La Casa de Amistad

We just started working at La Casa de Amistad last week. The first two days, we got to work with the youngest kids, from 4-5 years old. Although some are pretty rebellious and violent, it's hard not to notice the difficult situation that they live in and how it must affect them, with living in the prison, most coming from poor situations (as their imprisoned parents must pay for a jail cell with no consistent form of income) and not having the same opportunities as other kids. They are such lovely kids though! In many ways it seems that we have very little to offer to console their situation, and yet we have much to give in love.
This week, I started helping with the older kids, from grades 4 to 7. The majority of their time at La Casa is spent doing homework and being tested on their schoolwork, so I get to help in tutoring them. As this is a difficult task to do in a third language, please pray that it gets easier! Otherwise I'm quite excited about working with this age group.  Also, please pray for the kids!.

This weekend, we got to eat a typical Bolivian "dish", Chicharron. It's basically every part of a pig boiled and served on a plate with a small boiled potato and bits of the local corn. I don't believe I've mentioned yet that Bolivians love meat...

Also, the Bolivian carnival has started, so we get to hear a marching band march through the streets and practice once in a while. As part of the carnival, there seems to be some sort of "celebration" of water, which translates into water balloons being thrown at pedestrians from moving vehicles... girls are said to be the biggest targets (yay). We had our first water balloon thrown at us the other day but, luckily, they missed us. Kevin is now paranoid and threatening to injure any person that hits either of us...

Fun moments:
1. Two Sundays ago, we got to be in a parade... There was a crusade group from various South American countries that came to Cochabamba to do ministry and this was their way to celebrate and end the week. The parade was followed by a service which included all the other Baptist churches in Cochabamba.

2. This past weekend, we got to try a new form of volleyball... it's played inside a squash court.  As the space is small, the walls are actually in play, so you can use them to bounce the ball against. It was fun... and I think I may prefer it over real volleyball.

3. I got to play soccer (futbol) last week, for the first time since I've been here... yay! The church that we've been attending is part of a church league for various sports so I've started to play with their team.