San Antonio: January 22nd

Today, was different in that I convinced my roommate, Krishna, to be a clown (which meant that I was a clown as well).

It is the only day that we are clowning and it was an impromptu decision with pieces of costumes instead of full costumes. However, it gave me the opportunity to clown with Ana (Anabanana), Ulises (Tomasito) and Jorge as well as Krishna (Sassie).

We visited numerous houses and Krishna and I were both swarmed with kids (something that I have missed from previous colonials) as we moved from street to street.

More than that kids would shout for us to go visit their friend’s house and tell us where they are at. We visited a house with 5 kids who wanted the last of my stickers. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough so we told them to come to the colonial. However, their mother was working until 5 pm so they couldn’t leave the street. It was hard because the only thing I could give them is taking their picture – but they wanted balloons, stickers, and medicine for parasites.

Jorge performed his show today and included Krishna. The kids were absolutely captivated. It was wonderful to see his show and to see the kids giggling throughout. I did practically nothing, which is the way it should be.

We had a time for face painting but I asked that Ulises assist me instead of someone from the American team because Ulises would be (hopefully) using it moving forward. At one point, I was able to tell Ulises that I was glad that he was able to come to the colonial to clown with us. I told him that he was very special – which made him grin from ear to ear.

There was a moment as I was face painting where I was painting something small on a little girl’s hand. Something in my spirit just could feel something deeper and I wanted to cry for her. So, I gave her a big hug, which made her stiffen up. It was overwhelming. I spent today (because of how heavy this colonial weighed on me) not only praying over kids in my mind as I painted them but tried to find ways to give them healthy loving touches – patting their hand, hugging them, tickling their sides….just loving on them.