Busy being Bolivian

We have been busy over the past few weeks. We were asked to present a drama on the plaza alongside the team of Bolivian volunteers who we started training three years ago. It was amazing to see how the team has grown and now there are about 20 people involved with the drama and an additional 30 who go to help and talk to people in the audience. The team range in age from 14 – 80! Everyone gets involved and there was a fabulous crowd of about 300 people.

Hali, who is a dear friend of ours from when we were here last, came to visit us for the weekend. She works with young girls in Santa Cruz who are at risk of entering the sex trade. We have been supporting and mentoring her for the past few years and it was great to see her again. Every Sunday before church we try to climb the steep steps to the top of the hill where there is a statue of Christ. We only just made it… partly due to the altitude. Life at 2500m above sea level makes your heart race and its hard to breathe.

As you can imagine, it is quite hard tracking down some of the young people who leave the rehabilitation centre. They often have very chaotic lives and do not have a permanent place to live. One special person who we have managed to keep in touch with is Lucy. We knew her for two years in 2014 – 2016 when she was in and out of the centre where we worked. She has a baby now and we saw her yesterday to catch up on how she is doing and what has happened since we last saw her in 2017. We gave her a knitted hat for her daughter, made by a lady from our church. She loved it.