One of the former volunteers spent most of the day decorating. It looked so nice! She hung a balloon on the ceiling for each mother. The balloon had a ribbon with a heart attached. Each heart had one mother's name and a bible verse written on it.
We were supposed to have this professionally done video presentation, but it turned out the sound wasn't loud enough. At first we thought it was our sound system, but other videos sounded fine. The moms really didn't get to hear what the kids had prepared for them, which was disappointing. Three girls sang a song and did choreography. One was dressed in what looked like my senior prom dress. I think they had fun.
There was a big protest by the college students down the hill. They took over the streets which happened to be the only way to get to our community. We thought we were being wise to have the cake sent up at the last hour. But we had about a half our of panic and the cake almost didn't arrive in time because the car it was in was trapped in the protest.
I stalled a little and had the kids all say things to their mothers, since the audio part of the video presentation didn't work. That took up some time. We played some games - one was like the Newlywed game where the kids had to name their mother's favorite color, food, tv program and what annoys their mother most. The mothers all said they watch the news or Christian tv. But according to the kids, they are really watching soap operas, except one grandma who likes "Tom and Jerry". We all got a good laugh out of that.
I was surprised by how many kids did not have their biological mother there. About a quarter are being raised by their grandmother, or sometimes an Aunt.
It was a good party, despite the worry about the cake. In the end everyone enjoyed themselves. As we went back down with security you could see where the protests had been. They tore up part of the road on the bridge! I was surprised because protests lately have been peaceful.
This morning one of my closest friends was assaulted. She is the psychologist I work with in family therapy every Monday, but we also hang out together outside of work. She is the one who also has Zika. There is a photo of her in my post from yesterday. She is wearing the lime green polo shirt.
This morning she was headed to the doctor. She was riding in a taxi when someone put a gun to her head and told her to get out of the cab and get on her knees or they would kill her. She got out and kneeled in the street. People on motorcycles came from behind and surrounded her. They took all of her things, went through her stuff, found out where she works, where she lives, where she was coming from and where she was going. They even unzipped her pants felt inside of her underwear to see if she had any money hidden there. She thought they were going to kidnap her, but they didn't.
I haven't talked to her about it yet. I only talked to our other friend. She is not telling anyone what happened. I feel horrible for her. But all I can really do is pray.
This is why it is not safe for me to take public transportation and why I need to get my car fixed.
Here are some photos from the Mother's Day party.
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| Each mom got a balloon with a bible verse and her name |
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| Playing games |
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| Some of the moms/grandmothers/tias |
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| The cake was enormous! |
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| A volunteer did all of the decorations. My coworker leads the club with me. |
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