Day 20 - Bowling

Bowling and Meeting Some Students

This is not the blog I planned to send today, but I had a fun evening and wanted to share it while it is still fresh on my mind.

First of all, I stayed home all day waiting to talk to the director of the school.  He has been very sick, but still taking care of my visa.  That has been making me feel bad.  He doesn’t need the stress.  He decided to give the job to a young man who works at the school.

His wife contacted me after lunch and said her husband would be helping with my visa.  She also said they were going to Cosmic Bowling this evening with several of the kids from the SCCLC, Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center.  She asked if I’d like to come along since there would be some of my future students there.  I said yes.

Cosmic Bowling is just 2 blocks away.  So you can imagine the difficult walk that is.  I know this is kinda weird, but I wondered how far the chicken place was from my house.  It is the same distance as the bowling alley.  The other night, I counted the steps.  From the checkout line to my door, that includes walking down the street, into my building, and elevator, is only 500 steps.  A seriously difficult walk.

So I was walking over to the bowling alley, and I saw a young man in the plaza near my house, that I recognized from his Facebook page.  His name is Chris and he works at the school.  I looked on Facebook before I left so I would recognize them.

Chris and his wife, Melissa, are about the age I was when I was last in Bolivia.  Actually they were born about the time I left Bolivia!  They are starting their second year here and they love it.  You can see it on their faces.

There were 6 kids at the bowling alley: Caleb, Jasmine, Park, Tati, Gabby, and Mateo – I think that was their names.  Three girls and three boys in grades 7 to 11.  I only think two will be in my class this year. 

They were kinda shy getting to know this old man, but after an hour they did talk.  I got some nice insights on the school from their point of view and some of the kids I will be teaching.  And I actually got a strike!