Day 1 in the Office!

            So, today the kids went back to school and my office job started up! Officially, I am the communications and sponsorship assistant, so I will be doing communications with Avriel on Tuesdays and Thursdays and sponsorship with Daniela on M-W-F. Today started out with mass at 8:00 since it was the first day of classes for the year, and then we headed to the office. I started training in communications today…we did lots of stuff with photos, stories for the NPH website, and that kind of thing. I think I’m really gonna like it. Avriel is super organized and motivated, so quite good to work with. We also had a meeting for the junta or the big international meeting that’s going to take place here at the end of February. Lots of donors and important people are coming including the directors of the other 8 NPH homes—basically, it’s a really really big deal. So LOTS and LOTS of planning is being put into that.

            So that was work more or less, and tomorrow I start up with Daniela in sponsorship. The next part of my day was a BLAST! For Christmas, my mom made me a calendar on Shuttferly with photos of my family and friends and such for each month. So I decided to bring it to my casa of girls, so they could each write in their birthdays and how old they were gonna turn. Well, I didn’t even make it halfway to the house before I was bombarded by kids wondering what I had and then wanting to see it. So we sat down at a little table in the park and I ended up being there for over an hour and half as kid after kid came over wanting to know who every single person was in each picture, how old they were, what their relationship to me is, etc. etc. I explained each photo over and over and now I have TONS of kids’ birthdays in the calendar. They asked the most detailed questions too. For example, there’s a picture of dyed eggs from Easter and they wanted to know exactly which ones I did. There’s another photo of the cakes from Easter one year, and they wanted to know exactly what kind of cake each was. And speaking of cakes, they were SO fascinated by them (bizcocho as they say). There’s lots of photos from birthdays throughout the calendar, and they noticed every single cake!

            I finally made it to my house right before supper, and then it was the same thing again. Going through every page over and over and over again. The girls really loved the show choir photos and the pictures with my sisters. They were so interested in how Michelle has blond hair and blue eyes (in their opinion) and apparently I have green eyes. I think just about every girl in my casa now knows my sisters’ names, ages, birthdays, heights, eye color, etc. And I have to bring the calendar back tomorrow, because they weren’t done looking at it by the time bedtime came. They also asked me to give them each a hug and a kiss on the cheek before I left, so I made my rounds to all twenty girls. One time I ended up giving a girl a kiss on her neck instead of her cheek and that was soooo funny according to the girls. Oh, and another question I got asked over and over is if we eat the snow, because there’s a photo of a snowman for January. Hahaha! And what does the snow taste like?

            Also, a little Wilder shoutout! I wore my Wilder “Ser el Cambio” T-shirt today. All the names of the counselors are on the back. At first, they couldn’t understand why my name wasn’t on it, so I had to explain to them that I go by Cecilia at camp. And then they went around reading all the names of the counselors and cooks and wanted to know what country or state each person was from. They were really excited that Jose Augustin was from the DR! And they were fascinated by the coin/flags on the front of the shirt—esp. because the DR’s flag is one of them. It was soooo great…I’ve never liked that shirt more!

            Another question I got asked over and over (and this has been from the start…not just with the calendar today) is if my parents are alive. This is probably the first time I’ve even been asked that question in my life, and I’ve been asked it MANY times. For most people back home, it’s not even a consideration—of course your parents are alive, or if a parent has passed, everyone knows it. It’s interesting to ponder what qualifies as “normal” for these kids…

P.S. Camera update—pretty dead. Doesn’t exactly turn on. Whoops…. Raquel says I need to start carrying all of my electronics in plastic baggies!