Today I met the sweet girl who stole my heart three years ago. We headed out this morning to a park to meet the kids. When we arrived a line of children with parents, translators, and project directors stood waiting for us. I scanned the crowd for Marlen but before I could spot her, she came running to me and threw her arms around me. Marlen was followed by her mother who joined in the hug as we all began to cry from joy.
Marlen and I
Our group: Marlen's mom, Marlen, me, our lovely translator, and Marlen's project director
After we had settled in a little we headed off to see what activities there were to do. This 'park' had a soccer field, trampoline, rock wall, zip line, and was also a fully functioning horse farm.
We headed to the trampoline first- Marlen absolutely loved it!
Then we played soccer- me and another sponsor against Marlen and their sponsored child. We didn't keep score but I'm pretty sure the kids won. Marlen later told me that she is the captain of the soccer team at her school.
Then we hiked up to the top of the zip line (which they called 'the canopy' since you fly through the trees). Marlen suited up for a turn but I chickened out and stayed at the top to take pictures.
Then we headed over to ride horses. Marlen said that horses are her second favorite animal (behind dogs) and was very excited to ride. After a couple of years out of the saddle, it felt good to be on a horse again so thank you to 'Santa' (hopefully spelling that right- it means saint) for carting me around the field today.
Then we headed to the rock climbing wall to give it a try.
They also had a tire horse swing that we took turns riding- lots of laughs!
This is water balloon volleyball. Predictably enough it ended with me covered in water. It did help cool me down though so I didn't mind too much. The weather today was not as hot as yesterday but the humidity was horrible (as you can probably tell from my hair).
Then I gave her the gifts I brought. She loved the sunglasses and umbrella (which came in handy since it started pouring rain about 5 minutes after this picture was taken).
The whole group of sponsors and kids with our faithful leaders in front.
In between all of the fun and games, I talked to Marlen, her mom, and her project director about her life. I thought that I basically knew what it was like from her letters but was blown away by what I heard. The entire day was so much fun but was also very emotional. We all cried and it broke my heart to see Marlen's eyes filled with tears as I boarded the bus to leave. I'm still processing a lot of what I experienced today and am physically and emotionally exhausted. I can't wait to just crawl in bed and sleep but first we have dinner on the town.
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