como te llamas?” They also love to make fun of us when we don’t understand what they are saying! I’ve gotten many nicknames like “pequito pero” or “little dog.” It’s exhausting, but it’s so much fun!!


Name: Erin Katopodis Date: 6/12/09

Hola a mi familia y mi abuela! We woke up this morning and few of us in “Casa tres” tried to go on an early morning run. Unfortunately, the elevation hindered our endurance and we cut the run short (or at least that was our excuse!). We arrived last night and realized how many bugs we were going to have to kill, so our casa is now keeping track of who can kill the most bugs each day. Besides sleeping on a thin mattress, using a towel as a blanket, and getting a great farmer’s tan (and not being able to flush toilet paper), the weather, scenery, fruit, constant futbol playing, and energetic kids definitely make me realize how fortunate I am to be able to be here. Today, we were able to actually interact more with the kids than we did yesterday and they all find it extremely amusing how we don’t know what they’re saying sometimes (using this to their advantage). The kids all took us on a tour of the orphanage today and we saw muchos chickens and pigs…during mating season. Enough said. So far, my most used Spanish phrases have been “Cuidado!” “Fotos!” “Estoy cansada” “Necesito agua” y “Como se dice ____ en Espanol?” I can’t wait to do actual service tomorrow for the orphanage. I think it has something to do with their crops. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep through the roosters at four a.m. tomorrow morning because I realized how important sleep is while you are here! Adios y mucho amor!

P.S. They all wanted me to “blog” an additional story from the day: Theo (Mr. Pohlen’s son - 5 years old) got frustrated today during our one of many games of soccer and one of the pequenos (orphans) asked what his name was and voluntarily cheered Theo up and he instantly came back to play futbol with a smile on his face. It’s interesting to see how welcoming and selfless all of these kids are and how appreciative they are of our visit and the interaction we have with them (even if there is a bit of a communication barrier). – sorry for the novel! I’ll keep it short next time..I promise


Name: Hope Sexton Date: jun 12

Ok, the kids are adorable!! We became friends with so many of them today. They remember our name better than we remember theirs. But we’re trying really hard to talk to them. They are so patient when we struggle with Spanish and they get a lot of laughs out of it. I attempted to play soccer….and failed, but I got hit in the arm really hard so I can look intense. After we were exhausted we made bracelets for anyone who wanted them. Wow, who knew someone could sweat so much. Haha, everyone is gross by breakfast! My favorite part of being here, though, has by far been the different culture. They are so willing to help with anything and they care for everyone. It is so obvious that they never put themselves first. I really look forward to learning from them. I don’t have much to say now, but I will in a few days. Oh and the mangoes are delicious!! I love you guys a million J Se amo.


Name: Maura Kelly Date: 12 June 2009

So basically…Guatemala is AMAZING!!!! These last two day have been amazing and I even have a new boyfriend J Haha his name is Melvin and I think he’s 11 but I’m really not sure. Today we played soccer and basketball together for hours and I’m really tired. We made each other friendship bracelets and played more soccer even after dark. This morning we took a tour of the grounds, which are WAAAY larger than I ever imagined! The pigs smelled bad but the toddlers were cute. I even got to find buried “Tesoro” with my new bud Antonio. We ate lunch with the kids for the first time today and it was really fun! I met little boy named Armando and he is really awesome J It was really weird to be totally immersed in a language that I am not fluent in. But it amazes me how we are becoming faster and more fluent with all of the kids. I have lots of pictures so far, although most are from when Antonio stole my camera and took pictures when all the other boys were throwing dead bugs at me. EW! But overall I would say this was one of the best days of my life. Haha well I hope you all are doing well…especially you grandpa! J I love you and I will see u later! Buenas Noches a todos. <3 Maura


Name: ALLIE FAN Date: June 12, 2009

HOLA from Guatemala, from looking at today you would never guess that I was bad with kids, I played with so many of the kids. We went to the “baby house” which is kids 0-7 and one of them asked me to push him on the swing in the little sand box and as soon as I did it he started laughing so loud that a line form at the swings 6 kids long for me to push them all. Then I had to speed up process so I would yell “listos, uno, dos, tres, salta” which for all you non-spanish speakers is “ready, one, two three, jump” haha. It was really cute tho because they would try to cut in line to get extra turns. That was probably my favorite moment of the day. Our project for the day was to unload and count all 32 suitcases of donations so that also kept us busy, the best part of that was seeing someone put an old carondelet sweatshirt into the bag with Fan on the back, I got really excited. A close second to the was seeing one of the little boys proudly wearing his Minnetonka dance team shirt. It gets dark at like 7 but for some reason the day still feels like twice as long, although that could be because of the 5am roosters calls, im sure ill sleep through it tonight tho, I am exhausted. Goodnight, love u guys, hasta luego!


Name: Molly Gorrilla Date: June 12, 2009

Greetings from Guatemala! We started the day off with sorting through the donations that we collected from the drive at school. Then we went and hung out with the kids. Today we had about a core 5 boys( don’t worry..they are around the age of seven)that really stuck with the group and visited us very often to chat, make bracelets and play soccer. Getting to know the kids is so awesome, they are all special in their own ways and it seems like we have all known them for our whole lives. The sun was out today, which was amazing since the last week in Minnesota was cloudy and cold. We got a tour of the whole place today, its cool to hear about the groups that have been here the last few years that have planted grass (which is fully grown in now) and the buildings they painted. It seems like the little boys are the most outgoing to far, but hopefully we can immerse ourselves more with the girls, since they seem the most shy. Luckily I have ALICIA VERTIN with me at all times because she is practically fluent and she can make numerous conversations with all the kids, so, hopefully by the end of the trip I will be able to have conversations without making mistakes. Basically the trip is so fun so far and the kids are amazing…Well now its thundering out…cool…o yeah…the mountains are soo tight…I better go now since there is a line of people who want to blog too.
Allie is going to go teach me how to play some card games and cribbage now..cant wait..
Hasta Luego!!
Peace and Love
Molly Gorrilla


Name: Kelsey Hennen Date: June 12, 2009

Finally after all of the after all of the after school packing sessions and the ones during class are all of the items counted and given to the orphanage. All though we have only been in Guatemala for a day and a half, our hard work is already starting to pay off…just seeing how much the children enjoy having us here is worth all of the fundraising at the plays and packing millions of socks. I am amazed at how welcoming they have been to us and how even though we have language barriers we can understand each other. We are all having so much fun and are excited to start our project tomorrow.


Name: Maria Cass Date: June 12, 2009

Post: Day number 2 was super long, but of course super fun. We hung out with the kids and tried to explain to them with our broken Spanish how to make bracelets from cotton string, they nodded and tried to act nice but it was pretty obvious they didn’t understand. My Spanish is getting better, mostly I am learning to use commands and stuff in the Tú form. We took a tour of the facilities, they were really nice, I don’t know what I was expecting but it is a really beautiful place. We are in the middle of the mountains with volcanoes on either side of NPH compound. The kids are really friendly, the little boys more than the other of course J I got some lovely tan lines from my socks and tee-shirt but all in all it was a great first full day at NPH. I miss everyone back home and I hope you are al having a fabulous time in Minnesota!


Name: Kelsey Jacobson Date: June 12, 2009

Post: Hey everyone! Today (Day number 2) was super fun! We woke up, and Maura, Melissa, Hope, Erin, and I went on a run. It was pitiful. We ran one lap around the field and died due to the altitude change. Then we ate a fabulous breakfast with each other consisting of scrambled eggs and fruitJ Then we got to work counting the donations. There were a ton! After counting, we went out and began to get to know the kids. They are so much fun and really fun! We played soccer (they are so good!!!) This one kid, Elmer, was owning all of us! We went on a tour of the entire orphanage. This was super fun because we got to see all the kids (the babies, little boys, and little girls). Then we ate lunch (spaghetti, my favorite food in the whole entire world) At first we all sat together but the Guzi encouraged us to mingle with the kids) This was fun because we got to know a lot more kids and practice our Spanish. I am finding my little knowledge of Spanish to be very frustrating being that I take French, but I’m learning surprisingly fast! At lunch, I learned lots of new words including one word that many of the guys kept saying that I later found out was very inappropriate. I was very embarrassed. The guys are funny here because they think it’s amusing to make fun of us girls when we aren’t able to speak Spanish. We spent the rest of the day playing basketball, making bracelets, taking photos with the kids, and hanging out with the kids. All the kids are super nice, accepting of our inadequate Spanish, and extremely loveable. We have all chosen our “novios” also haha. But don’t worry parents, we’re making good choices;) I can’t wait for the rest of these next two weeks! Tomorrow, we are going to work in the fields and use machetes! It should be fun! All us girls are also getting along really well. We’ve got a great group of girls down hereJ I really really really miss all of you at home and can’t wait to see you all! I love you all and thanks for your support!


Name: Melissa Borer Date: June 12, 2009
Post: Everyone keeps telling me that less is more when it comes to blogging so I’ll keep it short and sweet. It’s awesome, it is kind of hard to communicate but for the most part they are really good and slowing down for you and help you understand. I feel super awkward when I can’t understand them and I have to say repite like 8 times but for the most part I’m doing good. I met the only boy in the orphanage that has green eyes like me and they all were in awe. Apparently they call him gato because he looks like a cat, which means I look like a cat to, yikes. But it’s really fun and each day is going to get better, but harder to leave. Adios!!!!