Long time no post!

So it has been a while since I last connected to the world via my blog, or newsletter, I hope those of you who receive my newsletter should now have my update from January and I will aim to get March out soon, but in the meantime I will give you a brief outline of what has been happening in my life since then!

Firstly work-wise 
I continue to work with El Refugio running the library for the kids to come and do their homework after school. so far this year it has been really busy, the start of the academic year so the kids are all really enthusiastic! we will see how long it lasts this year. The main group are a group of girls who have only been coming to El Refugio for a year and are quite hard to handle which makes life difficult at times especially as I am often on my own with them. At the end of last year my camera when missing from the library and although I have no proof I am certain it was one of these girls. But that is all part of the work we do, teaching and discipling these kids to take on different values and habits than their parents and other family members. 

Also, I am helping twice a week with the small groups, this year we have 6 new kids in our group of 9 which has really changed the dynamic as these new kids also are learning to adapt to the rules and behaviours we have in the small group. We are blessed with a very patient teacher and this year 2 German gap year students who are really good and have a great level of Spanish.  Most of the 6 new children have severe behavioural issues as well as academic, but we only have one this year who is at preschool level, she is Nayerlis who is 11 years old and has not spent much time in schools due to a chaotic life including displacement (being forced to move from one area of the country to another). Therefore she not only has no literacy skills she also has a very short attention span and can only manage to work for about 10 minutes before she looses focus and becomes disruptive, even if she is being worked with one-to-one. 

I Still have Thursday mornings to work on my own project of working with girls caught up in prostitution, my current challenge is reading a research report conducted in Bogotá on the issue, it is a challenge as it is in academic Spanish that is hard to understand, now I have no internet it is harder as no Google translate to help! However, it is worth the slog as it has a lot of good information about the law and government responses to the issue of prostitution generally and in regards to under-age working. 

Also, I have met with a lawyer friend who has been doing some more research on my behalf which I am waiting for a convenient time for us to get together and look over what she has discovered, this will be more up to date and localised than the report I am reading. I haven't had much luck in contacting one of the main foundations that works with girls involved in sexual exploitation so far but am pursuing that and other possible contacts.  

Personal Life

Not even half way up

Well it is my personal life that has been the main cause of my lack of communication! I moved out of El Refugio in October but the house I was living in was very busy and hard to concentrate in. I looked into moving with some friends and spent a lot of time looking at flats but in the end that also fell through so I went back to looking for a room to rent that would be big enough to be able to have a sofa bed so my friend Sue could stay with me for the 3 weeks she was in Colombia. One week before she arrived in February the Lord provided and surprised me!! I found a nice room in a ground floor apartment in a secure block that also has a POOL!! yes for less money than I was paying before I now have a pool!! I share the apartment with an old lady called Ana and another girl Ana Maria who rents the other room, oh and we have a cleaning lady and carer for Ana who is called... Ana!! Yes I am thinking of changing my name to Ana Petra just to fit in! 

The Storm looming in the background!

So just as I had settled into the new flat my friend Sue came over for 3 weeks, she is a Methodist minister and is on her Sabbatical so she came to spend time with me but also to volunteer at El Refugio for a while, so a hectic schedule of work and tourism set in, which was to last 5 weeks for me! During the middle weekend of her time here we went to the Amazon region of Colombia to see the Rainforest and the River! It was quite the adventure, Sue getting hitched up on a rope to the tree tops 38 meters in the air (yes I chickened out!) and then the next day getting caught in a massive rain storm while in the middle of the Amazon river on a very small motor boat! But we survived it all with just a few mossie bites and lots of damp clothing! 

Just 3 days after Sue left my Dad and Brother arrived for 2 weeks, I wasn't able to take all the time of work that I wanted but generally spent the mornings at work and the afternoons with them, taking my Thursdays to be with them as well to be able to do some of the day trips Cartagena has to offer. It was a challenge as the 2 men have very different ideas of what makes for a good holiday! My dad liking to do as little as possible and my brother wanting to do things and get to know the culture and city. I hope I managed to strike enough of a balance for them both! 

Well it has been 2 weeks since they left and so I am gradually getting my life back into order, I hope now stability has arrived I will be in touch more and we can share more with each other.

God Bless you all
Petra