Day 3

I'm blogging again because Lynn and Jane have an early day tomorrow. They're waking up at 6 am so that they can go to one of the residential homes (Bethany House) to film the kids morning routine. I, on the other hand, can sleep in a bit since I'll be leading the cooking project later tomorrow.

Today we started off with some interviews with the staff: Giovanna, the educational director and Pato, the program director. Then we sat down and had lunch with the kids at Kaya Center. Lunch consisted of a hearty vegetable stew, fried chicken, rice, and re-cooked freeze-dried potatoes. I was so full I couldn't even make it to the dessert, which was a type of pudding with a dried peach. After lunch Jane led the kids in some songs from the Avalanche Ranch CD in Spanish. We taught them the motions for "The Great Adventure", "This is the Day", and "God is Good". Then we played a modified version of "Hit the Deck" where uno = attencion (standing in attention position), dos = pikachu (this modified version of rock, paper, scissors where if you win you get to squeeze your opponents cheeks), tres = goal (two people form a soccer goal and one person is the goalie), quatro = four people in a line doing the can can, and cinco = commodore (the dining hall, where one person kneels down to be the table, and four people eat around him). The last 2 people standing got to pick two Jelly Roll pens that Jane had brought. She ended up giving everybody a pen for participating though.

After another round of the songs, we got to interview two of the older boys about their life on the street and in Kaya. Then we hopped on the mini-bus with the boys and went to visit one of the homes, Renacer, which is the transition home. The boys there are the most recent off the street and also the youngest. About ten boys live in the house with one house uncle. There's a courtyard in the middle where they've set up a volleyball net and also a foosball table. Lynn and I played Uno with one of the boys and Jane played chess with another boy. They were very sweet and patient with me even though I couldn't understand Spanish.

Finally, we took a taxi back down to Chi and Kristin's place where one of the older boys who was graduating high school cooked a dinner for us. He made tacos, chicken Cordon Bleu, and pasta for us. It was really a wonderful testament to what the program has been able to do for the boys, and this one in particular. He hopes to have his own restaurant one day.

As I've been able to interact with the boys more and more, I find it hard to believe that they were once on the streets. They're so much like the little boys I see at Highrock; like little puppies just all over each other and so affectionate. I think it will be really good for me to go up to El Alto and see some of the kids that are currently of the streets for a comparison.

Also the three of us have been really impressed with the staff here. They give so much more than just what's in their job description for these kids. Some of them are teachers, bus drivers, gym teachers, house parents, etc. And they've been so willing to also give us some of their time so that we can understand more of what they do and why they do it. I can't wait for the interviews to be translated so I can hear their stories and share them with you as well.

Thanks so much for all your prayers; I can't believe we're already half way through our time here! Love,

Joy