Two Posts for the Price of One!!!!

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday.  As usual, the internet was hit and miss again.

Yesterday Melody, Jordan and Logan went to El Jordan to package all the gifts, popcorn and candy into a slightly larger bag, so when it comes to handing them out we only have to hand each person one bag.  Then, all of those bags are put into large garbage bag sized bags and put into categories as to which location they are to be delivered to.  This is a more complicated process than it sound.  Each location will be given an exact number of bags (equal to the number of meals they have requested) and will handed out at a specific time.

Yesterday afternoon, the same bunch went with Andres to the market to buy the first batch of supplies for the hampers.  Melody chose a stall at the market that we had purchased noodles from before where a younger guy ran the place.  She asked for a good deal on the stuff with the promise that she would come back for the rest the next day.  They struck a deal and he helped carry everything on a dolly to a taxi so they could get home to repackage the goods and put them in the hampers.

Jordan and Melody returned to El Jordan to bake a bunch of cookies for the volunteers next week. Jordan struck up a conversation over Google translate on Melody's phone with a girl named Antonia.  I am sure that the messages weren't perfect but the intent came across nonetheless.

Everybody got home around 7:45 and we quickly made a simple supper and hit the hay.

We were up early this morning because Ken had asked us to be ready for 8:00 to go help out a home that takes care of babies with terminal diseases or with serious health or physical issues.  Ivan has a connection with the house, because of his physiotherapy classes, so he had asked Ken if Ken's boys and our family could help out today.  The weather forecast said it would be about 29 degrees with a 30% chance of rain and wind gusts, but more on that later...

Ken came to pick us up at around 8:20 which is pretty much on time for Bolivia.  Then we picked up a couple more volunteers from the side of the road and were told we had to stop at the store to pickup some items for the home on the way.  Since we really hadn't eaten, we grabbed a bunch of empanadas of various kinds, some drinks for while we were working and some strange pastry that Jordan decided we needed to try.  Ivan picked up a few packages of diapers and some other baby type supplies and also some groceries for lunch then we were on the road again by 9:30.  We were told there was one more volunteer to pickup outside a chicken restaurant, so we waited a few minutes there but nobody showed so we continued on and arrived at 10:00 with an army of about 10 of us.

We divided into a few smaller teams with Melody and Jordan tackling the kitchen and the toddler play area and the boys heading out to the yard to clean up.  The yard is basically a large sandy area with about 5 very large mango trees.  Job number one was to pickup all the rotting mangos from the ground and throw them into the compost pile by the back wall.  I must say that the smell of rotting mangos is not that appealing.  While we were tidying up the yard, we found an old tire that had been a tire swing and when we moved it, a bunch of water and a GIGANTIC frog came out.  To put it into perspective for you, it was roughly the size of a 5 pin bowling ball.  That pretty much ended the boys contribution to the work for the next 20 minutes while they made the frog jump around the yard.

Once the frog show was over, the boys pulled out a bunch of the cribs from the sleeping room and started to sand and paint them.  Not a very difficult job unless you have 3 or 4 very interested toddlers trying to "help" by bringing you extra buckets of paint, stirring the paint, trying to sand or just grabbing onto the parts you just painted.  We had just finished the first coat of paint when the aforementioned forecast turned out to be wrong.  It started raining fairly heavily, so we quickly grabbed the wet paint cribs and moved them under some cover, but that ended the painting for the day.

We finished up cleaning the inside of the home, and then made our way to the market to pickup the last of the oil, dish soap, shampoo, cheese and potatoes for our hampers and got back to our place to finish putting them together.  For reference, the hampers contain various school supplies, crocheted grocery bags,  a potscruber, dish clothes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, small towels and face clothes, soccer balls, pasta, flour, sugar, rice, oil, shampoo, dish soap, salt, cheese, stuffed animals, potatoes and the washbasin that it is all in.

Corrina from El Jordan came over and we figured out the first four families that we were going to deliver hampers to.  We delivered the first one to a small family with a mother who was widowed and had 4 children.  All the kids are in school, but started late so they are two to three years behind.  The next hamper that we delivered was to a boy and his three siblings whose father has been gone for a long time and whose mother left him in charge 3 months ago.

Thankfully, a lady and her husband took him and his siblings in and provide them a corrugated tin room with two bunk-beds.  The picture below shows the lady along with the 4 kids she has taken in plus her own.  In total there are 14 children living in the house when everybody is home.  The husband works away and comes home on weekends, and she bakes bread and cunape (cheese buns) to bring in money.