Kids in safe places

Our first outing today was to a very small project, a small day nursery for pre-school children with working parents. Then we went onto a much bigger project in the city centre, a day nursery in a very small house packed with 80 children, different ages on each floor. The children come from the families who work on the rubbish dump nearby (the one we saw on Sunday).

This was a place full of love and concern by the staff for the children and the parents. There were not many material resources in this place, but much spiritual resource, when asked about their prayer requests the leader asked that we pray for the families of the children to find Jesus and so turn their lives around.

The children who attend this project are at high risk of abuse of all kinds, trafficking, drugs and violence. They were a very friendly bunch of kids, clamouring to have their photo taken and then see the photo. These kids welcomed us and blessed us, we who have so much compared with they who have so little.

After lunch and a bit of sightseeing in the city centre we headed off to see the new site of El Castillo, called Hierbabuena. The children had recently all moved from 6 different homes to the one site, and seemed to be settling in well to their new environment. Today was “museums day” in Guatemala, with free admission, so we had a fun journey on a school bus with them back from the city to the home. These ex street kids now live in safety in El Castillo, the oldest Toybox project.

After looking around the site and seeing all the kids in their homes, we enjoyed a meal with them of tamales de gallinas (chicken and maize), bread and hot banana & maize juice (sounds awful but was actually delicious). It was great to be with these kids in their new home surroundings and to see how happy they were, just acting like normal kids.