Tuesday in Bogota: Playing Games, Building Relationships

From Elianna Viggiani

Today was our second day working at the Divine Savior. From the moment we entered the doors, I could tell that our group felt more comfortable along with the church members. We were greeted with rolls and coffee and put to work. I found the work was more organized than the day before and jobs were given to all the members in our group. I spent the morning sorting through piles of children’s books. I was surprised to find that many of them were written in English, at least half. We then placed the books back on the shelves which we had cleaned prior to the sorting. I spent the rest of the morning outside helping with the construction work. I had no prior experience, but with the help of some group members, I caught on quickly. In the afternoon, I was greeted by the children I had met the day before. Many of them came up to hug me, and seemed comfortable around us. A boy who I had met the day before ran to show me his artwork; I had previously told him that I loved to draw. I helped him finish the piece, and his smile was priceless. The kids then spent time playing with my IPhone, Angry Birds seemed to be a big hit. We also played soccer and games inside.

After most of the kids left, I had time to bond with a girl named Daniela and her younger sister, Vanessa. Daniela showed me her English notebook and her math notebook, and we spent a lot of time talking about her school and family. It was sometimes hard to follow what she said because she spoke so fast, and I felt frustrated when I did not know exactly what she was saying, however, we were able to hold small conversations. She taught me the word, cookie in Spanish, along with many of the animles.

From Molly Fenn:

               

Today was a fun day. In the morning we did some more construction (I won’t write much about this because I can’t use power tools, so I didn't help much with the construction.) I washed lots of windows, cleaned lots of chairs, pretty much a lot of cleaning. But, what I really want to write about is the people here. In the afternoons, about 10 children come every day to eat lunch and play for an afterschool program. They range in age from Vanessa who is 5 to Julio who is 15. These kids are amazing. They are nice and sweet, they love to play and laugh, and I truly enjoy all the time I spend with them, even if that time is spent throwing a paper airplane back and forth for hours. I also became fast friends with one of the youth here, Lina. She is sixteen and is graduating high school this year (they don’t go to school for as long as we do in the states) She really wants to be a lawyer, and her brother is in school to be an architect. I had the opportunity to walk around the neighborhood with Lina, and it is a different perspective walking around with someone who has lived there for a long time. She taught me a lot about the culture here, and I told her about the differences between Bogota and Boston.

For example, in Bogota there are stray dogs everywhere, car NEVER stop for you when you try to cross the street, and every schools has uniforms. I met some of her friends on our walk and they were just as nice and friendly, but very surprised that I spoke Spanish.  What I am trying to say here, with my stories about these kids and their lives, is that they aren’t any different than the youth in America. They have dreams and wishes and friends and boyfriends. I am not really sure what I expected, but what I realized is that all of these kids remind me of kids I know back home, if not myself.  I am not good at building things, or knowing how to say tools in Spanish, but I have always been a people person. I love connecting with the people here, speaking Spanish, I feel like I am making a difference even if it isn’t something you can see.