Stopped by Entre Amigos again today with new friend Tiina Weatherill from Portland. While she took the tour explaining the wonderful work the center does on behalf of the children of San Pancho, I walked through the faculty taking a few photos and then sat at a table in the cafe, just outside the main entrance and library area.
This is what I experienced:
The recycled tree, constructed of materials taken from the gutting and renovation of the inside of the previous processing plant, is a symbol of the organization's humble beginnings when it was a drop in center located at Nicole's kitchen table in a storefront near the beach.
Crushed plastic bottles, held in place between wooden and screen squares, create the walls and privacy for the bathrooms.
A short wall created of yellow painted metal "street bumps" separates a workshop from the main area.
Out back a pile of dark crushed glass is awaiting recycling and/or processing into glasses, bowls, and jewelry.
A poster of photographs hangs on the wall celebrating over fifty individual scholarships offered to the children of San Pancho.
A teen crossed the room with his iPhone in hand and earbuds in place.
Six pre-teens and an adult supervisor are in the gym shooting baskets.
Several young men cross working on various projects carrying their tools.
A white dog sniffs his way checking out this and that. With my making a "tsk" sound, the dogs comes to me to receive a pet or two.
Four younger boys are playing Foosball on the old, mostly worn and broken Foosball table.
A local woman is perusing books on the adult library wall.
A local mom with her three year old daughter in her arms is sitting on a bench outside not far from me.
Another local mom with her young child in a buggy crosses the area on the way to the bathrooms or the workshops.
Tourists stop outside the front door to admire the "Tree."
A young girl "twirls," clumsily as if practicing her pirouettes and ballet skills, from the front entrance, past the reception desk, into the cafe, and out of sight into the next room.
A volunteer man is re-alphabetizing books on a library shelf.
A tourist is shopping in the gift shop.
An employee mops the floor with pine scented soap water.
A mother and son cross the area, hand in hand.
The tour guide enters explaining the area where I am sitting to my friend Tiina.
In one of the workshops, a woman is polishing the cut bottles as she fashions them into drinking glasses for sale in the gift shop.
A man is power washing something in a sink in one of the workshops.
A volunteer is photographing something.
The shop clerk is explaining one of the items for sale to a woman who is shopping.
A boy on a bicycle arrives at the front door and walks himself over to a table in the front park.
A boy chases another across the room and out of sight.
A girl leaves the building carrying a paper plate mask she just made in one of the art and crafts sessions.
An employee crosses the room carrying a mop, a bucket, and on her hip her young child.
A little boy straightens the chairs at the tables in the cafe.
A dog follows a man as he leaves the building.
... and this is only what I was able to remember in my notes as I sat in the cafe, some happening as I watched and some remembered fro having walked through the community center a short while earlier. Can you imagine what else was going on in those places out of my line of vision?
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