El pelota ... BOOM!

Each day, on our way to the school in La Chureca, we stopped to get ice. One day, we stopped at a convenience store with this lovely tile design in front.

Jordan - just before giving his hat to Tito outside the school.

I jumped out of the van to take a photo and then went in with a couple of others to look around. It wasn't our usual ice stop. The first thing I noticed was a bin with several balls, including a really enormous one - maybe 36 inches in diameter? I wriggled the ball out of the bin and gleefully bounced it up to the counter. We'd noticed that the soccer ball the kids normally played with was a little flat and had wanted to repair it or find another to take its place. I thought they'd enjoy the ginormous ball for at least a few months ... or weeks maybe. I was realistic enough to know the playground hazards and handling by more than 100 kids would shorten its life. This was a really cool ball - el pelota.

Back in the van, we all signed the colorful ball with a permanent marker as we went the rest of the way to the dump and the school within. After several days, we were getting into a bit of a routine, knowing the stops along the way, the toothless ancient woman begging at the intersection near the gas station, the quivering and quaking veteran with Parkinson's lying on the grass near our turn toward La Chureca ... the children greeting us outside the entrance to the school ... including Tito with his wild hair the telltale reddish color that indicated severe malnutrition. 

When we got to the school, Jordan made a beeline to Tito and gave him his hat. Some days, there wasn't enough room in the school for all of the children who gathered outside the gates. We'd discovered that we saw different children each day, though we did get to know many of the regular attenders. Jordan got to know Tito one of the other days and had brought the hat that day hoping to give it to him. 

Inside, it was play time and the new ball was a big hit. Jordan took off with the kids and I headed to the play yard in the back to finish our Big Painting Project. A short while later, Jordan came out and told me the ball hit the razor wire on top of one of the walls. He said one of the kids ran up to him, held his arms wide and said, "El pelota - BOOM!"

Fancy that. BOOM translates the same in English. So the memory will last much longer than the ball itself. I suppose that's the way these things go.