So, Tyler, have you been working at all?

Now, some of you, or rather, those of you who have been keeping up with my posts, may be wondering, "Tyler, do you do anything other than travel to exotic countries in search of grand adventures?"

No, not really.

But, I do have a job here in Colombia.

Well, now I do.

You see, for the past two weeks, the three other new volunteers and I have been in "orientation". Formando Vidas has a few different parts, and they wanted us to try them out to see where we think that we would fit in best. For the sake of any future allusions to these entities, and for your own enightenment, I will list them below in the order that they are experienced by the children.

First, there is the street team. This group, consisting of just a few people, will go out into a community, and talk with children and parents about the particular situation of the children in that area, and discern which children are in need of immediate care, specialized education or further observation. This process takes place over a number of months, at the end of which, the kids are placed in their respective ministries.

This only happens every once in a while, due to the fact that we can only care for so many kids at one time, but due to some circumstances which I hope to elaborate upon later, this might be taking place again in the near future, and I have expressed STRONG interest in taking part.

For the younger kids that have been developmentally slowed in one way or another, there is a kind of pre-kindergarten called The Other Way, or El Otro Camino. Here, kids have nutritious meals, learn numbers and letters, and work on things like hygiene, socialization, and movement (many of the kids never learned to crawl).

For the older ones, there is a fully functional school, called Light and Life, or Luz y Vida, where they can attend. Once again, they are provided with warm meals, there is an emphasis on learning social norms (please, thank you, throw your trash in the trash can) and the classes are customized to their level of development. By this, I mean that, for whatever reason, many of these children are at intelligence and maturity levels far below what is normal for their age.

This is where I work during the day. I teach fourth grade.

For children who have been completely abandoned, there is an area of Formando Vidas called 24 hour care. It is exactly what it sounds like. There are two group homes where these children can live, be safe, and have positive parental figures. Many other kids are adopted by staff members or friends of Formando Vidas.

No one is totally sure yet, but the place where I will be living may turn out to be another one of these homes. My roommate, Ryan Gerber, is taking in an 8-year-old boy named Ferney, and you'll never guess who else is partially responsible for the upbringing and well-being of this child. I'm sure that I'll write more about this as events unfold, and unfold they will. Ferney is a handful.

So that's about it. During the day, I work as a teacher, and at night, I help take care of Ferney. I am currently in the process of making preparations to spend Saturdays in Cazuca, a neighborhood in Southern Bogotá that has the highest concentration of displaced people in the area. And as for Sundays, well...I haven't found a church yet, but I'm looking hard. Specifically for a small church that might need a musician or something. Somewhere where I can get to know the congregation, these Latin mega-churches are so impersonal.

Hasta Pronto,
Tyler