San Diego

Two weeks ago I was in San Diego. After our last week of camp we had a short break before we dove into our fall activities. Eunice's parents had paid for a hotel room in San Diego for the duration of the break as a gift to her and she invited me to join her and Steph on the trip. It was a fun getaway. We didn't see a whole lot of San Diego, but we did some shopping (there are some things that are actually cheaper to buy in the States than in Mexico...well, at Wal-Mart anyway), they got their hair done, Eunice and I got pedicures, and we relaxed. I tried "In-N-Out" for the first time there. It's a fast food hamburger chain that I had never heard of prior to our trip. It was yummy! We also went to La Jolla while there. La Jolla is an area (I'm not sure if it is actually part of San Diego or not) where they have some nice beaches and a cove. The cove was neat...definitely too many people there for my liking though. Here's Eunice and I on the stairs down into the cove.

I got to go to a Korean Mart while there (Eunice is Korean, just fyi). And I was excited to try some Korean food while there...just to find out later that what I had was actually a Korean version of a Japanese dish (kind of like how we "Americanize" food from other cultures). I was amazed at all the different kinds of food that they sell there. They even had dried fish in bags. It was...interesting. Here I am...eating at the Korean mart. :)

I did, however, get to try a real Korean dessert. I'm not quite sure what the name of it is. I don't remember. It contains ice, various kinds of fruit (strawberries, kiwi, bananas, peaches), little mini-marshmallow looking things, sweet beans and ice cream. It was an interesting combination...not something I would want all the time, but I enjoyed it. Here is one angle of it, to give you an idea of what it looked like.

We were in San Diego from Sunday (the 23rd, I think) to Wednesday. Our trip back to Ensenada consisted of riding the trolley (wow, those things get packed) to the border, walking with our bags and Korean groceries to the bus station (it was a much longer walk than we expected), and then riding a bus back to Ensenada where Greg (co-founder of Genesis) picked us up and took us to the office. It felt like a lengthy trip. Overall, we had a short, but fun vacation.

Beach Camp continued...

Thursday and Friday we went to the beach. Another organization let us use a house they have for our meals and other activities. On Thursday we started out with a relay race on the beach and then the kids had free time until lunch. During free time the kids got to try surfing or sea kayaking. Or they could play in the water or in the sand. I spent awhile on Thursday helping one of the kids look for hermit crabs. We found a lot. It made me a little worried about my feet. We had spaghetti for lunch and we ate it on the beach. The kids were not given forks to make it more fun. At first we were under the impression that we (the staff and amigos) were not supposed to eat with forks either, so we started smuggling them to where we were eating. We then found out it was fine for us to use them, so we didn't have to be discrete anymore. After lunch we played another game. It involved hitting targets with water balloons using a big sling shot. The kids had a lot of fun...and somehow managed to not get hurt. Then there was pudding eating. With no hands. I chose to watch and was glad when I saw the chocolate pudding that Greg had smeared in Amanda's ear. It was fun to watch though. :) That was followed by more free time in the water until we left to eat dinner at the Ranch.

Then there was Friday. I'll honestly admit that I didn't do much with the kids on Friday. But I had a whole lot of fun. There were a lot of adults around so I didn't feel like I was abandoning children. It was also much cooler and a little rainy (first and only rain I have seen since coming here) due to a hurricane somewhere to the south, which caused less kids to be in the water. I was only in the water because I borrowed a wet suit (wow, those things are awesome!) from one of the amigos. I decided to be adventurous Friday and it was great. I tried surfing (made it up on one foot and a knee) and sea kayaking (super fun, but I capsized on the way back into shore). A couple staff and a few amigos stayed in the water while the kids went to eat lunch, which is when I got my first surfing lessons. Once the kids came back, I went up and ate lunch. Upon returning I found that the kids weren't kayaking, so I asked if I could try. I have never kayaked and have only canoed on rivers, so this was a different experience. I want to try it again sometime. After that I played in the water some and then surfed a little more. I got out of the water once Eunice came and asked me to help organize the girls to take showers. The orphanage staff sent two volunteers with the group to act as their staff (each orphanage has to send staff with their kids). The volunteers did a great job and all would have been fine except that they had to leave Thursday at lunch to go home to Washington state. So, at that point they no longer had any staff. One of the niños was 19 and very helpful with the boys, but that left us in charge of the girls. That made things interesting. Fortunately, they were well-behaved and we didn't really have any problems.

Friday night we had a luau of sorts. We ate various kinds of meat and rice with pineapple in it. I did some "hula" dancing with a couple of the amigas and staff. That was funny. It was very impromptu. For dessert the amigos served the kids dirt. Well, dirt that was actually crunched up oreos, pudding and gummy worms. It was served out in flower pots and the kids dug through it with their hands. It's an understatement to say that they had fun. :)

Saturday was the day for the kids to go home. They were supposed to stay until lunch, but their staff that showed up the night before had other plans and wanted to get them back. It was the saddest farewell of the summer. I was holding together pretty well until I saw that one of the boys had tears rolling down his cheeks. It was impossible not to cry after seeing that. On the bright side it was super cool to see what an impact we (staff and amigos) had on the kids in such a short amount of time. Despite language barriers and chaos, you could tell that the kids (especially the older ones) had really had a wonderful week. It was sad to say good bye to them, and sad to realize that this was the end of the summer camps. After the kids left, the staff and amigos prayed together. We prayed for the kids, we thanked God for the week we had, and prayed for the Ranch in general. It was wonderful and encouraging. I tend to be a little on the uncomfortable side when praying out loud with other people, but it was so great to look back on the week and praise God for what He did and to pray for the precious children that had just left us to return to their normal lives. It was uplifting to think that God has a plan for each of those kids and that He is watching over them even when we can't be there with them. After praying, we did some cleaning and ate lunch then headed into Ensenada. From there I will pick up tomorrow with the week after the camps...

But, before I end for today....thought you might be amused to see a picture of my attempt at surfing. If you've never tried it, you should....it's fun. :)

I'm back!

I know it's been awhile, but I have returned to fill you in on the last couple weeks. We have now transitioned from summer camps and spending most of our time at the Ranch to more of our year round activities and spending more time with the nearby communities.

I just realized that it has been 3 weeks since my last post -- wow! So, the first of those 3 weeks was our last week of camp. It was very different from the other weeks of camp. It was a beach/surf camp. But the beach/surf part didn't start until Thursday. We had only one orphanage and 2 groups of amigos come, but the amigos did not arrive until Wednesday. Thus, we structured all the activities for Monday and Tuesday. We ended up doing some very different things than usual. Monday we spent most of the day in downtown Ensenada. We spent some time near the water (we got to see two seals kiss...it was really cute) and we walked through the fish market (it was really smelly). The cooks from the Ranch brought lunch to us (tuna sandwiches) and after lunch the kids got to play on a play ground for awhile. We then walked around some more of downtown Ensenada and got the kids small ice cream cones from McDonald's.

Tuesday we did Discovery activities with the kids in the morning and then headed off to Jersey Park after lunch. We then found out that Jersey Park is closed on Tuesdays, so we went to La Bufadora instead. La Bufadora is a blowhole located at the end of a peninsula near Ensenada. The water can shoot up pretty high at times. I didn't get to see it from a very good angle, so I didn't take any pics or videos, but there are some on youtube if you're interested. There are lots of shops on the walk up to La Bufadora. I didn't do any shopping (we were with the kids and I didn't bring money since I was planning on going to Jersey Park), but I have been told that all the prices there are subject to bargaining. Supposedly, you can get a pretty good price on stuff if you're willing to hold your ground.

Wednesday morning we went for the hike that we usually do on Fridays. It was kind of sad realizing that that would probably be the last time I would do that hike. When we returned to the camp the amigos had arrived. It was a pretty chaotic afternoon. We did a few activities to help the amigos and niños get to know each other. From there on we (the staff) just tried to help the amigo groups with what they had planned. They had brought VBS-type teachings with them, which they mostly led with some of our help.

This is getting long, so I'm going to upload it and then working on writing about the rest of surf/beach camp!

For your viewing amusement....

This is what happened when Eunice and I stayed behind at the Ranch to do some cleaning while everyone else went to Jersey Park on Friday.



They are animal hats. Eunice's is an elephant and mine's a lion...I think.

Las montañas

We climb a mountain with the niños every Friday. Usually we don't quite go all the way to the top, but we went the little extra distance to the top this week. I took some pictures of the valley the Ranch is in. I also have a picture of the group at the top of the mountain. Hope you enjoy!





The Ranch is down there, somewhere.

Week 4

Every week we do certain activities. On Mondays and Tuesdays we do Discovery activities (see previous blog about those) and Vacation Bible School-type activities. We use a story called "Sydney y(and) Norman" for VBS. From what I have been able to learn of the story, it sounds really great. I plan to read it in English when I get home. What I can tell you is that it's about 2 pigs that have an encounter with God that effects them in different ways (both positive). You should read the rest for yourself -- I'm going to. ;) We also play games, do crafts, and go over a memory verse during VBS.

This past week we went to the beach on Wednesday. We first go on a nature walk near the beach. During the nature walk the ninos get to look for crabs and shells. Then we eat lunch, and after that we play in the ocean. I had a lot of fun jumping waves with a few of the girls this week. It's definitely not as warm here as it is going to the ocean in the Carolinas. Still fun though.

On Thursday we went to Baja Mar. Baja Mar is a private community that is largely inhabited by retired Americans. The kids get golf lessons and get to practice hitting the ball at the community's driving range. They also have a lot of fun picking up all the golf balls before and after they use the range. It's like a really easy Easter egg hunt or something. Baja Mar residents donated hot dogs, chips, and cake for our lunch Thursday. It was really nice of them. They usually do pbj's, so this week was extra special. After lunch the ninos have a putting tournament and then everyone gets prizes. The kids have a blast. They end up coming back to the Ranch with a t-shirt and a couple prizes.

The ninos this week loved the game Uvas (Grapes). It's basically a type of tag. One person is the Uva and stands in the middle of the field, while everyone else starts at one end of the playing field. The Uva shouts "uvas" and all the other players have to run across the playing field without getting tagged. If the Uva tags you, you have to stand in the place you were tagged and then use your arms to tag other people as they run past. I included one picture of the ninos playing ovas in this week's slide show.

That's a little bit of this week (and our weeks in general). I may post some more this weekend...we'll see...

Let's see...

I am currently listening to NeedtoBreathe and trying to decide what to share with all of you this week. I think I may tell you about some of the pictures that I posted in this week's slide show. This week was very fun. We had a great group of kids. It was this particular orphanage's first time coming to the Ranch, so it was fun to see them get to have so many new experiences. I'm going to caption pictures and then do some more blogging. :)