We spent our last Saturday in Oruro teaching the teenagers ceilidh dancing, once we had successfully trained them in the Canadian Barn Dance and the Dashing White Sergeant we demonstrated for the church dance teacher. After our performance she asked us if we would be willing to dance during the Sunday morning service! I was slightly nervous as ceilidh dancing is quite tiring at the best of times, but thousands of feet above sea level it’s somewhat harder!!!! But of course Jenn and I agreed to take part... fun was had by all and we were surprised when the congregation to begin to clap along!
Later in the week we spent some time painting a mural with the children on the wall at the Arbol del Angel centre... was a great day, we were given free reign so we painted a scottish girl with a bolivian girl and further along we painted the whole world in God's hands.
The day before we were due to leave Oruro we had an opportunity to visit the prison in Cochabamba, a four hour bus journey from Oruro. We left at 4am for the bus terminal, well wrapped up as Oruro is rather chilly at night. We arrived in Cochabamba around 9am and headed for the prison offices to meet with some of the staff. I’m afraid our Spanish is fairly limited so we’re not sure exactly what was discussed at this meeting but everyone was very friendly and we got a coke! After that 6 of us jumped in a four seater taxi for a half hour drive to the prison, it was an experience... we arrived at the prison entrance, our passports and bags were checked, now all that was left was a body check followed by a smiley face stamp (seriously!) before we were allowed to enter.
The prison was much more open and nicer than the one in Oruro. We were there to visit a man with children living Oruro who attend the Arbol del Angel (Angel Tree) project. The staff told him stories and delivered some letters from his children, his eyes filled up as he explained he’s been there for 2 years and had 3 to go, it’s such a long time when his 3 children are so young, all of them are still of primary school age. He took some paper to write replies to his daughter and sons. While he was writing I had an opportunity to do a spot of people watching. There were so many young families. Dad’s in prison and mum’s bringing children in to visit them. One woman had a new born baby with her and when she handed him to his father his face lit up, I can’t imagine what that must feel like for either of them. I spotted a few more families and couples spending the only quality time they would get in full view of everyone before I noticed a young family, husband wife and son playing and talking. A few moments later the woman turned around to reveal a heavily pregnant tummy! It’s such a sad place to be! This was a ‘nice’ prison, but nothing can ever replace these moments that families are missing out on, fathers missing the birth of their children or being around to help with the other kids while mum’s are carrying. It was a sad day, but beautiful to be part of that small piece of communication provided by Arbol del Angel.
Next day we left for La Paz where we planned to visit Hossana and Nelson after his operation. Unfortunately his operation had been cancelled as he has bronchitis and they need to wait until he has fully recovered from that before he goes through surgery. Please pray that the operation is a success. We were sad to have missed them in La Paz but took advantage of the time and had an early night so we were fresh for our three plane rides the following morning.
Our first flight was from La Paz, Bolivia to Lima, Peru. We had a short wait there which was spent in the transfers line to have our bags scanned, what we were supposed to have done to our bags during a flight I don’t know. Our next stop was in San Jose, Costa Rica. It didn’t take long before Jenn sniffed out a Cinnabon where we spent the next 5 hours.... not eating the whole time!
We arrived in Guatemala around 8pm, we were collected at the airport by Pastor Alvaro and Debbie, his wife. They brought us to their beautiful home, which is provided by a member of their congregation, where Debbie had organised space for Jenn and I to unpack, having done a fair bit of travelling herself she had thought of everything. She put the hot water on and left us to get washed and ready for bed. Before we went to sleep she spent a little bit of time chatting with us, but we were ready for an early night after a long day.
The next morning we were up and ready for church, we were introduced to Janet who was going to translate for us during the service. We were excited as this was going to be the first sermon we would have understood since Argentina! We weren’t disappointed!!! After the service we went for a famous Guatemalan Pollo Campero (Country Chicken), which lived up to it’s excellent reputation!!!! This was followed by a dulce de leche (caramel) ice cream and a relaxing Sunday afternoon lounging in the house.
The last few mornings we’ve spent in the church painting walls which are damaged with dampness after the worst floods Guatemala has ever seen. Jenn and I are fairly practical so it’s nice to see the instant result of our labour ;)
We’re also both very much people’s persons so the highlight of our day is spent in the afternoon at the Lords Kitchen, a homeless mission in Guatemala City, feeding between 450 and 750 people daily. It’s an amazing experience, there’s such a variation of people. Some individuals have just always lived on the streets, some have become homeless through circumstances and some have ended up there through drug or alcohol problems. I was very impressed with how everyone was treated as individuals and how everyone is so well respected. There was even staff members there to help people who couldn’t manage (due to too many kids, disabilities or even one too many) to their tables. The relationships between the staff and community are quite inspiring, they all seem to know one another and the staff clearly have a huge passion for what they are doing there. We’re both feeling energized and are very much looking forward to spending the next couple of weeks volunteering here!
Oh another bit of good news is that a fundraiser was held by my amazing family last Friday evening. The night raised £900, much more than we were expecting or even hoping for! It means we are almost there with the money needed to complete the trip so thanks so much to everyone who was involved in the evening, whether you donated prizes, helped with the organising or showed up. We really do thank God for his provision this year and for the encouraging, caring and generous family and friends Jenn and I have been blessed with! God only knows we could never have done it without you!
Laura xXx
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