April 7th, 2014

               Two days into the trip and I’m already completely in love. Everything about it so far has been incredible. From cleaning the school to meeting the children, I have loved every second of it.

               Today, we arrived at the school first thing in the morning and anxiously waited for the kids to arrive. I can’t even begin to explain how excited I was to see them.  I was inside one of the classrooms when all of a sudden, the white school van pulled up. The doors opened and a swarm of kids came out. Within 5 seconds we were surrounded. It was a feeling like no other. They approached us like they had known us for years and clung onto on to us like their lives depended on it. I did not get the opportunity to meet all of them because class had begun, but that was by far the greatest thing I have ever experienced.

               Connecting with the kids was easier than expected. Tania is a 15-year-old girl I got the pleasure to meet. She was in the class I taught. In the beginning, she was really shy. I would sign to her but she wouldn’t really respond. By the end of the day we were best friends. I tried really hard getting through to her and it was definitely worth it. She’s really funny and she taught me a lot of new sign I didn’t know. With the short time I spent with her, Tania has already won a special place in my heart. 

               I got the privilege to work in the deaf classroom. It’s a whole different world in there; the kids are wonderful. The classroom consists of 6 kids-3 girls and 3 boys. I went in knowing nothing but the alphabet in sign. I didn’t know what to expect, so naturally, I was pretty nervous. I got over that awkward/shy phase quicker than I expected though. I just went for it without a second though and it went really well. Mirna, the teacher, already had a lesson planned for them so I went off of it, and added some things of my own that I thought would be useful information to the children. I also taught new sign from a sign book and had an awesome time trying to communicate with the kids.

               Being here is such an incredible blessing. Literally every second of every day spent here so far has been amazing. There are absolutely no words to describe how incredibly thankful I am for this opportunity.