Prevention

Thursday afternoon I had the chance to go to one of the Prevention centers the Parish has set up. School only runs half the day due to teacher and space constraints, so kids either go in the morning or afternoon. They have these centers set up so kids have a positive place to go. Otherwise, most of them are just by themselves on the streets, making it really tempting to get involved in poor choices. For the 2 hours I was there, I colored with the kids, gave lots of hugs, and watched them play leap frog over one another (a strange, but fascinating game haha!). Some kids worked on homework, some played foosball in a corner of the room, and others just "chilled out". One girl, probably about 10 years old, helped me with my spanish :) She would point to things, tell me the name in Spanish and then ask what it was in English. We BOTH learned a lot!. The hope for these centers is to keep kids out of trouble and out of gangs and keep them in school. I was so impressed with some of the skills these kids have! I am no artist, but some of these kids draw REALLY well. And of course, I am continually impressed by the physical skills these have...and the fact that when they fall down, they NEVER get hurt...or at least don't complain about it!