Aidan's Adventures - insights from our youngest team member

This is my first time out of the country. My favorite thing about El Salvador is giving silly bands out to orphans. I really like being with orphans and helping them. The first day I went into the orphanage they gave us a tour. We went into the baby area first. I saw the team standing there and they didn’t want to leave the babies. Then we went into the sewing area. We said hello, we hugged a girl, we walked through the room and saw the special needs area. Then we went to see the teenage girls’ area, then the teenage moms/baby room. Then we saw the school and looked at a huge painting on the wall. We visited the schoo and I even got to play Legos with a boy. Then we walked back up the stairs.

After that we started to do our projects – painting, helping special needs kids and holding babies. I helped in the baby area and also helped with painting. I felt like I helped so much. I wasn’t painting just for fun, I liked it because I was really helping orphans. God felt happy.

El Salvador is fun because I can sit in the front seat of vans & trucks with no seat belts and the cops don’t care.  

The third night we went to bring food to a homeless area. My parents made me sit in the front of the truck. I felt sad because most of the team was sitting in back. My favorite part of that was handing out two bags of food. A man went running super fast up to the truck and grabbed the food out of my hand. I watched him give the food to another man, and run back for his own meal. I couldn’t believe that a homeless person would help someone else. At the end of our night I got to sit in the back of the truck and I was not scared.  

On our last day at the government orphanage, we did lots and lots of piñatas and it was really fun. We put silly bands in the pinatas and the kids loved that.

The next morning we packed up to go to a new orphanage and left Kurt’s house. In mid-day, we left and finally arrived in the afternoon. I went into my room called a bungalow. My bungalow is fun. It’s men only, no girls allowed, just like a "man cave." I like that this is a Christian orphanage. It’s a boys only orphanage. The orphans are regular kids that help each other and play. They seem like they are brothers and friends.  

One our first night at the Christian orphanage my mom and dad talked in the church service. I did 2 pinatas with kids and had so much fun. One kid even gave me lollypop. The girls on the team were taking a big group picture. I surprised them and poked my head through their legs for the photo. I was wild and running around at church, being crazy. I was crazy because I was so happy. That night I slept really well.

The next morning we played soccer with the boys. They became my new friends asked me to play. We got ready to go to a poor area out and I found out that Amanda wasn't feeling well. I felt sorry for her, but am glad that she is better today.