Working in "La Olla"

Buenas. How's it going? I'm doing really good... enjoying my practicum a lot so far.

For the month of June I'm volunteering at a YMCA here in Bogota... but as you'll see, it is not exactly a fancy swimming pool!

Everyday (Monday to Saturday) I leave the house at 6AM to get to work at 8AM. The area where I volunteer is called Santa Fe and is known for the transvestite prostitutes that are on every corner. I don't get home until 6PM.

My first day, I got to help a 12-year-old girl with her math homework. Her name is Camila and she has 8 siblings. The sad thing is that she has to do subtraction with borrowing and she has difficulty reading the numbers and counting. I made flashcards from 1 to 9 so she could tell me the number and show me the number with her fingers.

The next day I got to go to a park called Plaza Espana and give out hot chocolate and crackers to homeless people and talk with them. I met the sweetest old black man named Aspacio that is from another city called Cali. He used to work on a coffee farm near Cali, but there was an earthquake that destroyed the farm. He went looking for work and ended up on the streets of Bogota because he hasn't found work and drinks occasionally. I talked to him a little about God and he says he wants to know Him. He said he can't read without his glasses so I think I'll bring my Bible next Wednesday to read it to him. It was also really cool because before I could ask if I could pray for him he asked me.

In the afternoon I helped a 5-year-old boy make a hemp bracelet... good thing I practiced in class during the lecture phase... it got a little boring at times!

Today I got to do a home visit with a social worker. We walked to the neighbourhood La Favorita and went through an "Olla," which is a place where drugs are openly sold (apparently they hide the drugs under the tiles of the sidewalk). This neighbourhood has every type of problem: female prostitutes, consumption of drugs and alcohol, people living on the street, refugees from the countryside, gangs and "inclinatos." Inclinatos are buildings where many families live. Each family has only one room and they all share a bathroom. They pay per day and apparently a lot of abuse goes on inside.

The girl we visited lives in an inclinato, but is doing really good in school. However, her mother is a prostitute and they live in really poor conditions. One of the things that most concerns the social worker is that the girl is given a ride to a church where the pastor is probably an abuser. He is homosexual and only drives her and another boy to their homes. She doesn't return until 9 at night and is told not to go to any other church. We want her to go to a different church and the social worker had the idea of me leading some sort of group where they learn about God. Pray that the opportunity would come so I can meet the kids' spiritual needs.

Then for the rest of the morning I got to learn to sew by hand (including various types of stitches). In the afternoon I read books to the really young kids and helped wrap mini gift bags.

On the way home, I saw an Indigenous lady and her child begging for money. Since I didn't have any small change I sadly walked by. However, I thought about my friend Ericka. She is an American that is doing the school with me and is always thinking of how to bless others. So I imagined what she would do and decided to go buy an "arepa" (like a corn tortilla) and bring it to her. Sometimes it's easier to just walk by, but when you stop to help you are showing the love of God and blessing another.

Thanks for reading another update. Dios les bendiga.