2 more weeks

Hello all!

Once again, I've been soooo bad about posting. But things have still been going great. We have 2 weeks left, and it's going to be really hard to leave the kids here! So many of them are growing up under such bad circumstances and it's just so sad. But all we can do is help while we're here, so we're trying. I've gotten a lot better at handling big groups of kids...one day I was the lead staff for all of the second graders! Talk about crazy! I've also gotten good at things like jump rope, hula hoop, foosball, all that good stuff. I love that more and more kids are remembering my name, and I actually look forward to seeing them each day!!

We've finished up the senior center project in the mornings that we were doing. It was a LOT of fun to get to talk to so many seniors! In total, we surveyed 140..which our supervisor lady told us was pretty good. We also had the tedious job of tallying them up and compiling all of the data. It sucked, but oh well. They were soo thankful for our help because they really had no idea how they were going to get that project done. After that was finished, I spent one morning working at the food bank with the rest of the team. The work there is monotonous, but not too terrible. However, they no longer need our help...so for the last 2 weeks here we will just be doing random projects around The Boys and Girls Club. In some ways this is fun...but in other ways it stinks becuase it really feels like we just end up doing their dirty work, but oh well.

Coming up next weekend is our Day of Service! During this round and our 4th round we are in charge of hosting a day of service in order to engage the community that we're with. We've partnered with the New Mexico Chapter of Red Cross, and we are hosting a volunteer fair! About 15 non profits have confirmed to come and have a booth at it. The idea is that community members come and browse the fair and learn about ways to get involved and volunteer in their community. We are also having a blood drive which will hopefully bring in more people. We've also gone out to local businesses and got prizes to give away for raffel drawings. I think it's going to be really neat, but Farmington is a tough community to get involved in things, so I just hope people show up!

I was SO lucky to have my parents come and visit me this weekend!! They took Caroline and I out to eat on Friday night at Three Rivers Brewery which was neat...then they came and picked us up on Saturday morning and we went to the Grand Canyon!! It was so amazing..it didn't even seem real! We watched the sunset from one of the best viewing points....and the next morning we woke up for the sunrise. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and there wasn't much of a sunrise. Instead, we got to watch a snowstorm move in over the canyon..which I think ended up being just as cool! From there, we packed up and drove to Durango, Colorado. On the way, we stopped at Four Corners! We got to stand in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado all at the same time! It was so neat! They have it marked where you can put a foot and a hand in each state. They also had little stands there of the Ute and Navajo tribes selling jewelry and trinkets. After four corners we made the rest of the trip to Durango..we had dinner there and chilled in the hot tub for the night. In the morning we got up and did some shopping in Durango..and in the afternoon we went to Trimble Hot Springs Spa! The one pool was 84 degrees, one was 104 and one was 110! We spent most of the time in the 104 one...it was like a giant hot tub. We'd never been to hot springs before so we were looooving it!! I am so thankful my parents came to visit me! It was a nice taste of home :)

On Friday we found out our 3rd round assignments!! It's shuffle round, so it's a new team and team leader! But, I'll be local in Denver working at an assisted living center..which was my number 1 pick! How awesome is that? I also have Caroline, Dave and Alyssa all on my team too! AND a team leader that I'm really excited about! I just know that next round is going to be great. Even though it's local, the assisted living center houses us in an old administrative building. I heard that almost all of us will get our own rooms! We'll still be sleeping on cots but...oh well. I survived this round so far, I can survive it again :) I am just SO excited for another good project. I feel like I keep getting so lucky!

So I'm hoping these next two weeks go fast..even though I know leaving will be tough. I'm going to miss the kids so damn much. But, I'm also excited to see my friends on other teams when we all get reunited again in Denver!! That's all I have for now. :)

Love
Abby