It was another week full of activities, food, and soccer tournaments. The biggest events: a group from the UNC Dentistry School came for their annual trip of cleaning teeth and eradicating cavities and that Saturday was the 57th Anniversary of NPH. I had no idea about the UNC trip until they were actually here. It was fun to find another hidden connection to NPH from my old life that I had been ignorant of beforehand. My favorite story from their visit was when one of my girls who stayed in Grandes A accidentally threw up in her dentist’s hand while he was cleaning her teeth. Apparently she had a little more than a gag reflux. Neither seemed to know what to do about it and just stared at each other for a few seconds before breaking into action. Poor kid. She was pretty embarrassed.
From of my girls cleaning up after a morning activity spent cooking. This was one of the more popular activies.
Especially since they got to eat the fruits of their labor.
Tuesday in the morning we had our T-shirt workshop. I never was able to finish a shirt for myself. There were too many requests for "help."
Wesleigh and I found a good routine with our activity and came to know what to expect from the groups. Wednesday the normal schedule was interrupted by a huge storm; we spent most of the day inside. Thursday and Friday were used in large part for party prep and Friday was the private house party, kids and staff only. We all had a blast with the Cuernavaca and Monterrey kids playing different sports which culminated in a giant baseball game in the patio and another delicious meal of hotdogs and French fries.
Me and another of my new girls hanging out at the school enjoying the games. She had arrived at the house only a few weeks earlier with her two younger sisters; they had all grown up in the circus.
The “public” anniversary on Saturday had a relatively simple schedule: tournaments of basketball, volleyball, and soccer in the school in the morning and afternoon, good food for breaks, and a lot of chatting.
The male volunteers all joined the Miacatlan team to represent the house in the men's tournament. They showed us proud and won their division.
The newly painted seal was completed just the day before and was nice and shiny for the event.
The women's team from Miacatlan was a rag tag bunch. They were a mixture of directors, volunteers, year of service, university students, and even a few of my girls.
Flags were put up representing the nine NPH houses across the Western hemisphere. Mexico's flag is of course the largest.
My girls competed in the girl's division and made me proud. They had been practicing for weeks and were really nervous. I think the cute uniforms helped give their confidence a boost.
While chatting and enjoying the crowd, we were interrupted by these two gentlemen who introduced themselves and thanked us for supporting the house. We in turn were a little star struck. Both gentlemen had been brought to the house within a year of the organization's foundation. I felt like I was meeting celebrities! They came with all of their extended family, children and grandchildren. I asked for a picture to record the event. From left to right: Meghan (Cuernavaca volunteer), Alli (new Miacatlan volunteer and roommate), Wesleigh, and me with our new friends.
It was like a giant family reunion and carnival all in one. Pequenos who were now grandparents brought their entire families, all the current Pequenos were there, and a lot of history was represented. As the weekend was supposed to be my descanso, I had dinner in town with my fellow volunteer descanso-ers and slept late the next day to recover from all the excitement.
