Every Wednesday at 2pm we go out to visit the girls at the La Esperanza Rehab (on the way to the shipwreck in San Jacinto) and bring them a delicious dessert. In the beginning, this used to be an outreach that I would merely tag along on. No more, no less. I felt no particular use or purpose being there since I didn’t know enough Spanish to understand very much of the lesson that was given by our helper Maritoña and I was too intimidated by the ladies in the rehab to try and practice the few words I knew with them. As time went on though, I began to understand more and more and started to make more eye contact and smile at the ladies even if I was still too uncomfortable to talk to them. It’s almost weird for me to remember these feelings as now I have come to feel so comfortable with most of them that we have decided to be “pen pals” (well, through facebook, at least) after they get out. Granted, this is partly due to the fact that a majority of the women right now are bilingual (many coming from California – Vista, Oceanside, Riverside, etc., Las Vegas, and other places in the states) and also very young, many are in their teens still. One girl in particular has caught my heart, she is SO incredibly sweet and pretty and so nervous about leaving the rehab because she doesn’t want to “mess up” again. The women don’t have much spiritual or life direction in this particular rehab….it’s become more of a “drying out” home where they get clean for 3 months and then are flung back into the world. SCARY. I’m excited to keep in contact with these girls after they leave though and check up on them. Between La Esperanza and the Mission Church, Wednesdays have become one of my favorite days of the week that I look very much forward too every week.
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