Finishing the Orphanage - Ecuador 3

The HEFY trips of summer 2012 are starting to come to an end. This is HEFY's first year to serve in Cuenca, Ecuador at the OSSO Orphanage and it has been a wonderful experience. Our groups have been busy building facilities for volunteers to stay when they come to volunteer at the orphanage. The girls have rotated between doing the physical labor on the new building and actually working hands on with the children in the orphanage. Here are a few pictures of our Ecuador 3 trip, the last group to visit Ecuador for this summer. 

If you are interested in serving with HEFY in 2013, be sure to sign up now. Pre-registration is now open on the HEFY website.

An Update on Belize 3

Our Belize 3 group can be found in the small northern gateway town of Corozal. Here are a few pictures of the group and their adventures so far.

The group is working with the people of the Corozal Village to repair their neighborhood elementary school. Even though it is a public school it relies on the parents and neighbors to keep the school functioning. HEFY will make it possible for this small neighborhood to provide a modern education for their children. 

Peru 3 - Work hard, play hard

I received an email from James, our Peru 3 trip leader. The group stays so busy that I wasn't surprised by his lack of details in what the trip has been up to but I liked the brief description he did send:

"This group is fun, hard workers, spiritual, and obedient. I'm excited for the rest of the trip!!!"
- James

Here are the pictures he included with his email. It's quite clear that
what James said is true. 

 

At Machu Picchu!!!!

 

Is that a floating llama?

 

 Getting lunch in Cuzco at Bembos, the McDonalds of Peru

 

 Having fun at the work project

 

Building the roof to the new school room

 

The bus ride home. The result of a long work day.

Ecuador 2 - The ladies have been busy

The Ecuador 2 group arrived last week and have been busy bees ever since. They spent the first day and a half in Quito, riding zip lines and touring around before heading to Cuenca to start work at the orphanage. 

 

The HEFY Ecuador groups this year have been working at building more facilities for volunteers to come stay at the orphanage. The girls have taken shifts working on the project and working with the orphans. For legal reasons, we have been asked not to publicly share pictures of the young children at the orphanage. You'll have to wait until your girls get home to see pictures of those sweet children.

 

I have spoken briefly with Allison about the young women in the group. She says they are all having a great time working together. She also expressed how impressed she is at how hard the young women in the group work.

“The Savior taught His disciples, ‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.’

“I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish—and in effect save their lives.”

-Thomas S. Monson

Tonga 2 Adventures

Here are a few pictures Melanie sent of some of the adventures 

Tonga 2 has had so far.

On the boat, heading out to the island off the coat of Fiji

On top of "Rambling Rock", a great lookout spot in Fiji

Building and painting desks for a local school in Tonga

 Enjoying the view while writing in journals on Sunday

A post from our Fiji 2 Trip Leader

We have had BEAUTIFUL weather (today is the first rain we've seen this entire trip!), and as a result the work projects are progressing quite quickly. We are constructing 5 bathrooms and 6 septic tanks out of cinder blocks and wood. We've spent this week laying the blocks (LOTS of cement mixing) and today we are putting the walls up on our bathrooms and sanding them. Next week we'll construct covers for the septic tanks, paint the walls, and put on the finishing touches. Our village is full of friendly people and extremely outgoing little children -- it's getting harder and harder each day for me to get our participants to say goodbye and get on the bus in the afternoons.

The Samabula Ward is extremely welcoming and fun. We've had a great time attending a full week of activities, including a movie night at the Coconutohnecolor Cinema (constructed in the back half of the Cultural Hall) complete with "3D glasses" made out of palm fronds and a concessions stand. During our first Sunday one of our local coordinators bore a powerful testimony to the ward about the importance of HEFY's work and the great impression that the Fiji 1 trip gave of the LDS Church to the village of Nabundrau. It was really cool to hear that the work we are doing makes a difference, not just in the physical facilities we build but also in the way we carry ourselves and execute our work. It was a great motivator for our first workday the next morning.

At the request of the Samabula bishopric we put together an Independence Day celebration for the ward's youth and YSAs on Wednesday. It was pretty rockin' -- hand-drawn decorations, Americana singalongs (accompanied by Savannah on ukulele!), relay races, baseball, American football, ice cream, and, of course, fireworks at the end of The Star-Spangled Banner...supplied by 12 liters of Diet Coke and Brad's inexplicably endless supply of Mentos. Watching the participants rally together and pool their resources and creativity to put on a great party and share our culture with the youth in Fiji was a trip highlight for me -- I woke up the next morning still smiling!

Another trip highlight was our visit to the Suva temple on Thursday to do baptisms and confirmations for the dead. It was a special experience, made even more special by the inclusion of some participants' family names. There was a lovely spirit there and we are grateful that we got to share that moment with each other.

Tomorrow we are off to go net fishing at Brother Magoon's house and then to the church for Kareoke Night(!!!). The ward will be cooking lovo for us, a traditional Fijian dinner that takes all day to prepare and is cooked in an underground oven. Then another Sunday with the Samabula Ward (we could all really use a day of rest), three more days finishing up our work projects in the village, and we'll be on our way home!

 

Fiji 2 update by: Lauren Bray

Adventures of Belize 2

As you can see from the pictures below, our Belize 2 group has been very busy. During the day they work hard building onto the school in Corozal and in the evenings they spend their time having fun with the local youth playing soccer and other fun activities. Over the weekend they enjoyed going on a zip line through the jungle and cave tubing. Here are a few pictures from their adventures.