The Greatest Birthday Present Ever

Blog post written by Kiana Giunta (age 10)
Newport Beach, California

Our family has a tradition of allowing each child to pick a special trip for their tenth birthday. I picked coming to El Salvador and I'm so glad I did.  We got to celebrate my birthday this week & I learned that Salvadorians have their faces smashed into their birthday cakes.  I liked it!  

This has really been an incredible and amazing trip for me. I have realized how much we have and how much more thankful I should be. I realize how much less they have. A lot of things I've seen brought me to tears, but I've also felt so joyful to really be helping the people here.

There were a few kids that I really connected with. One was "W," an 8 year old little boy. He had such a joyful & positive attitude! We had a lot of fun playing soccer and talking! He was just a very sweet boy!  I met a young boy with Down Syndrome at the special needs center. We walked and played on the swings. When I pushed him on the swing he had a huge smile on his face! It made me so happy to see that he was happy!

 

I also got to play and hang out with four kids whose family we were building a house for. Their names were Natalia, Oscedes, Moises, & Jonathan. Natalia was a baby and she was so happy to play anything! Oscedes was a sweet and generous little girl. I loved talking to her and coloring with her. I also loved playing soccer with Moses and Jonathan!