First Two Days of My Journey

Day two of my journey is winding down and I can't even begin to describe what it's been like.  OK, I'll try.

First, let me start with yesterday.  Holy crap!  What a day!  You may have read my blog yesterday, but it was only the beginning.  To summarize, I woke up at 4:30 a.m.  I left for the airport at 5:30 a.m.  After a harrowing drive to the airport (no offense mom, but my stress level skyrocketed when you almost took the wrong turn...wink, wink), I got there about 6:10 a.m.  I sat down to have a cup of coffee and chat with my well-wishers.  Through security at about 7:20 a.m. and off to my gate.  Got to my gate, which should have been boarding by then, and...du, du, dung...no plane!  Had to wait an extra 15 minutes for the plane to arrive.  Finally in the air at about 8:30 a.m. and I was freaking out that I might miss my connecting flight because there was only supposed to be about 30-40 minutes of a layover.  Well, I guess no need to panic: my connecting flight was late.  Shocking!  It was supposed to leave Oakland at 10:40 a.m., but it got changed to 11:30.  That was ok.  I mean, at least I didn't have to worry about missing it!  BUT, then it got changed to a noon departure, then 1:00, and finally the airline settled on 1:05 p.m. departure.  I figured I better get used to the waiting and settled in to work on my blog and catch up on some Facebook and email.

THEN, I got to San Diego with my ridiculously large backpack, still in the stupid cover thing (see yesterday's blog), and had to hoist it onto my back.  Actually, it would've been really nice if there was some sort of friggin' pulley system nearby so that I could just shimmy it up onto my back without having to sit on a bench or something.  I swear I looked like a complete moron.  But who cares, right?!  Not me.  Frankly, I cared more about the blisters on the back of each ankle from my new, supposedly awesome but really painful, shoes.  Awesome.  Silver lining though? (By the way, I believe that there always is something positive to find even in the worst situations).  So, the silver lining is that my ride was late, which gave me time to find a bench, dig out my flip-flops and stuff those awful loafers into my already bulging sack of my life.

After running some errands in America (Target, Costco and some really amazing organic produce market called Henry's), we headed for the border.  Now let me tell you about the people who picked me up.  Lauren has been living at the orphanage for about 4 years.  Her Spanish is really good (thank God).  She's probably about 22 years old or so.  Also in the van -- yes, they picked me up in a 15-passenger van...oy -- is Sarah.  Sarah is 35 and pregnant, which is the reason she was in the van...she had a doctor's appointment in the States.  Sarah and her husband run the medical clinic in town.  They both started at the orphanage and decided they were called to run the clinic instead.  Her Spanish is also very good (once again, THANK GOD).  Remember we're heading for the border of Mexico.  Also in the van is another volunteer, Kylie.  She's been to the orphanage, volunteering for a week at a time once each year for the last four years.  Now she has decided to become a full-time volunteer and expects to be at the orphanage for the next 6-8 months.  Her Spanish is ok, but certainly better than mine.

The volunteers at the orphanage have these passes that allow for speedier travel between the US and Mexico.  With this fast pass, they don't have to spend hours in line getting everything checked.  USUALLY.  Well, remember Sarah from the clinic?  She received some supplies as donations and was taking them back to Mexico.  She's done it plenty times before.  Well, apparently the supplies this time were a little different.  We spent two hours at the border while they inspected three little boxes of supplies.  The Mexican officials confiscated about 60% of the supplies, which Sarah was fine with.  The bad part was that they had to inventory EVERYTHING.  Seriously?!  And what's the silver lining?  Actually there are several things.  First, while Lauren and Sarah were using their awesome Spanish skills, Kylie and I had a great chat about what compelled us to go to Door of Faith.  While the officials were inventorying, Lauren, Sarah, Kylie and I got to do a little bonding by playing some silly car games.  Sounds dumb, but it was nice to get to know the people with whom I will be serving.

We finally arrived at the orphanage (Door of Faith) in Le Mision, Baja California, Mexico.  It was about 9:45 or 10 p.m.  All I could think was that at least I didn't have to go through a time change too!  Pacific Time to Pacific Time isn't so bad!

So, my house (mi casa) is kind of like a duplex or dorm.  It has a shared living space, kitchen and bathroom, with two bedrooms on each end.  Each bedroom has multiple sets of bunk beds in it.  Kylie's room has 3-4 sets of bunks, mine has 2.  There are no closets or dressers.  My OCD required me to "unpack" my meager belongings after we arrived last night.  I say "unpack" because there really isn't anywhere to put things.  I laid out my few articles of clothing, as wrinkled as they were after being extracted from the compression bags, on another bunk bed and got my bed put together.  I moved a chair near the head of my bed to act like a nightstand, set up my alarm clock, then off to la la land.

This morning I slept in.  Ordinarily there is a meeting over coffee at 8 a.m. every day, but they gave Kylie and I a pass because we got in so late.  Whew!  Cuz lemme tell ya, after about 3 hours of sleep from my horrible night of packing and repacking that formidable pack, I really needed some zzzz's.  After a shower and a little snack, another volunteer, Michael, showed me around the orphanage.

Wow!  This place is amazing!  There are about 118 kids, ranging in age from newborn to 27.  I'll get back to that 27-year-old in a minute.

Door of Faith is in the town of Le Mision, which is about two hours south of San Diego, CA.  It sits in the hills and is surrounded by windy roads, dirt and "barely there" shrubbery.

Overlooking the orphanage is a massive cross atop a hill, like a beacon to all those who need faith.  There are many different buildings, each considered a dorm for a particular age group and sex of children.  There are separate buildings for the kitchen and dining, a small store, and laundry.  When large groups of visitors come to help out and play with the kids, they stay in "campgrounds," which are really more like dorms.

Door of Faith has three main philosophies.  Family.  Education.  Community Service.  DoFo, as it is frequently called, also has a community outreach program.  They give groceries to families in the community.  They also give groceries to an elder care facility.  They also go to Tijuana to feed the poor.  And throughout it all, they encourage all the kids to participate and give back.  Wow.  Just wow.  I am awestruck at how amazing this place is.

The kids all appear to be happy and healthy.  They love attention and hugs and talking.  Today, just my first day, with my extremely limited Spanish, I was led away by a young girl named Emma (that's the American equivalent, I have no idea how to spell her Spanish name).  Emma must be about 5.  She has these beautiful brown eyes that stared up at me like she was trying to say, "You seem like a nice lady and I want you to play with me and love on me."  Instead, she said, "Amiga, c'mon."  So cute.  She wanted to give me a hug and have me push her on a swing.  Soon enough, I was swarmed by equally loving and beautiful girls about Emma's age, all wanting to talk at the same time and get love at the same time.  Wow.  My cup runneth over.  As I write this, I am so touched by the grace of God as shown to me by these beautiful children.  True, all children are precious, but here it's just different.

Later this evening, I watched a group of boys aged about 7-14 play soccer on a dirt field.  Yep, just dirt.  Not a single blade of grass anywhere in sight.  Some of the boys had cleats on, others didn't.  One boy even had just one cleat and a regular shoe (one shoe of a really cool pair of blue plaid vans).  The boys were having so much fun.  They didn't care that they were dirty or that their goal net has a gaping hole in it the size of Gibraltar.  Kylie (remember, the other volunteer that arrived with me) and I were sitting on a stone wall with about 2-4 of the boys watching the "game" of soccer and chatting with our fellow little fans.  This soccer wasn't really a game per se.  It was more like a group of boys kicking the ball at the net, fighting over the chance to make contact with the ball, and otherwise just getting dirty.  We chatted with the boys about everything from movies to just basic words in English and Spanish.  I'm picking up a little here and there.

After a while, Filipe invited me to try some crazy board.  It's like a skateboard on two wheels.  I may be dumb, but he suckered me into it.  Soon enough, a girl named Rosa came along to help coach me and stay up on the darn thing.  I'm not any good, but I had fun.  Rosa and I talked -- well, we did our best to communicate -- for a while.  At one point she said to me, "You are my friend."  My heart melted.  Rosa is 13.  Her favorite color is purple (morado).  Her favorite animal is the dolphin (delfin -- can't figure out how to get an accent over that "i").  She likes my jewelry and specifically asked if any of it came from my mom.  I get the impression that she thinks it is all handed down.

When it came time to head to our respective "homes," Rosa and another kid named Jesus gave me hugs.  Here are these kids that I just met and they want to show me how much they care and appreciate me being there so I get random hugs?  Amazing!  To feel so unconditionally loved so immediately is a phenomenal and almost indescribable experience.

OK, back to that 27-year-old.  Door of Faith is unique in that it allows kids over the age of 18 to stay here if they are still in school.  The 27-year-old is finishing law school!!!  They are able to go to college if they get sponsors.  In the next year there will be 15 kids graduating from high school (actually, they call it prep school here) and they are all hoping to go college!  Sponsorship is not that expensive.  From what I gather, it costs each kid about $300 per term to go to college.  Yep, you read that right.  I didn't miss a comma or a zero.  Just $300.  If you're interested in sponsoring one or more of the kids, please let me know.  These children are an amazing testament to survival, community and faith.

I am sure that the next few weeks will teach me even more about this amazing place, but at least there's a start.  I'll probably start narrowing down on the detail, as I'm sure you'll all get bored, but I thought you'd appreciate a good, detailed account of at least the surroundings, the orphanage and the kind of amazing place this is.  Buenas noches.