Barrio realities

The other day a 12 year old girl was visiting me while I was doing my first ever batiking project (involves dying fabric and using wax to make designs). When she left my cell phone was gone. Being that I knew she’d taken it Bau and I went to find her and hopefully it before it got sold or something like that. Now in all my (almost) 8 years in this country I haven’t had many things stolen. I generally feel that the barrio is a very safe place and feel that people are generally very good hearted, especially if they feel you’re doing good things in their community. Yet at the same time I know stealing can be a temptation for anybody, so it didn’t really shock me. We walked around half the barrio and couldn’t find her, but we did talk to an ex-gang leader who said he’d talk to his friends and see if anyone had bought it from her or anything like that. Then I headed back to my house alone and happened to pass by her. I talked to her for a bit, asked for my cell phone and stuff like that. Then a little bit later Bau went and talked to her and got my cell phone back.

I’m happy that I got my cell phone back but even if it hadn’t I’m kind of glad this happened. I hear lots rumors about some of the young girls in the barrio but lots of times I don’t believe them, I like believing those things aren’t true. Yet I can’t ignore the realities youth face in the barrio; tempted to use drugs, to sleep around, to steal, etc. It was a good reminder that I need to spend more time with people….. with young girls encouraging them in Christ, with their mom’s encouraging them in the Lord and encouraging to love their daughters, and with other believers encouraging them to reach out to the youth and those around them.