El Salvador’s completion?

So I’m thankful I blogged while away this time……..who knew coming home so close to Christmas would be so busy! Now that the girls are back in school and things feel a little more ‘normal’ around here I thought I’d hit the blog one last time about this trip. for the photos that haven’t been seen yet.

Remember if you want to see something bigger just click on the image.

The evidence of our Sunday kayak trip.

And below are the last pictures of our amazing day with our sponsor child.

This girl sang a song for us.  She had it memorized and it was fairly long.

The staff at Compassion.  This was just before we were told we had to get up front and make a speech….

The staff performed a drama for us.  They did it to the song ‘I Can Only Imagine’ by Mercy Me. This was done in English, but if it was in Spanish I’m sure I could’ve sang it anyways.  This was the one that brought me into tears.

We toured the project grounds. This is the kitchen where Compassion kids learn life skills.

And the sewing area where they also learn life skills.  All programs are 2 years and then they graduate. Anything they make in the sewing project they sell to their families or the community.

Our daughter is currently in the sewing program.  She loves it!  You can tell with that smile!

This is a classroom where they have Bible classes

Christmas gifts….the big party was the next day!  The kids were very excited even though they knew exactly what type of shoes were in there.

This is the gym area.  Basketball and soccer!

The computer class.  Our daughter had graduated from computer classes already.  She knows a lot more about computers then I do.  Including how to fix them!

In front of the massive flag!

We travelled to the house of our sponsor child and her family.  This is the front door.

The 1 room house….

Some cooking is done indoors…they have electricity and running water.

The rest of the cooking is here outdoors.

The chicken coop

The backyard.  Full of different trees including banana, mango and more.

We had fun giving her gifts…..she was thrilled!

We were thrilled with our gifts too!

The brothers were busy making us some artwork! With big sister helping spell our names.

Just Love this family!

And we went out for lunch with some of them. 

I never mentioned in my previous post but our sponsor child turned 15 this year.  That’s a huge birthday out in El Salvador, the fact we showed up the same year was really cool!  About 2 months after her birthday.

Another fun fact was that our sponsor child’s mom comes from a family of 17 kids.  11 of whom are still alive.

Also our sponsor child told us that she was anxious and nervous about our visit for the 2 weeks she knew we were coming.  It was beautiful watching her being open and honest about this, but we told her there was no need.  You can’t tell by the time we were done with the visit that she was not nervous or anxious anymore… I guess coming from our angle it seems like no big deal, but I guess when someone’s being giving you a gift for so long it’s a big deal.

Also another short story about being in El Salvador…I received a lot of extra stares.  Once even had a camera from a local right up to my face…….I guess 1 “tall” redheaded Caucasian women makes the people stop….apparently more people stopped to stare, but I had no clue. 

Anyways that’s the end of the trip.  The 2014 travelling has ended. 

2015 is a new journey for us.  We have more travel plans for the future, but we are also constantly travelling a daily journey. It’s not always easy, but we don’t travel anywhere alone!