The elderly home and soup kitchen in Yapacani

Two of the parish projects in yapacani are the elderly home and the community soup kitchen. These are two places that I wished I was able to spend more time at, but I have been involved in so many other things. These two projects are targeted at the elderly who do not have family to take care of them. They receive really great treatment and love from the workers that tend to them.

From the time I arrived in yapacani in septemeber 2014, I have been eating my Sunday lunches after mass at the elderly home called hogar Don Bosco. There are about 16 elderly men that live there. There is a family that lives at the elderly home that cooks, washes clothes, and many other things for the elderly. Its always nice to chat with them and pick at their brains of their lifetime of experiences in Bolivia. One of the family members that lives there is an 8 year old little girl and sometimes together we will read the Bible together to them until they fall asleep at the lunch table. Some of them suffer from physical problems like blindness, have no legs, are in wheel chairs. Father Arturo told me Juan use to be an alcoholic and would pass out drunk in front of the church. They offered him a place at the hogar and now he is much better and love the hogar. He lets me talk about God with him and he likes to ask me questions about God and myself. The elderly are really fascinated that I have come from the united states and they are always asking me questions.



I always love watching these two together. The one man is blind and so his buddy guides him around. Ive seen them at the elderly home, the soup kitchen, church, and even in the market area. How great it is to have a friend that is always at your side, even until death.

There is a community food kitchen that caters to over 50 elderly men and women 6 days a week in yapacani. Once again this project is aided by Chalice and the Salesians and it amazes me of all the things the Salesians do to makes sure help is given to the community.There is another family from our church that cooks at the soup kitchen. They also invite the elderly to help prepare the food. It’s a nice atmosphere for the elderly to come together to chat and share a meal. Lunch usually starts with a community prayer of thanks for the food that we are eating. It’s a lot of fun to pray with old people I had the honor to lead the prayer a couple times. Im usually shouting really loud when praying because they have a hard time hearing. In the beginning of the year, the elderly had to bring their own dishes, utensils and cups. Except they didn’t look like regular dishes or cups. They would bring cheap plastic containers that look like dog dishes and for cups they brought empty containers of like Nescafe. Meanwhile the family at the soup kitchen treated me as a king with nice silverware. It was a little uncomfortable but now I can have solidarity with them because the soup kitchen has now provided silverware for everyone. Except that the old people sometimes walk away with the forks and spoons after lunch, I think unintentionally.

The elderly are patiently waiting for their food, they are teaching each other the abc’s

 

Sister Angelita distributing the lunch



The Senoras know not to serve me my soup with chicken feet or chicken heads it. They think it scares me.

 

 

 

sometimes Fr. Arturo stops by for lunch and will give the prayer of thanksgiving

 

This is a photo of the Italian salesian priests that I lived with. They are elderly men so I figured since this post was about the elderly, I would include them here. Im gonna miss them too, they were like my grandpas.

This will be my last blog. I will be leaving Yapacani after all Soul’s day, I will be doing some travelling now and will be back in the states at the end of next month in time for thanksgiving. I cannot believe I spent 20 consecutive months here and I cannot put into words. I wish I could have showed more to you of the mission in my blog. I faithfully kept to my promise of providing one blog per month during my stay. No one can say that I didn’t try to let you all know what I was doing while I was away from the USA. I want to give a special thanks to the Salesians for this gift of being here. Another special thanks to Fr. Mike for commenting on my blog almost every month and giving me your thoughts and prayers. I hope future Salesian Lay Missioners come to Yapacani, Bolvia. The kids and the adults cannot stop expressing how they are going to miss connor and me. Right now we do not have volunteers to replace us. Part of my reason for having a blog and updating it each month was to motivate all of you who are on the fence about doing a mission here in yapacani with the Salesians or doing a mission in general. If you are young, donate your life for a year to a group of people. In particular in yapacani, there are countless of opportunities to get involved here with a great supportive community. If you ever have questions feel free to leave  a message on my blog or email me. I will be happy to answer your questions. God bless you in whatever you do.

Im going to miss these kids at the boarding school the most where I spent most of my time. I pray to our Lord that He sends future salesian missionaries to this boarding school.