Carles and Merce have been coming from Barcelona,Spain for the last 9 years. As special education teachers they bring expertise,charisma,and distinctive joy,plus enthusiasm to direct our Happy summer (Verano Feliz) Program the trains teenagers to work with kindergarten and primary schoolers in arts and crafts,songs,field trips,and dance. This year,they taught Beethoven's Hymn to joy in sign language to the kids (utterly impressive when all join in together.) We have dedicated the fourth Sunday 10:15 Mass at the special children's' CANOA center to disabilities that includes translation into sign done proudly by two young women from local community and a class afterward. The only problem is that the kids learn more quickly than I. ("tough to teach an old dog new tricks") This year we had 120 youngsters guided by 40 teenagers.
At CANOA-KORIMA we continue the work of therapy. Small gains over long periods provide hope and a measure of acceptance. We put a new roof on the multipurpose building,$340;.If we had waited longer,we would have had to rip off the old roofing material and apply a new base coat. The new roof enables us to contact a solar powered hot water system for hydrotherapy. We will employ the same technology that our house in Chihuahua uses. They purchased the parts for us. But more on this later.
Carita de Dios has a new dinning room. The green house has about a week's work left,and we are working on a peripheral fence. This also falls under the category of continuing projects. The Peruvian house does wonderful work. They face the problem of what to do with the kids that have been with them for more then twenty years. We recently helped them purchase land for a new house(the cost of land has increased 5x's since we purchased the original property 18 years ago.) They are in the process of acquiring permits,plan etc. Carolina recently died at age 23 of a heart attack. She came as a baby after neighbors found her tied to a tree,abandoned. The parents never visited.Upon learning of the death,they came to blame the orphanage for the death and to claim the body presumably to sell the organs. Another child came as a fire victim with burns on the face. After some time,the mother showed up to sue the orphanage for burning the child.But the children all come with a medical record which they accessed and exposed the mother. Instead of Isaiah,I quote Knox translates Mt. 5:11-12: "Blessed are you,when men revile you,and persecute you,and speak all manner of evil against you falsely,because of me. Be glad and light-hearted,for a rich reward awaits you in heaven."
The escalating level of violence in our remote area of Tijuana overwhelms. Last Friday,they bumped off a man by our football field. Later they kidnapped the wife of the proprietor of a fruit stand a block and a half from the house. On Monday they dispatched a man a block from the church. Who's they??two black robed gunmen with masks in a blue Suburban. Our parishioners say, "We put ourselves in God's hand and pray for the best."
