Hey,
This journal is all about Buses, piñatas, pupusas and tiny baby turtles...
A week ago Isaak had an accident on a bus and broke his leg. As we understand it, he had moved to the exit, about to get off at the next stop, when the bus went into a corner at high speed and Isaak fell out the bus. He tells us that he must have blacked out and came round to find policemen helping him. One thing that he says he is grateful for is that nobody had stolen anything from him while he was unconscious and that his briefcase came out the bus with him! He went to hospital and was all taken care of. He had broken his tibia near to his knee and now has a big cast covering almost the whole of his leg and will have to rest and stay at home for at least 2 months. That’s most of the time we have left here! He is doing well and the accident hasn’t done much to dampen his spirits – as I’m writing this he is currently having a lively conversation with Jomara’s father which has been going on for over four hours!
On Sunday it was Isaak’s Bithday and the Monday after was Jo’s, so they had a joint birthday celebration on the Sunday. Lots of his family and Jomara’s and their friends came over and we ate mountains of cake.
On the Monday we went to El Castillo in the morning and for lunch went out with all of the street team for Pupusas. Pupusas are from El Salvador and are maiz tortillas stuffed with cheese or meat, topped with tomato salsa and spicy cabbage. They were delicious, and after them we had a cheese cake. In the afternoon Jo got to speak to her mum and dad and we finished off the day with Chinese takeway – not quite the same as at back home but very tasty. It was a lovely day, thank you to everyone who sent messages and cards, they were all very special to us.
Over the valentines weekend we headed off to the seaside for a couple of days. We went to Monterrico which is on the pacific coast and enjoyed relaxing on a black-sand beach. Whilst we were there we had the opportunity to see some baby turtles being released into the sea. There were absolutely hundreds of them. We paid about a pound to release one ourselves but our turtle decided it didn’t want to go in the sea and instead kept crawling back to us. Apparently out of the thousands released every year only about 100 will make it to adulthood, we have a feeling that ours wasn’t one of the survivors but we still hope…
As we said in the last update we are now spending every Friday night at the refuge with 5 girls who are living there at the moment. This is to give Maria, who works there, the opportunity to go to University on a Saturday. Every Friday brings its challenges and difficulties but is also great fun. I (Jo) stay over night in the house with the girls whilst Matt sleeps in a separate building along with the other male workers. This means though that I really don’t get much sleep. The girls are very good at going to bed but every little noise wakes me up and they always seem to wake far too early! On Saturdays we normally stay at the refuge for the day, helping with the cooking, cleaning and playing with the girls. Last Saturday we bought a piñata to have with the girls for my birthday which was great – check out the pictures page, photos will be there soon.
The street team has now started a new process to find new children working and living on the street. There are lots of stages to this, first ‘La Busqueda’ or ‘search’. So for the last couples of weeks we have been walking and walking and walking. All over the city there are particular areas where children have been seen working and we’ve been observing these areas, making a note of how many children are there and what they are doing. We’ve found this quite difficult because it’s fairly boring and tiring, but necessary. This stage has finished now and next we have been going to some of these places and praying. After this will be the contact stage where we begin to chat to the children and play games with them. At the same time meetings have been going on towards creating a plan for the whole year.
Whilst this has been happening we have also tried to keep in touch with the other children we already know. One of the children we are most concerned about is Dulce. Dulce lives on the top of a building used by prostitutes, with her 3 brothers. She has been with us in the day process and the hope is that she will move into the refuge. A few weeks ago we found out that her mother had broken both her legs by being run over by a motorcycle and car whilst begging for money. (Her mum had broken her legs before in a similar accident and they had only just recovered). Whilst she is in hospital, Dulce and her brothers were being looked after by another woman who works in the building, who has 5 children of her own and who would keep Dulce and her younger brother locked up in a room in the building most of the time, in her words ‘for their own safety’. She would not let El Castillo take Dulce out for the day but agreed to let us bring food each day for them. El Castillo visited Dulce’s mother in hospital who said that she could move into the Refuge temporarily whilst she was recovering however the other lady refused to accept this. Eventually the social workers put in an anonymous report to the police about the situation and now Dulce and her brothers are being looked after by a different relative. Although we are still concerned about their safety and well being, and will continue to try to work with them.
The new day process is with a group of 6 boys, the youngest is only 5 and has a cheeky laugh and a massive grin, whilst the oldest is just 8 and is one of three brothers in the process. I (Matt) am working with the process twice a week and one of the first things I did with them was taking them to a big water park. They had a fantastic time and it was really great to see them enjoy themselves this way especially since they probably would never have had the opportunity otherwise. Likewise it’s also great to be helping them with the learning that they do in the process. Whereas without El Castillo they would usually be helping their parents and working at a rubbish-sorting site, now they are learning how to read to write and have been working really well. It’s something special to get them started on something like that. They are also all a bit fanatical about making paper planes, and just yesterday we took them to a park and spent the entire time making and throwing them.
At the end of next week we are going on our second visa renewal trip, this time to Honduras and then Belize, on a bit of a road trip. We’ll let you know how it goes!
Lots of love from us x
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