puppies, police, post office, & a park.

Busy week.  

I'll be leaving for church shortly, but I want to post an update before I head out for the beginning of another busy day.

I only went with Barbara to the bridge once this past week because I ended up doing a bunch of extra things at the girls' home.  

We went up to the bridge on Tuesday and were hoping to find some of the girls that live there, but they had all wandered off. Apparently, the pregnant girl we had talked to last week at the bridge had given birth to her second child and was staying with her mom temporarily. Her first child lives at an orphanage, and this one may end up there as well. Given the situation, it's the best thing for the baby.  

So we hung out with the boys that were busy "cleaning" their house under the bridge.  They were sweeping out piles of trash and straightening up but stopped everything to talk with us and sniff their glue.

They have 2 dogs that they take care of, and so went spent some time talking about the dogs and watching the tricks that the boys had taught them. Then, one of the boys mentioned something about puppies and crawled back into the canal under road. He emerged a couple of minutes later with 2 little, tiny puppies that were only about 3 weeks old. 

After a while, the guys had gotten pretty high, and we just couldn't understand anything they were saying, so we left.

That night, we tried to go hang out by the bus terminal with the girls that live on a hill called La Coronilla, but nobody showed up. There was a group of police standing in the exact location where the girls normally sit to sniff glue and sell themselves, which is where we normally hang out with them. The police presence was obviously keeping them away, so we walked around for a while, hoping to run into one of the girls or some of the street boys, but all we saw were cops. It was obvious that we weren't going to be able to see anybody, so we called it a night.

Wednesday afternoon, Barb and I went into town to meet up with one of the girls we know from the terminal to take her to an OB-GYN and then out for tea. We sat at our planned meeting spot outside the post office (which, by the way, is back in business after a long hunger strike) for an hour and a half, but she never showed up. She had given us a cell phone number, which we called repeatedly, but no one answered. So after sitting and waiting on the concrete step and listening to an hour and a half of funk music on Barb's MP3 player, we gave up.  

Not a successful week.  At least we're consistent.  

Thursday was a holiday, so I went with the girls from the home to a park for the day (See my photo gallery for pictures). They had such a good time playing on playground equipment, hiking around the grounds, and sliding down a big, concrete halfpipe. The tias (aunties) that work at the home had packed a lunch for the girls so that they could stay until about 5pm. I took off in the afternoon to get some things done and pack a bag for my overnighter at the girls' home that night.

Because it was a holiday, the tias had the night off, so I stayed overnight with another volunteer at the home to take care of the 22 girls that live there. With the exception of 2 bed-wetting incidences, it was a great night. We were up by 6am to make breakfast and get the girls who have school in the morning out the door by 8am. It was a good night, and the girls were really great, but I don't know how the tias do it everyday. I was exhausted all day Friday! 

I'm doing the majority of my Spanish classes on Mondays and Fridays now, and so that filled up the rest of the week.  

Friday night, we had a disco party (hence the funk music on Barb's MP3 player) in celebration of Kimber's birthday. Thanks to the amazingly huge used clothes section of La Cancha, the street market, I found an awesome, original 70s, polyester dress for 5 Bs. (about 75 cents)! I'll put up an album of photos on my web gallery soon, so check back later this week.

Today, after lunch, I'm heading over to the girls' home to help out because the tias have a special tea in honor of Mother's Day, which is this coming Tuesday. It should be a fun afternoon.