Hey you,
We have now spent our week here at Oscar Ahlms Boys Home in Cochabamba. Being here had been an interesting experience amd it will be hard to leave (tomorrow).
About the Home:
The boys home is a place where 19 boys currently live. Some has poor families that can't afford to take care of them, others have none. The home has room for over 50 boys but due to lack of government funding and limited sponsorships from Norway and Sweden, they can not afford to take any more in. It is very sad as there are so many more that needs a place like this, a secure home with regular meals and a positive atmosphere. The only employee, besides the family that runs the place, is a chef. Due to the financial situation, the food is as expected. Bread (often dry) and a hot beverage for breakfast (prepared by the boys), Soup and a hot meal (usually either a rice or a pasta meal for lunch (prepared by the chef), and reheated lunch for dinner (reheated by the boys). The left over lunch sits in the kettle from lunch til dinner time and the meals are often triple carb but sometimes only double carb.
About our stay:
We arrived on a Thursday and overnight we becamr uncle (tio) and aunty (tia) to 19 boys, for that is what they call us. We spent the first day playing UNO and basketball (that we bought for them) with the kids, to get to know them. No one here speaks anything other than Spanish so we have been using my translation apps and Google Translate a lot to communicate. On Friday we bought and prepared pizza for the kids. For desert we had bought them jelly and they seemed very happy with us.
On Saturday the family took us to a market as we wanted to buy some things for the kids. As they needed socks and sandals the most (and as shoes was to expensive for us), we bought them socks, sandals and tshirts. We also bought a soccer ball and three movies for a movie night that we later had with a bowl of chips for each kid (also a very successful night here).
On Saturday some other kids from the Salvation Army visited the home and they played soccer for a few hours before church, then coffee and pastry.
We spent Sunday playing with the kids and another church session. On Monday a lady from Finland came to visit us and it turned out her first language was Swedish. We were able to get more information about the home and the potential future for the kids as well as information about Bolivia and other homes. We used her as a translator so we could communicate easily with the family here (whom only speak Spanish). We found out that the home had requested funding from the government for painting the place, but it had not been approved after several attempts and a long time had passed. We therefor offered to pay for some paint and so we did. We sanded, washed and painted the common room in two days.
On our last day, we went grocery shopping again. This time we bought ingredients for tacos and soda for dinner and doughnuts for desert. It was a great success with the kids.
After dinner on our last nigh we gave each of the kids their socks, sandals and tshirts. They were very excited as soon as they saw the bag full of sandals and socks and I have to admit I expected them to be slightly disappointed. I know it's because they are growing up with few possessions, but I am grateful for their gratefulness. As a thank you to us they had made a picture book from our stays with thank you notes. The book is in the shape of a home with Oscar Ahlms on it and I absolutely love it!
It will be very hard to leave the boys tomorrow and I hope we can help in the future. Perhaps we would be able to pay for one of the boys to go to university, as their future is so very uncertain.
Write soon, xo
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