I had one of my first activities and service projects here with Rotary, along with all of the other exchange students. We were raising money for cancer! It went from early Friday morning, to late Friday afternoon. I was walking all day for about 9 hours minimum.
It was quite the experience. I had never been out in public much before, especially in this way.
I started out staying together with all of the other exchange students. We kind of stayed on the sidewalks and around our meeting location. For me personally, it wasn't working out too well. But for others it was. After a while, we started going out into nearby streets. Every time there was a stoplight, there would be a bunch of cars that would have to stop. So while they were stopped, we would walk up and down the rows of cars asking for donations. Because we were all together in small areas, we weren't having the absolute best progress, and often running into people that had already donated. We knew if people donated based on if they had a sticker we would give them. So, I went out in search for a new place by myself.
After a while, I found a really good spot and ended up staying there all day. I was walking and running nonstop trying to get money. It was hard, because there would be times where many people would donate, or I would receive one big donation. But there were often dry-spells that would last up to 20 minutes, which was sometimes discouraging. For the amount of physical labor I was putting into running up and down the street in between cars, it wasn't always fun. But once those donations would come around, it would just fill my heart. I'd sometimes have people thank me for what I was doing and I'd always be so thankful to them.
Since this was basically my first time really out in public, especially alone, I was starting to get the attention I had been expecting to get during my exchange but never had. Many times, people driving by would honk at me, or wink, or give me kissy faces. Most of the time it would happen while people were driving by, but sometimes while they were stopped too. A few times I would get it on the sidewalks if I was passing by other pedestrians or bicyclists. There would also be times where people would talk to me while the cars were stopped, but they wouldn't donate. That annoyed me, but I was able to keep going without being rude. If my blonde hair didn't make it apparent, my very thick American accent made it quite evident that I was not Peruvian- so people wanted to talk to me. All of this attention I never had before, I was now getting with the amount of time I was spending outside.
For a while, I had been thinking about how I had been told I would get all of this attention but I had never gotten it. And now, with being outside walking around for such a long time, it was there. And I wasn't sure how I felt about it.
By the end, I was able to fill up 4 big cans full of money. I also got through many sheets of stickers. I think the use of the stickers made it also easier to keep track of how many people donated to me and helped my achieve more of my goals. I would tell myself "Once I get through this many stickers, I'll go take a break." And with that, I was able to get a lot done. I was quite proud of myself, and accumulated some of the most money throughout the day. I had a very good location, and me being different also probably made people want to donate.
Once my host parents came to pick me up, my day was not over yet. We first went to the supermarket to get some things, and then to a Rotary meeting. They couldn't help but make fun of me the whole time just because I was walking so funny. Even the Rotarians noticed once I got to my Rotary meeting. My legs were absolutely dead. I was nervous I would wake up the next morning and not be able to get out of bed. Thankfully, I ended up being able to get up early as normal for my Spanish classes, even though I was sore. Ok, I won't lie, we all know that I was hoping to wake up sore enough that I wouldn't be able to walk, therefore not be able to go to Spanish class. But that's not how it worked out.
What a successful day it was. It really felt good to be doing something like that for a good cause. I got many memories and experiences out of what I was doing.
Comments