This crazy little thing called Kermesse

            Friday, my first day at Albergue (the center of Mosoj Yan where the girls live) I got a tour from Maribel who proudly showed me around the girls bedrooms, kitchen, meeting rooms, and the psycologist’s room on the third floor. She also showed me the view from the top floor, which looks out over the city and surrounding mountains.  From here you can see the Cristo, the giant Christ statue, perfectly on most days, but today there was smoke from the illegal fires burned in celebration of San Juan the day before.

            We went downstairs and just as I was getting the hang of cutting the cucumbers the right way, Gonzalo brought in 9 grocery bags of fresh meat. For more than 2 hours, we cut the fat off the meet and chopped it into little pieces. Maribel asked me if I’d ever worked as a butcher before.  That was nice of her.

            On Sunday I came back to Albergue for the Kermesse and tables were set up, music was playing, and the girls were working hard preparing fresh food to sell to raise money for their campamiento (or their camping trip) to Chaparé. The place looked like a good ole outdoor barbeque, but Bolivia style. I bought the freshly prepared plate with familiar looking meat, rice, choclo (ummm… to hard to explain… but it’s a vegetable), and white corn on the cob with HUGE cornels. I tried sharing my food and heard the same thing from these girls as from my aunts- no, no, you need to eat!

            My contribution to the day was babysitting Susanna, a very fat baby girl whose mom Julia, 15 and Quechan, was working and selling food. In the past 3 days, Julia really warmed up to me. And in the past 3 months, she’s made huge strides in her self-confidence. She came to Albergue very stoic and shy and hardly spoke Spanish. Now three months later she’s laughing with the girls, teasing her daughter in Spanish, and has been coaching Alejandra, who was 9 months pregnant on Saturday, through the pain of her contractions.

            The Kermesse was a success, and was a mark of celebration for the girls because the day before, Alejandra, 20, had her baby boy, Angel. Today, Tuesday, I got to meet Angel. And I witnessed his first bath. I also witnessed the camaraderie between the girls at the house, especially Julia and Alejandra. They all want to learn how to care for these babies, and they want to know how to one day do more than their parents could for their kids. These girls are great. They are learning a ton, and even if they don’t master everything, they really know how to cook meat.