The jump-roping gringo

So if you read my last post you would know that I did not spend my time in the hospital like a usually do. On Monday I went to a school with a few of the other girls to put floride on kids teeth. Let me tell ya, there is nothing more awkward that trying to talk to teenagers in another language before essentially cleaning their teeth. I was a little discouraged by kid 4 or 5 and decided just to kinda stop trying to talk to them. Lame I know. Well apparently my attempts were not completely terrible. A few girls came up to me with a jump rope and wanted me to come play with them. The image of swinging a jump-rope with another girl while a small child jumped in the middle was the first image that crossed my mind. I smiled and accepted the offer.

We reached the bottom of the stairs to a large open play area. I handed the other handle of the jump-rope to my Bolivia friend. She smiled and handed it back and told me that they wanted ME to do it. I sheepishly smiled and took the rope from her hand. Let me just tell you the last time I can remember jump-roping was about ohhh 10 years ago. Before I had even finished my first attempt I had about 5 kids surrounding me. I luckily passed to rope to another girl in attempt to catch my breath. I was hoping that it would be passed around the group so I could have a 5 minute break. That however was not the case. Within about 15 seconds the rope was back in my hand and about 10 more children gathered around. Before all was said and done I had about 20 bolivian children gathered around me to watch ME jump-rope. I suppose they found it humorous. All of that to say my time at the school was rather enjoyable.

Tuesday rolled around and since Rachel and I were not on rotation at the hospital we decided that we would try and hang out with some of the patients in the hospital. We walked into the hospital room where about 5 ladies were staying. Before we could even introduce ourselves a lady in one of the beds began to talk quite rapidly. I felt foolish because I could not understand a single word coming from her mouth. I looked over a Rachel who was calm and collected, smiling and nodding as if she understood everything. About 3 minutes later I looked at Rachel and asked what she had said. I felt a smidgin better when I realized Rachel was lost as well. Long story short the lady spoke Quetchua, one of the tribal type languages spoken here. We decided to try bed 2...the exact same situation occurred there as well. The others in the room were sleeping, or on the phone.

We walked out to the waiting room and there I noticed the large table with paper for kids to color. The problem was the lack of materials to color with. We decided to go back to the house and find some crayons or markers. We were so excited and on the way back to the hospital crayons and coloring sheets in hand. We arrived back at the table and began to set up. To our excitement we noticed a few excited faces eyeing the new station. We were about to invite kids to join when the pastor walked in and decided to preach in the waiting room. We sat for close to an hour and the pastor presented the gospel to the patients. It actually ended up going well. A few people purchased some bible type material before they left. It was a really cool experience. Finally the pastor noticed what exactly had happened. He then told the children that there was an area for them to color. We went and hung out with some of the children and the pastor came and talked to us some. He told us many of the children will come in wanting to color, but they dont ever have crayons. Rachel and I decided that next time we have the opportunity we are gonna by some crayons for the kids to take home with them. We are also hopefully gonna leave some at the hospital along with some Jesus coloring sheets for the kids to have while they wait. Although the morning didn't go as planned it was def. a huge success.

That afternoon Kevin and I went back to the hospital to hang out with Pastor Nester Hugo who is 56 years old. He is pretty much one of the kindest and funniest men I have ever met. One of the PTs here in the hospital also joined us. We talked a bit about his family and then we each shared a prayer request. Then he had the PT (physical therapist) pray in Spanish for my request. Then he asked kevin to pray in English for his. It was a way cool experience. We are going back on Thursday as well. We are helping him with his English, and he is helping us with our Spanish. So that has been a really great experience here. I can def. say that God is doing some serious stuff here through Pastor Hugo and I am excited to be part of it :)

I suppose I shall fill you in on what is going on today. We went this morning to the girls orphanage and painted their nails and continued to build relationships with them. We also had a devotional and prayed the Lord's Prayer with them (in spanish). We finished the morning by playing a game of uno with them. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoy my time at Casa de Alegria. This afternoon we will be heading to Casa de Amor 1, which is the baby orphanage. It is prob. one of my favorite places to go so I am excited. I guess I will update yall on all of that at another time.

Be looking out for new post because in the next week we will start to plan our VBS. Pray for good ideas, and opportunities to share the gospel with the children from the community. Also pray that we will be able to work with other orphanages and ministries that we are contacting. Thanks for reading, I will be posting new picture to facebook in the next few days!

Hasta Luego

Anna