Staying in Touch

During my last winter break, I traveled to Honduras to volunteer at non-profit Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos.  In short, the organization is comprised of several homes in various countries that take in abandoned and orphaned children from dangerous and unstable homes. Needless to say, this trip changed my life and I am hoping to return sometime soon and/or enroll in the volunteer program after graduation where I would volunteer and stay at the home for a year. 

While there, it was so refreshing to turn off my phone and just be around all of the kids and adults who come from different backgrounds and less fortunate situations. Working in the garden, farm, kitchen, making thousands of tortillas and just exploring the ranch while being disconnected made me realize just how much I rely on my phone to keep me entertained when there is already so much going on in the world that makes watching Netflix surprisingly not so interesting anymore. Playing soccer games with the kids or hearing stories from the adults made me forget about my phone and realize what really matters in the end.

We had wifi in the volunteer house, but I really only used it at night when trying to contact my parents back home or to upload a picture once in a while. 

After a few days on the ranch, that is home to hundreds of children, I learned that the older kids may receive phones once they turn 18 years old. With the phones, they can contact friends on the ranch and in the surrounding area and use the ranch's limited wifi to connect to the internet and create social media accounts. 

The night before we were to leave, a very emotional night, I stayed up late with some of the teens on the ranch as we tried using the spotty wifi to become Facebook friends, ensuring that we would always be in touch and be able to catch up once in a while. 

Over the last few months, I have talked to many of the teens over Facebook messages.  We talk about how much we miss each other, tag each other in photos, update each other on what is going on in our lives and try to pin down a general idea of when I may return to the ranch. Through their photos, I am able to see how much the kids have grown and depictions of what I have missed on the ranch. 

I also follow NPH's social media accounts like Facebook to stay updated on events and happenings in all of the NPH homes. 

Social media has become a vital tool in communicating with not only those I am close to in the United States, but the family I have made overseas.