Day 6

Day 6
We met at our home church (Oriente) for breakfast and went with Juan to visit a few schools and churches in the area. The first school we visited (San Luis) is in one of the poorest and most troubled areas of Maipu. The director of the school took us on a tour and showed us the classrooms, labs, etc. The government helps fund the school even though it is a christian school because of the work they are doing in the area. We then hosted a small clinic for some of the students there. The boys did a great job working with the kids and some of them will be featured on some of the girls' Facebook pages in the near future. After an incredible lunch of roasted chicken and rice, we visited another church (Los Heroes - again, in a very poor area) and Juan showed us around the property and told us about the programs they have there. We played a pick-up game for about two hours where Staiano showed them how 39-year-olds can play (not very well) and then left to host another clinic for one of the soccer teams and play some "baby" against their players, where we finally got a couple of wins.
After the clinic, we went to another church (La Farfana) where we had once and birthday cake then left for Oriente. The kids went home with their families around 9pm and Coach Staiano and Chris took their host family, Rene, Chica, Marce, and the families of Gabe, Eric, and Juan to dinner at Parilladas Argentina, a local favorite. All the guys had very nice things to say about our boys and (for the most part) how hard they worked. They wer impressed as well with their play on the field. Again, I hope at the boys appreciate all that they have accomplished. Gabe wanted the boys to realize especially that what they did in building those two houses in Iloca, changed the lives of two families forever for the positive almost as instantaneously as the earthquake and tsunami nearly changed their lives forever for the worse...