In March I spent a month in Tarija, which is a city in the south of Bolivia on the Argentinian border. The kids attended a project called 'Leche y Miel' (Milk and Honey) ¨ four times a week, for 3 hours each day. The work was with 2 different groups of kids - 3-5 year olds in the mornings and 6-10 year olds in the afternoons. The aim of the work was to try and prevent the kids from moving onto the streets when they are older (see more below), and the work included songs, dramas, puppets, and helping with the kids homework in the afternoons - quite amusing trying to teach Spanish grammar! As well as working with the kids, weekly meetings were held with their parents and home visits also took place as we tried to build up relationships with both the kids and their families.

The objectives of the work were -

• To reduce the vulnerability of these young kids at risk of abandonment, exploitation, abuse, and sub-par education.

• To the give the child´s life a foundation in the word of God so that they learn to live right and according to the will of God.

• To improve the conditions for entry into the school system in cognitive terms as well as in terms of social-emotional preparation.

• To strengthen family relations

For more info, check out the text for March 2004. Meanwhile, here are the kids...

(L-R) Becca and Maria playing with the 3-year olds, teaching the kids the days of the week, and 4-year old Pedro hand printing

Manuel, Renee, and Juan Carlos (aged 4), kids in the 'salle de arte', recreating the Tower of Babel!

The work in Tarija was so different from the work in Santa Cruz and awesome to get out and see another part of the YWAM work here in Bolivia. We worked with 3-5yr olds in the mornings, and I was put in charge of the 4 year olds. It was well good fun - their art was undoubtedly better than mine, and it was quite a good laugh, although there were only so many times I can do a 4 piece jigsaw with the kids without getting bored. We sang some annoyingly catchy songs which were superb, as well as doing art, games and Bible teaching.  Perfect timing for a group of english speaking gringo`s to arrive to teach the Tower of Babel, and we also taught the 10 Commandments, Abraham, and Moses and the plagues (of butterflies?), as well as more theological issues such as the number 4, the letter U, and, memorably, the three forms of water...

In the afternoons the kids were a little older, ranging from 6 to 10yrs old. I was working with the 9-10 year olds, just helping with their homework for those who went to school and doing maths and spanish with those who didn`t. They were great fun, a really good laugh, and I well enjoyed it. We generally had about 22 kids in the mornings, split into 3 age groups, and about 18 in the afternoons, again split into 3 groups. It was a world away from working with the teenage street kids in Santa Cruz, but the aim of the work here is to prevent the kids from leaving their homes and going to live on the streets when they reach 9-10 years old. We lived in the poorest `barrio´ of Tarija, and some of the kids lived in houses without electricity or a bathroom. Most hadn`t even seen a television, and many haven`t been to school at all. We had a meeting for their parents one Friday night, and one of the things that struck me most was seeing one of the 9 year old kids who I have been working with, called Victor Hugo, come to walk his mum home. Nine years old. Mental.

Kids playing on the slide, 'tiempo de Biblia', the front of the YWAM Tarija base

Juan Carlos playing outside and hanging up his painting, Javier (3) playing with water!

4 year old Kattie fingerpainting, base leader Mechi painting with Manuel