Some say Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, but I’m starting to think the happiest place on earth is actually the Xela mall. On Wednesday, Brooks and I took our much-anticipated trip to Xela with the kids, and it was nothing short of amazing. About a month and a half ago Brooks and I had asked Sandra, the director of Fundación Salvación, to tell us what she dreamed of for the kids at Fundación. To our surprise, the first thing she told us was her wish to see the annual Xela trip reinstated. Because of a lack of funds, they had not been able to take their trip to Xela, which celebrated the end of the school, for the past three years. As Brooks and I sent out the message for the start of our pen pal program, we mentioned in a short paragraph our desire to be able to take the kids on this trip, and how much donations would mean to us towards this endeavor. God blessed us greatly, giving us many generous hearts making generous donations to make this trip a possibility. At one point I was worried about how much money we lacked for the trip, but only a few short weeks later we found ourselves with enough donations to more than cover the trip. A special thanks must go out to Lisa Baumgartner and Anthony Ruddy, Stephanie Weaver, Casey Stepan, Phil Zapf and Bonnie McDowell, Lexi Stickel, and Anthony Sciubba, who were our generous benefactors and made this wonderful trip a possibility.
Brooks and I arrived at the orphanage bright and early at 7am, and helped load the kids on the bus and make sure everything was ready to go. We had a slight scare when we opened our locker and found that the bag of money, that was going to be used to pay for the trip, was missing; luckily, Sandra had discovered our locker open the day before and moved the money to a secure place in her office. Kids were running around, excited, we were putting nametags on the little ones, and a bunch of girls in the kitchen were frantically putting beans in bread for our snack. After a half hour of chaos, we loaded everyone on the bus – 55 kids and 10 volunteers – and headed out. Like all bus rides in Guatemala, there is always something to stop for; our bus stopped once to change a tire, and then a second time to get gas. The drive to Xela was slow; the week before Guatemala had heavy rain and storm-like conditions because of a hurricane in Mexico, so the roads were still showing the effects of the damage. We had to stop once in a line-up of cars because they were trying to fix a landslide on part of the road. We took this as an opportunity for a potty break though, and about 20 kids loaded off the bus and went pee behind a parked truck. About three hours after leaving Huehue we found ourselves in Xela, on our way to our first stop, the zoo. Brooks and I have laughed before at the lack of directional knowledge Guatemalans seem to possess, but we were astounded when we realized the bus driver didn’t know where either the zoo nor the mall were (our only two destinations in Xela, and only five minutes from one another). Someone needs to invest in getting GoogleMaps Guatemala ready. After making some turn arounds, we finally found the zoo and quickly unloaded all the kids in their groups. I was put with the little girls ages 4-6, which was both one of the best experiences I have ever had, and one of the most hectic. We quickly passed out a snack, and then went into the zoo (which was free! Totally awesome with a group of 65). Our first stop was the bathroom, which obviously took forever with such a large group. After that we wandered around the zoo a bit, checking out the different animals. Although we had heard several times that the Xela zoo was nothing spectacular, the kids absolutely loved it. They had a variety of colorful birds, monkeys, one lonely lion, and some other animals. Unfortunately I had to leave quickly to go to the mall and order pizza, but after looking at the animals the kids played on some giant slides they had at the zoo. For some, the simple joy of the zoo was their favorite part of the day.
Brooks and I arrived at the orphanage bright and early at 7am, and helped load the kids on the bus and make sure everything was ready to go. We had a slight scare when we opened our locker and found that the bag of money, that was going to be used to pay for the trip, was missing; luckily, Sandra had discovered our locker open the day before and moved the money to a secure place in her office. Kids were running around, excited, we were putting nametags on the little ones, and a bunch of girls in the kitchen were frantically putting beans in bread for our snack. After a half hour of chaos, we loaded everyone on the bus – 55 kids and 10 volunteers – and headed out. Like all bus rides in Guatemala, there is always something to stop for; our bus stopped once to change a tire, and then a second time to get gas. The drive to Xela was slow; the week before Guatemala had heavy rain and storm-like conditions because of a hurricane in Mexico, so the roads were still showing the effects of the damage. We had to stop once in a line-up of cars because they were trying to fix a landslide on part of the road. We took this as an opportunity for a potty break though, and about 20 kids loaded off the bus and went pee behind a parked truck. About three hours after leaving Huehue we found ourselves in Xela, on our way to our first stop, the zoo. Brooks and I have laughed before at the lack of directional knowledge Guatemalans seem to possess, but we were astounded when we realized the bus driver didn’t know where either the zoo nor the mall were (our only two destinations in Xela, and only five minutes from one another). Someone needs to invest in getting GoogleMaps Guatemala ready. After making some turn arounds, we finally found the zoo and quickly unloaded all the kids in their groups. I was put with the little girls ages 4-6, which was both one of the best experiences I have ever had, and one of the most hectic. We quickly passed out a snack, and then went into the zoo (which was free! Totally awesome with a group of 65). Our first stop was the bathroom, which obviously took forever with such a large group. After that we wandered around the zoo a bit, checking out the different animals. Although we had heard several times that the Xela zoo was nothing spectacular, the kids absolutely loved it. They had a variety of colorful birds, monkeys, one lonely lion, and some other animals. Unfortunately I had to leave quickly to go to the mall and order pizza, but after looking at the animals the kids played on some giant slides they had at the zoo. For some, the simple joy of the zoo was their favorite part of the day.
At the mall, after walking 10 minutes from the zoo, I went to the food court and ordered 25 medium pizzas for our group to be ready an hour later. We thought 25 pizzas would be more than enough, but we found out later we had grossly underestimated that. I met up with Jeanie, Cony’s niece who lives in Xela, and we marched over to WalMart to buy sodas for the kids. Again, we thought eight-3 liter bottles of soda would be enough, but not with our kids. After buying the soda and carting it upstairs, we sat down to enjoy a granisada (a snow cone with extra toppings) before the kids arrived. We soon realized our presence was not enough to scare people away from sitting down at the tables near us, and we had to enlist the help of some mall employees to help us move tables and chairs into a long line. Everyone in the food court quickly began staring at us, and I realized what 66 people all in a line would look like. It was a sight to see. By 1pm the kids started rolling upstairs, finding their seats, getting cups and soda, with pizza boxes placed in front of every two. Within minutes the pizza was devoured, and Brooks and I ordered another six pizzas, and then another eight pizzas, and then finally another four. We wanted the kids to be able to stuff their faces, and enjoy the experience of being able to eat pizza until they were full; we just didn’t realize to what magnitude they could do that. One boy ate 12 slices of pizza, and a six-year-old girl ate six slices of pizza. After the pizza escapade, we had an activity planned where each kid received 5Q (about 75 cents) to buy anything they wanted in the mall. For the older kids it was a really successful activity, but unfortunately with my little girls it was kind of tough. After a long bathroom break, we made our way upstairs to a toy store (it was like herding kittens the whole time), only to realize most of the toys cost more than 5Q; although we gave all the kids the option to share their money with a friend and buy something together, that concept didn’t quite register with the little girls. After looking at many bright pink toys, me telling them how many friends they would need to share money with, and them not being willing to share, I realized it was time to find some candy to buy that would require less math. Luckily, on our way out they found bags of small jelly candies, and settled on buying three bags of candies between the six of us. After buying our candy, we left the store and headed over to the escalator. The girls had neither seen nor ridden one before, and after timidly getting on the first time, they commenced to ride the escalator up and down about four times. They were so cute, and while I was snapping some pictures of them, I again got to bask in the simple joys they find in life. After our multiple escalator rides, I gathered them up and found some stairs to sit on to eat our candies. By 3pm, we met up with the group at the movie theater, where we were getting ready to see Winter – El delfín. We filed all of the kids into the movie theater, and then started passing out soda and popcorn to every two kids. Again, I felt for the employees as they were trying to pump out massive quantities of food for the kids. The movie was a wonderful movie (I almost cried at the end, and sometimes awkwardly clapped when the characters clapped, only to realize I was getting too into the movie); I was quite happy that I could understand a movie that was dubbed in Spanish. At one point, all of my five little girls needed to use the bathroom, and I have a beautiful mental image of the six of us, all walking in a line, holding hands and giggling on our way to the bathroom. They were so precious. After the movie we all filed out of the theater, made another bathroom stop (which, again, took forever), and then climbed on the bus to go home.
It’s hard for me to describe how incredible that day truly was, how special this was for both the kids and for us, but I was seriously riding the bus home with a perma-smile on my face (despite the fact that I was sitting in gum someone had left on my seat…). The kids were so thankful for the experience, and one girl told me she had never had a day so happy in all of her life. They deserved this experience, and I am overjoyed that we could help make it happen and could enjoy it with them as well. It will be a long talked about day at Fundación Salvación.
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