10/9/10
Mary and Allan met with some of the locals in Los Pinos. When they came home they shared with us what was said. We don’t want to go into a community that is not ours and start just doing what we think they need. It’s always better to ask. They did not get many ideas from the people that came out. They just said anything that we can teach them, they want to learn. Los Pinos is a very poor area with a lot of gangs. There is a general sense of hopelessness that things won’t get any better. The youth there do a lot of thinner. They put paint thinner on a rag and just inhale this. Many do this 24/7. It’s about a $1.50 and they can be high for three days. I met an 11 year old that does this. There was so much violence in this town from the gangs that the school shut down 10 years ago. These kids don’t even have a school. About five months ago a boy was in one of the rooms at the school. Some gang members came in and asked him what football team was his favorite and he said the wrong team. They stoned him. Most of the kids just sit around all day.
We have been praying as a team and trying to figure out where to start. On Monday we are going into Los Pinos and just going to see more of the town and pray around the school. Tony is going to make sure it’s safe to clean up and paint the school. If it’s considered gang territory we may need to leave it alone, but I’m praying it works out. We really want to get the locals involved. They need to work together and take ownership of their community.
10/11/10
This morning I went to teach English. Somehow I ended up with a class of seven boys. They were fun and laughed at my Spanish. Thankfully I’m teaching English so I can mostly speak in English. After teaching we went to Los Pinos. We caught up with the rest of our group that had taken the bus in. I have never seen anything like this and I have been to some poor areas. It’s all these houses, which are more like shacks, built into the side of the mountain. We had to hike up this steep path to get to the house we were visiting. This is a house that 4 boys live in together. Their mother lives somewhere else with 4 men. The house that the boys live in is falling down. The one wall fell down completely and there is just a tarp there. One thing we will do is build them a new house and tear down the old one. When we arrived the one little boy Carlos was laying on the mattress sick. He said he couldn’t eat and had thrown up. He felt to me that he had a fever. We took him later to get medicine and soup. His brother Fernando comes in with a cut toe. I patch that up and we have lunch. It’s really hard to eat when these kids have nothing. No money for food. We fed as many kids as we could our sandwiches and apples. When they see the Gringos, people start coming. We went to the school next which is really just some concrete walls with no ceiling. There is just dirt everywhere including on all the kids. It’s hard for me to not think about the germs and head lice and to just love these kids. Honestly I’m just praying about this. The kids are so sweet and just need attention. They love their pictures taken. We prayed with the kids at the school and then more kids and adults started showing up. We moved to the soccer field and just played and talked more. Today was just a day to see what we would be working with. We will take turns going into Los Pinos and doing projects. Continue to pray for the safety of our team. In Los Pinos it’s important to stay together and not take anything tempting that people would want. If we leave watches, sunglasses, and cameras at the center, we should be fine. A camera can feed a family for a long time. It’s just being smart about things. I can’t wait to see what else we can do in Los Pinos.
