After yesterday's practice, we all went into today feeling much more confident in our brick-laying abilities. Yet we were still plagued with some inefficiencies, and people were doing jobs very much in the fashion of a government project. On some jobs that required four people, we would often find ourselves with two and on jobs that required two people there were often four. Nevertheless, we made tremendous progress today with everyone working hard. One of the highlights of my work day was the realization that in the time I had laid, re-laid and then re-laid the same three bricks. Lisa had finished an entire row right next to me. It was a humbling experience but paled in comparison to watching the Bolivian workers. For every one brick a gringo laid, you could count on Boni Facio to have laid two and still have time to correct your work.
We didn't work a full day although because of VBS we had in the afternoon hosted at the church we were working on. It was by far the biggest one we've done with over 200 children from the ages of one to twelve showing up. It started as pure pandemonium with all the children doing arts and crafts at the same time; but through the grace of God and no small amount of patience by some of the more children/Spanish savvy students, every spoon maraca was tied, visor strung, and stickers placed. My personal favorite was a five year old boy named Eric who kept asking to have his heart drawing tied around his wrist then would untie it and ask again. The chaos of Arts & Crafts soon turned very organised as Joe and Theo separated the children into five groups. These groups were sent to station and rotated every 15 min from drama to music to soccer to parachute to relay races. Alex and I headed soccer where 40 children loosely separated into two teams would try to score on both of us in the goal. The resulting game was much closer to a rugby scrum in front of the net with kicking legs rather than reaching hands.
While the VBS went on, we started to notice a real soccer team around our age had showed up to the field - they apparently had practice during this time. We considered playing but were kind of unsure playing native Bolivians. Our decision was soon made for us after Dan came up to the group saying, "Alright look guys, I just bet 100 Bolivianos with the other teams coach. So you're all playing and we better not lose. I want you to beat Christ into them with each goal we score." Bewildered we agreed albeit with a whole new outlook on Dan. So soon after all the children left, the game started. The field we played on was in a class of its own. If in the 1930's all the farmers in the Midwest had decided to get together and form a regional soccer team, this field would have been there home turf. A few touches with the ball quickly kicked up a cloud of dust that stung the eyes and coated your mouth. Already 8,000 feet in the air, this was doing our lungs absolutely no favors. Yet still, we persevered and on a loose ball on their side of the field Alex fired a shot to put us one up. The goals then went back and forth finally after 30 min settling in at 2-2. The next 30 min the ball stayed almost entirely in our half. We knew we weren't much of an offensive threat when their goalie began to play another game of soccer with the little kids on their half. We played defensively strong and held the game until the last two minutes. On a stolen goal kick from us, their center mid-field player had a beautiful shot to end the game three-two in the Bolivians' favor. The irony was, that even though the game was meant to be Gringos v. Bolivians our best two players were Theo and our bus driver Pablo.
Overall, the game and day had been an absolute blast even if we lost. We had a phenomenal time playing as a team and doing God's work with the children and building.
-- Trevor
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