Amistad at Last

Roughly 4 months ago I sat in a Seattle cafe on my computer and did a Google search for Christian orphanages in South America. I found Amistad and emailed the contact immediately declaring my interest in visiting. It was the only email I sent that week. I heard back from Amy, the coordinator in the US the next day. We chatted about art therapy and my walk with God. I knew I wanted to visit Amistad so from there I continued adding to my itinerary. This orphanage started this adventure- and Now I am here!

I arrived to Cochabamba on Sunday, Aug. 1st. I was picked up by Ximena, who looks after the visitors ( & translating) along with fundraising for the orphanage. We immediately drove to La Villa to see the childrens performance- a musical accompilation of what they had learned that past week with 3 amazing women volunteers. 2 of the women are teachers for Teach for America and the 3rd woman has been a music teacher for many years. The guest house feels more like a resort. I am ridiculously spolied here. The guest mom cooks for me 3 meals a day. In addition I have access to a sanctuary space, library/movie room and not to mention clean bathrooms with hot showers (yes HOT). The ladies all left Tuesday morning, so I have been solo at the guest house. However, I do have the company of the house mom and her 7 year old daughter who has become my companion.

La Villa is where roughtly 70 children ages 2-15 live. There are 8 casas that house anywhere from 8-10 children and a Mama lives in each casa with the children. There is a gymnasium, music room, playground and library. There are a couple casas located in a different area which house 16-18yr olds. Amistad looks after the children until they graduate college, and yes these children do go onto college. Right now there are 15 children in college. The children here are really taken care of.

I go to La Villa at 9am and come back to the guest house from 12:30-2:30 and then back to La Villa until 5:30ish. Ximena has been helping me recruit the teenagers for art (Incorporating my Masters Project by asking them to paint what they like and what makes them happy). I was a bit intimidated at first... I was not sure how long it would take for the teens to warm up to me, but they have all been wonderful. A couple of them have opted out of participating but generally they seem to all enjoy the process of painting with either watercolors or temperas. It has been fun for me to observe their process with deciding what to paint and then how to go about accomplishing their picture. I have also had fun chatting with them. One boy in particular was very interested in what certain words are in English. The youth have all been gracious with my limited Spanish. Overall they are just typical teenagers; shy and guarded at times and outgoing and loud at other times.

Several of the gals and I created a mural Thursday afternoon. Even with a bit of typical girl drama, we managed to create a beautiful painting of a paradise. Friday I went in the morning to play with some of the children, then it was bye for now. Everyone at the orphanage works very hard to ensure the children are well taken care of. This is a wonderful place to support and visit for mission trips. I am excited to recruit people for upcoming mission trips in the coming years.

For my last day in Cochabamba, Ximena took me to see the world´s largest Christ statue (it beats the one in Brazil by several centimeters). I took a trolley car up to top. The view of Cochabamba from the top of the mountain was also really beautiful. It was a great ending to a wonderful trip.