All the chat

First of all, I would like to give many apologies for not updating my blog in a while, I promise to try and write something extra special for you all today! In one piece of amazing news, this morning i finally managed to send a christmas package to my family! After having to jump through all kinds of hoops: leave the packet open, provide us with four photocopies of your passport, we need your fingerprints etc I eventually managed to do it this morning with a lot of faff around but ultimate success. I have possibley never been so proud of myself in my whole life. It was quite strange though, because there was a Christmas tree and a Santa Claus in the post office, and i don't really feel like its Christmas as it seems to be passing with so little comment. I am very interested to see how Christmas is at El Alfarero, but I do always think that there is nothing like having a Christmas that is the same as every other Christmas you've ever spent.

Things do seemed to have calmed down a bit in the home, although unfortunately one more of the girls who was involved in the drug taking has now left the home, taking the numbers down to eleven: its hard to believe that there were seventeen at one point! In some ways this is a good thing, as it feels like the less girls there are, the more attention that we are able to give them, but my heart does also stay with the girls who have left the home, as the chances are I will never find out how their lives end up.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how the lives of the girls will be when they leave the home, because as well as I get on with some of them, I just can't imagine them in any other context: studying, with jobs etc. There are a few whom it is obvious have the capacity to go far, but what of the rest? What of the girls who already have two children before they even turn eighteen? Obviously they are studying and starting to equip themselves for the future, but I just really hope and pray that they will all genuninely be able to do something with their lives, something that they really want to do.

One piece of news is that the handcrafts the girls are constantly doing are finally coming to some kind of a purpose, which excites me as it did all seem a little bit pointless! All the little cross stich designs that they have been working on, we are now turning into cards for Roger to take to the States and sell when he goes there for Christmas. They look really really nice which is great, and its great for the girls to be able to see that people are willing to buy something that they have made. Its also good as the whole minisitry continues to suffer in terms of finanaces, so it would be really good if you could pray for that. Also, the house parents who have lived at the boys home (El Camino) for the last two years, are leaving at the end of the year on fairly short notice, so it would be really good if the praying types could pray that we will be able to find new people for that demanding job in a short space of time.

Other than these pieces of news, it does seem that things have just chugged along the same here, with the same kind of daily challenges. On a personal level, I'm feeling much more settled here this week than I was last week when I was quite itchy to get back to Scotland and see you all again. But realisitically, I know that I am only here for another six months, which is not really that long in the grand scheme of life and I have to make the most of it, and try to make the biggest different possible in the lives of these eleven girls while I am here. I still don't have millions of friends here, but I am going to a hen 'afternoon' tomorrow, as the social worker is getting married on Saturday. Thank you for continuing to think about me and pray for me, and hopefully I'll have more news for you next time!