As mentioned before, I've had the honor of helping out and getting know the great people of the Perales community in the district of Santa Anita. The church there has been a great blessing for me and it's been incredible to build relationships with the people there. We've been implementing several programs for children in the community on Saturdays. This includes a morning of sports (soccer for the boys, volleyball for the girls), then an afternoon of classes (English, Mathematics, and Handwriting). They are the sweetest kids, especially the more I get to know them and it's really great to see the enthusiasm with coming out and participating in the programs. Other events throughout the week include a Wednesday class taught by a local seminary student on the history of the Presbyterian church (very very interesting), Sunday children's church, and Sunday night church service. Again, I can't say enough about how welcoming and encouraging everyone has been. Some of us have even formed a little dinner group where we try to get together once every two weeks or so and cook a homemade meal and eat together. I think I'm going to introduce them to Smeag's Lasagna this week. We all might try to go to the beach sometime soon as well. And as well, I'm excited for doing some special events with the church leadership or a few individual kids. We'll see!
So let me run down a typical trip to Santa Anita:
First of all I have to take three different buses to get there. If there's absolutely no traffic I can go from my door to the door of the church in 30 minutes, but it usually takes more like an hour to arrive. I don't mind though because for the most part I love riding combis. I especially like the ride on the second combi in which I ask for "Jockey Plaza" and without fail the bus assistant guy always yells out "YOCKEY YOCKEY YOCKEY!!" upon arriving. I know I'm going to miss that when I leave. Then I walk over a big bridge and typically pass by the "Llamadas girl." This is a girl who works selling calls and in order to get the word out stands in the same spot yelling in the most strange, whiny, loud, yet almost irresistible voice "Llamadas llamadas llamadas!!" Another one of those trip to Santa Anita staples. Then comes the final bus that brings me to Santa Anita where I cross another bridge into the neighborhood. Here I have to walk about 3 blocks to the church and pretty much every time I can recall get yelled something at me. "Chiquito (shorty)" is popular also "Hello how you?" or "Where you from?" are quite common as well. Good to know people are so friendly and willing to get to know so much about a stranger...right.
So that's the way it goes. Here are some photos to snack on.
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