The Special Olympics

For the last few months, a group of the volunteers (Steph, Katie, Vroni and Kim) have been organizing and training our special needs kids to participate in the Special Olympics. It's been a ton of work for them, dragging the kids to the capital every week for practice on top of their regular work. Today was the day that they've been waiting for, when our kids could compete against other athletes from around the world. Sadly, they changed the date for the international competition at the last minute, pushing it back to February. The kids will still compete, but Vroni and Steph won't be here to see all their hard work come to fruition.

They still held a mini-competition today with a few groups from Guatemala, so it was good practice for the kids. All the special needs kids came to support their housemates who were competing, as well as almost all of the volunteers. We woke up at 4am to get to the capital on time (agh!). I can't complain though, some of the volunteers woke up at 3a to get everyone showered! I'm nice, but not that nice ;)

Check out the stadium, pretty snazzy

Sheila and Carmen (both in the blue pants) did an awesome job. Sheila came in third place!

Here's Emmerson's race. His mom came down to the stadium to watch him compete, it was really great.

My buddy Eliza in the wheelchair race

Kim and Emmerson

Carlos with his ribbon. He wasn't very happy that I asked him to pose for a picture while he was in the middle of eating a bag of Doritos.

Charlotte and Patti hanging out after her race

My two favorite Tios, Edgar and Rocio :)

Our group shot!

It was a really great day. I wish we could have watched the big competition, but I'm sure the kids will do great when Febuary comes around. Big kudos to Steph for all the work she's put into this for the kids!