What would...?

Good work, massive impact on lives, but SO many still unreached. If more people doing this work were put into positions of power, helping make those big political and economic decisions, how would society change?

It’s an interesting one looking at the results being achieved. I’ve seen huge change in many children’s and families’ lives. But there are masses more. We all strive for societies, governments and people to take these issues more seriously and take bigger steps to addressing them. This is why advocacy is a huge part of NGO (non-governmental organisation) work. Great models, such as the Early Encounter one I am volunteering for, are doing great work. The key is expansion and we hope that will continue to happen.

Many of these thoughts arose visiting projects in Cochabamba, Oruro and Lima while my parents and sister were over. The work is great but the scale of need is massive. But we keep going because another child is another child - always something worth a great celebration. But we forever long for growth of the work.

Anyway, hope you’re all well. As a lot of you know Mum and Dad have been over visiting the Early Encounter networks in Latin America. They first went to the networks in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. I then met them in Cochabamba where we then went on to Oruro, had a bit of a holiday in Peru and then Lima. They have blogged on each country they’ve been to so have a look - http://alastair-debbie-welford.blogspot.com/ Becky caught Mum and Dad up and came direct to Cochabamba after she had finished university. See her blog full of great stories and amazing photos - http://bwsouthamerica.blogspot.com/

I often find it emotionally draining trying to make sense of the different experiences I have and hear of. During Mum, Dad and Becky’s time here we visited a lot of projects, heard some really happy and joyful stories, heard some really sad and disturbing stories, visited children living on the streets, visited children living in secure and safe environments, been taken through areas that just break your heart, been taken through the beauty of the Peruvian countryside that blows your mind – Lake Titikaka, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu - seen the stunning Miraflores of Lima lit-up by fountains, high-rise hotels, flashy cars, amazing sea-view restaurants, expensive shops, and then just round the corner very steep hills full of coloured shacks dotted around and barely standing firm in neighbourhoods filled with violence and drug dealers where families live every day with a struggle for survival. The inequality is unbelievable.

How to work this all out is a difficult one. Perspective is a big thing to grab hold of and those moments when a lot has been going on and we feel like we get it are great. The first thing we need to try and remember is that we do not have all the answers. Seeing suffering on such a scale always brings the question ‘why?’ to every human being. We are designed like that. To know everything would give it all away and the search would stop, along with faith. We always wish we could know a bit more, and a bit more. It’s natural. I believe in a loving God who knows every human being and strives for us to seek him and know him more. According to the Bible that is his aim – to have us on a journey with him asking questions, learning more and most importantly realising how amazing he is resulting in us loving him more for what he has done. Nowhere is it said in the Bible that God’s priority for us is a comfortable life here on earth. It is nice but it is certainly not a priority and is not what will help us. God has his own perfect agenda for creating situations in a world where each and every person can find him. We don’t know what those are and seeing such suffering will cause us to respond emotionally and question his ways, but our faith becomes the big subject here and it is up to us to balance our views up.

In my experience finding God is the best thing ever. I have always believed in a creator of the universe since I can remember. My lies, pride, arrogance, not getting my priorities right, and everything else that falls under the bracket of sin makes me unworthy of his loving offer of eternity with him but to see him willingly sending his obedient son, Jesus Christ, to earth to create the way by taking our punishment by not just being crucified on a cross but by taking the full wrath of God to pay for the sins every human being has and ever will commit is something I have to be thankful for. This is what happened and what I know by various means of solid evidence and experience is true. God has put his cards on the table and has given us the choice to accept or not. It is God’s focus that every member of the human race encounters him. Yes, poverty is horrible. But as a Christian it is good to have the perspective and reality of what God’s agenda is for us, not just as a comfort to help take in what I have seen on my travels and duration of my time living here, even though it is, but to understand how God works and know that there is a lot more going on than what only our eyes can see. For me it comes down to knowing that God’s agenda is to encounter us and for us to encounter him, and then to recognise that not just material poverty exists but so does spiritual poverty, and to keep in mind that eternity is a lot, lot, longer than the few years we have here.

I don’t like writing loads here for each post. I would love to go into more pacific details about our travels and I could go on and on and on... but I won’t. So (because I’m lazy I guess) I kindly direct you to my parent’s and sisters’ blogs (links further up). They’ve gone into more detail and will give you a further insight into pacific projects, encounters with children, photos, videos, etc. I hope to have the chance to tell some of the stories I have, whether in person or in my next blog.

I only have 2 more weeks in Oruro then I’ll be back in England. I hope to do a few more after I’m back as I think it’d be good to share stories that are on my mind. So don’t worry, you can look forward to more blogging...

Thanks.

Preventing that ‘street lifestyle’ – Work with street children

As part of the work of Early Encounter Oruro the team also work with children who have turned to a ‘street lifestyle’ or have been forced to due to various circumstances. Bolivia holds a horrific statistic that states in roughly 8 families out of every 10 some form of child abuse takes place. This abuse could be physical, sexual or mental. Such problems drive many children to the brink and over and result in many running away from home and fending for themselves in whatever way they can. In Oruro there are many children who live with friends/siblings and spend their days doing whatever they can to help them survive – shoe shining, selling bags, carting heavy goods around the markets – children working in these roles are many of which we visit. There are also children who still live at home with their families, go to school and still do a 7 hour shift of work each day. Some children don’t even go to school and spend all their days working to make a living for their family. A lot of children in Oruro are sent from the countryside to work in the city. Some go to school but not many. These children often find their accommodation in big rooms throughout the city that they can pay about 4 Bolivianos (40p) to sleep in at night. These rooms often accommodate about 20-30 people who just sleep on the floor. In each situation a child is in danger. Their education suffers with not going to school at all, not having time to do their homework and in many cases not receiving encouragement and help from family. With so much time spent on the streets earning money and taking that back to your family (taking into account the 8/10 statistic of child abuse taking place in Bolivia), it becomes more and more appealing to keep the money for yourself and inevitably, as many children do, this leads to them one day taking the decision to leave their homes and become independent. At such an early age this is dangerous for a child’s development and personal safety.

Working with street children is a difficult task. Many would think if you walk up to a street child and simply offer them a home, bed, 3 meals a day, other friends to play with, an education, opportunities to play football, all in a warm, friendly environment with no strings attached it would be an absolute no-brainer. The fact that this job is so difficult points to the horrific childhood and upbringing many of these children have had. Abuse from parents, older siblings and other adults leads to a huge lack of trust. A severe lack in education leads to a huge lack in belief of a child’s own intellectual ability. The thought of being in a classroom is a nightmare. The independence of life on the streets with no role models, rules and instruction leads to a child having no desire to be put in an environment where there’s rules, rotas and a daily timetable to keep to. Of course many homes for children coming off the streets do their absolute best to ease children carefully into such a lifestyle but with such backgrounds the children have had it is a tentative process where just one incident or small dislike to a situation can lead to a child immediately running back to their life on the streets. This is why preventative projects (as written about in my previous blog) are so incredibly important. These barriers are massive and difficult to overcome.

Early Encounter Oruro has a strategy set out to help such children.

The first stage involves work on the street where the children are at. At the moment we visit 8 zones in Oruro. These zones involve markets, various streets selling anything and everything, busy roads where children are waiting for work to come by (mainly trucks with people heading to sites to carry out construction work), the plaza where people with high-profile jobs like to keep their shoes clean and shiny plus other areas. We visit these children weekly. We often head out with juice, biscuits and some form of an activity – a card game, puzzle, noughts and crosses. Anything really. Monthly we plan a group activity. This may involve playing football or other games. Such activities build friendships and trust.

The second stage involves inviting children to the drop-in centre that runs every Tuesday and Friday afternoon. This is a project in a Church in the centre of the city. At the project are games and snacks are served. Psychologists attend and the children can receive expert help and advice in anything they need. Spiritual support and encouragement and help with schooling are provided too. All this help provided is hugely influential in a child’s positive development. All of this is done in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere.

And the third stage, as friendships and trust are built to a good level, involves taking important life decisions that need to be taken. We help children find the living environment that is best for them and their development – whether that is reintegration back into a child’s family or to an extended family, a children’s home or to live independently with a good future ahead.

The barriers are difficult to overcome but there are always success stories, many of which are due to the hard work put in by the staff here at Early Encounter Oruro and to encourage you further, in other Early Encounter networks across South America supported by the help of those such as the Toybox Charity and Viva.

Three years ago, Early Encounter Oruro’s street educator, Wilma, started visiting a boy named Marcos shining shoes in the plaza. The whereabouts of his family are unknown and he spent each night sleeping in one of the big rooms that the city provides. Life was tough as Marcos had to provide for himself and school was way down on his list of priorities. With visits from Wilma their friendship and trust between them grew. With encouragement from Wilma, Marcos started attending school in the evenings. He continued his work in the day. As time went by he started attending the drop-in centre each afternoon receiving help in many areas of his life. When I arrived in January we always saw him on our visits to the children shining shoes in the plaza on Tuesday and Friday mornings. A few weeks ago a refuge called Casa Vida started up in the centre of Oruro, just across from the plaza. Marcos moved in a couple of weeks ago. He can now spend his days concentrating on his education and is now facing a good upbringing until he can become fully independent. This great story of what has happened in Marcos’ life is a great testament to the careful, friendly and sensitive work carried out by Wilma and many others part of the Early Encounter network. He’s now 15 and has seemed very settled and happy with himself the couple of times I have visited him and others at the refuge since it started up. Always, as with teens, there are difficulties. Yesterday he and a friend (also living at Casa Vida) were in a fight at school. But instead of dealing with such problems alone (or just ignoring them altogether and continuing down a bad road) he now has great support from a qualified team of educators at Casa Vida.

I could go on with more stories over the last year and a half but I realise this has gone on a bit so I’ll round it off here! Thanks for reading. Am looking forward to meeting Mum, Dad and Becky at the airport in Cochabamba tomorrow night. It’ll be ace to have them over and to visit the three Early Encounter networks that Toybox and Viva support in the Andean region – Cochabamba, Oruro and Lima. Mum and Dad have already been to Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala (see their blog - http://alastair-debbie-welford.blogspot.com/) Also Becky will be doing a blog while she’s over which she’s already started - http://bwsouthamerica.blogspot.com/

Hope all’s well in Blighty. Of course was gutted to miss out on all the wedding hype and event itself. I heard they’re selling William and Kate pillows over there??! Anyway, courtesy of a link from Dad’s facebook page, I hear the ceremony went something like this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kav0FEhtLug

Enjoy!

Preventing that ‘street lifestyle’ – Projects

In my last blog I told you about the situation faced by the team here in Oruro in light of the problem of street children. As I said I’d tell you what the team do in response.

In Oruro children are in danger of developing a ‘street lifestyle’ increasing the likelihood of a transition from home to the streets. What contributes to this becoming a reality?

- Parents working long hours while children have time outside of school to do as they please.

- Abuse from home.

- Children working to earn money for their families, for parents who may be addicts. It takes a lot for addicts to be satisfied with what is brought to them.

- Being pushed by family problems and feeling mature enough to survive.

- Pressure from peers in similar situations.

I’m sure there are more. These are those that come off the top of my head.

School times for children in Bolivia are the following -

8am – 12:30pm

12:30pm – 5pm

5:30pm – 10pm

Mining and market jobs, which are in abundance in Oruro, often start very early around 7am and finish around 9pm in the evening. With family financial situations so tight babysitters just don’t seem to come into consideration. Every now and then our next door neighbours go travelling to Peru for 3-4 days to buy a load of clothing to sell on here in Oruro. They are happy to leave behind their 10 year-old son for this time. He walks to and from school and his parents leave behind enough food for him, although he’s often over ours for meals!

Children often have a whole morning or afternoon or sometimes the whole day free if they go to school in the evenings. They have homework, but of course could you imagine your 8/9/10 year-old son or daughter sitting down and voluntarily and enthusiastically doing all his homework without instruction and with his mates just next door? Thought not...

Children need guidance and encouragement in all areas of life. The Early Encounter network here in Oruro supports 7 projects. These projects are places where children can go before or after school to do their homework, get any help they need and be trained and encouraged in all that they are doing. They learn life-skills, have fun and are encouraged in their education and what they have the ability to achieve – items incredibly influential in a child’s development. These children learn a lot and their lenience towards a ‘street lifestyle’ is massively reduced beyond imagination.

I volunteer with two projects – “Maranatha” and “Soy la Nina de tus Ojos”. These are two fantastic projects that support the children in their neighbourhoods hugely. They carry out all the activities stated above and more. There are fantastically committed teachers and volunteers on hand to help at each. We all recognise the risk faced by the children in their neighbourhoods. It is great to have the opportunity to have such well-run projects in such dangerous and ‘street lifestyle’ appealing areas. A very special aspect about each project in Oruro is that each has a Church. Many of the children who go to the project in the week go to Church on the weekends as well as some of their parents, again bringing more opportunities to children and their families – to learn and search about what God has done for them. Monthly evening sessions take place in each project once a month. These often involve family training and feedback on their children’s school work. In each aspect this involves encouraging the parents to take seriously and encourage their children in their education.

Hope you enjoyed reading this one. In my next blog I will go into what Early Encounter Oruro do for children already in a ‘street lifestyle’ condition. Thanks.

For more photos see my facebook.

What did you get up to when you were a child at Christmas?

I look back on all the ace Christmases I’ve had – every one spent with family, always eating way way more than should be eaten, carol services, presents, seeing old friends, teasing the cat, 1kg chocolate bars, etc...

It was a shock to come back here, to see children spending their days and evenings working on the streets – in the markets, polishing shoes – but not just that, that many of these children are from countryside settlements and have been sent to the city to work since school finished in November for summer holidays until returning in February/March, without going back once in between. And this is normal practice for them each year – not having Christmas with their families.

In reference to the problem of children attracted to a street-living lifestyle – to work and/or live there, Oruro acts as what is called a ‘feeder city’. As mentioned in my previous blog, Oruro has a higher altitude and is colder than other Bolivian cities. The nights here get very cold making the streets an unattractive place to spend the night. Also Oruro is one of the poorest cities in Bolivia, meaning less is earned for polishing shoes and cleaning car windscreens than is in other cities. These two factors – Oruro being too cold to sleep on its’ streets at night and the desire to earn more money – push children to other cities such as Cochabamba, La Paz and Santa Cruz with the prospect to earn more and to be in a warmer, more survivable climate. By my experience so far there are not many children here working on the streets over the age of 14/15. Most of them are in the 8-13 bracket.

It has been identified when children feel they are mature enough they leave Oruro. This may involve going to live on the streets or to live with a relative or with/without a friend to a relative of theirs – an uncle, grandparent. In some cases going to a relative somewhere else could be a good move. The child could be running away from abusive parents and the relative may be willing to take care of the child with positive intentions. However this is often sadly not the case. A relative often takes a child into his or her home as a source of income, not out of love and compassion. The child’s welfare is not given a lot of attention and the child works for their new guardian. Again, this creates a situation where a child may be tempted to earn what they earn and stay on the streets keeping it to himself rather than giving it to someone else, someone else who may be an abuser and/or addict – and what is brought home is never enough for an addict.

Well this is the situation faced by the team here in Oruro. A lot of amazing work is carried out here by them to counter these problems and bring real hope and it’s been great to be a part of what they’re doing. I’m going to keep my blogs more snappy this time round so I’ll finish here and tell you what they do in facing up to these challenges in the next one.

First few weeks back in Bolivia

Well it’s now been 3 weeks back in Bolivia. Since coming back I have moved to a different city called Oruro, just four hours from where I was last year in Cochabamba. I will be staying here until late July and then returning to England. Being just four hours away however, Oruro is a completely different kettle of fish. Cochabamba, a city with a population of more than 1,000,000, at 8,600 feet above sea-level and present temperatures of about 33°c varies from Oruro with a population of 250,000, at 12,200 feet above sea level and present temperatures of about 21°c. To paint the picture, Oruro is a lot smaller. It is a lot more underdeveloped on the eye – basic construction taking place on wide scales, corrugated iron roofs, rubbish tips on every other corner often being taken apart by wild dogs (which I estimate would beat the human population), VERY bumpy roads. There are many areas just like this in Cochabamba but not to such the extreme as it is here. Oruro is often looked down on by outsiders. In many taxis I have been in or random conversations I have had with passers-by last year from Cochabamba who are interested in where I am from and what I am doing in Bolivia, “feo y frio” (ugly and cold) is how Oruro has often been described to me. However many will vent that the city has “la major gente” (the best people).

As a country but especially stemming from Oruro, the city has many different spiritual beliefs passed down by generation after generation of ancestors. These come from tales told by Andean ancestors that are still implemented today and of which certain practices are still undertaken. With disease, illness and poverty in abundance, there is a great fear and desire among society to hold on to and do/follow anything that may provide ‘buena suerte’ (good luck). Andean ancestors prayed and called to ‘Pachamama’ (mother land) and ‘Tio Supay’ (Satan Uncle). These practices have followed through generations and are still happening today. Many believe burying a llama’s foetus under your house in sacrifice to Pachamama will protect you, or if your house is bigger than normal, there are stories of humans being buried alive. In a Catholic Church in the centre of town is an entrance to a mine. In the mine two models of Tio Supay have been constructed – they are absolutely horrific. Miners leave offerings of cigarettes, money, alcohol and drugs so that Tio Supay (known as the God of the underworld) will protect them in the mines. It is natural for humans to chase protection and safety. As a Christian I believe this can be found in the person of Jesus Christ. I am glad my faith is built on more than ancestral tales but on real, solid historical evidence in the Bible. I urge anyone who hasn’t investigated the reliability of the Christian faith to do so. More than that, Christianity solves our real problem as human beings. Yes, we can pray to God for protection, but life is not all about hoping for an easy ride and having everything falling in place how we want it to. There is more to life than the 70/80/90 years we are here. I believe there is an eternity afterwards and where that is is determined by decisions made here. God has given us the freedom to choose. As a Christian I have realised my problem of falling way short of following and loving God as much as I should and I think it’s great and I am thankful that God himself provided the remedy by sending His Son into the world to take the punishment of what we deserve.

I did a few short visits to Oruro last year while I was staying in Cochabamba so I got to know the Early Encounter team and affiliated projects quite well. So I roughly knew what I would be in for. I am living with a great family – Noemi, the director of Early Encounter Oruro, Adolfo, head of Quality Improvement Training (QIS) but soon to be moving on to directing a newly-built children’s refuge and their 3 year-old daughter Carys.

In these first few weeks my time has been spent helping with Early Encounter Oruro’s work with children who work and live on the streets. I will write more about this in my next blog. As it is the beginning of the year, the Early Encounter projects in Latin America are planning all their work for the year ahead. This involves work with street-living and working children, quality improvement of projects, networking with projects and local Churches, how to go about working with local authorities, ‘protagonismo infantil’ (empowering children) and a lot more. Sitting in meetings discussing these areas has been of great experience for me. We are in the final week of the school summer holidays so next week when the projects are up and running again, mostly daycare centres, I will start doing two days a week with a couple of them.

It was a bit of a funny one adjusting back to life over here after having such a great Christmas in England with the family and friends. However as things have picked up and I’ve been getting stuck in to more it has got better. The team here in Oruro are really great and it is such fun working with them. No odd cuisine has been eaten yet but I’m sure some of that will come, especially after last years’ experience of sharing a pigs’ testicle with Toybox’ regional coordinator, Andrew Gray. Good times. As I said, I will blog next about Oruro’s work with children living and/or working on the street. Thanks for reading.

The start of the good treatment for children Vaccination Campaign

There are some moments in life you just can’t beat. Today, running around the Cochabamba equivalent of the Houses of Parliament with kids from the Fundacion Emmanuel project (ministry for children of prostitutes) campaigning for good treatment of children was definitely one of them. “Ok, this is an important government building with important people so you need to be good. Don’t run, don’t shout.” It just didn’t work. They went nuts, and who can blame them? The good treatment vaccination campaign is all about children voicing their rights. They approach adults with cards with on one side having ingredients for good treatment of children (a bit of respect, understanding, a portion of humour, an abundance of tolerance, a piece of patience, amongst others) and on the other side a space for the recipient to write their name, signature and date, to be vaccinated. And as well as the card and another leaflet they receive a sweet.

We went round in groups of three children. While one would be with one person in one office at their desk the other two would be legging it upstairs to the next one. I couldn’t run and catch them up and tell them to wait, leaving the other one behind, nor could I shout as we didn’t want to get kicked out. This was an awesome opportunity! The kids loved it, running up to the big dogs that run their city and campaigning for something they recognise as being of so much importance to them.

Today the campaign kicked off. We were in the Plaza Principal in the centre of Cochabamba. Throughout the month of September the campaign will be taking place in various areas all over the city. Also in the next city, Oruru, they are campaigning this month too. I will be heading there next week to see how they’re getting on. As well as children from projects vaccinating adults they put on performances too – dances, acts etc. As well as that, Daniel Cuaquira, Director of the Early Encounter Cochabamba programme, was on the mic all day, bigging up children’s rights, explaining what the whole campaign is all about and interviewing various people along the way.

Once again, it is great to see so many children’s projects getting together and working with all eyes on the same goal. That’s what the Toybox-Viva alliance is all about and has been successfully doing through the joint Early Encounter model (known as ‘Red Alert’ in the UK) over the last 4 years here in Cochabamba and in other Latin American cities. With the support of Toybox through planning, prayer and financial support, and with Viva Latin America implementing the work of the alliance out here on the ground, the results have been hugely positive with all boding well for a very exciting future.

All in all it’s been an awesome start to the campaign and everyone’s pumped and massively looking forward to the rest of the month.

Casa de Amistad - House of Friendship

Throughout this year I have been working with the Casa de Amistad project. The Casa de Amistad is a school for children who live in prisons with their parents. There are three prisons close by that the children come from. In most Latin American women’s prisons children are allowed to live inside with their mothers. Bolivia is the only country where the men’s prisons allow children and wives to live there too. In prison each person needs to pay rent for their room which are often only about 8x8 foot – certainly not enough space to fit a family, especially with families here averaging anywhere between 5-15 children (no exaggeration there at all). Those that cannot afford to pay rent sleep in corridors, any corners they can find and if they are lucky the prison chapel. In San Antonio prison every night in its chapel sleeps 30 men side by side with some children there too. Lunch is cooked by prisoners and has to be paid for. Prisons are controlled from the outside, by guards letting people in and out. They never enter. All leadership and rules are made by the prisoners inside. With the extra cost of being in prison it makes financial sense for the rest of the family to move in. There is often no other option but to do so with so many families in Bolivia under such financial constraints.

Such conditions put families under great strain and creates huge social difficulties. Families become desperate for money to cover their costs of living. Such is the need of many families is that as the children and other innocent parent leave the prisons in the daytime the children often end up spending their days selling whatever they can and begging in the streets to earn as much money as possible. With this being their daily life they therefore miss out on being educated, and without education this leads later on to a probable outcome of unemployment for them. With unemployment continuing so does the desperation to survive, and statistically speaking this leads many on to getting involved in crime - and so the process sadly continues. Pressure on children to provide financially for their families at such a young age, and with enough never being enough, often leads to the lure of running away and living elsewhere becoming more and more attractive.

The Casa de Amistad provides education for children from the prisons, right from kindergarten through to turning 18. The children receive a good education in a project run by qualified teachers and psychologists and they take their exams just in the same way as any other school receiving the same qualifications. As well as an education the children receive the psychological support they need. Sadly many children are victims of abuse in the prisons – physical, sexual and verbal. Such issues need to be carefully taken care of with the children and in collaboration with parents.

As well as providing a service for the children, communication with parents is an important part of the work too in order to emphasise to them the importance of an education for their children. There are about 90 children enrolled at the Casa de la Amistad. Daily attendance is often about 60-70. There are only a small number of children that attend every day. Many come just a few days in the week. Over the last year there has been about a 70% turnover in children. Consistency in attendance has always been a challenge. A common reason for children leaving the project or attending sparingly is parents having to weigh up the option of allowing their children consistent education or having them working on the streets and in the markets bringing in money in for the family.

Part of my role in helping has been visiting the two men’s prisons each week. In both there are a group of lads I meet up with. The aim is to focus on meeting with the men who have children in the project but there are always more who like to get involved. Consistent contact and encouragement with the parents is so important in order to keep the children attending the Casa de Amistad. We spend our time playing games and having a laugh, chatting through their problems, and if they are interested they take part in the Christianity Explored courses which I’m running. It’s all very relaxed and I’m often told how much of a difference it makes to have someone come and listen to their thoughts and stories without instantly judging and putting a label on them.

I work alongside a lady called Lourdes who is a psychologist at the project and heads up the prison visiting. She is an awesome lady with a huge heart for all that goes on at the Casa de Amistad. I cannot speak more highly of her and it’s been great working with her. Recently she attended a worldwide conference for prison educators that takes place every four years. This year it was in Stockholm. She had a great time there and received a big chunk of vital training with also opportunities to meet other prison educators. This was a special time for her and she has come back refreshed and with lots of inspiration and new ideas. With some of the money that those of you donated towards the 3 peaks challenge I did last summer and at Honfest 2009 we were able to help Lourdes out with her travels. She sends a HUGE thank you.

Gooooooooooooooollllaaazzooooo!!!!!!!

Over the course of 5 or 6 weeks there was a football competition for street children organised by leaders of a children’s home for children coming off the street. At Viva I work with a guy called Joe *name changed due to privacy reasons* with two groups of street children. One group live under a busy main road in a drainage ditch. The other live near a river under waterproof sheets that have been tied up between trees. We visit each group once a week. At the moment here in Bolivia it is winter. In the daytime the weather is easily like our summer however in the mornings and throughout the night it gets very cold. Today I learned that 18 people died last night simply due to the cold. It is sad that just a couple more blankets each may have saved each of these persons’ lives. Please pray for those sleeping on the streets at night across Bolivia this winter.

About 6 teams of street children entered the competition as well as the groups Joe and I visit. With the money you kindly contributed we were able to buy the two teams football kits – one Barcelona, and the other of course Liverpool. Team photos are attached in this email. Photos of the games are on my facebook.

Games were played Wednesday mornings. Immense fun was had all round, of course by the boys enjoying taking part and the girls cheering and screaming their teams on. You wouldn’t believe some of the skill on show. No Peter Crouch’s or Emile Heskey’s. No ‘kick and run’ tactics as England were labelled as adopting at the World Cup by Franz Beckenbauer. It was all Kaka, all Messi with an “it’s my ball and I’m going to score” approach.

The evening after the final round of games everyone was invited to the awards evening held at the children’s home that put on the competition. There was a party before the prizes were given out with music, food and a raffle. As well as to have fun this was a great opportunity for the street children to see the home, the children living at the home whose lives and opportunities had improved, to see the school nearby and to talk to some of the leaders of the home. For a child to come off living on the street into a home or to go back to their family it has to be their decision. All these children know the opportunity is there – for a home, a bed, 3 meals a day, an education. They just have to ask. However the pressure to remain on the street is a big one. To make the decision would be seen by your peers as to be pulling out of your gang of mates on the street and leaving them. Given the liberty street living children have the lure of education and living under rules and leadership is not a strong one. However we continue to pray and hope the lure of a loving community will turn their hearts and that the motivation to learn and provide a future will come.

Viva World Weekend of Prayer

Hope you’re all well. This weekend gone, some of you may know, was the Viva world weekend of prayer for children at risk. Projects, city networks and Churches worldwide have been putting on events to pray for children all over the world who are suffering.

Here in Cochabamba we had the stadium booked which was awesome! Leaders and children from various projects stood up front and talked about their projects and prayed. It was emphasised throughout and leading up to the event here that children are the inheritance of God given to parents, the community, the state, and the Church and that therefore it is important that we pray for them and with them.

The 5 main points of prayer were for:
- Children suffering from violence.
- Children that do not have a family.
- Children who have no access to education.
- Children who go hungry.
- Children suffering from HIV or AIDS.

We also had singing, games and clowns on show too! After the service all the projects grouped up. Each had banners, balloons, faces painted etc. We all left the stadium, stopped the traffic and marched out onto the street. We did a bit of a round trip and ended at a plaza where we all prayed together for the last time and then let off the balloons. On the day we reckon about 2000 were involved which is amazing!

Overall, the day was extremely encouraging and did wonders to further enhance the work of Early Encounter in Cochabamba. Awareness was raised in abundance. All the projects are so grateful for the help they receive from the network through training, funding and prayer and they were all really encouraged for us all as a whole to get together on this day. Everyone knows and sees it is a model that works. Television cameras were about on the day – in the stadium and while we were marching - interviewing project leaders, children and the Early Encounter coordinator. Since I have been here more Churches and projects have been joining the network, children from projects have been on television talking about their dreams for Bolivia’s future and in a couple of regions the local Governments have shown interest. The work is not just impacting on a local level but on a state level too. Politicians and big organisations are showing interest which is exactly part of the Viva mission too – a global movement.

And it’s fantastic to see it happening.

Thanks for reading.

Part 2 - Cochabamba

Hope you are all well. Firstly sorry for the big delay from part 1. Have been spending the last few weeks in Peru sorting out this faff of a visa. After just about collecting all my documents together, solving passport problems and getting through a memorable hour of police custody on the Bolivia/Peru border I finally got there. Was an interesting situation to test my Spanish in! The police were very friendly. I tried to get a photo with them before hitching a lift the rest of the way to the border but they declined, however they did give me a banana.

Anyway, after Oruru we took the four hour bus ride to Cochabamba. We rested for the remainder of the day. We were all quite tired after our excursions at our first Bolivian wedding the night before. The week ahead we spent visiting projects that are all a part of the Red Alert Cochabamba program which is part of the Toybox/Viva Latin American partnership. Again, like Oruru, it was fantastic to get a great outlook on how these connected projects across Cochabamba are doing; which areas they are serving in and the effects each are having on children and families. It was a very overwhelming week, arriving at projects and meeting such wonderful people and being introduced to the children and then moving on to another. While it is very emotional to see the scale of children with such scarred histories across all the projects, it is massively encouraging to see the work and commitment staff are putting into caring for these children. We visited such a range of projects. Some projects had considerably better facilities than others – more books, better equipped kitchens, cleaner environments, better tables and chairs, etc – however all the children were so happy with what they have and where they are. While quality facilities are important, nothing beats having quality staff. When giving towards projects we are often pleased when we see results with projects receiving more facilities, which of course is great, however we often overlook the staff and volunteers leading these projects and the work they do. It is important that as part of our donating we recognise we are also giving towards the lives and well-being of the committed workers and volunteers at these projects. They too have needs to feed their families, to take breaks to recharge and focus. I remember an afterschool project in Oruru running on minimum facilities, however the children there were absolutely having the time of their lives. They look forward to their time there every day and they are sad when they leave. They make the most out of the little they have and they learn and play and rest. Results like this in children’s lives at a project occur most certainly first and foremost due to the loving, committed and caring nature of the staff.

One day in the week we spent an afternoon playing football with a group of street children. These children spend their lives living in a drainage ditch that runs under a main road (see http://www.youtube.com/alastairwelford?gl=GB&hl=en-GB#p/a/u/0/04RzpRQwttk ). This group of children is now 9 but in the past has been up to 25. Every day in the week they spend their time washing car windscreens on a busy road towards the centre of town earning whatever they can. This is very dangerous with traffic passing very quickly and with these children often under the influence of drugs or glue-sniffing to help get them through their physical and mental pain throughout the day. This is obviously something no child should spend their lives doing. To spend an afternoon with this group of children, aged about 8-17, giving them the opportunity to have a kickabout for about an hour or so, to have a laugh, drink coca cola, to chat, get up to a bit of mischief and just be what they want to be is huge for them. One of the boys, aged 17, who made a real connection with Dad when he visited a year and a half ago was visibly overwhelmed to see him again. It clearly means a huge amount to these children to not just meet a foreign person from far away visiting for the first time, but to actually see them again returning means a whole lot more.

It was great to see Mum and Dad and sad to see them go. They then went on to Guatemala for 10 days so if you’re interested to know more about their excursions there ask them or you can read their blog at http://www.makinglifework.co.uk/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=2939 (scroll down).

Since arriving back from Peru we have been moving offices to a more central location in the city so we have been busy with that. This week I am starting work with a project called Casa De La Amistad (house of friendship), a project that schools children who live in Cochabamba’s prisons. In many Latin American prisons if a parent gets sentenced then the whole family are allowed to move in, which often happens, as this is a more affordable situation. Obviously a prison is a horrific place for any child to be in. Children and wives/husbands (whichever are not convicted) are allowed out in the daytime and have to be back in by 5pm. I am going to be doing prison visits, meeting with the parents, helping them and assisting with Bible Studies. Will report about how it goes in my next blog.

Thanks for reading.

For photos see facebook or http://www.flickr.com/photos/82329049@N00/

Part 1 – Ongoings with the old folks in Oruru

From left to right: Kattya (Bolivia's best translator), Mum, Me, Noemi (Viva Oruru Director), Dad

Well it seems a while since I last wrote. Since then the 100 day countdown for South Africa 2010 has started, the snow has gone and the rain has come (not here I must add – blissful sunshine) and, well, not a lot else. They do say that January and February are the most boring months of the year...

March 1st brought a couple of excited visitors here to check up on me... my parents. They were over for a few weeks which was great. An inevitable few stomach bugs aside we had an awesome time. After meeting them bright and early at La Paz airport, crashing at the hotel, hitting a cafe, visiting a church, freaking Mum out showing her the llama foetuses they sell at the local market (more on this later), a big dinner and bed, we hit the city of Oruru the next day (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/82329049@N00/ for a few (alive) llamas we met along the way and other bits).

Oruru is a very difficult place to describe. There are clear signs of underdevelopment throughout the city with poverty more obvious. Unlike Cochabamba where in most places the roads are well built, the infrastructure better planned, where there are more ‘western’ style shops and high-rise buildings, Oruru is a dusty, dark place with litter filling large areas and quality of housing being obviously worse. Add to this the population of Oruru has a very mixed belief system. Catholicism is strong alongside a firm focus on Bolivian traditions and rituals. We visited the Catholic Cathedral. Inside it was similar to any regular Cathedral you are used to seeing however, via passing through the Cathedral, underneath is a mineshaft. In this mineshaft is a horrifyingly ugly model of a Devil who was and is still worshipped and given offerings (most prominently alcohol, cigarettes and money). It is believed through tradition that the Devil, ‘the God of the underworld’, will protect those there in the mines. It is nicknamed ‘El Tio’ (Uncle) to help try portray a friendly and loving image of someone who will protect you. Rituals throughout the city include regular burning of incense outside houses and shops asking for safety, wealth, job security, plane tickets... anything. Another includes burying a llama foetus under your house for evil spirits underground to consume, thus keeping them away from your house. The bigger the house, the bigger the foetus. I have heard of blocks of apartments, given their bigger size, having human bodies buried alive underneath.

One huge problem across Bolivia, being highly unrecognised, is that of child abuse. In 8/10 families across the country child abuse takes place. This is a statistic that comes as a surprise to so many Bolivians when told it and this is why action is being taken by Viva, largely through its Child Ambassador Scheme, to put a stop to it. In every project – daycare centres & homes – has 3 or 4 elected Ambassadors. These Child Ambassadors are the voices of their projects. They speak at Churches, events, on the streets asking for signatures for petitions and most recently and amazingly in Cochabamba, on television on such issues.

We visited many projects across Oruru that Viva is working with. There are huge amounts of work being done with much credit going to numerous people putting their hearts and souls into serving children in their areas. All very very challenging stuff! From talking with the project leaders and volunteers the commitment is clearly huge. In the past projects like these functioned largely independently. As projects they had no accountability or resources for knowledge and support. It has been incredible to see the massive positive influence Viva is having across this city on such projects. Not just from the example of Oruru but governments across Latin America are approaching networks wanting to know what’s going on. Many governments just don’t know in what direction to head when faced with all these situations of such desperation. Once they see and learn about what is going on through Viva and how it has set itself up to function they want to know more. They see that there is a sustainable setup in place that doesn’t just involve feeding a group of families and moving on or giving away money and not educating the recipients adequately on the best way to use it. They see that Viva are providing people with long-term skills and opportunities to develop into educated people having very good chances of reaching potential. EXCITING!

Of course this ball can only keep rolling and the results improving with help from people like you. If you would like to make a donation and support the ongoing work of the Early Encounters Viva/Toybox partnership then please visit http://www.toybox.org.uk/index.html to do so. Any amount is massively appreciated and goes such a long way. At two of the projects I have been volunteering at, Fundacion Emmanuel and Casa de Amistad, I have asked each why they can’t expand their work in certain ways. There are wonderfully passionate people at these projects willing to help and their programs run hugely successfully. But there is still so much more potential that can be reached. I asked Fundacion Emmanuel why it only operates Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays – providing a caring daycare service to children whose mothers are prostitutes - and Casa de Amistad why they couldn’t have a few dormitories on sight so the children didn’t have to go back to the prisons to sleep every night. The solitary answer from both was simple: ‘We don’t have enough’. Having seen how immensely amazing we get it in the UK – the way our country is so developed, where money is being spent and all the benefits we get – it is puzzling that there are amazing projects here struggling day by day to provide basic, essential services to children that are so deprived and are living in awful situations facing malnutrition, abuse, lack of education, the list goes on... So please kindly consider what you can do to help these people.

There are so many untold stories and details I haven’t gone into here. If I did I could go on and on and on and on... so you’ll have to ask me.

Anyway, part 1 over. In part 2 the next stop is my hometown - Cochabamba.

‘till then,

Ciao x

Hope you are all doing very well. I am now in Cochabamba, Bolivia and have been having a great time so far. Christmas and New Year in Costa Rica was a good one. Very fun-filled with most people in the country having two weeks holiday. Highlights included trips to the local fair, the bull-fighting, seeing mates and endless boxing day bingo with the neighbours. A non-highlight was having half my plate of Christmas dinner filled with rice - you just can’t get away from the stuff over here.

Please feel free to have a look at my...
Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/jonniewelford
and Flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/82329049@N00/
Or visit my Facebook for more photos.

I arrived here in Cochabamba on the 2nd January. Flying down from Costa Rica I had a stop in Lima, Peru and then had a night in La Paz as the next flight wasn’t until the next morning. La Paz has the highest airport in the world at 4,000 metres above sea level. From the airport I took a taxi down the hill to the city - the view was awesome, although it was better the next day seeing it in daylight!

Here in Cochabamba I am staying with Ines’ (the Viva Regional Consultant for Bolivia and Peru) family who are great. Cooked meals and bed made each day means I am being very much mothered. The majority of my weeks are spent volunteering with two projects that are members of the Early Encounters project run by the Viva/Toybox partnership with a bit of time in the Viva office doing various administrative tasks.

One project is called Esperanza Viva. This is a home out in the West of Cochabamba which involves taking two “taxi-trufi’s” – an awesome public transport service of minibuses. The drivers try to squeeze as many people in as possible so it’s very normal to be squashed between two old Bolivian ladies wearing all the gear (see http://sallyd.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/ssl22023.jpg), although each journey works out at about 12p so I guess you get what you pay for. The home currently houses nine families that have come off living on the streets. The children get enrolled in the local school and the parents go through rehabilitation for whatever they need, for example problems such as alcohol, child and drug abuse. I asked one of the volunteers that work with the parents what learning techniques they use to help them deal with and work through their issues. Expecting an elongated, complex answer in Spanish, most of which I probably wouldn’t understand and one that I would just have to nod my head to, he simply told me they consistently teach them the message of God’s rescue mission from the Bible and that seems to be working wonders. He told me that a change of the heart needs to happen. These people do not need rules, rituals or distractions. Something else to think about or do will never satisfy or bring about a real change. They need to know what life is all about. They need to know the answers to life’s seemingly unanswerable questions – How did I get here? Is there a God? What’s going to happen after I die? Realising that a creator God exists who sent Jesus to take on the just punishment we deserve for ignoring him and that this historical fact has implications for our lives in the present and for eternity changes a person’s life and priorities radically. Christianity is not a list of rules. It is a realisation of our shortcomings in the face of an awesome God who has given us life and as a result we should thank God and accept Jesus’ offer of forgiveness when he took all of God’s just wrath for our sin on the cross 2000 years ago when he was crucified. Religion is man's attempt to save himself, while Christianity is God's way of saving man. Seeing the change this message has had in the lives of families at Esperanza Viva has been amazing. Their lives are not changed by their own strength but by knowing, accepting and trusting the bigger picture to life. On the sight there is a bakery where various cakes are made and sold at the market, a garage and a carpentry workshop - all providing opportunities for the parents to learn and develop skills that will come in useful for when they are ready to leave the home and make a living.

The second project I am volunteering at is called Fundacion Emmanuel. This is an after-school club for children whose mothers are prostitutes. In the morning it has children ranging from 5-10 years-old before they head off to kindergarten and in the afternoon more children, aged from about 10-16, arrive after having been at school in the morning. About 18 children attend in total. While at the project the children receive Christian teaching and have time to do their homework and play. Coming from the family backgrounds they are in this is a very challenging project with the children receiving teaching and morals very different to what they receive at home.

Last Friday afternoon I visited a project called Casa de Amistad – House of Friendship. This is a school for children whose parents are in prison. The project schools children all the way through to when they are 18. In many South American prisons, if a mother or father is sent to prison the family, if they wish, move in too. Inside these prisons the living conditions are horrendous. Each family has a room, about 6x6 foot – just for a whole family. Bathrooms are shared and the only meal available in the day is lunch, which has to be paid for. I visited the prison for male criminals (there is another one for females). The place was an absolute mad house. It was smelly, absolutely packed and full of despair and desperation to escape. Hygiene was a no. It really was the most awful place a child could grow up in. A dirty place full of fighting and swearing should not be a place a child lives. It made me realise how lucky I am and how much needs to be done. It was disgusting. I was taking a walk last week alongside a lake just on the edge of city. The scenery was absolutely stunning however when you hear of newborn babies that have been placed in plastic bags and put in the lake to drown you realise the desperate situations that people face. Situations like this are unimaginable. Massive credit is due to fantastic projects such as Casa de Amistad that offer help to those in these horrendous circumstances. The mothers and children are allowed to leave the prison in the daytime and Casa de Amistad does a great job in offering the opportunity to school these children.

Well that’s it for this edition. Hope you have enjoyed reading.

If you would like to donate to any of the projects I have mentioned so far in my blogs then please email me to arrange this at jonniewelford@hotmail.com.

Or if you would like to support the ongoing Early Encounters Viva/Toybox partnership work in Latin America please go to the Toybox website where you can make regular donations, sponsor a child or get more information at www.toybox.org.

For further information about the work of Viva, the organisation I volunteer for, you can visit www.viva.org.

Thanks.

Feliz Navidad

Hi all.

Hope you are all doing well. A lot has been going on here and have been slowly writing this up for a while so am sorry for the delay.

So much has been going on out here it is hard to summarise. So I’m not going to summarise. I’m going to write a lot. Just thought I would let you know that now.

I have been having a really good time working with Viva; seeing the impact and influence they have been and currently are having on street child projects across Central and South America. Just to remind you, Viva works with projects through Christian networks helping to develop their quality, unity and impact, bringing them together to offer the best possible care to street children (www.viva.org).

Over the last month I have been visiting projects as part of the Quality Improvement Systems Verification team. This is a process which involves having a set of standards and going through them with members of staff, analysing which standards are being met, which are not, and most importantly, identifying in which areas improvements can be made. There are 6 units which cover a vast range of activities a project partakes in; People Care, Governance, Child Protection, Child Well-being, Project Planning and Design and Financial Accountability. I went through two units with each of the three projects I visited - People Care and Financial Accountability. Each project I visited was incredibly different in size which proved interesting and gave me a great insight. The first was a well-established day-care centre. The second and third were both very small Church-based projects operating on little resources in poor communities. One of which was a ‘comedor’, providing meals and entertaining children each weekend with games and activities as well as teaching them a message from the Bible. It was great to learn about these projects and see how they work with what they receive and in response to the needs around them. The people working at them were so passionate and humble. They go about their business and are happy to do it with little or no return or recognition. Many of us in England carrying out similar work may get the chance to speak at a conference or up at the front in Church, however these people just get on with it. I guess that’s a challenge for us, to consistently ask ourselves with what motives we are living by and serving people with.

I have also been helping out at a foster care project called Casa Viva two days a week. They challenge Churches to care for children by encouraging families to receive children at high-risk with the goal of honouring and ultimately restoring them back to healthy biological family environments. While a child is being fostered the biological family is being educated on how to run a family and how relationships between family members should function. I have had a great time working with Casa Viva with the majority of my time being spent on helping them prepare for workshops with potential Casa Viva parents. These workshops have involved going through with the parents the process of taking a child at high-risk into foster care. The emphasis was on helping the families to understand from the child’s perspective what they would be going through having to leave their biological home and to move in with a family of strangers. The idea of Casa Viva is to provide an alternative to orphanages. The best possible place for a child to be brought up in is in a family. This is what Casa Viva is trying to do. While orphanages provide children with a better living situation than what they would be in, it is still not a viable long-term solution providing what could be the best outcomes. I have read stories of orphanages being started up and taking in 20-30 children and with years gone by this number has grown and grown. Many of those children have grown up and left orphanages, uneducated and with no real knowledge of how to survive in the world, and then their children have been neglected and ended up at the same orphanages. Therefore in effect, some orphanages could be to some extent creating their own business, although this is all dependable on a number of factors. It is therefore vital that where possible, children are brought up in loving, family surroundings and it is key that they are taught and well-educated so that when they grow up they are not starting up another generation of children in need. Having visited some orphanages and met some of the children living with Casa Viva parents a clear personality difference seems to stand out to me. I remember visiting an orphanage once and within five minutes I must have had at least five or six children climbing all over me, all with their arms outstretched wanting more and more attention. It seemed that no trust needed to be built between me and these children. They simply wanted a rare bit of attention. With the children I have met being fostered there is always that element of caution in their eye when you first meet them. They look at you and wonder who you are, often hiding behind their parents wanting reassurance whether this person is good. That trust needs to be built and that is something that needs to be learned in relationships from an early age.

Away from work further fun has been had. Had a ‘little venture’ (*massive understatement: this involved a total of 19 hours bus riding of which 5 hours was queuing at the border to get a pretty stamp on my passport* it is really pretty though*) to Nicaragua a couple of weeks ago. I went with a friend and we stayed with some friends of his in the capital, Managua. Nicaragua is a really beautiful country – very mountainous and volcanic and very hot. One highlight included enjoying a bit of cows tongue – highly recommended. It’s a bit squishy and the texture is a little off-putting but it tastes great. Try putting that one on the menu for Christmas next year Mum. We also visited a volcano, an active one. It’s had its odd eruption over the last few years so precautions had to be taken, one being having a very strict reverse parking policy so it is possible to escape quickly if an eruption did occur.

At the moment everyone is now on their Christmas break. Basically for two weeks over Christmas and New Year the whole of Costa Rica shuts down and everyone has a good time, this for many being two of the three weeks holiday they get for the year. They obviously like to save it up until the seasonal time of the year (although they do seem to have a million excuses to have a bank holiday. There must have been at least five since I have been here, the latest being ‘National Culture Day’. Why can’t we have one of them?). The last week of work involved party upon party. Now I am making up for it by sleeping a lot. 6am starts on the trot each day since the 23rd September is something I envisaged would be humanely impossible for me. Fellow Liverpool housemates and my mother will surely level with me on that one.

I have been staying with a great couple called Jorge and Maria. They have been really good to me and have adopted me and treated me like a prince. I’m not allowed to lay a hand on the kitchen sink. I really hope I haven’t lost all my cooking expertise that I worked really hard on throughout my four years at University. I will be spending Christmas with them and their family. Four of their six children will be coming round along with grandchildren so it’s not looking like it’s going to be a quiet one. Home is being missed big time, more than I thought it would be, but I’m thankful for Christmases had and a great family. I’m gutted to be missing out on all the snow you lot are getting, but I’ll settle with 25 degrees of sunshine. Commiserations to Simon Cowell for not getting what he wanted in the Christmas charts this year and sorry to those who missed out on buying the infamous ginger Christmas card from Tescos (see - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/8411894.stm). Hope you’re not too offended Mum. And here’s hoping for a Boxing Day win for the Reds. They need it.

Next destination is Cochabamba, Bolivia. Flying on New Year’s Day, so I’ll write to you all next from there. Please love me and send me emails wishing me a Happy Christmas. I love to hear from everyone.

I’ll leave you with what seems to be our version of ‘We Wish you a Merry Christmas’ that has been ringing in the streets for the last two months - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihW56Xa3XGQ (You really don’t have to listen to all of it, you pretty much get the drift after the first 30-40 seconds).

Feliz Navidad.

"Pura Vida"

Hello all. Hope you’re all well. Well this is my official first ever blog. I hope they’re ok and make interesting reading.

Well, have been here for about 4 weeks now and so far so good. I got here and I’m still here. Thought I would start this to keep you all informed of what I’m up to. Read ahead if you’re interested.

The flight out here wasn’t as dull as I thought it would be. I actually managed to sleep through the take-off so to wake up over the Atlantic was a surprise! Sitting next to me was a girl also going to Costa Rica. The ice was broken when she spilt her lunch all over her, so we buddied up and kept each other company at the stop-over in Newark. I arrived in the capital, San Jose, that evening. Was great to have Carmen and Karen, two of the lovely ladies working at Viva, greeting me at the other end!

I’m staying with a cute, little, non English-speaking couple called Jorge and Maria. They are amazing. Really welcoming and so nice. I like my food. Going by the kind of food I had in Guatemala (McDonalds most days, beans in some sick sauce with pita bread for breakfast, rice rice rice, etc) I was a tad worried. The prospect of not having a bowl of cereal for 12 months wasn’t a great one. But they do have cereal (and peanut butter; a popular Costa Rican import) and Maria is an amazing cook. She really is. So I’m happy. The neighbourhood is great. Not a lot different to Smithdown Road, Liverpool. You could replace the ever-screaming kids for partying students, the van with a big megaphone that drives past selling fruit each morning at 6am for the late night ‘ice-cream van’ (which we’re pretty sure sells drugs), cockroaches for rats (I’d rather take a cockroach any day) and the 86 bus for my two cheap, not legally-licensed, very friendly taxi drivers; Rodrigo and his son, Rodrigo. However nothing can explain the pick-up truck with a full brass band sat in the back – trumpets, trombones, French horn, cymbals, the lot... – driving up and down our street playing what seemed to be orchestral reggae music the other morning at 5am. That was just weird.

“Pura vida” = good life. The Tico’s love this.

As you probably know I’m volunteering with an organisation called Viva. Check them out... http://www.viva.org/AboutViva.aspx?linkidentifier=id&itemid=242 They’re great! Viva works in partnership with local networks to give vulnerable children a happier, healthier and brighter future, free from deprivation, exploitation and abuse. Some of the partners they work with include Tearfund, Toybox and World Vision. So far I’ve had a few inductions to the current and prospective structuring of the organisation, met all the members of staff at the office and had a good chat with each of them about their roles, and have been studying what’s called ‘QIS’ (Quality Improvement Systems) as this is what I’ll be doing when I get sent out to projects in Bolivia, Peru and Argentina from January. QIS basically involves getting alongside and training street child project managers to improve the running of their project in 6 areas: People care, Financial Accountability, Child Wellbeing, Project Planning and Design, Child Protection and Governance. It’s all about working with the organisations and helping them to improve and strive to achieve the standards set in each category. The big challenge is that most of these project managers are from somewhat under-educated backgrounds. Therefore concepts such as planning, strategy, monitoring and evaluation are all quite alien to them meaning the process of helping and training them can be quite challenging. Between now and December I am writing up a manual for a Project Planning and Design workshop which so far I am enjoying doing and is going well. Everyone at the office is great fun and it’s been quality getting to know them all. Working for Viva I have come to realise more and more how amazing their work is! It is not just impressive, with positive results, but they provide a strategy that works, and one that I believe has the potential to impact globally. Please have a look at their website and see what they’re all about. I really do believe they have a wonderful structure put together that can have long-term effects on actually solving the worldwide crisis of children living on the streets and living lives no way near as abundant as they should be.

I am spending Tuesday and Thursday mornings with a project called ‘Casa Viva’ who partner with Viva. Check them out http://www.casaviva.org/Casa_Viva_Model.asp They’re great too! They seek to provide an alternative to orphanages and children’s homes by encouraging fostering. They believe that these current, popular solutions will not solve orphan crisis and that it is much better for a child to grow up in a family atmosphere, as every child should have the chance to be. So far this has been working to great effect. Casa Viva have been connecting children with Christian families in their home countries. While the child is being raised in a loving environment the biological parents are being taught, counselled and educated by Casa Viva staff with the focus on them learning how relationships should work within a family. The goal is to have the child reintegrated into its biological family when ready. Casa Viva believes that the local Church is God’s first plan for children in need. They therefore invite Churches to develop care ministries that support families who open their doors to children. The Churches commit to recruiting and supporting the families, and they make a financial commitment to help care for the children. In Costa Rica there are an estimated 3,000 street children and an estimated 3,000 Churches. The goal for one country all of a sudden sounds somewhat realistic...

Each day I am taking Spanish classes in the afternoons. It is a 7 week intensive course (and I mean, intense) which will run until the end of November. So far they’ve thrown a lot at us. Classes have varied from studying the three “to be” verbs (why not just one?!) to practicing conversational speaking within the class, such as, “What is this?”... “That is a spoon.” It looks as if the idea is to get taught as many methods as possible, basically to the extent that we get them and then to put them into practice. We won’t all be fluent by the end of the 7 weeks, they tell us that. They say that once you start speaking and practicing it you will slowly start understanding and fitting it together, hopefully so much so that responses such as “that is a spoon” will come more naturally and quicker. So it looks that while I’m out in Bolivia, Peru and Argentina next year with no option but to speak Spanish because of my work, that is when it should really start kicking in, hopefully. As Jorge, my non-English speaking ‘Tico Papa’ says, “When there is a will, there is a way.” Amen. (He also knows all the words, verses and chorus, in English to Ray Evans’ classic, ‘Que Sera, Sera’ – he sees this as a big achievement).

I’ve been learning quite a bit since being here. I’ve been thinking and reading a bit about God’s love, the suffering in our world and where we fit in response to all this. I am reading a book at the moment called ‘The Shack’ (sorry Granny, I’ll return it when I next see you!). It is probably one of the most extraordinary books I have ever read and one which I have learned so much from and will probably read again when I have finished. I definitely recommend it. Without giving too much away... it is a fictional story about a family that go camping for a weekend, during which one of their daughters gets kidnapped and murdered. Mack, the father, many years later gets invited back to the place where the murder occurred for an *insert adjective; it’s hard to describe...* weekend to confront the pain-bearing issues he has about his 6-year-old daughters’ sudden disappearance and murder.

Here is a quote from the book:

God talking to Mack –
“All evil flows from independence, and independence is your choice. If I were to simply revoke all the choices of independence, the world as you know it would cease to exist and love would have no meaning. This world is not a playground where I keep all my children free from evil. Evil is the chaos of this age that you brought to me, but it will not have the final say. Now it touches everyone that I love, those who follow me and those who don’t. If I take away the consequences of people’s choices, I destroy the possibility of love. Love that is forced is no love at all.”

“You demand your independence, but then complain that I actually love you enough to give it to you.”

The book explores deeply complex issues including freedom, reality, relationships, grace, heaven, evil, pain and suffering. I read the quote above last night and it really struck a chord. So often we want God to intervene; to stop this murder, that broken relationship, that car accident, but then on the other side of the coin we want it our own way. We want to be in control and don’t want God to influence our decisions. As a Christian I have seen and experienced God intervening and have witnessed it in other people’s lives by the means of prayer. However God does not follow our every command, he has silences, and we have our independence too which he gave us. Suffering definitely brings about perseverance and makes us stronger. Life is not always just going to be a walk in the park, God didn’t intend it that way.

Knowing and learning these truths has helped have a huge impact on me in the face of the work I am doing. Day by day it is overwhelming to hear stories of children living on the streets in hugely tough conditions, fighting for survival and not having anyone to care for them. In the face of this it is so easy to point the finger at God and blame him, when actually when you look at it we should be thankful to him for giving us independence and not making us robots, allowing us to have the choice to love. We should instead be examining ourselves and the human race for making a complete mess of our world. The great news though is that pain and suffering on this earth is not the end. Despite us messing things up and taking advantage of the independence God has given us he has still stepped in and forgiven us through the sacrifice of his son, Jesus, for all of mankind’s sin. Through this he has made the way for us to be forgiven and to have an eternal relationship with him. All we have to do is believe this message! Good stuff that.

Well that’s it for now. It’s been a fun few weeks. The whole novelty of being here is great and I’m settling in well. It’s hard being away from family, friends, a drumkit, Match of the Day, Basil, Granny’s roasts etc, but I am absolutely loving it and everyone has been so great over here. Would love to hear how all you are doing so feel free to ping me an email. Would be great to stay in touch. Thanks for reading my first blog. Will be blogging again in a few weeks with hopefully a bit more news and stories to tell!

Till then, ciao ciao

X

PS. For photos check out my facebook. Definitely more to come. If you haven't quite made the world of facebook yet, find a friend who has. Or I might upload some on here if I can, will have a look after posting this!