Gumby

So, the second Lake Forest team has come and left, after a full week of relatively organized chaos. The Lake Forest teams each brought a Gumby with them for the trip, because they were sent out of the country on a charge by the missions pastor to be flexible, like Gumby is. And by golly, this Lake Forest team was full of flexible experts, as obstacles were thrown our way left and right this week! The main goal of the week was to design a media room for the boys, and make it come to life. The room is called the Brummería, after Elliot Brumm, one of the boys from the LFC congregation who passed away last November, but spent some wonderful time here at the BLC with the boys. The week started out and we seemed on top of things- we had a design for a mural in the room, a general understanding of the furniture we were going to get, the colors we were going to paint everything, the new light fixtures we wanted... But then it was time to get flexible...

A few members of the team spent a whole day in the market searching for all the odds and ends of the project, and although they came back exhausted, they were satisfied with their purchases, and they only needed a few more things the next day. However, the city (or town?) of Quillacollo, which is in between Sipe Sipe and Cochabamba (aka in between the BLC and the market), decided that ¨they are tired of walking on dirt,¨ and started a strike of sorts, in the form of a road blockade. The first day only the main roads were blocked, and we could get around with ease. However, as the week continued, the blockade began to grow onto all the mini roads and it seemed that all the shortcuts were blocked. The group remained calm though, and got to work with what they had. Each team comes down, and they work during the morning and then we go to a rural town in the mountains and sing songs and perform a story from the Bible in the afternoons. We ended up only being able to go twice, and the third day our bus broke down in the middle of trying to navigate through the blockade. The fourth day, we all piled into the bus again, but then we couldn´t find any gas, because the gas trucks couldn´t get to this side of Quillacollo. So, we turned around again, and headed back to the BLC. Gumby in action though, the team used these afternoons to really buckle down and continue working on the Brummería. Their work and flexiblity paid off, as on Thursday night, we got to take a step back and check out the new media room, with 3 tvs, playstations, dvds, couches, and rugs. The boys´reaction was priceless. They were so excited to have a room like this to be able to relax in. It is their family room of sorts. Unfortunately, we didn´t actually get to test out all the new equipment in the room, because they finished at about 1130pm the night before they left.

Elliot really liked tie dye, and so another thing the team did in memory of him was they made tie dye shirts for each of the 76 boys. We all wore our tie dye together for the pizza party on Thursday night. It was really neat to see so much tie dye, it was touching as we gathered the group of gringos and bolivianos to take a picture full of colors. The boys are still running around in their shirts, so Elliot will be a part of the BLC for a long time to come.

The group continued to be super flexible, as we sat in the airport and found out that the plane that they were supposed to be taking to Miami was broken. Broken. But they luckily somehow had 20 open seats on a different flight leaving that night, so they jumped at that opportunity, that´s for sure. They ended up taking off on time, and we didn´t get any calls, so we´re assuming they made it home safe too.

Those who were not working on the Brummería this week had some work projects that were all related to the boys´having fun, which was really rewarding. The first day we spent trying to dig a volleyball court 12 inches deep. We made barely any progress, and were wondering how the heck we were going to finish. But luckily, John Hernandez decided to just call in a tractor to do it. The tractor came right after the team left, but thankfully, we are one step closer to a sand volleyball court!! The other big thing we got to do was to sand and paint the whole playground area, and it´s bright and full of colors now. And somehow, we avoided the boys´sliding down the slide on wet paint and getting a seriously blue bottom.

This LFC team leaving marked the beginning of a two week break from teams. In one way, it´s fun, it´s nice to slow down the pace. But on the other hand, 6 hosts can´t love on 76 boys at one time. It is so nice to have teams here to be able to interact with the boys and love on them. There are usually 7 or 8 teams that come in a summer, but the economy really has affected the number of teams this summer, which is unfortunate. Anyways, the day after the team left, we all SLEPT IN! It was amazing. Then, the Hernandez family invited us into town for a day of pampering of sorts. The fellas went and got their hair cut, while all us ladies got mani and pedicures, which costed 5 American dollars. It feels weird to be on a mission trip with a French manicure, not gonna lie. But it was nice to get off our feet and relax with each other. And you can´t really pass up an offer like that- five dollars!

The Hernandez family is leaving tomorrow, so we went out to lunch yesterday at this AMAZING restaurant. I had a delicious steak and some chicken. It made me miss my Mom´s steak though. She definitely wins the award for best steak. I can´t wait for some when I get home. Actually, I probably can, because I have had SO MUCH meat this summer. We eat meat with every meal...

Last night was indescribably precious as well. We ¨broke in¨the Brummería, by inviting each of the age groups in for a movie night. We watched Los Increíbles with the little ones and the middle ones, and then we watched, per request by the grandes, the CHEESIEST chinese soccer movie I have ever seen. It was called Shaolin Soccer, and basically this washed up player who wanted to be a coach found a group of kung fu experts to play soccer. It was absolutely horrendous, but the boys LOVED it. They were quoting the whole movie, laughing in anticipation of the funny parts, it was ridiculous. One of them asked me if I saw the movie in theaters in the States, but there is NO way it made it to theaters. Haha, it was amazing just for the fact at how entertaining it was for the boys. I loved it.

I am having a hard time believing that I will be back in the States in a dozen days. I miss home a whole lot, but I am going to have a really hard time leaving these boys.

Toodles!