Birthdays at Casa de Amor

Birthdays are always fun and special for the kids at CDA. Since I've been here, there have been 2 birthdays. One was for M of House 2 (7 years), and the other was for R of House 1 (2 years).

For M's birthday, the volunteers took all the kids from House 2, plus 1 kid from House 1 and another from House 3 (a total of 14 kids), BOWLING! It was a surprise for all the kids, so when we pulled up to the bowling alley it was pretty exciting. We all had a lot of fun, even though by the end we were exhausted and ready to leave!

We started our party with cake, which the birthday boy helped make and decorate!

Everyone wanted a piece of the bowling action!

The birthday boy on his turn

One of the adorable party guests, having a bit of a hard time with the heavy ball but still having fun!

Even when it wasn't their turn, the rest of the kids were kept entertained by balloons!

R's 2nd birthday was a little more low key, but we still made sure he felt special on his day. After dinner that night, we had a cake party at House 1!

Super cute "roly poly" cake, made by volunteer Savannah

He couldn't wait for a piece!

This birthday boy loves his cake!

Lake Day!

This Thursday was a holiday called San Juan. I'm not exactly sure what it celebrates, but apparently it's a big deal. For this holiday, Jen planned a trip to a lake outside Cochabamba for some of the kids from the Coronilla (one of her groups of street kids).

 

 

 

The lake! Pretty scenery, not so pretty water...

The guys tried to fish throughout the day, but didn't catch anything :(

We went on a boat ride around the lake!

I took a ton of pictures of this guy in front of different objects, and in every single picture he's doing the double thumbs up!

We also drove around and ended up in a little town called Tarata. We went to the downtown plaza and saw this little parade, apparently for Corpus Cristi, another holiday going on!

Overall it was a full, but very fun day!

I went to jail....

Yesterday I went inside a Bolivian jail for the first time. Don't worry, I wasn't arrested :P Jen and I went in to visit a guy named Cesar whose birthday was yesterday! We took him a cake, which drew a little crowd of some of Jen's street friends who are in the jail as well as some newer jail friends.

First of all, the jail was so interesting to me. When you first enter through the main gate, you're in a big, open, central area. There are stands where people sell food, and since it was lunchtime a lot of people were buying plates. There is also a little shop kind of like a convenience store. There were even people selling music and movies. There was a phone room where people can make and receive calls. I could also see a room where there was welding going on. Apparently the jail doesn't provide anything for the prisoners. No food, clothes, beds, nothing, so the inmates have to buy everything or their family/friends can bring things to them. It can get expensive living in jail!

We got ourselves a table and some chairs, and there was a guy in charge of setting those up. Jen gave one of the guys money to go buy a 2-liter Coca-Cola, and he brought it back with cups. We drank the coke and waited for a couple people that Jen knows and wanted to be in on the party. While we waited, Jen went to talk to a doctor who works in the jail about one of her friends who has been very sick. I stayed at the table with a couple of the guys, talked to them and got to know them a little. When everyone was there, we ate the cake and talked for a while.

After that, we went up to the room where Jen's sick friend lives. It's so interesting to me that we could just walk around anywhere we wanted in the jail! We walked up a couple flights of stairs, passed a smaller common area where people were watching TV, then went up this tiny ladder to the guy's room. It was kind of like crawling up into an attic. The room he lives in is tiny, and about 12 people live in it (There are about 600 people in this jail, and it is so crowded that people are crammed into rooms, and some people even sleep in hallways!). There are a couple little shelves and hooks on the wall where people had bags and clothes, but other than that there is no furniture. The guys sleep on the floor with blankets. I saw a couple other rooms that did have beds and even 1 had a TV, but I think those are things that the inmates have brought for themselves. Jen took some prescription  medicine to her friend and checked up on him. He has lost a lot of weight, sleeps into the afternoon, and coughs throughout the night. Jen suspected tuberculosis (a girl from the street recently died of it), but the jail's doctor said he doesn't think that's what it is. Hopefully this guy will get better soon for his sake and so whatever he has doesn't spread to others in the jail.

Also while we were in the room, one of the guys I had met and talked to a little gave me this:

A little bonsai sculpture!

He had made it, and he told me to take it back to the United States. I didn't know if he was seriously giving it to me, but he assured me that he was. Jennifer has one kind of like it but bigger that someone else had given her from jail. I think it's pretty cool, and I'll definitely bring it home with me!

When we were leaving, some of the guys asked me when I was coming back to visit. I told them whenever Jennifer came back I probably would, and they said to ask for them. So now I guess I have a few new friends in jail, haha. Overall it was super interesting and definitely a unique experience!

On the Streets

After a few times of going out with Jennifer and the street kids she works with, I've learned that there is no such thing as a "normal" day in any of their lives. Every day is something different, you never know what is going to happen in the next week, or day, or hour. I still don't know how I'm going to create my thesis or what I'm going to focus on, but tagging along with Jen has been very interesting, and I know that I'll come home with plenty of stories and memories.

I am more amazed every day at Jennifer and how she does what she does with these kids. She goes to dangerous parts of the city, hangs around people who do drugs and fight and rob, and dedicates much of her time to helping them as much as she can. She basically serves as their driver, doctor/nurse, lawyer, banker, counselor, and much more depending on the day. She advocates for them in places where they're discriminated against. She never seems afraid or nervous in potentially dangerous situations. Most of all, I admire the friendships she has with many street kids. They obviously respect and appreciate her a lot.

It's also kind of surprising how polite the street kids (usually) are. I know it shouldn't be surprising, because they're people and know how to behave like people, but it surprised me that manners are so important to them. They call Jen "Señorita" or sometimes "Señorita Jennifer." That word is a title and shows respect for her. Apparently if someone doesn't use it and just calls her Jennifer, the others will scold that person for their lack of respect. Greetings are also important. "Good morning," "good afternoon," or even a "hello, Señorita" is a must. Otherwise it is like they are ignoring her, or just jumping in asking her for something without being polite first. All of that is starting to apply to me too.

Also, the kids buy food and drinks for her all the time, or if they buy something for themselves they almost always offer some to her. She buys food for them sometimes, plus with everything else she does for them it makes sense. But now that I'm around, they do the same to me too. I kind of feel like I don't deserve anything from them, so I sometimes feel bad taking it. Plus a lot of times they buy food from the street that may not be safe for me to eat. But I'm slowly learning to just accept it anyway. I already know that it's rude in Bolivian culture to reject what people try to give you. Maite has told me that to them it's like you're rejecting the person, not just what they're giving you. So even when you're trying to be polite and unimposing on someone, you're really being rude. I'm trying to find a balance between saying yes and no, and trying to be okay with taking things from the kids when they offer them to me. Even sometimes if I do say no, they just give it to me anyway. It's sweet to me that even though I don't know them that well, they're so generous and nice just because I'm with them.

The first example of politeness I experienced this year: When Kati and I got to the Cochabamba airport, Jennifer met us with a carload of street kids, and Elena and Kaley picked us up in the Casa de Amor truck. The boys carried our suitcases and loaded them into the truck.

(Picture stolen from Kati :p)

Oh and they're also very protective of Jennifer and now me. Even though they sometimes fight among each other, and some of them steal from people, they would never harm Jen or steal from her. If 2 people are fighting and Jen is around, the others tell them to go farther away from where she is. My first night out with them, I was in the back seat of Jen's car and the 2 guys next to me started arguing and then elbowing each other in the face. I got a little nervous because I thought I might get hit on accident just for being so close to them, so I called to Jen in the front seat and she stopped it. Some of the other kids in the car yelled at those 2 guys, saying that they had no respect for Jennifer and that if they did stuff like that she would never let them in her car again.

Walking around here, just being a white girl usually gets lots of stares, whistles, and comments. Just yesterday I was walking around the market with Jen and some of the kids, and a group of guys we passed yelled out at me. The girl I was behind stopped and yelled at them, "Don't bother her, jerks!" It's funny to me because usually I just ignore it and keep walking, but they have to say something back in my (or Jen's) defense.

So those are some of my impressions of the street kids so far. As I spend more time with them, I'm sure I'll have more stories and insights to share!

Week 1

Well, I've been here almost a week. It's been pretty crazy so far, but today I decided to sit down and write. Here at Casa de Amor House 1 where I'm staying, all the kids and tias have been going through a scabies epidemic. It spreads easily and takes a ton of work to get rid of, so they hadn't been able to properly eliminate it...until this last weekend.

On Friday morning the fun started. After breakfast, all the kids were bathed and had a cream put all over their bodies to kill the parasites. 2 of the 4 tias working that day also bathed and put cream on themselves. Everyone dressed in clothes that had been soaked in boiling water, washed, and dried in the dryer (this was to kill any parasites on the clothes), and those 2 tias plus a volunteer took the kids out for the day. Meanwhile, the 2 other tias and another volunteer washed all the clothes and sheets in the house, and took everything else from the house outside to sit in the sun. Friday night all the kids stayed at a school where one of the volunteers lives. Saturday morning the house was fumigated. The kids stayed another night at the school, and came back on Sunday. Now that all the kids, volunteers, tias and their families have been treated, hopefully the scabies will be gone.

On Friday I went with Jennifer for the first time while she took care of business with her group of street kids. While all the scabies stuff was going on, I was out with her all afternoon and that night. That afternoon we visited one kid in a burn unit of a hospital and took a bunch of kids to several parts of the La Cancha (the huge market in town). I saw the place where they live for the first time. They live in a part called the Coronilla, which is a little way up a mountain, among brush, plants, and cactus. They have 2 little tarp shelters with mattresses and old couches inside, and an outside area where they cook. We were there in the afternoon then went back at night. That night was an interesting experience for me. Several fights went on that night among different people. At one time we were in Jen's car, and I was in the backseat with about 6 other people. The 2 guys next to me started fighting and elbowed each other in the face, and I thought I was going to get hit just because I was so close to them. They got in trouble for that by Jen and the other kids, and after that we took everyone back up to where they live.

On Saturday I spent most of the day at House 2 and stayed the night there. I went to church Sunday morning with all the House 2 kids, Kati, and volunteer Kaylee who lives at House 2.

Sunday there was a group here from a Bible college in Pennsylvania, and that afternoon I went with them, Jennifer, and some of the street kids to play soccer. Some of us watched while they played, then the group gave them drinks and snacks and gave a short sermon. After that some people played more soccer, and some just hung out and played on the playground there. Jen had brought one of the babies from CDA because his parents are part of the Coronilla group. It was cool to see the parents with him and their other daughter who is 2 and lives with them in the Coronilla. They seem like good kids who love their children, but it's sad that they are living like they are. After soccer, the Pennsylvania group gave all the kids packets of soap, laundry detergent, toothbrushes, and other hygiene items.

Yesterday was the birthday of Maite, the lady I lived with when I was here last year. I ended up spending pretty much the whole day at her house. In the morning I went and learned how to make the meat Teresa (Maite's mom) was making for the birthday party that night. I helped her with that, then went to town and bought Maite a birthday present (handmade necklace, bracelet, and earrings that all together cost about $4!) and ice cream from Maite's favorite ice cream place. I went back to Maite's house, and Teresa and I waited for Maite to get home from the language school where she works. We had lunch with Connor, the guy living with them right now. After lunch Maite and I made an ice cream cake, then we cleaned and got ready for that night. Around 6 a bunch of friends from the language school came over for dinner. It was by far the best meal I've had so far- I miss Teresa's cooking so much! It was a fun day and I was so happy to spend time with Maite and Teresa again!

Sorry it's so long, but from now on I'll try to update more often so I don't have to write about everything at once!

I'm back!

Most of you already know that I'm spending another summer in Cochabamba, Bolivia, but this trip is different than last year's. Last summer I spent 3 months here working as a volunteer at a children's home called Casa de Amor, which was started by Jennifer Thompson, a family friend from my old church. I lived with a host family and worked at Casa de Amor almost every day.

This year, my main purpose for the trip is research. As part of the Honors College program at my university I have to write and defend a thesis before graduation. I have an advisor in the Social Work department at school and a general idea of my thesis. When I came to Cochabamba last year, I spent a little time with Jennifer and some of the street kids she ministers to and works with in addition to directing Casa de Amor. My advisor and I decided to focus my thesis on street children, so I planned this year's trip to follow Jennifer in her work with them and observe them. I also hope to talk to other people who work with street children and maybe go to some homes or rehab centers. I'm not exactly sure where my project will go, but for now I'm calling it a case study by participant observation. I also don't really know what I'll be doing during my trip, but I'm trying to just go with the flow of things here and see what happens! I will be here for about 7 weeks this time, so it's a little shorter but hopefully I can get everything I need by then.

In addition to my research and following Jennifer around, I will also be working a little at Casa de Amor again. I am actually living at CDA House 1, the “baby home,” and I'll be filling in the gaps for some of the volunteers who are leaving in the next couple months. There are so many new babies and kids here and only 4 kids are left from when I was here last year! In House 2 there are a couple who have left, but the ones who are still there are the same who were there last year. It's great to see those kids again that I knew before, and also fun getting to know the new babies here! I spent the day at House 1, and later this afternoon I might go to House 2. These first few days I don't really have a schedule or plans, but I'm getting used to being here before I jump into my thesis work. I hope to update this blog often and let everyone know what I'm doing, as well as post pictures, so keep an eye out for new posts!