Yo hablo un POQUITO de espanol.

Yesterday and today, Clarissa and I have been helping out with the registration and enrollment for the Guadalupe After-School Program, where we will be teachers come September 18th. Being that Immokalee is about 80% Hispanic, the majority of people we come across speak Spanish.

Now...I took two years of high school Spanish. But this was near 6 years ago...my Spanish speaking skills are pretty limited. Our duty would be sitting down one-on-one with whoever was registering the children, and asking them necessary information to fill out the forms, and explaining policies.

Mind you, I was scared out of my mind Wednesday night. I'm a worrier, people who know me pretty well know this about me. I worry. I overthink. I overanalyze. I think of the worst possible case scenarios, and begin feeling these potential feelings I might feel if things go how I imagine them, so on and so forth..you get the picture.

I wasn't so much worried that I would sound like a complete fool (though that, too, was a concern),but I wanted so badly to be able to understand what people were saying to me, and I wanted them to understand what I was saying to them. It was all about the communication. I wanted it to be as stress-free as possible.

My housemates were super helpful in giving me the necessary Spanish phrases I would need, translating English into Spanish, and practicing with me. But, still I was nervous. Some advice that Vitina gave me that really seemed to ease my mind and help was: They are thinking the same thing as you, they probably feel bad that they are coming to you and don't know English. You would give them some comfort by smiling, being friendly, and showing them that you are making an effort to speak their language.

It's so true. It helped.

I jumped into it the next day (Thurs.) and it wasn't so bad! I, thankfully, had a few English speakers, as well as some Spanish speakers. But I did it! Some Spanish came back to me, and I was able to gather the information I needed from them. I went back today, and was more comfortable this time. There were some struggles in understanding some pronunciations and spelling, but I generally did pretty well in working with the other person in trying to understand one another, even if it involved them writing things down for me.

Communication is a beautiful thing. Having a degree in Communication (wow! sounds crazy saying that!), I have come to appreciate communication and interaction between people more and more lately. At the end of the day, we are all people. Even if my Spanish is not brag-worthy, I'm proud of myself in that I am able to speak it well enough to put others at ease.

It's a small world, after all.

Each and every day that I am here, I am more and more convinced that the world is seriously SO small! It's TINY! Seriously, though, everyone knows everyone. I was talking with my housemates the past few days, getting to know one another..and turns out one of my roomate's friends' is doing another volunteer program with one of my best friends.....in Chicago!  Another housemate of mine, knows a whole bunch of people I know from the University of Dayton. A fellow HM volunteer who is serving in Cleveland this year, told me she ran into someone who knew me..turns out it was the brother of my best friend. SO many people down here are from or affiliated with Ohio-Norwalk, Dayton, Steubenville...it's crazy all the connections people have and how intertwined everyone's stories and circles seem to be. And how so many people end up down here...it's crazy. The world is so small. I've been drawing so many connections lately. I love it.

iCommit

We had our first Community Night last night. It wasn't exactly complete, since Julie is not here with us, yet. But we had one, none the less. Community is once a week, when all four of us will come together and have dinner, then do some reflection or some kind of activity together. It could be prayerful, it could be fun, it could be relaxing...Last night Clarissa cooked some delicous Mexican-style pasta, I cleaned up afterwards, and Vitina prepared reflection. After some tea and discussion on where we are at with our faith, she encouraged us to write or journal a personal commitment for what we wanted to commit to this year. It was to be our own words, in whatever form we felt led..a prayer, a poem, brainstorming words or ideas, etc. I want to share with you what I came up with.

"iCommit"

iCommit...to be open to God's plan for me and go where I am sent.

iCommit...to put myself last at the necessary times.

iCommit...to see everyone I meet through God's eyes, and work on unconditional love.

iCommit...to let go of any preconceived notions, fears, or doubts I have about this year and be open to what is ahead with new eyes.

iCommit...to serve others with an open mind, open heart and open arms.

iCommit...to sacrifice for the betterment of others.

iCommit... to be willing to step out of my comfort zone and enter into "unfamiliar territory".

iCommit...to pray for those I meet, my community, and the entire HM Volunteer community.

iCommit...to be aware of and attentive to my own needs, so that I am a better, more fully present asset to the community.

iCommit...to be open and honest with my community and trust them with my thoughts and opinions, my struggles and my joys.

iCommit...to give God the time to break and rebuild my heart.

iCommit...to respect everyone I meet and appreciate our unique differences.

iCommit...to live simply, love deeply, and serve fully throughout this next year and my entire life.

iCommit.



Pictures from my bedroom :) Kinda sorta really proud of myself for my decorating, and all my finds from the dollar store (aka all my wall decorations, minus the cross-that's from El Salvador). No shame. And, the "amanda touch" of that wacky Star Wars family photo poster. Tehehe. It's actually from the volunteer apartment in Miami, which is great, glad I can have that connection. :) Oh, and now I have a green candle that is an integral part of my room..no pictures of that, but I'm fairly confident in the mental capacity you all have to picture a green candle. I have faith in you :)

The result of me helping Clarissa paint her bedroom. I seriously recommend all parents teach their kids to paint, or let them help you if you are painting in the house. It's something I always wanted to do, and will be very useful for them in the future. :)

This is the picture of the seahorse cloud that I referenced in a previous blog. Do you see it? It's HUGE! :)

Holy Cockroach!!

So today we woke up and had to travel almost an hour to Fort Myers to get fingerprinted. They want to make sure we're not criminals...(hope they don't find anything.....)..............

No but seriously, they won't.

We then went on a dollar store and target run. Got a laundry basket, garbage can, and a lovely little candle for my oasis. I mean, my room.

We came back home and had some tuna fish for lunch. Yum. Then I realized I had yet another headache (from the heat I'm assuming-my body isn't used to it yet). We had to go to Highlands, the neighbordhood elementary school, to sign some volunteering papers so we can shadow a teacher before we are actually in charge of an after-school program, in which we will tutor the kids and reinforce what they learned in school that day.

That was a bust. We didn't get the papers and had to wait in the line of cars that were there to pick up their kids. For about 40 minutes. Then when we pulled up, we were asked who we had to pick up, and we told them no one, we just needed to leave. So they announced on the microphone that our car needed to get out. Haha, it was pretty funny. The system they have for dismissing kids is different from what I'm used to.

We then dropped Vitina off at work at the Coalition, and Clarissa and I headed to a meeting at the Guadalupe Family Center, for a meeting. We have to help this week and next week with registration for the childcare program, so we had to know the information and how to communicate it to the parents (it's going to be tough since I do not know Spanish, well very very VERY little).

Then we went back home, and I helped Clarissa move her bed and furniture into her room, and arrange it how she wanted.

I took a break because my head hurt, and she was resting as well. I lit a candle, and turned on some nature-sounding, calming music and rested for about 13 minutes. Then I heard a scream.

I ran to see what was going on and of course there was a HUGE cockroach in Clarissa's room. We both screamed and jumped on her bed, but then my burst of bravery kicked in and I got a cup and trapped the darn thing. I had to go in the closet, and I took one of her purses out and put it on the bed. I thought the cockroach was on a belt on the floor. Nope, it came scurrying out of the bag and on the bed.

I trapped it though, like I said, because I am Superwoman.

And, well I took care of it.

That might of been my most proud moment thus far. These bugs stink big time,but I'm getting used to it. I guess...

We picked Vitina up from work and we met some people at the Coalition, which was nice :)
We then came home and she made an excellent dinner of sauteed onions, carrots, peppers, zucchini, on noodles and peanut sauce. Delcious. Delicious.

We ended the night with tea time, and watching Rent. It was pretty perfect.

Tomorrow I don't really think we have anything to do..I'd love to get out and take a walk or a bikeride but it's been soooo hottttt..

And it's storming right now-Yikes.

Okay, enough play by play of my day.

Immokalee, Day 2, comes to a close.

Night :)

Day 1

So, today was my first full day in Immokalee.

Let me clarify. We don't start actually volunteering until the beginning of September. So..don't expect to much on how I've been serving just yet. :) Hold tight, lots to come on that...

I had some delicious banana bread for breakfast, that my lovely housemate Vitina prepared. So so good. Then, she, Clarissa and I headed out to drive around Immokalee a bit, and run some errands. We went to the library, stopped by the Coalition for Immokalee Farmworkers Community Center, went to ACE Hardware (Clarissa got some paint for her room, we got some nails to hang things in my room, and other various items), grabbed some lunch at this delicious Mexican restaurant (the name escapes me at the moment). But there was some delicious rice, beans, and a chimmy-changa. Oh! And the lemonade was extravagent! We then went to the neighborhood Winn Dixie to grocery shop (tons of fruit and veggies-yum!).

I was feeling pretty sick by this time, and being in the heat didn't help to much, so we headed home. We were all pretty pooped. I decorated my room a bit more, and made it more homey. I'm loving it. I took a nap, that was pretty good. Headache persisted, I had some of my leftover lunch for dinner..

Then my roommates and I had tea-time. Which was lovely and will be quite a welcomed tradition within our community.

Oh yea, I got some bug bite this morning. That wasn't too pleasant. And Vitina found a cockroach this morning-sweeeet. So glad she took care of it before I had the pleasure of meeting the dear little creature...alive.

Clarissa and I painted her room. That was fantastic. I never got to help paint when I was younger-always wanted to. I'm glad I got to help with this, it was fun and it looks fantastic. :)

There are so many little things to get used to here, and adjustments to be made. But every day is a new adventure, and always has such cool things to offer.

Oh yea, and I got to talk to five of my sisters today :) Kira, Ashley, JB, Chelsea, Tori..Love you all so much, thanks for thinkin' of me :)

So, in my last post I said I had yet to see any spiders or bugs. False. A HUGE huge huge huge HUGE spider was in my bedroom. And it was so so SO fast. Disgusting. Vitina got it for me, thankfully, but my goodness do those things send chills up my spine. So sick. I suppose I should get used to it, quick.

I was proud of myself though,there was a small roach and some type of beetle looking thing in the hallway as I was getting ready for bed. The other two girls were in their rooms, so, I decided to take care of them on my own. Little baby steps...towards growth...I'm sure by the end of this I'll have made some huge ugly weird bug my pet...but for now, they still creep me the heck out.

Well, I'm off to bed. Room is set up as much as it can be for now. I'll post some pictures tomorrow maybe.

Goodnight :)

Immokalee "My Home"

We're here! Finally! After almost 24 hours of driving...we are home. That sounds weird. But for the next year (at least) this will be home. Better get used to it now.

Our lovely housemate Vitina had dinner prepared for us, pasta and salad-delicious! And some lovely white wine to go along with it. It was so welcoming and wonderful to sit down, relax, and eat and talk with 2/3 of my housemates. (Julie will be here September 4th).

After dinner, we had some blueberry cobbler (mmm mmm mmm!) and tea in the living room, and chatted some more. It's so crazy being back here, as I was here 6 years ago, and all the memories just come flooding in of being here.

I said I'd always come back. And here I am. It's surreal.

We picked rooms, and I am so so excited to decorate it. Make it my own. I ordered some pictures online, hopefully they will be here soon. I really want to make it feel like mine. And I will. And I'm excited.

We're currently just kind of chillin in our livingroom right now. Yes I said it OUR livingroom. I have a livingroom. I live here. This is nuts. I'm stressing myself out.

I have yet to see any roaches or huge spiders or snakes or alligators, but I'm sure they will make their appearance at any time. (Okay, kinda joking about the snakes and alligaters...at least in the house?!) But on the way here, there was definitely a sign that said Panther crossing...Uhhh where I come from, deer crossings are commonplace. NOT PANTHERS. Ugh.

Oh, and on the way here I saw this amazing cloud...looks like a seahorse. No lie. I'll post it in the next blog. Maybe...if I figure out how to do that....

Stay tuned..

:)

Family Dollar...in Miami...enough said.

Alright, so I'm not trying to make this blog a big complaint. Because I know my year is going to be fantastic, and I want reading it to be a joy and not a burden. But let me just talk about this trip to Family Dollar we just took.

So, we're still in Miami.. actually about to leave for Immokalee in roughly 20ish minutes. Within a mile from our friends' apartments, there are about 6 dollar stores...lovely. So we settle on Family Dollar so Alejandro and Tania can do some shopping for their apartment needs. Makes sense, right? Right.

So we get there. As we walk in, there is a line of customers in one check-out lane. There are about 4 workers just standing there, chatting with each other. Rude. There are bugs all around the store, messy aisles...there is cleaning to do, people. This isn't social hour.You're getting paid.

So, we walk around, do some shopping. People in there were just rude, honestly. We, when cutting people off, or walking in front of them, would kindly say excuse me. Others just glared and kept walking, not saying a word. We understand there is much diversity here, and a lot of different languages being spoken. But, I don't know, I was under the impression that courtesy was a universal thing. Maybe not.

We get in line, and the lady who checked us out...so rude. She didn't smile, say hello, or any greeting. She threw items into bags, and threw the bags into our cart. She didn't package a thing of detergent, and it ended up falling and spilling all over. She did't say anything, really, was she just going to let it sit there? Dangerous!  A guy came in, who I guess worked there, and told us we could get another detergent. Well, cool. One friendly person.

Except he was an odd one. When I was in line, dealing with the rude checkout lady, the guy said "you got some cute feet". No, that's a weird compliment. I tried to ignore it and assume he was talking to Clarissa. But no, of course we had to clarify who he was speaking to. It was me. My flip flops are filthy. My feet aren't so clean either. The nailpolish on my toes is chipped. I don't even like feet. Who compliments feet? Nice smile? I'd take it. Pretty eyes. I can agree. Cute feet? What kind of compliment is that.

I am ususally quite cordial and would generally probably smile and say thanks, but I couldn't control my feelings. "That's weird", said I. "Why is that weird?" he retorted. "Well, its not weird it's just an odd compliment, I've never heard a compliment like that before." And it's true. I thanked him, but honestly I was fed up with the environment, the rudeness and the pure oddity of that compliment.

Sigh. I apologize for the rant but let's face it. Things are going to tick me off, they are going to annoy me,  they will try me. I know this. I'm ready. But I want this blog to be as real as possible, and though I intend on highlighting the good, I will share my struggles as well. Because I want you all to experience this with me, and feel what I'm feeling, if possible. From the inspiring stories, to the heartbreaking encounters, to the annoying every day things like rude people at Family Dollar...I want you to enjoy the ride with me.

:)

Let the adventures begin...

Everyone keeps asking me how my flight was. Where did we fly into? How long was it? I'd like to take this time to clarify: I didn't fly down. We drove. :)

We left Friday morning around 9am. Plans were to leave around 4am, but let's face it. That's pretty darn early. We woke up around 5am, and started loading and carrying out bags and suitcases outside. (Backtrack: Let me clarify who "we" are). Myself, and three others (Clarissa, Alejandro, and Tania) met up together Thursday night to drive together. Tania and Alejandro are going to be volunteering for the year in Miami, and Clarissa and I will be two hours away from them in Immokalee.

Okay, so when we began bringing everything outside, it was still dark. By the time we were done, it was light out. We waited for Clarissa's mom to come, because she had Clarissa's car and vice versa. Her mom came, and we had to figure out how to pack all the luggage for four people into Clarissa's car. Clarissa and Alejandro had to make a WalMart run to get some rope-ish-like-thing to help keep the carrier on top of the car. Some of our stuff didn't make the cut--but thankfully Clarissa's mom is coming down in a week to bring the rest of the stuff. So as of now, this girl is livin' out of one small suitcase for a week. Hope I packed appropriately!

We got on the road around 9am, packed to the brim with luggage, blankets, snacks (both healthy AND unhealthy, haha) and four very anxious and excited 20-something year olds. We stopped at McDonalds, loaded up on McMuffins, McGriddles, Orange Juice, and hashbrowns and hit the road.

We drove for near to 15 hours on Friday. It was a long, long trip. We got to the Econo-Lodge around 11:30pm, in Georgia, and crashed. End of day one.

Saturday we left around 9am, and drove for about 8 hours. During this time, we had a very exciting adventure. It was storming as we began to near Miami, still about half-hour away though. First of all, I want to say how extrememly brave I was. I used to HATE thunderstorms. Hate hate hate. The whole time, though, it was raining cats & dogs (never really understood that phrase, but it seems to fit here), thundering and lightening so bad. I stayed so calm though and just kept saying "it's okay, we'll be fine". Where this peace and calmness came from, not so sure. But I'm diggin' it :)

Anyways, since we had the top carrier strapped on the car, with ropes tied through the door and top of the car. When it rained, we got it. Rain  started coming in and running down the rope and onto us. For the next 20 minutes, this continued on and we got DRENCHED. It was so cold, I was soaking wet, and all I could do was laugh. Living simply! (Sidenote: My laptop was in my suitcase on top of the car. I was so so worried it would be ruined. I opened it afterwards, and all my clothes in my suitcase were soaked. Thankfully, my laptop was at the very bottom, and was left unharmed. So thankful!).

We got to Miami, and helped Alejandro and Tania unpack and get settled into their new apartment. It's so nice! I'm excited for my new home, though! We made a Target run, got some Chinese food, and hung out the rest of the night.

Today is Sunday. We are still just relaxing in Miami for now. Clarissa and I will be leaving for Immokalee sometime between 3-5pm, meaning we will get to Immokalee around 5-7pm tonight. We've been in the car so, so much lately, we're enjoying the down time. Only two more hours away from my new home. My Immokalee.  So so excited to be there. Move in. Explore. Find my fit for where I'm going to be serving. So much to look forward too.

Keep me in your prayers :)