I challenged myself to try something new for the month of December. For those of you who remember my last post, I was inspired in November to record a list of everything that I was thankful for every single day. About halfway through the month, I read Cami Walker’s 29 Gifts- a book about a “giving challenge” that is supposed to “change your life.” I was a bit skeptic, but it was a book and I had plenty of time to read. So after reading it, I decided that I would try the challenge for the month of December.
The rules are pretty simple, you have to give a gift (this can be anything, ranging from money to compliments or simply your time) every single day for 29 days straight. You are encouraged to keep track of what you give, and if you miss a day you are supposed to restart. Since I am a volunteer, technically all of the things I do are considered donating my time…BUT I wanted to find other ways to give back to my community this month.
So without further ado… here is my list of “gifts” I gave for the giving challenge…
DEC 1- My neighbor asked me if I would braid her daughters’ hair for their clausura (end of the school year celebration). I agreed to do this, even though they have the THICKEST and LONGEST hair in the entire world and to fishtail their hair takes almost 30 minutes each.
DEC 3- my host mom was going to go out to buy salt, but then I was just like wait, have my salt!!
DEC 4- my time and support- went to the orphanage on a sunday afternoon (biked at 2pm in the middle of the heat of the day) to go to their clausura, kids ended up GIVING ME all of their home made christmas decorations.
DEC 5- decided to teach the kids how to play go fish (little did I know this game would haunt me all month and the kids would learn they could lie about their hands… I spent the rest of the month having to “judge” every game to make sure no one was cheating)
DEC 6- cooked a bomb ass dinner with Hannah (another PCV) for David (another PCV) at his house while he was teaching a class so when he came home he was surprised by our amazing meal
DEC 7- gave the taxi driver an extra tip for taking me all the way home
DEC 8- gift to my feet- slept all day (okay this one is a stretch but give me a break, I walked about 26 miles the day before to go to church, and I walked for JESUS!)
DEC 10- bought David 3.5 mil ice cream. AND ran errands for my host sister (put saldo on her phone) and host mom (bought her yeast and a gift for a party). I was surprised when I went into the town to see that I received a care package out of the blue from Kathy Nelson! (SUCH an amazing surprise!!)
DEC 12-baby sitting- came over at 6am to watch the kids, played with them all day since their grandma was traveling and their mom was at work.
DEC 13- finger painting with kids- gave them paper, paint, pencils and in return they gave me their pictures.
Out of nowhere in the evening my neighbor, Ña Julia, came and set up a mosquito net for me!!!! See my video blog about the story. Literally blown away by her kindness.
DEC 14- can you give the same gift twice? I’m still babysitting. Waking up at 6am to go over to the house, and I’ve been helping with the kids chores around the house, which I guess could be my gift since they aren’t my chores.
DEC 17- biked home, there was no running water when I finally made it back in the afternoon but the kids outside my house asked for water and I gave them some of my cold water i had stored in my fridge, (even though I didnt want to)
DEC 18- went to the church and helped set up the nativity scene with a few other women, ended up cutting out a million stars.
DEC 19- got on a crowded bus to get out of my site and after an hour a seat opened up and I let a woman sit in it, even though it was 7am and I was exhausted
DEC 20- was at the hippie market buying christmas presents for my family and I decided not to even try to haggle with the people at the market. Merry Christmas, have your extra 5mil Gs
DEC 21- Grace was feeling sick so I got made her some oral rehydration drinks from the salt and sugar at a restaurant and brought them over to her
DEC 23- i bought christmas presents for my host family when we went out to dinner
DEC 24- gave my family their christmas gifts from paraguay :)
DEC 25- so overwhelmed by the love from my family and everyone on Christmas.I decided to end the giving challenge on Christmas and just enjoy the rest of my vacation time with my family (obviously my presence was enough of a gift for them)
We’ll be in touch for 2017! HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!