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Giving and Getting

by James :: Wednesday November 9, 2005

Greetings from a currently wet and rainy Ojai! It has been a while since my last blog, so in an effort to think about sunnier times, I’d like to tell you about my trip to an orphanage in Ensanada, Mexico. My Spanish teacher, Senora Ortiz, led eight of us, crammed into one Suburban, south through San Diego and eventually over the border at Tijuana.

Theoretically, we were going down to an orphanage to donate our hard work and time to their community, but in reality we played soccer with the kids. Yet I knew that even that short weekend meant a lot to those children. We provided new faces and new companionship to a community that was lacking in all of the above. It seemed like a dog-eat-dog world in that orphanage where the rule of the jungle reigned supreme. Just having someone to play with and not fight against seemed like enough to those kids.

In the end, we gave something, but we got back, too, probably more. It was the best “Community Service” I’ve ever participated in.

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