A question I was asked quite frequently over break was “so what do your days look like?”. And I laughed every single time. I never quite know how to answer that question. It’s hard for people to wrap their heads around exactly what my position is or what my responsibilities are as an intern for Global Bridge. My primary responsibilities consist of the Global Bridge students. In the mornings, I am responsible for making sure everyone is up and gathered at the dining room table at 7:30am to pray before we separate for our individual time in the Word. After that comes breakfast and then at 8:30am is devo time. This responsibility is shared between the program directors, me, our other intern or sometimes the students. We then make sure the girls have what they need for the day, have packed their lunches and load them up in the van to be taken to ministry sites. When they come back to the base at the end of the workday around 4pm, I’m always there to meet them, talk over their day, spend some 1-on-1 time with a student who needs a little extra care, help with homework, bake cookies to lift spirits or facilitate game playing or movie watching. We really have such a wonderful group of girls this year who truly require little of me and are such a joy to walk alongside with. I feel so blessed! But.. many people wonder what I do during the time that the girls are gone from the base. And the answer is actually…. a lot! I have stepped into media site leader responsibilities alongside our other intern, Kaeden, which allows me to be out in the communities and at ministry sites capturing videos and photos of the people and the work being done. And I love every moment of it! Some days I’m out in the communities, some days I am at the base working on Global Bridge stuff and some days I’m just rolling with whatever is thrown my way! There is never a dull or boring moment on the mission field.

To give you an idea of what some of my days look like, allow me the honors of sharing today with you…

Today was a media day! There are 6 ministry sites that we are responsible for gathering content from. Kaeden and I decided to hang at the Boy’s Sport Site in the morning. This is probably one of my favorite sites to hang with! The enthusiasm and energy that the boys have as they play sports is contagious. I am rarely without a smile while observing the site, interacting with the boys and capturing pictures and videos.

And then there’s this lil’ chica who hung out on my hip or in my lap much of the morning while she watched her brothers play soccer.

After lunch, Kaeden and I decided to conquer and divide so she went to the education site while I tagged along with our Doctor, Jhanna, and Global Bridge student, Paige, who is assigned to work with Jhanna. They often spend the morning doing medical consults in the clinic and then spend the afternoons visiting elderly patients and delivering medications. I was able to tag along to visit two of the elderly patients who live in Quinigua.

Jhanna and Paige check Rosa’s chart. They take her blood pressure and give her medication that she needs to control her high blood pressure. They take the time to ask about her day and how she’s been feeling.

We then drive out to the countryside, where we walk to Flora’s home. She rents out her fields to farmers who grow yucca, eggplant and tobacco. The gate to her property is locked when we get there, so we must crawl through a small space in the barbed wire fence, taking care that our clothes don’t snag on the wire.

Flora is found stripping “gandules” (pigeon peas) so we take our seats and talk with her when she suddenly asks “what time is it?” to which I respond “3 o’clock” and she suddenly stands up in a flurry and explains that she has to drop off a bag of gandules to a bus to be taken to family members who live on the other side of the community. Jhanna assures her that we won’t let her be late for the bus and that we would take her to the bus in Jhanna’s car. Flora scoops up the bag of gandules, hoists it on her shoulder and we start up her road to get the car. On our way, a woman drives by on a motorcycle, offers to take Flora and away she goes. We return back to Flora’s house, laugh over the frantic events and finish stripping Flora’s harvest of gandules as we wait for her return.

When Flora arrives back within 20 minutes, Paige then checks her blood pressure, we give her medication and then listen to Flora’s stories. We bid our farewells and then make our way back to the car.

By now, its about 4pm and Jhanna brings us back to the base. On our way home we realize that our base manager, Alberto, is driving in front of us. Jhanna, always down for a jolly time of teasing, lays on her horn to get his attention. He then starts swerving all over the road to keep us from passing his slow pace. Just before both vehicles reach the base, Alberto’s truck blows a tire and we all bust out in laughter. Blown tires are not an uncommon event around here. We pull into the base just as the students are being brought back from their sites.
4pm is one of my favorite times of the day! When everyone returns and has stories and experiences to share from their day. We often laugh over funny or interesting experiences from the workday as we share dinner together. Sometimes, when experiences are hard and confusing or someone has had a particularly rough day, we are able to talk through that as a group.

In the evenings, the girls are either working on homework or other projects. We sometimes throw a movie on the projector and enjoy a classic. Or we’ll play board games or card games.

And there you have it… a random day in the life as a Global Bridge intern. Many different responsibilities, a variety of tasks and much, much joy. And now you know why I laugh every time I’m asked, “what do your days look like?”.

Not all my days look exactly like this, but there is something to appreciate and find joy in each and every day!