GUTS: Day 4

12/29/05

In the morning, after a rather interesting night’s “sleep” on cold concrete floors, in classrooms with no sheetrock or insulation, we woke rather early…(sometime around 5 AM)…to the sound of what sounded like hundreds of roosters. It was ridiculous. It was as if they never went to bed. There was no light out, and yet, there they were, crowing as if their lives depended on the volume. Yikes. It was a lot colder than I had anticipated. It was colder than the last time I was there. But anyway, we finally got up about 7:15 to start the day. We “Monos”-(Monkeys/Entertainment Team)-practiced our puppet show and finished translating the drama that we’d written in English on the way down. After that, I met Angelica, Pastor Joel’s wife. She helped me check my grammar for the skit and then taught me some Spanish praise songs. After that, we all loaded up and drove down the road a couple miles to San Simón to set up. I forgot the script, (of course), so Eileen gave me a ride back to the church. We stopped by a cardboard cooking shack on the way and saw the process of making champurada. They brown the maza flour, cook cinnamon in milk, and create a sort of corn syrupy substance. I don’t have a clue what they do after that, but the end result is delightful!

When we finally got back to the open area/b-ball court, we set up the sound system and chairs. We tossed the football around with the kids, and some of them played soccer. The program began with Angie and I singing/playing guitars, and then moved on to the Prodigal Son puppet show we had on a CD.

Following this, one of the men on our GUTS team told of his life story, and why he decided to follow Christ. Then one of the men who lives in Papalote did the same, but without Joel translating. We performed our drama and then Joel got up to speak for a bit. I was in the middle of translating what I could of the sermon when Don came over and said he needed my help. He brought me over to his van, where Eileen sat in the driver’s seat. I got in the back, and there was Yolanda.

Her small frame was folded up into a trembling fragile heap on the van seat. Her eyes were crossed in the middle, so they never quite focused on my when I introduced myself to her in Spanish. Yolanda has Down’s Syndrome. Her mother died when she was 5, and her dad is an alcoholic. She can no longer walk upright because on of her dad’s girlfriends abused her and dislocated her hip. It remained dislocated for 3 months before anyone took her to the doctor. They thought her hip may be broken, but it was indeed only out of joint. The doctor reset it, but she still crawls around on her haunches if she needs to be mobile. She is 26 years old, and yet her legs are each perhaps the width of two of my fingers side-by-side, and her entire body fits easily in my lap. She feels like a bird rather than a person composed of bone and muscle and tissue. When I got in the van, she was wearing a leopard print furry coat and little purple pants. Eileen explained that she had found her without clothes on. Who knows when she had eaten last? We brought her back to the church to bathe and feed her. She smelled of goats and dirt, but I didn’t notice very much. At first, she shied away from my touch. But after I carried her into Eileen’s trailer and held her on my lap, she began to trust me more. We gave her a shower, and it took two of us to do it. She couldn’t support herself, and was shaking all over. When she was drying off, Eileen made her some oatmeal and I gave her a haircut. We put on some clean clothes, but they were all terribly big for her.

We had to wait for everyone to get back with the keys to the church, so I held her in my arms for about 2-3 hours. She became quite happy, and would make little giggling sounds. Her arm remained around my neck the entire time. Eventually, her sister returned to take her home. She brought us some champurada from the event at San Simón.

While I was taking care of Yolanda, Joel had continued with his talk for some time, and then there was some time for people to pray. Four people decided they wanted to give their lives to Christ. That was fabulous! There was a fiesta following, with chocolate cake and champurada.

When everyone returned, we ate dinner together, and then wrapped up for the evening.