On our second day here at Casa de Fe I was given the wonderful opportunity to connect with dozens of los ninos. Every team member of our mission had a role to play to help the kids, and it just so happens that for me that role was of a caregiver. Right away in the morning we all gathered in the Bodega for a morning prayer, and just as life has its ups and downs, so too does Casa de Fey. A tragedy had struck in the night for a Casa de Fe staff member and though they were clearly in pain for their loss, they waited for us all to arrive to give us words of appreciation for our work. Leaving us with a message of faith and positivity in the face of a great loss, I think we were all moved in some way this morning and our desire to serve was that much more intense. With this early morning in the back of my mind I made my way over to the main building where I visited the nursery. Now if you have ever held an infant that is smiling back at you and laughing, you can appreciate just how special that experience can be. If you have not, I'm not sure I can do it justice, but believe me, when I was able to take a very small two-year-old up to the therapy room and see pure joy on his face as he threw plastic balls all around the room I was once again overwhelmed with emotion on this trip. For a change of pace me and my friend Luke where invited to help one of the cooks make bread. I had been forewarned about Gladis to stay on her good side, and on her good side we must have been because our time in the kitchen was lovely. As she taught us her recipe from her memory we shared stories and got to know each other while laughing and making what turned out to be some of the best bread I had ever tasted. I then was given the task of helping the next age group of toddlers on a walk. These kids had energy let me tell you! They were all slow to warm up to us missionaries but once they had they were all over us like monkeys and I saw just about every emotion from pure joy to extreme sadness when they were upset. All of these were marvelously handled by the Tias as they were stern, yet loving and had all sorts of tricks up their sleeves to handle the little ninos. It was clear they knew how to care for these kids. After lunch today me and a few other team members as well as staff took the sixth graders to the park in Shell. Joel made it very clear to both staff and kids that the kids knew English and that they were to use it, threatening to take away their pizza in the evening if they spoke too much Spanish. We were all assigned a child to have them practice their English with. The trip was short and sweet and my child, Giovanni impressed the heck out of me with his use of language at just ten years old. He said his favorite subject in school was English and I could tell. To cap our second day off we had a pizza party at Casa de Fe with all the kids. The love for pizza among kids must be universal because all of the kids at all ages went loco for those pies. It was indeed delicious but these kids amazed me at their appetites keeping up with myself even for some time which, if you know me is quite impressive. From start to finish the day was surreal and the impact we are having on these kids is extremely apparent.

-Brady Bordwell