Heading Home and Update on Saturday

I forgot to mention that on Saturday, Keanan´s $5 gift to the children of Kantuta come to fruition. We were all gathered in the park with the children of Kantuta and several wanted to fly their airplanes that he had given to them. It was touching to see the children carefully take their planes, launch them and then watch with amazement. Their experessions were full of wonder and delight. All the while Keanan, our future aeronautical engineer, smiled modestly.

We are safely in Santa Cruz and getting up bright and early to take two more flights to reach our final destination--- home!

See you soon!
Monica

The Adventures to Aramasi

After an eventful and gut wrenching drive, we made it to Aramasi in one piece. We traveled up the mountain for almost two hours, hoping not to fall off.....literally. when we arrived in Aramasi, we first went to visit the clinic and met Freddy, the doctor. He showed us the miniature pharmacy, the vaccination room, and best of all the labor room. Next we ate a delicious meal and then hiked up to the dam, where we had Eucharist. The boys, Devin and John, went for an adventure up another mountain and then for a short swim in the dam, while everyone else sat on the edge of the dam and watched. On our way back to our huts we decided to take a detour and climb up our mountain to see a giant cross. Unfortunately only a couple of us made it up and once at the top, it was surrounded by bulls. That night, after dinner, we played a game called celebrity which is much like charades. After celebrity, we went star gazing and it was one of the most amazing things you could ever see, you could even see the entire milkyway. As Karina said, it was as if looking at piece of paper with holes in it with a light shining through. Later that night, the kids snuck out and adventured down the river. Where we encountered a barking dog, so we all ran away. We then ran into a unknown, mysterious man with a flashlight. Again, we picked up our pace and locked our doors. Because the outhouses were so far away, we decided to just use our front porch as our own personal bathroom at 4am, in 40 degree weather. The next morning we awoke at 6am for our sunrise hike. Once at the top, we had a nice break until the sun actually rose. We then ate and went to visit the Wawa Wasi, also known as the daycare and Montessori school. We handed out lollipops to each child and made our way over to the women selling their handmade goods. Each woman held a card in their hat to say whether they had sold in a while. Some women even had three or four cards. With up to 30 women, we successfully bought from every single woman and even eliminated all cards. We have no idea how we will get everything home. From there we ate lunch and cleaned up our huts and began our journey back to Cochabamba.


Love,
Leslie and Kelly

Recap of our last few days

The ¨rising freshmen¨ are going to put their collective and creative minds together shortly to write their thoughts about our time in Aramasi on Sunday and Monday, and about today-- our last moments here in La Villa. Right now, everyone is in the gym on our last morning in Cochabamba teaching the children of Kantuta and other houses how to play kickball. Leslie and Carroll brought the ball with them--blown up in their suitcase. That´s Kimball determination!

Saturday, we went to the Cristo statue and then La Cancha, the open air market. After that we took the entire Kantuta House out for an afternoon in a local park. The park has bumper cars, bikes to rent, terrifying spinning devices, swings and slides galore. We bought them ice cream and loved seeing their faces as they devoured it. There were several Kodak moments--
Neysa staying close to Mama Maria, who has to walk slowly.
Karina being brave and riding the spinning tire with Evelyn, Johnny and other children.
Luke being equally brave but then a bit dizzy afterward.
Kendrick bonding with Alex and receiving gifts of flowers from the beautiful blooming trees on the way back to the bus.
Kelsey enduring Wilson´s extremely loud talent of clicking his tongue in her ear.
John and Devin carefully teaching Felicidad and Noamina how to ride bikes around the path.
Leslie and Wilson sliding together either headfirst or standing up at amazing speeds ''muy rapido!¨with screams-- some of those from the chaperones.
Kelly having Sylvia, Marina and Delina tug her in many directions all the while grinning
Sylvia falling asleep on the bus ride back to La Villa surrounded by 12 exhausted and blissful CCC travelers.

More to follow by Devin, John, Kelly and Leslie. . .
Monica

Friday´s Post

Friday´s entry about our Thurdsay in Amistad, June 10, 2010

Today, we woke up at the regular time – 7:15am--and headed downstairs for a lovely breakfast of banana bread. Ximena arrived promptly to shuttle us to the Villa. Upon arrival we all went straight to work, helping to paint the individual bedrooms in Kantuta house. Leslie and Kelly worked diligently in the wash room when they weren´t playing ball with any child that walked by. Kelsey went around correcting Monica´s missed spots. Luke and Keanan were the dangerous duo with Keanan coming close to sliding down a wall on the large ladder. Carroll, Karina and Kendrick were painting the children´s bedrooms and being entertained by Alex, Wilson, Marina, and Felicidad. Alex liked to pretend to paint an area of his room so he would feel a part of the fun. .

We took a break for lunch but on the way back to La Morada, Ximena took us to see the girls youth house. There are 9 girls living there between the ages of 16 and 20, all of whom moved to the youth house from La Villa. Everyone attends high school and is working her way to La Universitad. Recently, the girls awoke to the sound of a wall falling in their front yard. Most houses around Cochabamba have courtyards with a brick wall surrounding the property. That is mostly for security, with many being topped with barbed wire or broken glass. Someone was working to put up a new wall and Ximena told us that the surrounding walls will all have to be torn down due to the faulty foundation.

Once inside, it was striking how 9 girls and their Mama Gabby live in such close quarters and in a place that is in such dire need of repair. We were greeted with smiles, giggles and warm welcomes and were given a quick tour. One bedroom has 3 beds jammed together with little floor space and no closet. Walking through to the next room, we looked up and saw a huge gaping hole in the ceiling. A piece of board was pushed over it to try to keep out rain and any visitors. Ximena said when it rains, they have to have a large trashcan catch the water. The kitchen counter, which is quite small, is crumbling as is the floor. Their sink was also in disrepair. Still, somehow, the girls take turns every night making dinner. We said goodbye to the girls and told them we´d see them for dinner later at Sole Mio, a pizza parlor in the city.

After riding back to La Morada in our trusty bus with Juan Jose, our quiet and fearless driver, we dined on a yet another wonderful lunch—noodle casserole, fresh fruit, tomatoes, Cocoa tea, and a most delicious mousse made from a local tropical fruit. Devin devoured the serving bowl with the leftovers. One thing that is so nice in the afternoons is that from about 1pm to 2:30, we have down-time. Some of us take a siesta, some play cards, read, or play with Celia´s adorable 8 year old daughter, Alejandra.

When it is time to head back on the bus to go to La Villa, we are all a little quiet! Despite being a bit groggy from the big lunch, we still managed to work very hard and tried to finish the painting---- bricks inside and out, plus the exterior trim, which is now a nice salmon color. If you see old pictures of Kantuta, the house used to be a green color. Everyone put great amounts of effort into their work. And as Keanan said, ¨We can´t start something and not finish.¨

After we finished painting we returned to La Marada for group reflection before dinner. Chris led us in a bible discussion from Matthew about honoring children and being more childlike.

For dinner, we then took the bus through the lively city to meet the girls from the youth house at the local pizza place. We all tried to keep up the conversation in broken English and Spanish– all 24 of us! Chris was very busy translating from every end of the table. The girls, Maribelle, Alejandra, Leonarda, Veronica and the rest, are all pursuing more studies or careers after graduating high school: medicine, graphic design, bio chemistry, etc. Everyone laughed, talked and took 100´s of photos and had a great time.

This may be the last blog entry for awhile as we head to the city tomorrow to tour the Cristo statue, the largest open air market, and then to Sunday and Monday we are off to the mountains and Aramasi where there are NO computers!!

Thursday, June 10- Our Wednesday in Amistad

Today started with a freezing cold shower for John, Devin, and Luke. After a breakfast we got on the bus with our guide Ximena and went to la villa for our first day of serious work.

We joined the students and staff of the Villa for Morning Reflection in the chapel. We entered to the sound of joyful and loud singing with a rhythmic drum beat. Four children and one adult made up the official choir. Two boys sitting just a few feet from us sang their hearts out and one young boy kept the beat on his drum. Two young girls led the worship, Barbara and Felicidad. Even though our CCC group had no idea what they were saying and singing, their open and robust worship moved us all. We stood in front of the altar at the end and introduced ourselves, saying our names and why we came to Amistad, with Chris translating, of course. That was a bit hard for some of us, but the smiles and then the ensuing applause from the friends in the chairs made us feel right at home.

Once at La Villa, we started painting the walls of Kantuta House, Luke wasn’t that good. We returned to La Morada for lunch, which was delicious pumpkin soup followed by chicken and rice. Back at La Villa, we put a second layer of paint on the wall with the help of many children who delighted in either working with the paint and with us-- Sylvia, Johnny, Noamina, Felicidad, Delina and Leonardo.

John was given the job of painting the high bricks, giving rise to several jokes about John falling and breaking his neck (or those of people below him).After we finished painting the walls we went to play dodge ball with the children. Wilson sacrificed himself for John throughout the game and got hit in the head several times. Unfortunately, we had to leave for dinner before the game finished. We are now at La Morada playing games.

Enjoy the pictures! We´ll have more to share when we get back.

Adios,

The youth and their chaperones

Wednesday, June 9

Tuesday, Day 1
We have arrived! We began in Nashville Monday afternoon and found out that our flight to Miami was delayed 2 hours. This meant that we were in risk of missing our connecting flight to La Paz. If we had missed the flight, we would have either had to stay in Miami for 3 days or go to Argentina to catch another flight. We landed in Miami and had to book it to our new gate. It was like a movie scene with all of us sprinting through the airport. Keanan fell while running and almost didn´t make the flight! We had a less exciting flight overnight and once we landed in La Paz, we realized we only had a few minutes to make our next flight to Cochabamba. Once again we found ourselves running through the airport. Finally we made it to Cochabamba, and we were on our way to La Morada.

Once we arrived at La Morada we were greeted by the two women who would be cooking for us for our visit, Celia and Lystra. We had some much needed tea and bread, followed by a nap. After we woke up, we had a wonderful lunch. We had a peanut soup, followed by chicken, vegetables, and potatoes. To end the meal we had strawberry and orange jello. It was delicious! Next we were on our way to La Villa to meet all the children, especially those at Kantuta House. Right as our bus pulled up, Wilson came running out and jumped on John, and didn’t ever want to let go. We walked around and learned all about the amazing things that Amistad does.

Next we went to meet the members of Kantuta House including Mama Maria. They were all so cute and welcoming. We got to see all their individual photo albums. These contained photos of the children and all of their visitors. We headed up to the gym and the boys started a game of soccer, while the girls sat in a circle with Marina and Maria and passed around a ball. It was so fun to play with them and see all the kids laughing. Today was Alex´s 8th Birthday, and we were invited to go to his birthday party. His godmother was there, along with the children from Kantuta. He blew out his candles, and then lunged into the cake with his face. We then said our goodbyes and we are now sitting in the common room playing Uno and watching the Simpson´s in Spanish. We will soon go eat a delicious dinner, and then head off to bed! Hope to update you tomorrow as well.
Love,
Your youth and lovely adults
this post was created by Karina and Kelsey

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