Today was the mission trip to Imeldahof Orphanage! This was the very first time that FDLIC incorporated a mission trip into the incentive trip. They asked for volunteers, thinking they'd get about 25 or so. They had to cap it off at 80!! There were a lot of people who didn't get to participate, but Chris and I were blessed to be a part of this amazing day! Planting Seeds of Hope!
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| We met in the ballroom at 7:45 am and had a quick breakfast with the volunteers... at this time, we were divied up into work groups. There were a few different projects going on: building a green house, cleaning four houses, massive yard word and brush clearing, painting a pavilion, and tiling two storage sheds. There were also a few roamers, taking photos of everyone and getting people things like water, hats, sunscreen, etc. Once we knew our jobs, we shuttled over to the orphanage about a mile away. |
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| The sign on the entrance of the orphanage...it was a pretty big place, and their houses were fairly well equipped. They have kids of all ages, and greatly depend on donations and volunteers. It was Imeldahof's first time having a volunteer mission of this magnitude, and they were fairly overwhelmed by our arrival! We got stuff done!! |
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| This was the bedroom in one of the houses for the kids... |
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| Chris volunteered for the yard crew, and it was dirty, hard work. They mowed, weed eated, cleared brush, you name it. They filled numerous massive dumpsters. They all worked very hard in the hot sun and I was so proud to see my man work so hard for those kids! |
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| I started off the day as a roamer -- my mission was to get a photo of every single volunteer working, along with some other shots for the website. Once I accomplished that, I also delivered waters and sunscreen etc. Before lunch, I started to help with the painting of the pavilion, and finished up on that after lunch as well. It was oil based paint, so the gloves helped...and my neck was a bit stiff after hours of this looking up! But I had fun with the other painters! They did not buy nearly enough paint, so we were only able to do the outer and inner edge...we didn't even get to start on the room lines. |
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| The green house turned out to be a bigger project than anticipated, but they did a great job! The kids can now plant and grow their own veggies, which will greatly help! |
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| I loved all the simple, cozy details in the houses where the kids lived...these kitchen curtains blowing in the breeze were quaint! |
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| Throughout the orphanage, there were murals painted on the stone walls...loved this one! |
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| Me and my hard worker, during our lunch break! The Marriott partnered with us, and came to help as well...and they were kind enough to provide lunch for us all! Subway, sodas, chips, cookies. It was great to stop and refuel...after lunch, we worked for a few more hours, and then the kids arrived home from school around 2:00. And then, we had water games with them! The Marriott sent their kids's club guy with us, and he was fabulous!!! The kids loved him and it was great to see it all! |
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| It took the kids a few minutes to go from shy to wild :) But then they got into it all! They played a handful of different water games, and a few of our volunteers jumped in and participated too. And the grand finale was a wet tug of war game, and lots of people jumped in...there's Chris in the black hat!! His side won!!! |
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| The kids were very aware of the camera, and I was able to capture things like this :) They were definitely hamming it up! |
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| We were extremely dirty and very hot and we headed back to the Marriott! After long hot showers, we got dressed, found refreshing frozen drinks, and found a comfy lovechair by the adult pool, in the shade...relaxed a bit before heading to an early dinner! |
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| Wednesday's sunset -- so beautiful! The first one that really had any color, due to the clouds the other days. |
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| We were blessed to have dinner with Jon and Nadene this evening at the La Vista buffet... Nadene was the one who put together the entire mission trip and it was fun to talk it over with them...what we thought worked, what needed to be tweaked etc. Nadene is amazing -- she is one of my very favorite people ever!! She is our CEO's executive assistant. |
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| Jon and Chris have a special bond...it is fun to watch their friendship in action!! Jon is a HOOT! |
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