FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Hola!

Just wanted to send a quick note wishing everyone a Merry Christmas! We have a big day planned here in the Sanchez household. Lots of cooking and eating! Tonight we open gifts and then have supper at midnight. I think tomorrow is a pretty relaxed day so I am making breakfast for my family! We'll see how it turns out. Anyways, I wish you the happiest Christmas! I am leaving next Monday for La Paz with my host sister and 2 other Salters. We are then traveling for a week and heading over to Lake Titicaca. Apparently it's beautiful! I'm excited! 

Much love everyone!

Feliz Navidad!

Adrienne 

The Countdown till Christmas!

Hello everyone!

I am sitting in a very hot room fanning myself because it literally feels like it's about 40 degrees. This past week has been blazing hot!! It's almost too much to handle! I haven't updated in a while, so here's another.. 

Things are going really well here. I am trying to remember what has all happened in the past two weeks or so. Well for one thing, tomorrow is the last day of painting the new place for the kids. I am amazed at how much work we got finished in the past two weeks. Presently, I am very thankful to have one more day of painting left. There are no kids around these days, which makes me sad, but I am excited to have a bit of a break and spend time with my host family etc. 

 Well I had a great weekend... Kristen (the other SALTer living in Santiago- about 12 hours away) came in for our MCC Christmas party this past friday. We all had the day off and I went over to Laurie's place to help her make lunch for all of us. After we had lunch we went over to MCC and we had a christmas party with all the workers from MCC. We had some games to play and then had a great meal together.  

This past Saturday was cookie baking day!!!! It was such a great day. All of us SALTers got together in the morning and went over to a shopping market and got ingredients to make 4 different kinds of christmas cookies. We definetly went overboard on spending money on these cookies. Every member participating was supposed to triple their cookie batch so we could have a cookie bake exchange. So we started cooking around 11:30 and I make "Jack frost Mint Chocolate Surprise cookies"... I named them that because I put huge chunks of mint and chocolate in each one and so if you can one it was always a surprise to see what you got inside. haha I thought it was pretty clever. I made a total of 113 cookies to exchange. I don't think I've ever made that many cookies before. Now each salter made about this amount so we had over 400 cookies made.  So I came home having this huge try of exchanged cookies to bring to my host family. They LOVED them. I seriously brought home about 50 different kinds of christmas cookies in total. What a day! 

This past Sunday is Walter's 60th birthday! A big milestone. Mary had the whole kitchen cleaned out and people from church came and painted it and the ceiling... and it was all for his birthday. here birthdays are pretty extreme. So we had a big party in our backyard. It consisted of eating and more eating! 

This weekend we are heading out to the country... now Walter wants to leave at 5 in the morning- I'm still confused as to why so early. But I will just tag along and make it seem like I know what is going on! I've gotten quite good at that! Sunday should be another choir practice- I'm doubtful if many people will show up! And then next week I will start helping out in the Children's homes at Stansberry. I am looking forward to being with kids again! 

The countdown to Christmas has started! I can't believe that it is already next week! It doesn't even seem like Christmas. There is definitely a lack of snow here!  

I hope this update finds you all well! 

Much love!

December is here..

Wow. It´s December 5th. What a LONG week! I have been meaning to post something earlier with some pictures but the computers here are so slow. I will try again when I get the chance. Things are very hot here! Today it´s a scortching 40 degrees... it´s almost too much to handle. So these past few weeks have been busy and lonely! Last weekend my family and I drove 2 hours out into the country to a wedding. We got there and of course we were the first to arrive. The worst is not really knowing when the wedding really starts, it mostly depends on when they ¨feel¨like starting! The wedding was very interesting. It was a couple of our church that got married. Anyways, so we had to leave early because we had to head back to be at my host parents grandson´s (Lucas) kinder graduation. And WOW is all I can say! This graduation was hilarious and way over done. They take Kinder (kindergarden) graduations SO seriously here. There were about 100 people there, all dressed up, and sitting at tables with food. Then they called up each of the kids and they all had gowns and hats on!!! So then they all got certificates and then afterwards they showed an hour long clip of each graduate from when they were born until present. It was a long night! My host parents loved it though! Then we went to Talita Cumi (where Lucas´s parents work) and they had a big fiesta. So by this time it was about 11:30. For some reason we drove there and talked to people for about 5 minutes and then decided to just go home. I am never too sure what my host dad is thinking all the time. I´m hoping I´ll understand soon. So that was a long day.

Sunday afternoon was my first choir practice. Oh boy! So six out of the 14 people showed up. So I did the practice anyways and I must say we NEED practice. For some reason here the tendancy is to sing really out of tune...

The kids at the Guaderia are on summer holidays so this past week all of us (the profies) starting sanding and painting the new place in Stansberry that will be the extension to the program I am working in. It was a LONG week of hard labor. I was able to get my hand checked again at the hospital... there is seriosuly something wrong with my skin. I won´t go into details but it is apparently from the sun so they gave me a creme but it is definetly not working.

This next week is more or less the same... just cleaning and painting. This next friday is our MCC Christmas party. I´m really looking forward to that! It´s wierd to be away from family and friends during the holiday season.

I hope you are all well and I´ll update again.
Much love.

New bolivian puppy!

Hello everyone!

I have some time to quick send an update. Well last week was a bit rough with being so far from family during my Grandma´s funeral. I am happy to say that I am really starting to feel at peace with what happened. This weekend was very relaxing and I was able to really believe that this was best for my Grandma.

So last wednesday before I left for work, my host mom came running over to my room and started talking SO fast and I had no idea what she was saying. Turns out that our dog got out and got hit by a car and died. I honestly felt so terrible for her. She was just balling her eyes out. I was thinking, first my Grandma, now my dog.. what next! So I went to work and then came home around 6:30 and guess what... we have a new puppy. They sure got over that one fast! It is honestly the cutest puppy. His name is Pelusa.

On a different note, my mom had sent my CD from Conrad Grebel Choir that I was in this past year. We recorded a CD in May and so I was very excited to be able to finally listen to it. Anyways, I showed my host parents it, and guess what... I am now conducting a choir in my church for Christmas day! I honestly was laughing so hard... first a sermon, then a solo and now conducting a choir. I can only imagine what is in next door for me. My host dad is really good at getting me involved. I appreciate that! So I now have 14 people singing in this choir. We have our first practice next Sunday. Walter wants us to sing 1 or 2 songs spanish Christmas songs, so it shouldn´t be too bad.

This weekend was very relaxing. I had church 3 times... I am sure making up for the times that I couldn´t go to church back in Canada. Nothing else really happened this past weekend. So this is the last week for the kids to come in for help with their homework. The school system is different here than in North America. December and January is their summer break here. So when the kids come back they will be starting a new school year. So now, because it is their last week they are going absolutly bonkers. I don´t blame them... So Saturday we are having a goodbye party for them in the morning. Starting next week we are getting ready to expand the biblioteque.. we are now having 70 kids in the morning and then in the afternoon. A big difference from 30 in the morning and afternoon. So we will be painting and moving furniture until December 18th which will be the start of my holidays.

Also, Saturday I will be attending a Wedding here for a couple from my church. Innitially they asked me to sing a solo at the wedding, but we now have to leave early to then go to my host sisters son (Lucas) highschool graduation. Now usually back in North America they would give out wedding invitations a while ahead of the wedding. Well that is definetly not the case here. For example the wedding is on Saturday and we got the invitation this past sunday. So a week in advance. And then asked me to sing a solo yesterday for the wedding. I was getting a little worried about the limited time to pracitce! So thankfully I got out of that!

Anyways, that´s all for now. I hope you are all well!

Much love,
Adrienne

christmas tree shopping

Time for an update! Things have been a bit challenging these past few days with the loss of my Grandma. Today is the funeral and I have yet to talk to my parents about how it went. There is so much to catch up on. For the past few days it´s been quite slow around here. I took the day off work today which was definetly needed on my part. My head is not in the right place right now to focus on kids doing their homework.

This past weekend was quite hilarious. For some reason my family loves going to this river right by our house. Honestly, I find it quite amusing how excited they get about it! So Saturday morning we headed over to the river. Of course we took our beater of a car and I am still confused why my host dad drove right down beside the river because when we tried to back up we got stuck in the mud. This is honestly the third time this has happened. Cesia told me that she thinks her dad likes getting into these situations because its happened so many times before. So anways we all had to get out of the car. Then of course people start crowding around and we all try and push the car out.. but we can´t. Then a buldozer (sp?) drove past and my host dad started flagging it down but it wouldn´t stop. That would have been pretty funny if we got it to pull us out. Long story short, we finally got out by about 10 guys trying to push our car. So afterwards we started driving away but then turned into this windy road in this huge forest. My host parents were looking for something and I had no idea at the time what it was. So I asked and apparently we were looking for a Christmas tree. I was thinking, ¨honestly people it´s only november¨. And this is definetly the typical christmas tree you would get in North America. We ended up finding this little stick of a tree. So we chopped it down with a machette knife. My time is running out on the computer so I have to cut it down. So we get home and my mom cuts off all of the leaves and then starts glueing cotton balls to the tree to make it look like snow!! I was impressed at the creativity! So now (November 17th) we have ourselves a christmas tree!

I do have to get going. But I will update again when things starting getting back to normal! Hope you are all well!
Much love.

Grandma Roth

Hi all, 

It's been a sad two days here in Santa Cruz. I found yesterday afternoon that my Grandma Roth just passed away (November 14, 2009) at about 12:30 pm. This news came as a shock, but knowing that she is now happy being with my Grandpa I am reminded that I also need to celebrate her life. She was 86 years old. This has been quite a difficult time for me. The funeral is on Tuesday, and my parents are driving out today (from Winnipeg) to be with family. It's at these moments when I really wish I could be with family but I know this is where I need to be right now. Both my siblings (heather- in china; clare- in africa) will be missing the funeral as well. It's difficult mourning for someone when you are so far away. She was an amazing Grandma with many words of wisdom. I will miss her dearly. I ask for your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. I will update my blog soon. 

Much love, 

Adrienne 

ORIENTE VS. BLOOMING!!

Hello All!

It´s been a good amount of time since I´ve written, so here´s my latest update. This past weekend was packed with many things to do! It was a long weekend (Monday was a holiday here in Santa Cruz), so I was thankful to have another day to rest. It has been raining here off and on during the day, which makes the weather much cooler at night... which means that I can sleep better! It´s pretty difficult to sleep when it´s 35 degrees outside! Either way, the coolness is a nice break from the deadly heat during the days!

This past Friday Cesia invited me to go to this festival for her friend. Her friend is in the hospital with cancer and can´t hear anything right now. So people decided to have a fundraiser for him to raise money. So we got there and there were a bunch of different dancers etc.. very cool. Cesia and her friends did a dance together. I was asked to present an award to one of the dancers. I didn´t have to say anything- just present the award and take a picture. so that was pretty funny.

Saturday morning we had a basketball game. I have been coaching the girls here how to play basketball. So this past week we practiced during our refreherio (snack break). So we got there on saturday morning at 9 am and it was a skorching hot day... about 40 degrees out. Everyone was not in the mood to play and we didn´t think the other team would show up. But then at 10 (honestly it´s the bolivian time here- always come late) the other team showed up. So we started playing. I took a bunch of pictures. So the girls played for 10 minutes and the guys played for 10 minutes and we just switched on and off. I honestly thought that I was going to have to ref the game, but then this old woman shows up and has a whistle in her hand, so she took over! I was glad about that! I was very impressed by her knowledge in basketball rules!

Sunday was the big day because it was the 22nd Anniversay of our church. So we went to church in the morning. It lasted till about 11:30. After I was able to sleep a little.. and then at 1:30 we went over to one woman from our church´s house for lunch. It was her sisters birthday so we have a huge meal to celebrate with her! So that was a good time. Then at about 5 pm we headed over to our church for the celebration. I got there and there was a band playing and so I followed them as they walked around the neigbourhood trying to get more people to come to our service. I handed out flyers to people as they came out of their houses to see what was going on. Again, it was about 35-40 degrees out... so everyone was just sweating! Then the church service started. It was 3 1/2 hours long. And I sang!!!!!! AH!! I got up there and was so nervous. I sang ¨Jesus help us live in peace´ in english and then translated it into spanish after. It went over really well. My first time singing a solo and with NO accompliament. I had no time to find anyone to help me out. So I just sang a solo. Everyone loved it. I was pretty proud of myself! After the rest of the service we had supper (at about 9:30) and then headed home! So that was a big day for me, but I am glad that I did it!

Monday, me and Cesia and some people from the church went to the Rio for the day. I got pretty burnt... it was again about 35 degrees. But a fun afternoon. Oh and last night we had some left over bananas so I made banana bread in our kitchen! It turned out to be the best banana bread I have ever made. My host family had never had it before and they really loved it. I was so happy it turned out. I oven has no timer and the heat is really screwed up so I was lucky to check it when i did! Anyways, that was my proud moment yesterday!

So last night was so great! I was invited by someone from my work to go to a futbol game with the two Santa Cruz teams, Oriente vs. Blooming! So we left after work, got something to eat and went to the stadium to get a good seat. It´s not assigned seating so first come first serve. Anyways, we got there about 2 hours early, and right when the game started it started pouring rain!! Everyone went crazy! Then the people cheering for Oriente started lighting fire works. I have to say that I have never been that close to fireworks in my life! We were at the top level and these fireworks felt like they were 2 feet away from my head! Everyone was going crazy! People here take futbol very seriously, they honestly don´t mess around! So he first 5 minutes Blooming scores and then 2 minutes later Oriente scores. Again, it´s still pouring rain... everyone is cheering and screaming! Anyways, to make a long story short, Oriente won the game 1-1... Blooming had lost the game before, so because Oriente tied this automatically put them into the next round. I have honestly never been around fans who scream, spit and swear at these games!
Other than that there is nothing much else that is new here. The After School Program is planning to expand in December, so we are getting ready to move things around and find more space to have more kids come and do homework. Right now there are 30 kids that come in the morning and then 30 kids in the afternoon. So now in February we are expecting 70 kids in the morning and 70 in the afternoon! It´s going to get a little more hectic!

Well that´s it on my end. I will continue to write and post when I can! Again, keep me in your thoughts and prayers!

Crazy Dance Moves!

Hola from Santa Cruz!

It´s been wierd weather here in Santa Cruz these past few days. Yesterday it poured rain all day, the kids at work went completly crazy!! Today it´s just muggy and hot. Well it´s another week at work... tomorrow we have the morning off because we have some SALT banking things to do. This past weekend was good. My host dad just had Hernia surgery, so he has been at home recovering. So my host mom and dad have been travelling to the hospital numerous times for check-ups etc. He is doing much better, which is so great. Saturday morning I headed off to meet my co-workers from work. We ate Saltañas and drank Coke at 9 in the morning. Sick! I don´t think I´ve drinken coke that early in the morning! We then headed off to the pool for the morning. It was quite fun. Saturday night me and Cesia headed over to church, I was assuming we would have a normal church service but we got there and everyone was painting the church. So, in my church clothes, I helped paint our church. We then scrubbed the floors until we could basically eat off them. After we were finished we got home and it was raining. My host dad is the only person in the household who can drive and we needed chicken after church. So Cesia asked her dad if I could drive the car to pick up the chicken. Now I was thinking that he would say no, but he graciously passed over the keys to his little beater of a car. I think I said this before, but honestly this car goes about 15 km an hour. No joke! So the first trick was trying to turn the car on. It´s standard so I thought I knew how these cars work, but because this car is so old it needed time to heat up. So we waited in the car and after stalling a few times I finally got out of the drive way. There is only one windshield wiper, so I turned that on full blast but it didn´t help at all. So... I just continued driving (very slow).. cars honking. Cesia is telling me where to go, and thankfully this chicken place was only about 5 minutes away, so we got there. When we drove back I had to turn left so I started turning the wheel but honestly I had to put all my muscle power (with is a lot.. haha) into turning this steering wheel. It was ridiculous! It was the hardest thing to turn! Finally we got over the bridge and made it home OK! I got home and my dad prayed a long prayer thanking me for getting home safely! He then asked me after if I had a drivers licence here in Bolivia... I don´t.... I think he forgot to ask that before we left to get chicken. I think that will be the last time I will be driving that car, but I can now say I have driven in Bolivia!

So Sunday was a pretty relaxing day. Sunday nights church service was hilarious! We had a regular church service, but then suddenly this band of trumpets, drums and saxaphones came into the church and started playing songs for us. They played about 3 songs and then right when they were about to leave one old man from my church yelled for them to play another song. I think he requested his favourite song because once they started playing he starting running around the church and started doing some crazy dance moves... I was really impressed... and he honestly didn´t stop until the song ended (the song lasted about 10 minutes). Everyone was taking pictures of him. He loved it!

This Sunday my dad has asked me to sing a song in church. So.. if you have any suggestions let me know!

Anyways, this week is another week of work. I have to get going! Hope all is well!
much love

Opposite ends of the world..

Things are going well here in Bolivia. It rained for the first time in a while today... the kids here went crazy! We had a bit of a water fight, which was fun. We just finished lunch and I have a bit of a break before the next group of kids come in. So a bit of an update is needed on my end. Last week (Tuesday), I did my sermon. Now I was thinking that I would be preaching in the church... but no... it was on the street about 2 blocks away from my house. So a lot of people from my church came and sat in this persons driveway. So I got up there and was hoping to have something to hold my notebook, but all they had was a chair. So they told me to sit down and preach. So here I am ¨preaching¨and it was just such a funny setting because taxi drivers and cars would drive by and stop, stare and then keep driving. I don´t think they are used to having foreigners preach.. especially on the street. For some reason my host dad sat in his car the entire time, but still was able to shout out haleluiah when he got the chance. My sermon was about loving your neighbour and what that means when doing service (like SALT). I think it went over really well. It was pretty nerve racking and I told my host mom that I was nervous and she just started laughing so hard! My host sister Cesia taped it so now I have a copy of my sermon. It will be interesting to listen to it next year when I come back home and see how much my spanish has improved. My host parents both said that it was ¨bonita¨, so that was nice to hear.

This past weekend I went with the youth group from my church to this river that we had been to before. Again, it´s not a real river... more like a stream. So we decided to play mud futbol. It was really fun! By the end we were just covered in mud. We then went 4 wheeling again... they didn´t let me drive it- but I think it´s Ok because I think it would have been a disaster if I did.
This past Sunday was pretty relaxing. Sunday night we went to church, and Walter (my host dad) was preaching about reading the bible. Anyways, when he was almost finished he randomly called me up to the front and asked me to sing a song in english. Now honestly I was really put on the spot and I had no idea that he was going to do this. My mind went completly blank. I couldn´t think of one stinken song to sing. So I told my church that I will sing for them another day. So I guess I have to start practicing for that.

This week has gone by fairly quickly. I have been trying to find places where I can go for runs, but honestly everywhere you turn there are stray dogs. Two nights ago I got on my micro and was heading home from work and guess who I saw? The same driver that was driving the one night where he said his shift was over and then had to have my sister talk the bus driver on my cell phone! I hid behind some woman the entire ride home. I found it pretty hilarious though!

So this weekend there is not much planned. Starting next week I have been asked to coach the girls on how to play basketball. There is another school that is wanting to play against us, and apparently they are pretty good, so I am supposed to teach these girls (who know nothing about basketball) how to play. So our game is supposed to be next Saturday at 9:30 am. It should be interesting!

I seriously am lacking in clothing here. I only brought one big backpack for the entire year. I don´t know what I was thinking in just bringing one pair of jeans for the entire year!!! I think next week I am going to check out this used clothing place and hopefully find some bargains.

Well I should get going. I hope this gives a bit of an update on how things are going! My sister Clare is leaving for Africa on Sunday... so I´m here in Bolivia, my other sister Heather is in China and Clare in Africa! My mom is getting a little worried!!! It´s pretty neat though!

Anyways, much love to you all!

Four Wheeling, Samaipata and much more..

Hello!

Well I think it´s about time that I gave an update on how things are going. We returned last friday from Samaipata... a beautiful small village about 4 hours out of Santa Cruz. This was where our MCC retreat was held. We left last Wednesday morning and arrived there in the afternoon. It was such a rewarding and much needed time to get away. All of the MCC staff in Bolivia came and spent time together. I feel like I have so many new and funny stories to tell. While we were there, we had a lot of time to get to know the other MCC workers who are in Bolivia. I met some pretty great people, and am looking forward to continuing to get to know them. We had 2 days of meetings, a very interesting but challenging topics to talk about. On the last night we were there the mosquitos were so annoying at night. I woke up in the morning and found that I have 46 bug bites on my face and 64 on my left arm. It is ridiculous. I look like I have chicken pocks. Anyways, I think they are bed bug bites or from a spider. We had a talent show at the retreat and all of us salters sang a nice song for everyone. It was very nice! It was a cooler temperature in Samaipata compared to Santa Cruz.

I have a pretty scary but funny (now) story to tell. Last week (Tuesday- the day before we left for retreat) when I was at work I was eating a piece of bread and I ate it too quickly, so I drank some water to help it get down... but THEN I started choking. It was so scary! I was by the sink and I started to choke and I couldn´t breath for about 30 seconds. So then people started surrounding me and no one knew what to do. But then one of the cooks came and did the hymlick remover (don´t know the spelling) on me and I then was Ok. but it was really scary. It was funny because the thing that was going through my mind was the movie Ms. Doughtfire when the guy starts choking and then Ms. Doughtfire comes and saves the day. Anyways, it was a scary experience. But I am fine now!

This past weekend me and Cesia and my host dad went to the river. Now this is not the type of typical river I thought it would be. Honestly, it was a huge area full of sand and then there was a little place where the river was.. I wish I could show you pictures. So anyways, we stayed there for a while and then my dad let me drive his car. Now this car is pretty hilarious. It only goes about 15 km an hour so while we are puting along, cars are honking and letting us know that we are going too slow. So anyways in order to get out of the river we needed to get up this huge muddy hill. So I started driving up the hilll but then we got stuck. So me and Cesia climbed out and started pushing the car up the hill. But we were too weak so then 5 random guys come and help us push the car up the hill. It was so hilarious. So finally we got the car up the hill. But then the car overheated. So we had to wait until the car cooled down. But during that time a guy on a 4 wheeler came by and my host dad asked him if I could go for a ride. So me and Cesia climbed on (I was in my church clothes) and we went for a ride ... in the river. We got totally soaked and muddy but it was probably the funnest thing ever. I have some pictures that my host dad took that I will send when I get the chance. So it was a pretty fun afternoon.

This past tuesday the After school program went to the picina (pool) for the day. It was so much fun! So we swam around all day in the pool, played futbol and volleyball. I got completly burnt though!

My host dad Walter makes these booklets that are sent out to Argentina, Columbia, and over places down here, and he showed me his latest booklet for October and my picture was on it, and there is a whole page about me in the booklet. So I guess my face will be all over down here. I thought it was pretty funny!

Yesterday, the SALTers went to a Mennonite Colony about an hour away from Santa Cruz. It was quite an interesting experience. We had time to ask them questions about their life and beliefs and then had lunch with them. I took some pictures so I am going to try to upload them onto here when I get the chance.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving... my first holiday away from home this year. The Canadians who are here in Santa Cruz, all got together and made a huge meal! It was so great! We were going to buy turkey but it was too expensive, so we had chicken instead! I definetly missed being with my family in Calgary this year!

So tonight is the big night were I am preaching! But I figured out last night that it´s not in the church but ON THE STREET! It´s pretty interesting to have a church service on the street, and we light firecrackers to attract more people to come. So wish me luck! It´s in spanish I am continuing to practice my pronounciation! I´m a little nervous though!

Ok well I should go practice my speech for tonight. I kids are coming in an hour so I need to get going! Please keep e-mailing. Honestly, I have enjoyed checking my e-mail and seeing what a big support network I have back at home! I must say that I am lacking in my responses to e-mails mostly because I don´t have much time on the internet. But just know that I continue to think of everyone a lot and I will reply to e-mails when I can!

I love you and miss you all!

an update

Hola!
What a hot day here in Santa Cruz.. 35 degrees! I am sorry for not updating the blog in a while. Things have been moving a long quite quickly and I didn´t seem to get much time to update. Things are going well here. My family bought me a fan today.. thank the lord.. so I will finally be able to sleep better! It get´s pretty intense here at night with the humidity. This past week flew by. Work is going well, although I am completly exhausted at the end of the day. The kids are great, but they really take advantage of my lack of spanish and don´t listen very well. It gets a bit frustrating sometimes! Yesterday the SALTers got together and we had a meeting in the morning and then went to an organization connected with MCC called ´Pronats´. This organization works with children who are working on the streets. It was very interesting to hear about their way of working with the kids and preventing them from using drugs etc. Last night as I was on my way home on my micro, we hit another car. So here, when there are crashes no police come and so people just keep driving when they get into a collison. So we hit this car pretty hard and then we just kept driving. But then the car drove up beside us and the men inside the car started yelling at the bus driver. Then the one guy got out of the car and started punching the micro. In the end the car sped away and so our micro started chasing after the car. Thankfully the car was long gone before we could catch up to them. I have to admit I was pretty terrified after that.

I feel like I have seen many challening things this past week. One including a women beating her 2 year old kid with a stick. People keep telling me that this is normal and I shouldn´t make a big deal about it, but it is a big deal to me. So it´s challening to turn my back and walk away from situations like that. There was one thing that the director at Pronats said yesterday that really stuck with me. He said, ¨You can´t tell a child that God loves them when they are hungry¨. I think this verse is very true, but it´s a challenging thing to think about.

So, my host dad (Walter) asked me the other night if I could preach in our church at the end of October. I willingly accepted and so now I am trying to prepare a sermon... IN SPANISH! I think I will actually learn a lot, but it will take some time to put everything together.

This next week all the MCC workers are heading off to Semiplata for our retreat. It´s about 4 hours away from Santa Cruz... and it supposed to be beautiful! So we´ll all be away this next Wednseday till Friday! Looking forward to it!

Well I need to head off for lunch. I feel like there are more stories to tell but I have no time! I hope you are all well!

bus ride and cow liver

Well it´s probably the hottest day here in Bolivia. I am sitting here with a wet towel on my head because my host mom insists that it will make me cooler. She is right! So I think it´s about time that I get caught up on things and let you all know how I´ve been doing. The last time I wrote we were just about the meet our host families. My host family is so great! Very kind and considerate, and my host mom (Mary) probably has the most hilarious laugh ever! I share a room with my host sister (Cesia, age 27). So last week was a whole bunch of orientation to Santa Cruz. During the days we would meet and have different sessions on touring the city etc. We were each assigned a tutor that helped us go through the micro routes from getting to work and back home and then to the MCC office. We then went back to our host families for the evnings. This past weekend was the first one spent with my host family. Saturday was pretty relaxing, read a bunch and then got together with Corrie in the afternoon. Sunday I went to church with my family. I have to inform you that my family goes to church about 5 times a week. Actually the first day I arrived with my host family I went to church with them. It was quite an interesting and challenging experience. My host dad (Walter) is the pastor there an this little Evangelical church called ¨Filedelphia¨. So that night I was expecting about an hour and a bit of church service... but no it lasted for more thatn three hours. I wasn´t expecting to have a rock band play for us, communion, confessions, offering, sermon and then my host mom taking me up front and introducing me and then passing me the mic so that I could say something. At the time I had just ogotten back from Cochabamba so my spanish was there but very limited... so I told the church who I was and where I come from. So that was quite a neat experience for my first day, a little overwhelming but nice.
So back to this past weekend. I have to say that Bolivians eat alot of fried food, son on Saturday me and my host sister went for an hour long run in a park near by. Initially I wanted to go around the block, but apparently because of all the stray dogs it wasn´t a very safe option. This past Sunday we went to church in the morningand then went to a fiesta in the park in the afternoon. They had a lot of traditional dances from Bolivia so it was neat to see that.
So work at Guaderia Moises started this past Monday. I was very nervous to start work, not really sure what it would be like. I got there ( without missing my bus stop) and was quickly crowed by a bunch of kids from the After School program. The first day was a bit overwhelming because I was given a block of kids to work with, and they were all speaking so fast and I had no idea what they were saying. I was very thankful though because even though there was this language barrier the kids were so affectionate that it realy didn´t matter at the time. So my days look like there. I get to work at 8 am, and get ready for the kids to arrive at 8:30. We then do homework from the day before and get them ready to go to school in the afternoon. So they do homework from 8:30 till 10:30. Then we have a recess with snack till 11:30. During this time I have been playing soccer with the kids and my moves are getting pretty sweet. Then the first group of kids leaves for school, some stay back because they can´t go home so we have lunch with them and they then get to shower and leave for school in the afternoon. At 2:00 the group of kids who had school in the morning come to Guaderia to do there homework until 4:30. They then have recess and a snack and are out the doors and back home around 5:30. I have really enjoyed this first week at work. I feel like this job fits really well into what I want to do in the future with my Social Work career. Which is very exciting!
One funny story that happened 2 nights ago. The teachers (the kids call us Proffy) at the After School program took me out for a welcoming dinner. So we ended work around 5:30 and then had to clean the classroom that lasted until about 8:30. So by the time we were done we were all starving. So we had dinner and then they took me back and waited with me to get on the micro to take me home. So I got on the bus and before I knew it everyone was off the bus except me. My house was still about 20 minutes away. THEN.. the bus driver pulled over and turned off the bus. He then turned back to me and asked where I lived. Now seriosuly I had no idea where my house was except that this bus gets me to the stop that I need to get off at. The bus driver explained that his shift was over... Well I´m thinking that he should maybe end his shift once everyone was off. Anyways so he aksed me again where I lived. I fraintically started going through my bag trying to find an address or something that would direct him to where my stop is. Thankfully I had bought a cell phone that weekend so I wipped out that and called my host sister. I explained to her that she needed to talk to the bus driver to explain where I live. So I handed the phone over to him and he talked to her. I think at this time he was getting pretty angry that I first have no idea where I live and secondly, he´s talking to someone who is explaining where I live. So after he hung up he said that I needed to get on another bus because his shift was done. Ok so now I´m thinking, please just drive me home. So he thankfully waited for me to get on the 76 micro and I hoped on. At this point I am almost in tears beacuse I have no idea where this bus goes. Then Cesia calls me again and explains that I need to tell the bus driver to drop me off at this certain stop. I insisted that she tells him because he probably wouldn´t understand with my limited spanish. So while the bus is driving, I handed my cell phone to him and he talks to Cesia about where I need to get off. Anyways, long story short, I got off at this gas station and there in the distance in Cesia running towards me and my host dad standing there with his hands raised in the air thanking God for bring me back safely.
On a completely different note, I have to add that yesterday I ate cow liver.. I had no idea until one of my co-workers told me.
So thats my update for now, I will write again once more things unfold. Hope you are all well!

Meeting the family today!

It's a windy day in Santa Cruz. We arrived in Santa Cruz yesterday morning after a long 10 hour bus ride! The bus that we rode on was a double decker bus, and we were on the top level. During the night it was SO hot on the bus. For some reason the heater was on the entire night, so along with that the humidity was terrible! The whole night I had my window open but was asked a couple times to close it. Overall a long sleepless night but I am glad to be back in Santa Cruz. Our overall trip in Cochabamba was so great. We met a lot of great people from around the world at the Spanish school we were at. About 3 nights ago we went Salsa dancing!! It was probably the funniest thing ever! So I'm hope that through the next few months I can find a place to take Salsa lessons! It is so great! 

I've realized that I need to update on what we did this past weekend in Cochabamba. Our MCC reps (Lynn & Laurie and their three kids) came from Santa Cruz to Cochabamba and we went to different organizations, the first called "Fundicion Ghandhi". This organization works on peace building and education in schools etc. We got there and learned a lot of Bolivia's history. We watched a video on the conflict in La Paz in February 2003, where there were taxes on salaries which led to confrontation between the Military & People against the Police. The video was very graphic and hard to take all in. In the end 35 dead and 200 injured in 2 days. There was also another conflict in September 2003 where there were protests in gas sales to Chile and through this there was conflict that resulted in dozens of deaths. We were told briefly that the President at the time was willing to kill humans because it involved the topic of Neoliberalism. There are four pillars that follow the topic of NeoLiberalism. 

Pillar 1 - Economic Monopoly 

This economic monopoly was a consequence of Neoliberalism. This was not just between the rich and the poor. Those who controlled the vote didn't create work for other parts of the population. So therefore, the control of money didn't create work. So the money actually was not given to the people but instead sent out of the country. Bolivia is one of the biggest producers of gas and because of the exports and money sent out of the country a majority of the population was dying of hunger. 

Pillar 2- Land Monopoly 

The land monopoly in Bolivia was one of the most unjust land situation in the world. 32 million hectares of land was good for agriculture. But 96% of the land was owned by 13 families which produced only 13% of the food. On the other side the rest 4% of the land was producing 80% of the food to sustain the country. Neoliberalism increased the size of the gap. 

Pillar 3- Monopoly of Gas 

In Bolivia there is 54 trillion cubic feet of gas. This is the biggest natural gas producer in Latin America. 18% of the wealth stayed in Bolivia. The rest 82% was exported. 

Pillar 4- Political Monopoly 

This political monopoly had the ability to make public decisions that effect people. The congress decided who was going to be president. in 1989 the person was became president placed 3rd in the votes. A plurality required for the win. In NeoLiberalism, 23% was most votes won. According to the constitution, congress would elect. Laws were made without public vote. Democracy was understood as the ability to vote every 5 years. 

In 2000 there was the "Water War". Since 2000 Bolivia has been living in tension. So there is now talk about bringing out a new model- which is unnamed. The Right side supports the old model, which was to continue to support the four pillars. And now the Left side supports the New Model which involved transformation. This New Model is trying to Democratize those who have historically excluded, to have a stronger say in the decisions made. So now there is an election in December 2009 to elect a new President. There is a man named Evo  (I don't know his last name)who is running in the election that is for this new change in the system. It is very interesting to see who is for Evo being president and who isn't. 

So there in a nut shell is a little bit of the history in Bolivia. I am missing a lot of different bits and pieces, but I hope this makes sense of what has happened and what might happen in the future. 

After going to Fundacion Ghandhi I definitely have a better sense of what Bolivia is going through and what they went through. We also managed to go to another place in Cochabamba called The Democracy Centre. Here we also learned more about the history and where able to get some questions answered. 

So here we are back in Santa Cruz. This morning we had brunch at our MCC reps house. Pancakes and fruit! So wonderful! This afternoon we are meeting with our host families. Right now I am filled with excitement and fear! My host family names are Mary and Walter. I think they have one daughter named Cecillia. I will update as soon as I can when I have time! I won't be able to update this week.. our schedules are packed with visiting our work places and getting to know the city. But I hope this gives a bit of information about Bolivia and about how things are going with me. I will try and post pictures on here.. hopefully I can figure that out! I hope you are all doing well! 

Much love!

Cold day in Cochabamba..

Well I think it´s about time I updated my blog! This week has flown by so fast! We have 2 more days left in Cochabamba and I must say, my spanish is hitting a rut right now! This past weekend Lynn and Laurie and their three kids drove up to Cochabamba to be with us. We went to many interesting places where we were informed on some on Bolivia´s history and different organizations that run through Cochabamba. I will update on those a bit later when I have more time. I have learned a lot this past week regarding the election that is coming up, I believe on December 6th. It´s very interesting to hear the different view points on the fact that Evo might get elected again. Again, I will elaborate when I have more time.

So this past week has been just a lot of spanish and more spanish learing! I´ve definetly had some pretty embaressing moments where I say the absolute opposite of what I am actually trying to say. There have been some pretty hilarious stories that have also happened during the week. This past week we were trying to catch a micro (bus) from the city to our home stays. I suddenly saw an X10 bus and they didn´t see us flagging them down, so before I knew it was chasing after the micro for about a block... I jumped in and everyone looked at me like I was nuts for chasing after the micro. Long story short, we did finally make it back home.

Our bus on Friday leaves at 9:00 pm which means that we will get to Santa Cruz at about 7:00 am. I usually don´t sleep on these trips for some odd reason but hopefully this trip will be different. Cochabamba is a great city- one that has much history and beauty. I will be sad to leave but hopefully will come again sometime when I get the chance! I hope all of you are well! Again, your thoughts and prayers are appreciated!

Much love!
Chau Chau!

Futbol in Cochabamba!

This weekend was fantastic! Me and the other 5 SALTers managed to plan a trip to the famous Ruins about 3 hours away from Cochabamba. It was so beautiful! There was so much to see and so much history to hear. We were in the sun all day, so I felt a bit sick when I got home. Apparently we are only supposed to be in the sun for 30 minutes out here.. but we were outside for about 6 hours! My host mom lent me her sombrero for the day. Those are really in style here! Yesterday (Sunday) we went to the market to have breakfast with Noami (one of the spanish teachers from our language school). Noami actually did IVEP years ago and was in Rosthern, SK so we made the connection that she knows Evan (my cousin).. crazy! Anyways, we then went to her church. We got there and were introduced to the entire church. My spanish is coming along, I managed to understand the songs but was no where close to understanding the sermon. I pick up words here and there but I´m sure that will improve. After church we climbed up to El Cristo... the famous statue of Jesus on a hill overlooking Cochabamba. It was beautiful! We got to then climb up the Statue which had a great view! I will post pictures once I get back into Santa Cruz. In the afternoon we then we to the futbol game against the two Cochabamba teams (Aurora vs. Whilsteern). It was the greatest thing. My host family told me to cheer for the blue team, but pretty much everyone was cheering for the red team. In the end the blue team pulled through for a 2-1 win! It was pretty sweet. I think the futbol players here are much more dramatic than other soccer games I have seen- although that isn´t that many. I almost started to count how many times a player would fall to the ground after they kicked the ball and rolled around in ¨pain¨when really all they wanted was a foul. There were six times when the medics ran out with stretchers for the hurt players and every time once the stretcher came to them they would suddenly get up and start playing again. Very interesting. People were throwing fireworks and garbage bags full of wripped up paper that they would throw during the game. I found it very interesting that there were police men with shields to protect the players from getting hit by water bottles. I hope to get to see some more games while I am here. We are in Cochabamba for the next 2 weeks for spanish lessons. During the afternoons we usually go out and explore the city! Things are going well and I continue to ask for your ongoing thoughts and prayers!
Much love!

Bonita Cochobamba!!

Hola!
I´m writting from a city called Cochobamba, about a 10 hour bus ride from Santa Cruz! Me and the 5 other SALTers hoped onto a bus about 3 days ago and drove through the night to get here. We are staying here for about 2 more weeks for spanish lessons. We have had three of those so far.. and it´s going well. The first day was pretty overwhelming because we just arrived and then was dropped off at our host families not knowing much spanish at all. I am with a host family who lives about a 2 minute walk away from the spanish language school. My host family is wonderful. They are so kind, patient and funny! I have had some good laughs with them! I have also made a fool out of myself when trying to explain what I am doing! They have a talking parrot (larro) who speaks spanish. So with my broken spanish I have some conversations with him! Cochobamba is beautiful! We are surrounded by mountains and is very hot! Last night me and the other girls went to a famous cafe downtown and had some freeshly squeezed orange juice! Probably the best thing ever! This weeekend we are planning on travelling to the famous ruins, which are about 2 hours away. I am looking forward to exploring more of Cochobamba. So we´re here for the next 2 weeks for spanish lessons. I can already see myself improving in the language. I had a lesson this morning and made a fool out of myself because I said that ¨I love to eat children´instead of saying that I love to eat food! My profesora got a good laugh out of that one! Anyways, things are going well! I would ask that you continue to keep me in your prayers and hope that everything back at home finds you well! I will update more as time goes on! As for now, Chao Chao!

Off to Bolivia!

It's been exactly a week since I have arrived in Akron, PA along with 60 other SALTers, IVEPers and YAMEN members (a total of 130 people altogether). We just concluded our week long orientation here and are about to leave on a jet plane tomorrow around 5:00 pm. It has been quite the week packed with different sessions on culture shock, goal setting, taking care of yourself while you're away, learning about host families and much more! Today was our last day and we began to say goodbye to everyone who we have all had a chance to meet. There are some pretty amazing people that have signed up to go on SALT and I feel so fortunate to get to know them. I met the other 5 SALTers going to Bolivia... all girls.. and they all seem great! The 5 out of the 6 of us will be in the city of Santa Cruz for the year! This week has been one filled with excitement, sadness, nervousness and hope. I set some goals for myself today, and I know that even through the hardest of times things will work out! Today me and a girl named Erin spoke at the commencing at Akron Mennonite Church for all of us and I read a quote that really expresses some things that mean a lot to me. 

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions". 

- Rainer Maria Rilke

So here I am, living these questions I have.. only to hope that I will be challenged and enriched in so many levels. Tomorrow's a big day! 

Here we go...

3 days left...

Well, I finally got this blog set up! I can't believe that this time has come so soon! I am both filled with excitement and fear of what lies ahead. I just finished reading about the history and culture of Bolivia, and it makes me very excited to be there in a couple weeks. This Saturday, August 8th, I'll flying to Akron, PA for the SALT orientation. I will be there, along with the rest of the SALTers and IVEPers until August 14th when we all go our separate ways around the world. I will then fly to Miami, for a little layover, and then to Santa Cruz Bolivia. From my understanding, me and the five other SALTers (who are placed in Bolivia), are then going on a 10 hour bus ride to Cochabamba, located inbetween La Paz and Santa Cruz. There we will stay for 2 1/2 weeks, dedicated to Spanish language study. Each of us will have one on one language study for about four hours each day and will be touring around for the remaining parts of the day. We were told that Cochabamba is significantly higher in the Andes mountains than Santa Cruz so we are supposed to dress is layers. After our time in Cochabamba we are heading back to Santa Cruz to be introduced to our host families and our job placements.

My job position is titled, "After School Program Worker" where I will be working at "Guarderia Moises Daycare Centre" with children. This centre provides childcare for working parents during daytime hours and then runs an after-school program from "alumni" of the daycare, assisting children with homework and serving as a general support to the families of the children through home visits.

As I continue to prepare for my departure on Saturday, I ask for your ongoing thoughts and prayers during this time! I can also be reached at this address... if you want to write me (which would be so fantastic):

Comite Central Menonita
Atiende: Adrienne Schellenberg
Casilla 213
Santa Cruz
BOLIVIA

Keep reading this blog, as I will post my thoughts and stories as they come! Wish me luck on this adventure!