The Greatest Blog in the History of the Universe

Greetings ladies and gentleman who are reading this blog. I am glad that you all chose to read this blog over all other things you could have been doing at this very point in time. It feels good to know that people have such a vested interest in the happenings of my life, and the lives of many other Global Voice members on this trip with me. Our time here in Mexico is nearing an end, but that does not mean that our commitment to the people of this country is weakening or that we will not continue to do everything we can to ensure that we leave as big of an impact as possible on the people we have come across in our travels. During the course of this blog I will cover everything that I know you, the readers, are interested in hearing. This includes all the juicy bits of drama and happenings at the Internado, among other places.

It seems like just a week and a half ago we were exiting the plane that had just landed in Loreto, Mexico. When I stepped off of the plane many things were flying through my head; how will I spend my time here, will the children remember me, in what ways can I leave the biggest impact on the people who I run across here? So many questions all of which had almost no answers. I know now though, that it did not matter whether or not I had answers then and there, because I have found them over the course of my journey.

Today was a bit of a weird day. I woke up early in the morning to a rush or cold air creeping under my bedroom door, this slight air tickled my face and awakened me in no time. I looked quickly over to the clock next to my bed and read 7AM, not exactly the time of day I like waking up, but seeing as how I can almost never fall back to sleep after I am awakened I knew that it had to be. However, just because I was awake did not mean that I had to get up, and I instead chose to lay soundly in bed for another half hour before the sunlight was too overwhelming and I knew that I must get my day going.

I started my morning routine out like any other morning routine, by throwing off the blankets and giving my teddy bear a kiss on the forehead before I turn and set my feet on the cold ground. I then slowly stumbled over to the bathroom where I brushed my teeth, showered, and for the first time in a week and a half, shaved. Being able to clear my face of the atrocious facial hair that had been growing made me so incredibly happy, and my face went from being scraggly and icky to smooth and gorgeous. I often wish that I did not grow facial hair so that I would never have to shave, but I know that will never be the case and instead have figured out how to not let it trouble me too much.

After my morning routine I walked into the kitchen wearing my pajama bottoms, a plain white t-shirt, and a pair of socks to avoid my feet from freezing too much. My breakfast consisted of Frosted Flakes...and that's it. I chit chatted with Darren for a few while we awaited the awakening of other Global Voice members, who usually are not up and about until 8:30AM or later. I don't mind though, as long as they get an adequate amount of sleep and are able to do what needs to be done.

Rachel and Darren made some wonderful french toast of which I could only eat one slice so I did not have a severe allergic reaction to the eggs. This was a wonderful finisher to my previously eaten Frosted Flakes and it really made me content and ready to take on the day. After I ate breakfast I went outside with Darren, Donovan, and Paul to move random wooden beams from one place to another. I was glad to be able to do a favor for Paul since he has been so kind as to let us stay in his house while we are down here in Loreto. I'd like to send out a big thank you to Jeff and Paul, you two are awesome.

Once this task was completed, we all trekked through the streets of Loreto until we arrived at the Internado, where Peter was already busy finishing off some painting jobs that had not been finished previously. He has been such a wonderful addition to the Global Voice roster and has often been found working on projects that other people have long since considered "finished," especially the painting. I didn't hang out with him much after we arrived at the Internado but I know that he spent a good many hours today, on top of all the hours of previous days painting all over the Internado. Thanks Peter, you will from now on be known as Peter the Painter.

Since I was a bit exhausted from all the labor I had done during the previous days I decided to chill out a bit and take it easy...sort of. I began my day by making a paper bag book with the help of Sophie and Rachel. Basically what I did was watch how they made their sweet paper bag book and copy their ideas, so seeing as how they are amazing paper bag book makers and I copied them my paper bag book turned out quite splendidly. I still need to add things to my paper bag book, but for now it is doing pretty well. Once my paper bag book was completed, I hung out with Sophie while she finished her even more spectacular than my paper bag book. If there was some sort of award for greatest paper bag book, she would have easily won it by at least 320 million votes.

Once she was done, I decided to get back into some hardcore physical activity and participate in one of the most heated basketball games of my life. It was a 4 on 5 street rules game in which I ran around for 15 minutes yelling random things in English while the rest of the players looked at me awkwardly, however I am pretty sure my team won which made the game so worth it. My throat has been a little hoarse since then but I've managed to get by being just as loud and obnoxious as usual, much to the dismay or people around me.

That basketball game really tired me out so I went and laid down on some concrete in a attempt to take a nap, but the kids would not let that happen and instead I found myself back in the paper bag book room helping out a few kids...allegedly. Oh, sometime between my first paper bag book and the kids paper bag books I sat down to have a wonderful lunch with my fellow Global Voice members as well as the children at the Internado. The food that they prepare at the Internado has never ceased to satisfy my highly developed and hard to please palette, which is a wonderful thing to see.

After the paper bag books were created, it was almost time for dinner so a few of us on the inside cleaned up the mess which had been created by the various materials which went into making these books, such as feathers, buttons, beads, and lots of paper. Just as a little head's up to what a paper bag book is exactly, in case any of you wonderful readers are confused, I will explain it. It's basically a few small paper bags which are threaded together with yarn so it reads like a book, and you decorate the fronts and backs of the bags and the bags themselves provide little compartments to keep things such as secret love letters or even notes from friends.

Once the clean-up was finished we sat down for a delicious dinner at the Internado, which was a treat that only a couple of us had experienced before, as this was the first time all nine of us were able to eat dinner together at the Internado. We had empanadas and beans which were washed down with some tasty chocolate milk. It was very very good and I am glad we were able to all experience that at least once while we were down here. After dinner, we had a bit of fun dancing with some kids young and old just outside of the dining room, and I was able to strut my stuff which was quite impressive if I do say so myself.

The rest of my night went pretty well, and Donovan did some wonderful Leader of the Day activities which I thoroughly enjoyed. After his activities a few of the Global Voice members went out for ice cream while I stayed at home with a few others and decided on which picture I would use for this blog. I hope all of you enjoy the picture and I look forward to reading any wonderful comments you have about my blog. Thank you all for reading this, and I hope that it was worth reading over doing whatever else you could have been doing instead. If I left any questions unanswered feel free to ask more about it in the comments section below and I will do my best to answer them in a reasonable amount of time.

As for me, it is time for me to go to sleep, and hopefully tomorrow I can sleep in a little later than 7AM. Tomorrow will be our last day at the Internado, and I know that everyone in our group is not looking forward to saying goodbye to all the children for what may be the last time, and walking away from the place we have come to love and adore of the past two weeks. It's a good thing that the memories we have forged inside of, and even outside of those orange gates will be with us for the rest of our lives, otherwise I do not know how I would handle it.

I love each and every moment of every Global Voice trip I have ever been on, and really hope more people have the chance to experience it at least once in their lives.

-Jaycob Hughes