3.20- Candice- Buenos Dias! This morning, we got to sleep in. Breakfast was at 8:15 instead of the usual 7. We had devos at 8, and then headed to the market around 9. Imagine the vendors at Pow Wow, but much much bigger. There were areas for children's toys, alpaca blankets, fresh fruits and vegetables, and of course fresh meat. The entire city shows up for this once a week occasion and vendors are only set up for the day. We ate lunch at a beautiful restaurant and watched a parade go by. None of the locals really knew what the occasion was, but parades are very frequent, so no one thought anything of it. Our five course meal was only 10 solis, which is about $3.50 in American dollars. Lunch took nearly 3 hours, and we were the only ones there!
After lunch, we took a very bumpy acombi ride to the abandoned children's home. Some call it and orphanage, but many of these children have parents, but were not being taken care of or were living on the street. It would be understandable if these children did not trust adults or did not want to play with other children, but they have been the highlight of our trip. There are 10 children living there, ranging from age 7 to 16 and all of them just exude love. At any given time there was a hug or kiss or hand being held with a member in our group. The youth in our group distributed the school supplies and blankets to the mom at the orphanage and she was so grateful. She told us that supplies are so expensive here that she can only afford to give the children one pencil at a time and they do not lose or use it unnecessarily. This was a very meaningful gift to her and she wanted to express her gratitude to our church family.
We played volleyball with them for a couple of hours. They are very good, but ultimately it was the height of the US team that prevailed, so we combined teams and played again. Even the littlest girls are not afraid of the ball. Most of the boys were disinterested and played soccer with Austin and Tyler instead. After we were all finished with the games, the children led us on a walk up a hill by their neighborhood. We saw old women on the side of the road and men digging drainage ditches in the road to clear the water while younger women used the water to wash clothes. Most of these children have never gone beyond this town. They loved meeting visitors and trying to figure out the family connections of those who had come on the trip. While the children were getting cleaned up for church, the mother at the house told us about her only son, David, who was born with cerebral palsy and has been having convulsions and has not been able to break a high fever. We went up to his room to pray for him. Our hearts ached for this little boy who was ill.
At the church service, there was lots of music and actions. We did our best to follow along and the children appreciated our effort. The Spirit was alive and we were grateful for the experience, knowing God is very much with these children and the people at the church. Hugs and kisses good-bye were hard on everyone as the children clung to us and told us how much they loved us. It was the best experience for many of us so far.
Prayer requests:
David- that his fever will break and his convulsions will cease
The children- that they will continue to be well taken care of and know Christ personally
Health- many in the group are feeling some minor stomach pains
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