CuJuCa!

Despite having a rather late one involving some intense conversation and rather a lot of wine on Friday night, I dragged myself out of bed at the very respectable hour of 9.00 on Saturday morning in order to head up to Conviven to meet Carmen and a few others and head into the villa, where Conviven were participating in a "CuJuCa" - CUmbre de JUegos CAlleros, basically a street party with loads of activities for kids.

Walking through the villa was an interesting experience. Leaving the neatly organised square layout of the city for haphazardly constructed homes, narrow passageways and dusty paths. It was very lively, as strangers entering a reputedly dangerous zone, naturally I felt slightly uncomfortable but with Carmen there I wasn't worried. My initial discomfort soon subsided on arriving at the plaza as there were a few familiar faces from Conviven and we were quickly roped in to helping.

Face-painting area

There was a great community spirit as we set about organising where activities would take place and who was taking charge of what. After a bit to eat and a quick drink, I volunteered to help man the face-painting area. How hard can it be painting children!

The sheer number of kids at are stall was overwhelming, though for the most part we managed to persuade them to form a queue and wait their turn. A pattern soon became apparent; Girls: Butterflies, hearts or stars. Boys: Scorpions, spiders or football team colours.

After about an hour, my knees and ankles were beginning to complain from having to squat for so long, so I swapped out and went to look around the rest of the activities and find Scott...

If you're wondering what's going on in the background, I'm told it's very popular in Paraguay, where most of the inhabitants of this particular villa originate. It's pretty simple; find an old telegraph pole (that's what it looks like anyway), tie some sweets to the top, cover the thing in soap and stand it in the ground. Now try climb it.
Madness. For some, it was a touching collaborative effort that got them to the top, essentially making a human ladder to combat the lack of grip, others (probably after the soap had dried) seemed to make it solo with no trouble.

I spend a little while enjoying the atmosphere before joining the board games table where kids were playing various games. Although in some instances the kids got over excitable or could quite follow rules, they were incredibly well behaved, and one kid after beating me twice at one particular game thoroughly enjoyed explaining the game to the other kids, taking charge admirably. Good thing he kept winning. ;)

 The afternoon was thoroughly enjoyable and chatting with some of the mothers and the kids, it's clear as day that these people are no better or worse than anyone else in the world. The villa was brimming with community spirit and in some senses felt friendlier than some of the inner city areas I've been through. It was a great experience and now I feel like I have a better understanding of the kids I work with and the area. It seems to me that a lot of people in the city think really badly of the villas without any background knowledge. Sure it's not as clean, it's a bit dodgy and there are goings on that you don't want to hear about but they're just people trying to get by like any others. The kids still want sweets, the guys play football in the afternoons and the mums just want the best for their families.