How He Loves: Villa Catalina

We spent Monday afternoon and Tuesday in Villa Catalina. It was amazing to see the difference in the way people lived and acted there from the dump. There was color, life, and laughter. The Villa is far from perfect, but there is hope and growth.

One of the first things Katie, Stephen, and I did was visit the newborn baby of one of her friends in the Villa. The woman welcomed me and Stephen in to her small brick house though she had never met us, and we all got to admire, hold, and take pictures of her baby.

Then we walked around and visited a few more of Katie's friends there. I met the four year old boy that she's known since he was only a few days old, and his sisters who also know Katie really well. One of the other mothers we visited went and got bananas, came back and fried them, and served them to us with cheese and juice since we hadn't had lunch yet. It was incredibly delicious. After Katie left to go start teaching her afterschool English class, I stayed and played MarioKart with the kids there (yes, they had a little TV with an X-Box). It was pretty sweet to bond with kids over one of my favorite games, especially since it involved little talking - my Spanish isn't exactly superb.

Here are a few more pictures of what the Villa looks like. It is so different than the dump. All of the little houses have gorgeous plants in front. There's clean water because Amigos drilled a well there. They have a health center with free health care, a school, other after school programs, and many families have started their own businesses.