Remar and Day 3 VBS--CCBC

On Wednesday morning we went to the Remar Orphanage in La Libertad, about an hour south of El Salvador.  They have a school on site, so seven of our classroom teams shared in the 4th through 9th grade classrooms.  

The rest of the students "played" with the younger kids.  Don't know who enjoyed it more  .. . the little ones or the big ones.

We spent less than two hours there because we were going to go back on Thursday and spend most of the day with them.

After a trip back to Lourdes and a quick lunch, we set up for the last day of VBS.  We had thirty women in our class (just not the same thirty.)  The kids enjoyed their final day of singing, dancing, crafting, playing and learning.

Juntos Together--Remar Orphanage

For the second time in two weeks we went to see the kids at the Remar Orphanage.  This time it took two buses, two vans and a SUV to get everyone (more than 125 of us) and everything up the hill.

Lucy, the house mom, was so excited to see what we bought with the money Christ Chapel Bible Church left with us.  She just kept saying thank you over and over as we unloaded everything.

We didn't get there until 11:30, so we got started on lunch as soon as we arrived.  

Everyone else played a variety of games with the kids, including their version of "wet paint" Twister.  

There were so many of us we had to eat in shifts.

 After lunch we divided into teams and held a rally, with six different stations, including Bible verse (in English and Spanish), games and team cheers.

Even though everyone was worn out by the end of the time, it was an awesome day and everyone loved it.

Shopping for the Orphanage

Last Friday, we went to the Remar orphanage with the team from Christ's Chapel Bible Church.  We had a great day playing board games, playing soccer and preparing and eating lunch with them.

During the visit, the house mom and I talked about their on-going needs (clothes for the boys, personal products and kitchen supplies, specifically, pots and pans.)  I told the team leaders about the needs and we had a short brainstorming session.  They decided it would make the most sense to give us money to buy the personal products and kitchen supplies here in El Salvador.  By the time they got back to the hotel on Friday evening, they had collected $200.  As far as the clothing, they will collect it and send it down in July when their high school students come down for a week.

So, today, Guillermo and I took the $200 and went shopping.  We wanted to get the most possible with our money so we went to several shops in downtown Apopa. Since Guillermo lives in Apopa he knows all of the good places and isn't afraid to ask for discounts.

At the first stop we found the large stock pots, frying pans and other kitchen items.  After our discount the total was $102.88.  

Second stop we bargained our way to two dozen Speed Stick deodorants, a dozen bars of soap, a dozen boxes of Colgate toothpaste, six extra large bottles of shampoo and a dozen toothbrushes, which totaled $98.65  The grand total was $1.53 over our budget, but we had it covered.  (By the way, I now understand why most of the Salvadorans think PriceSmart, our Costco, is expensive!) 

We have a college team coming on Saturday, and we will be going to the orphanage on Monday.  They don't know that we're bringing these things, so I'm excited to see the smiles on their faces when we unload!

If you are interested in helping these kids, we'd love to hear from you at parrisinelsalvador@gmail.com.