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Published: July 23rd 2008
Hi y´all!
I´ve been here in Medellin for about 2 and a half weeks now and all is going well. I´m staying with Gali (a Peruvian sort of missionary) and the other Cruzadas here and they´re really nice. I arrived with the intention of teaching English for a week in a school but that fell through due to Bureaucratic reasons beyond my control! Anyway I´ve since found my voluntary work (actually Maria Elvira and the other sort of missionaries found it for me), helping out in an orphanage for girls. It´s not really an orphanage actually. It´s more of a weekly boarding school for girls who´ve lost one or both parents, and whose remaining parent or family member can´t take care of them during the week due to having to go to work and being too poor. It´s a really nice place and I´ve taken some photos which I´ll try to put up now... I started working there last Monday and so far all going well. I´m helping the older girls with their English homework in the mornings and then spending most of my time with the 3 and 4 year olds all other times. I start at about 8am and
In Gali's house
I really like thisfinish usually about 4.30pm. Kids are really sweet though I got bitten yesterday by one when I was trying to stop her being electrocuted, and on Friday another one peed on me... Oh and another wee girl keeps telling me she doesn´t like me... Ahhh so cute!
Ninanyways am enjoying it and people there keep telling me how much they appreciate me, hurray, finally some recognition! I plan to stay there about another 3 weeks and then go to some spiritual exercises with the Cruzadas de Santa Maria (where I´m staying) for about 3 days. I´m looking forward to that. It´s time to spend reflecting and learning more about getting closer to God and it´s 3 days of almost absolute silence. No nasty cynical comments please!
Yeah and after that I hope to travel for the remainder of my time here, to Cartagena and up the coast a bit more. Medellin rains a fierce amount and my tan is getting very farmery- just back of neck and sleeves...
Medellin is getting to be a lot more familiar and less intimidating now. When I first arrived, Gali took me around the city and the first thing we encountered
was a guy who asked us for food and then he told the police he´d stolen the handbag he was carrying and the police did nothing and let him go off to hound (understatement) some other poor wretched souls... But I´ve since met really nice people and am having more of a social life. On Thursdays I go to the Palace of Culture to watch cultural films which usually make me cry. Ok I´ve only been to two so far but am sure this Thursday´s film will make me cry too; it´s about children who lose their families due to war (a bit like many of the kids in the "Hogar" where I´m working, quite upsetting)...
Oh and Jamie, I´ve not been to the Plaza de Periodistas and I´ve been warned against it too, I just can´t fit in and pretend to be Colombian. People keep telling me what an obvious target I am! Thanks for the tourist tips though! And I hope to go to El Peñol this weekend. How´s Chile and Jessica? Hope all good.
Righty so, well have to go do something now for Gali- look up Aladdin and other films on YouTube for her
to use in classes.
Finish this soon and will put up photys!
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Edu
non-member comment
Hola Helen!!
Veo que lo estas pasando bien y al mismo tiempo ayudando a esos chicos, te felicito!!! Se te ve muy feliz en las fotos... Mucha suerte con tu viaje y cuidate mucho!!! Besos, Edu