Today was another emotional day. (It seems like we had a lot of those). We started off the day with an amazing breakfast made by Connie who is a volunteer at True Light Church. Connie and Pastor Alice really made us all feel so welcome at True Light Church! Then we walked to Operation Breakthrough, bracing ourselves knowing that this was our last day at Operation Breakthrough and the day we would have to say good bye to our newly made friends.
When we got there 8 of us went to the classrooms and 2 went to the infant room, like usual. We all made the best out of the day even though we were wishing the end of the day would never come. We had a great day teaching lessons about paper airplanes and having friendly competitions, playing games, making paper bag puppets, making smoothies and putting the infants to sleep.
One of the hardest parts of the day was hearing a seven year old girl who shared a heartbreaking story with Laura. Laura had noticed that this little girl was really sad about something so Laura approached her and asked her what was wrong. The little girl replied with saying that she missed her dad. She soon went on to tell Laura that her dad had been shot on Sunday and the funeral was this Saturday. As Laura shared this story with the group it was heartbreaking.
During our lunch break Sister Berta, the founder of Operation Breakthrough, came in and talked to us about the Organization and how they started it with four kids in her living room and it has grown to hundreds of kids and volunteers since than. She really talked about how most of the time people who are poor are not poor because they are lazy and didn’t want to do anything. It is because in todays world segregation of economic class is what is keeping these people in poverty. Listening to her talking, really opened our eyes to the reality and inspired us to speak up more about this issue. Sister Berta is a very inspirational person for all of us.
The afternoon was amazing being able to spend it with the children that we have got to know pretty well throughout the week. It was really hard and even emotional when 4:00 rolled around. With the support of each other, we got through it and said our goodbyes to Pastor Alice.
This whole trip has been such an amazing experience for every single person in the group. We have all made some amazing relationships that will last a lifetime. We learned so much that we will use in our everyday lives as well as for a lot of us, putting these experiences towards our teaching careers. This was truly an experience of a lifetime!
Wow, what an emotional/inspirational week you all experienced! Thank you for sharing. Sounds like everyone made some incredible relationships throughout the week. Support is key to these trips, and I feel like your group was there for each other. Look forward to hearing more soon.
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