Three times a year Rancho Santa Fe has a visitors day for all of the family members of the kids living on the ranch. Those kids who will have visitors during that day go to the school early in the morning to wait for their visitors to arrive. Those that will not have visitors, spend the day with us, the volunteers. The day starts at 7:00 for everyone and the activities end at 4.
This visitors day we did an elaborate scavenger hunt all over the ranch. The kids had to run from one end of the ranch to the other looking for things that were hairy, shiney, soft, usefull, etc. The kids had a great time and the activity distracted them from thoughts about their lack of visitors. In fact, one girl on my team was called to the school because her father and brother had arrived to visit her, and she refused to leave the game to see them. She actually ran off and hid in one of the older girls homes to avoid being sent to the school. I spent at least an hour walking around the ranch looking for her. I was very frustrated and still have no idea why she didn't want to see her family.
After the scavenger hunt we went to the pond for hotdogs and swimming. Unfortunately, we were not able to swim because the water was too low and stagnant, which meant there was a possibility of dangerous microorganisms. Because we were not able to swim, time passed slowly at the pond. This was also the time of day when those kids who had been waiting in the school all morning for visitors who never showed up were sent to us to be entertained for the rest of the day. These kids all handled this situation differently. Some arrived at the pond sad and disappointed that their families had said they would be visiting and didn't show up. Others arrived happy to be able to participate in our acitivities and happy to stop the process of waiting around in the school. These kids also said that it was more difficult to be in the school watching all of the other families play and celebrate their time together.
After the pond, we moved to the park in front of the volunteer home for pinatas, cake and party bags. This was everyone's favorite part of the day. I was in charge of the older girls pinata, which sounds easy, but the older girls become little girls at the site of a pinata and candy. After about 3 whacks at Dora the pinata, she went flying through the air and landed on the ground with just a small hole in the head. The girls pounced on Dora attempting to tear off all of her limbs. Thankfully, Candy, another volunteer grabbed the pinata and started running while spewing candy on the ground. (I am really sorry that I don't have a picture of this, but it just happened so fast!) This was great because we eliminated the inevitable whack on the head while diving under the pinata for candy; the pushing, shoving and sometimes punching fight for the last peice of candy and finally the domination of the pinata by the biggest strongest girl. The down side is that the bigger girls were finished before the others and ran to steal candy from the pinata of the small kids. Like I said everyone looses control at the site of the pinata.
As a whole, the day was a success! By the end everyone was exhausted, emotionally and physically.
