Week 2

Week 2- Saturday, June 07, 2008

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers, and I am sorry that I can’t post more often. Its hard because I work at the foundation during the day and don’t get back until 6pm at the earliest, from there I eat dinner, shower and head off to bed. It has been a very busy week.

I could tell you about how difficult things are, like not adapting to the food, ice cold showers, or the constant parade of ants everywhere I ago, invading my belongings, especially my toothbrush. On and on the list could go, but I would rather stop it there and talk about the Foundation, and the wonderful boys! After last weeks cell phone episode, Hna, Sonya decided not to return. Therefore, no one was able to cook for the children, and if they ate lunch, it had to be at school. I’m not really sure what they did about dinner, because I always leave before dinner. However, on Wednesday, Hermana Anita went and talked to Sonya, and convinced her to come back. Praise God!

The boys are beginning to respond better when I tell them to do something. They get suspended often, but its nice for me because it is easier to work with three or four at a time for the morning, so that I can get to know them better. They all have their days when they are especially difficult, or extra obedient. We have lots of fun learning English and playing games. If they do their homework, they get to come to English class at 3 pm. They get home from school around 12:45 or 1:00pm, they change and eat lunch, and then do their homework. They do chores for punishment when they act out. We spank only when necessary, but I still don’t like to. Most of them have so much “street” in them, that they are difficult to handle, they get angry easily and fight often.

There is one group of brothers, who are very sweet and kind. They rarely fight and are usually pretty compliant. Their names and ages are as follows: Llefferson age 12 (double L pronounce y), Jose age 11, and Francisco age 7. This weekend I was able to bring Francisco home with me. Most of the boys go home for the weekend, and we took these three to their house. Come to find out, they are only 3 of 7 children and the rest live at home, but they live in extreme poverty, so they had to send these three to the foundation. Hermana Anita told me that they are not like the rest, they never lived on the streets, and they come from a home with both parents. She prefers not to keep them at the foundation for long because she doesn’t want them to learn to be hard and angry like the other kids. She is hoping to find some sort of sponsor for the family, to help them get by, so the boys can go home. I have a couple pairs of shorts, a doll, some little toys, and some other things, that I brought with me and till now I didn’t know what to do with them, but now I know. We have found another family to do our best to help. The mother is an evangelical Christian, and attends a church near the house. I don’t know about the dad. I have to get going, Francisco is getting bored.