Davicho

Well, the group today was David, Paul, Miguel, his little brother, and the 2 Otovalo brothers. 6 little guys between 10-12 years old from the Iñaquito market group... this is I think the 4th group (or 5th) of kids I´ve worked with over the years, and they´re the ones that have shown the hardest hearts and most inconsistency.

David (a.k.a. Davicho) is the one from this group that I´ve known the longest,,, I think I mentioned the portrait I did of him years ago that I still have in my sketchbook. He seems to be the authority in this bunch of kids. And I think he really does get this God-thing. (A bunch of little tiny but important interactions happened during this whole game give me hints about it.) His little brother Paul was there (for Michelle & Steve Schario,,, you guys will remember he´s the one that was so little he could run through players legs, playing soccer down in the park --- and who also got angriest fastest.) ... they call him "Pony" or "Ratón" .. today it was Pony; 2 days ago it was Ratón. He was actually looking at me and winking when he had to give up a turn for some dumb reason. For the Otovalan brothers, it was the first time really to sit down and play as a whole group. They blended well. (I haven´t learned their names yet.)

I wasn´t sure how it was going to work out, for all the rules, and patience, and sharing, and turn-taking the game requires,,, but 2 days ago I decided to take Sorry! down to them on the sidewalk and see if they could do it. They loved it. And that´s an understatement. Today they sat with me for 2 hours straight to play. I actually didn´t get to play any,, taking a supervisory role as referee should emotions get out of hand. I think the most amazing thing was that they were actually getting along with each other and helping each other out (actually giving good advice to their opponents on how to use his turn...). It was my job to take kids out of the game who let a hand fly to hit another one (that´s a typical thing they do, even when they´re happy), or when "bad words" came out. I only had to pull one out for hitting,,, and since the rest of the group decided forgiveness was an option, they let him come back in the game after missing 2-3 turns... with hugs (you-know, the "boy kind" that looks more like a wrestler´s hold around the neck). Actually, that was Paul/Pony/Ratón --- and he was the one who had been hit...

But something else happened today while we were playing. After 6-1/2 years of working with these kids, and praying, and offering and asking for help with these guys and getting not much more than lukewarm responses, a chef came over today while we were playing and gave us a 2 liter bottle of Coke. He looked like his heart was breaking. He apologized for not having cups, and I said not to worry we´d find some. Then the 2 friends who were with him started scrambling around, and before I knew it, they had brought proper tall glasses over for the kids to drink from. The chef wanted to know was I taking them to Church, and I let him know I had my Bible with me ... and he suggested I look them up in case we could do a kind of Thanksgiving Dinner for them somehow. He said he was from Cuba and there was so much poverty... and he just looked like his heart was breaking the whole time he was talking and watching them.

Apparently these guys were a catering service who had finished some function at Hospital Vozandes (we were playing out front), and while they were waiting with their mirror-topped table, Cokes, and glasses for the catering van to come pick them up, they saw us playing and came over to help.

Who´d of thought --- a chef?
M