Day Four Recap

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

I’m on the bus just having returned from our Thanksgiving Day in El Tamarindo at the Manny Mota Foundation. The kids are in the back, looking tired after having just been through the ringer once again during another incredibly intense day of activity. Here are some of today’s highlights that you’ll see in the pictures...

We got to the MMF mid-morning and the students began with some games for the kids who were already awaiting our arrival. By noon the crowd of children had swelled to about 100 and was growing with each passing minute. I so enjoyed watching our students play baseball, volleyball, and pato, pato, ganzo (duck, duck, goose) with the little ones.

About 1pm we began serving Thanksgiving dinner to the multitudes. I would estimate that we fed between 200-300 children with some of the frozen turkeys we brought. It was neat to see the kids getting a good meal, which for most would be their only meal of the day.

After lunch we went back to the field and set up stations for painting nails and faces, which has proved to be very popular. It was then that I remembered I had brought about 150 coloring pages and crayons from FCS and thought it would be a good idea to let the kids color while they waited their turn at face paining or nails. Bad idea! I no sooner got the first page out of my folder when I was mobbed by 30-40 kids all desperately trying to grab a page. I pulled in Natalie Moran to help pass out crayons and it almost cost her her life. When a fight between a few boys broke out in front of her and they almost pushed her over, I pulled her by the arm to safety and canceled coloring time!

About 2pm the Mota’s served us a semi-traditional American style Thanksgiving dinner complete with roasted turkey, cranberry sauce, rice, and an assortment of fruit. We didn’t dine around a big table, but sat in a circle in chairs and ate off our laps. I looked at the group and told them once again what an honor it was to have this meal with them in this context. A Thanksgiving dinner they’ll never forgot to be sure!

We ended up with around 200 pairs of shoes to hand out after we finished eating. This is when the absolute chaos began once again. It is hard to adequately describe in words the whole scene. It must be experienced to be believed and understood. The looks of desperation, the shouting, the pushing and shoving. It’s hard as a parent to watch other parents begging for their children, knowing that they love their kids no less than I love mine. Or as a teacher with students in my care, to watch other students the same age shouting your name and trying to get your attention to get coloring page or a pair of shoes. Makes me ever more grateful and ever more thankful for all of God’s bountiful blessings.

We strategically positioned ourselves in the bleachers of Manny’s Field of Dreams and put out all the shoes. We then began to bring the children up a few at a time to receive their shoes. We had identified about 30-40 kids who lacked any footwear and made sure they came first. It was a beautiful thing to watch our students literally fitting each child with a new pair of shoes. The crowd swelled to probably 400 and in the midst of riotous conditions we gave them all out in about an hour. I’ll never forget parents literally handing their babies over the railing to our students who brought them up and fitted them with shoes (while crying) and then returned the kids to their parents. When we finally ran out and were about to leave I saw one girl standing barefoot with her dad on the other side of the rail. My Jesus moment of the day is watching one of our girls, Mary Pettygrove, looking at the girl and then without hesitation bending down and taking off her shoes and tossing them to her over the railing before walking to the bus in her socks! (I found out tonight that Nataline and Joel did the same!!)

There’s a lot of hurt in the world and a lot of cynicism about what we can really do to affect change. You can choose to look at the world that way. I don’t have all the answers and don’t how we can adequately meet all the needs, but I do know this. I know that somewhere in El Tamarindo is a young teenage girl who earlier today had no shoes and was standing with her dad with a look of desperation. And because an FCS student with a heart of compassion caught her glance and noticed her need, she now has shoes on her feet. Just another way of seeing the world. That is why I do what I do!

And how many American teenagers can say that they spent their Thanksgiving Day like that? These 12 have had such a unique opportunity. Part of why I’m so thankful for FCS and opportunities like this! May each of us count our many blessings today and with thanksgiving use those blessing to bless others. We have much to be thankful for!