Inspiring Travelers and Surfers to "Be the change"

During my time here in El Tunco, El Salvador I've been staying at a hostel called Casa Makoi, where I've seen many people come in go.  I've also met a lot of other travellers at next door hostels as well.  Again, they come and stay for a couple of days, a couple of weeks and then they're off to their next destination.  When people ask me why I'm in El Salvador, I tell them that I'm here to volunteer at Remar Orphanage and also do some surfing as well.  70% volunteer work and 30% surf.  A lot of them are not aware of the orphanage, ask me some questions about it, show some interest in joining me for volunteer work and forget about it the next day. 

I have 2 goals for 100 Smiles Project:

1. To make at least 100 children smile

2. To inspire others to volunteer during their travels 

Almost two weeks ago, I met an Italian traveler named Martino, he gave me quick summary of his travel plans and I gave him a quick summary of mine.  When I had told him about 100 Smiles Project, he was inspired, very interested and told me he had wanted to join me at the orphanage the next day.  I brought him along with me, introduced him to all the kids and they quickly fell in love with them, they absolutely adored him, it also really helped that he was able to communicate with them in Spanish (Italian and Spanish are pretty similar languages so he's got it pretty easy) and it also helped that he brought a big bag of candy with him as well ;)

Martino started joining me daily at the orphanage where we did labour work during the day and in the afternoon we spent time playing with the children.  In the evenings we would have dinner together with friends where we would share our stories at the orphanage to other travellers whom also peaked interested and wanted to join as well.  

By Martino and I joining forces (talking with our friends about our experiences), we were inspired a few people from around the world to join us at the orphanage for volunteer work.  We recruited Andrew (England), Adina (Germany), Bea (Germany), Francisco (Argentina), Immanuel (Austria) and Ahren (Australia). 

That's a total of 7 people inspired to make some sort of a change/difference in the world!  My heart fills with so much joy and happiness knowing that others are inspired by 100 Smiles Project.  I hope to continue growing the number of inspired people on this trip and maybe even join me on my next 100 Smiles Project trip in December :)