Day 3: Huge Hug Day

This has been my 7th trip down to El Salvador and having been here, I have had lots of questions about what are we doing, what should we expect, what’s happening, etc. So going into sponsorship party days, I explained to people how the day goes and that it can be a very emotional day meeting our students. When we arrived at Resurrection, most of our students were already at the church and we received a round of applause from them. This got several members of the delegation emotional. Thinking why do I deserve a round of applause? My thoughts were “where is Steven, my sponsor student?” As I continued to look around the room and continued after we sat down, I started to feel my blood pressure rise, the thoughts that maybe he didn’t come started to race through my brain. And then I saw him. I immediately jumped up and gave him a huge hug and the embrace was a sign of relief and pure happiness..... Katie continued below

The party officially started and we handed out letters, books, shirts, calculators, and took each of the students photos. Several of us who had sponsor students today, received gifts from our students. We had conversations that felt much over due, had questions answered and just appreciated all the time we had with our students. And then within all the madness the party was over and the students left, goodbyes are always the hardest when you don’t know when you’ll return. After the party we went to the artisan market. We bought wind chimes, coffee, bracelets, ukeleles, shoes, crosses just to name a few things. After we had some shopping time, we went up to El Boquerón Volcano. We all went on a hike up to the top and over looked into the dormant volcano. For dinner we had pizza which was a a restaurant over looking the city. We all came home with hearts full, tummys full, tired minds and ready for the students we sponsor tomorrow. Katie