Back on Canadian soil!

Hello everyone, 

This is a long over due update, but realized that I left whoever is reading this on a lurch because I never said that I am finally home!! Sorry about that! So yes, I am home and happy to be back on Canadian soil! We flew back to Akron, PA on Wednesday July 21st and the SALT re-entry started July 24th. It was a wonderful time for reflection and sharing. What a cool experience! I flew home (Winnipeg, MB) on July 27th and am now in Calgary, Alberta reconnecting with extended family and siblings! I am very happy to be home and able to reconnect with friends and family! I also just wanted to thanks for all the support and emails that I have received this past year! I am so grateful and supported! So thank all of you! I am flying back to Ontario on September 2nd to move into my new home and get ready to classes starting September 13th! Looking forward to graduating this year and hopefully getting into the Bachelor of Social Work program for the following year! Very excited for all of this! Thanks again everyone! 

Much love! 

Adrienne 

June!!

I am writing this as I am watching the World Cup, Germany vs. Australia. I have been hooked ever since the first game on friday! We had a tv set up in the biblioteca and all the kids and I watched the opening game. Pretty exciting!

There is really no excuse to me not updating my blog in months! Things have been going by very fast! A lot has happened since I have written last. For example, my parents came to visit me! They flew in on a Saturday morning (May 22) and left the next Sunday(May 30). It was so wonderful to see them! Me and my host parents came and picked them up from the airport. We were able to spend some time in Santa Cruz.. I showed them around different places that I have come to know well. We then flew to Sucre (which would normally be a 14 hour bus ride... or more) which only took about 35 minutes. We arrived on a beautiful day! Sucre is probably my favourite place that I have traveled to yet this year. We stayed in a hotel (recommended by our taxi driver) from Tuesday until Thursday. It was beautiful weather each day so we got a chance to really tour around the see the city. It's beautiful! There are so many old churches and museums that we got to see. Along with that, we arrived on the 201 Anniversary of Sucre, so there was a huge parade and activities going on all day! Pretty neat! We headed back home in thursday afternoon (which here was Mother's Day), so my host family and us went out for dinner together. My host sister had just had a baby about a week before hand so we were able to meet Kayla for the first time. Friday night we headed to a futbol game. Usually the two teams here (Blooming and Oriente) play against each other, but the day we went they had a game off. So instead we watched a game between Blooming and Universidad. It was really fun! A good cross-cultural experience for my parents!

I never realized how stressful it was to tour around my parents for the week. I have never really had to plan a week away in some foreign country. So this was a good experience for me. I definetly had to translate a lot... which was good practice for me. And we made it through! I am very thankful to now have them see where I have been living, my work situation and Santa Cruz. They now have a reference to when I talk about things! I am so thankful they could come!

So the weeks are just flying by! I have approximetly 4 weeks left of work. My last day is on July 14th. Gosh time is going by so quickly! I have been doing really well... things at my host family are awesome, my work is going really great and I am just feeling really good. There are SO many stories that have happened, and I know it is going to be hard to explain them over an update. But the time will come when I come home (June 27th- to Winnipeg) and can share more easily. My 22nd Birthday is coming up on June 30th! I am excited to experience a bolivian celebration on that day!

I hope that I will keep on top of things and update more regularly before I leave. I will try my best! I hope this update finds you all well!

Much love,
Adrienne

catching the bride's bouquet!

It's about time for an update! I have been putting this off for too long and realize that I should have updated a lot sooner. Lots has happened since the last time I wrote, I feel like I forget half the things that I did.

Work is going really well. This past week has flown by, and I find myself realizing that I only have 3 more months left here. Also, in 28 days my parents come to visit! Very exciting! These past few weeks I have been writing up the kids home visits that we have done so far. I finished writing up 45 home visits on Wednesday, and we have about 16 more home visits to complete. It gets pretty busy when we have 2 home visits in the morning and another 3 in the afternoon. But I really enjoy the work!

This past weekend me and my family went to a huge wedding! This would have been the 4th wedding I´ve been to this year, and it was the fansiest one yet. It was a bunch on fun! The bride went on IVEP last year to the States, and met a guy there. So the wedding was both in English and Spanish. I was such a nice break to see gringos around!! And to speak English! The time came when the bride (Graciela) threw her bouquet to a bunch of us girls standing behind her. And guess who caught the bouquet. Yes indeed, I had grabbed the bouquet by the ribbon that was on there while another girl held on. But then she just passed it off to me. hahaha! It was hilarious! Then the groom did the same with his flower and a guy named Fernando caught it and then we have to dance in front of everyone to Shania Twain- Who´s bed have your boots been under. It was totally embarressing, but a good time!

So this past week is has been freezing here. And by freezing I mean about 18 to 24 degrees outside. I am currently wearing pants and a sweater. There will definetly be some climate shock when I come back home. So last friday, it was pouring rain outside. So my dad decided to drive me to the place where I catch the micro to go to my work. As we were driving there we saw my micro pass by quickly, so we sped up (by sped up I mean like 15 km/hr) and started chasing this micro. Then my host dad started honking the horn. But our horn is not the regular sound most cars make. It sounded like a dying cow in some serious pain. So we honestly chased this bus for about 2 blocks while holding down the horn. Then as it was turning I got out and rain around the bus, but as I came to the other side of the bus I bashed my head on the rear view mirror that was sticking out really far. So that mirror went all out of place and they had to readjust that after, and then when I got on the bus everyone was snickering and obviously found that really amusing. I then got a seat next to the driver and he joking said ¨How´s your head?¨ Turns out when I got to work no kids show up. I have learnt that when it rains here it´s like having a snow day back in Canada. When it rains everyone doesn't want to go outside in the rain.

So I guess a countdown to when my parents come is in progress. I officially have approximetly 25 days until they arrive. Maybe it´s too early to start a countdown, but I am just so exicted to see family again! Also, having less than 3 months left here is pretty crazy! Our tickets are all bought... I am leaving Bolivia on July 21st and then will be in Akron, PA for 3 days. July 27th I will offically be home in Winnipeg, Manitoba!! Quite exciting, but will be very hard to leave my host family and work. I´ve made some pretty amazing connections here that will be very tough to leave. I already told my family that I am returning... and they said that I must return with a husband. haha! One day.. one day.

That's all for now! Hope you are all well. I appreciate your emails, thoughts and prayers!

te cuidades

dreaming in spanish

I had a dream in Spanish last night. What does that mean?? I was once told by someone that once you start to dream in Spanish you are really starting to know Spanish well. I sure hope that is true!


Things are going well here. I´m just on my lunch break and have a chance to write a quick update. Well wow, middle of March already! I have had a good couple of weeks. Work is going really well. I have been telling some kids that I am only here for 4 more months... maybe I´m thinking way too far ahead. But I honestly think time is just going to fly by! The kids I am working with are incredibly cute! I am really enjoying working with them each day! I have gotten in a habit of buying chocolate for this one boy Eduardo... he's probably my favorite kid at the Biblioteca. I have also gotten the kids to get their homework done with the incentive of receiving a piece of gum afterwards. Of course not everyday, but on a random occasion they love receiving a piece of gum. I feel like I have gone through endless amounts of ideas on how to get these kids to get their work done. The 6 kids that I have in the morning are angels! They listen so well and get their homework (without the incentive of gum). But the kids who come in the afternoons after having school in the morning are absolutely off the wall. These past few weeks there has been a bug going around and getting all the kids sick. So last week I actually had 2 kids fall asleep while doing their homework... although I do not blame them.. I would have loved to do the same.


It's the season of dengue here... so I have seem numerous trucks go past that spray the entire street with pesticide or something to get rid of the mosquitos. I have been very bad at applying bug stray on, so I won't be surprised if I will end with dengue one of these days. But overall my health has been pretty good. I am very surprised that I have not gotten sicker with my lack of washing fruits when I take them right off the trees. Maybe my stomach has become prone to all the bad things I have been eating. I am a bit worried about when we made our trip to Santiago and I drank the waterfall water because I was just so thirsty. Kind of dumb of me but people told me it was safe to drink. I might regret that in the long run!


So this past weekend in church Walter (my host dad) was trying to plan our fathers day (which was this last friday) service at our church. So we were all in church and suddenly Walter starts choosing people to do things for the service. And so Walter asked me to sing a song in English (yes.. another solo.. with no instruments).


So I have taken about 3 days to write this blog.. hoping that something more exciting would come up. And it did. So like I was saying last night we had a church service. At supper I asked my host family how long this service would be... and he said until 5:30 am. I literally started laughing thinking it would be absolutly impossible to have church from 9 pm until 5:30 am. But I was wrong. We showed up to church a bit before 9 pm and Walter had a list of acts that would take place that nice. So I sang my solo... it went pretty well! Other people sang songs, we did lots of praying, Walter preached 3 times... 1 hour each time! Gosh! We also had a drama. By midnight we had a break and drank coffee (but honestly they load in the sugar so it didn´t even taste like coffee) and had crackers. It was funny because Walter kept informing all of us 15 people who stayed the whole night that there were only 4 hours left. I was also definetly counting down the hours left. So by the end of the night we ended with a bible study on John. We were split into groups and each group had to count the amount of times it said a specific work. I could hardly read by this time at night because I was so tired! But we made it through and we were done at 5 30 am. To my surprise we then we served breakfast. But oh this is not the typical breakfast you would have in North America at 5 am. We were served soup that was made from the pigs head. Everything is put into the soup including the eye balls and ears. I only asked for a little and with each bite I had to say to myself `only 4 more bits`... it wasnt the fact that is tasted that bad, but just the thought of this head being boiled and having these pieces of the pig in your soup. To make a long story short, after we ate we went home and slept. But then my host parents wanted me and Cesia to help them with something at 9 am... so overall not much sleep that day!

Another update. Yesterday (Monday) I went with one of my co workers to do some home visits! We went to 2 houses and it was honestly such an eye opening experience. I was just struck by the poverty and how 5 people can live in a room and share the same bed. I told my parents (my bolivian parents) this last night and they just laughed because they know a person who lives in the same place with 36 people and share ONE bathroom. So we ask the parents a number of questions about their kid and their relationship with them. It is so interesting to hear how these parents disipline their children. Either it´s through yelling or hitting them. I just wish I could take that all away, but it is happening everywhere and it´s almost considered a normal way to disipline.

Anyways so I definetly took a lot out of those 2 home visits. I will continue to complete a home visit to every kid here in the Biblioteca, which is 100 kids. I have defintely found my passion in what I want to continue to pursue as I finish my studies back at home! I really enjoy the challenge that these home visits have on me and I thrive to build strong relationships with the kids. I´ll update more as I finish more home visits.

Well thats about all! Again I´ll update once I have more to write. And thanks to everyone who are sending emails etc. I really appreciate it! I am so blessed!

Much love,
Adrienne

searching for a cow..

Hola from Santa Cruz,
I have a few minutes to update on my past few weeks. Things are going well. Its a soaring 35 degrees today, the sun it out but thankfully there is a wind. I am actually in my lunch break right now. This morning went by smoothly with having 6 kids ages 5 and 6 finishing their homework. It gets a bit hectic some days! I am thankful when it goes by with no one punching each other in the face. Although that usually happens with the afternoon group. Pray for me!

This last week flew by! On the weekend me and Cesia went and bought the movie Julie and Julia and watched in on my laptop in our room! Saturday morning I did a bunch of errands and then in the afternoon the church needed cleaning so we walked over and the guys started cutting the grass with their michetties (spelling?) and me and Cesia trimmed the bushes and trees with scissors. haha it was pretty hilarious. Other than that my weekend was filled with going to Church 3 times and then Sunday afternoon me and Walter and Mary got in the car and drove around looking for a cow for us to get some milk. I had no idea where we were going to find this cow, but they seemed to know where it would be. Turns out, we never did find the cow. After asking around to 6 different people who all gave us different directions of where this cow would be, we gave up and went home! So.. no fresh milk for us!

There is a wedding this Thursday at our church that we are all going to. Mary is making dresses for all the girls who are apart of the wedding. I might see if she can make one more me too.

I cant believe that its already March! Wow! Time has flown by. My parents are planning on coming to visit at the end of May. I am getting very excited. Mary as already asked me what food we should serve and saying that we are going to have a grande fiesta! I am very excited to have visiters come to see where Ive been living and where I work etc.

Yesterday (Monday), I went about choosing courses for University of Waterloo when I return in Fall 2010. I did this by waking up at 4 30 am... having Walter scare me at the door with his flashlight and completing it on my laptop. What a whirlwind of emotions!! Already thinking about going back to school etc. Although it gets me a bit excited! I now have 5 more months to go. Although its not like Im counting down the days yet! Me and my cousin were reminising about meeting me at the airport in July etc... although that is getting a bit ahead of ourselves! But exciting!

Well I should be off! Just wanted to give a quick update!
Much love,
Adrienne

Carnival in Moro Moro!!

Moro Moro! 

(Carnival in Moro Moro) 

Wow it's almost March! Time has flown by here! The last time I wrote was about 2 weeks ago after I came back from Santiago. Work is just great.. I now have my own classroom with 7 kids in the morning and about 10 kids in the afternoon. These numbers always differ because of either rain or no homework. In the first week back after the vacation I had only 2 kids in the morning. It was actually quite a nice break just having them two, and so the following week more kids started to show up. The new place in Stansberry is so beautiful. It works out so much better to be in classrooms than being in one big room with kids ages 6-14 years old. That got a little crazy! 

So this past weekend me, Allyn and Corrie headed off to Moro Moro for the Carnival weekend. Now here carnival is a HUGE deal. It consists of a 4 day weekend (Saturday till Tuesday) where everyone parties and goes crazy before lent starts up. This past Wednesday (Ash wednesday) was a day where people would stay in their houses and pray and ask God for forgiveness for what they did over the weekend. Kind of odd, but that is how it goes here. So anyways, heading off to Moro Moro was a good decision but difficult at the time. Here in Bolivia it is not illegal to drink and drive. And everyone here (especially over Carnival) drinks and drives. And that includes the bus drivers. So I was very worried about our bus driver being drunk as we travelled. Saturday morning I was thinking that I wouldn't go to Moro Moro but instead go out to the campimento (country) with my family and church and send the weekend there. But last minute I changed my mind and decided to go to Moro Moro. 

So Saturday we left around 2:30 pm all ready to go. It was about an 8 hour bus ride through the mountains. Beautiful!  Our bus driver seemed fine, but it was still a bit nerve racking! So we arrived late Saturday night and then Sunday morning we walked about 2 hours to a lookout (I forget the name now) which was absolutely gorgeous. We actually did a lot of hiking over the next could of days. We were also able to experience Carnival in Moro Moro which included being thrown ballons at and sprayed with foam. Monday night we walked to Natan's house (an MCC who was a SALTers 4 years ago and has lived in Moro Moro ever since) which is located in the most beautiful spot ever! I'll try and post pictures. 

Anyways, overall a very good weekend in Moro Moro! We all had a fantastic trip and am thankful to have returned safely. Here are some pics from my trip! 

Trip to Santiago!

Santiago de Chiquitos
Waterfalls located about 2 hours out of Santiago!

(from left to right: Allyn, Me, Corrie, Arelis, Laurie, Kristen and Kim)

Wow! Time has flown by. I think it´s about time for another update on my end. I am trying to think back to where I left off. I feel like a lot has happened in the past couple weeks. I should have updated earlier to make it easier to remember what all happened!

Basically these past couple of weeks have consisted of getting the new place at Stansberry ready to the kids to come on February 1st (last week). It was a lot of work, consisting of painting, cleaning and more cleaning! The week before the kids came back was pretty relaxing. We had everything ready to go by Thursday so Friday was a nice day to relax. It was nice to see the other Profs that I work with again! It had almost been a month since I saw them all last. Last Thursday I went to see the movie called Avatar with my friend Patti. We say it in 3D.. awesome! It was in English which was a nice change but when the movie was finished I had to remind myself that I was in a spanish speaking country. It caught me off guard a little!

This past Saturday me and about 9 other people who all live at Stansberry went to Espejillos Waterfalls! It was amazing! We spent the entire day there jumping off cliffs into the water. I think I screamed so loud that it startled a lot of people! But it was such a good time!

We just got back this morning from out trip to Santiago de Chiquitos. It was beautiful! It was about a 12 hour bus ride through the night. We left last Thursday and came back this morning at around 5 am. Kristen, another SALTer here in Bolivia is living in Santiago, so it was nice for us other SALTers to go and see where she lives etc. It's a beautiful place! We managed to get to the waterfalls, about a 2 hour walk out of the town. On Sunday morning we woke up early and climbed up to the top of this hill overlooking Santiago. It was beautiful! We learned from the day before to not walk during 10 am and 2 pm because it is the hottest during those times! So we actually ended up leaving around 6 am. A good start to the day.

So last week was the first week where the kids are back! It was so incredibly wonderful to see the kids again. They had all grown so much since I last saw them. I didn't realize how much I missed them during the break! Such a good feeling.

As for now, I'm catching up on sleep. I realize that I have so many stories to tell I don't know where to start! I'll try posting some pics.

I have been doing really well! The time is just flying by!!! Can't believe it's already February!

Much love.

my thoughts..

Hola!

It’s a nice day out today. The sun is out and for once it’s not too hot! Yesterday I  finished painting 150 chairs at the Guaderia for the kids. I must say, I started dreaming of painting in my sleep- so I am glad that the painting job is over! I had been painting one other worker for the past 3 weeks or so. It’s been a tedious job, but the chairs now look great!

It’s been a relaxing weekend so far! Last night Cesia, Marlenne and I went to the gym for the first time. Now this was quite the experience. We paid 5 Bs. (less than a dollar) to join a one hour aerobics class. I have never been apart of an aerobics class so this was all new to me. So we got there for 7 (the time the class was supposed to start) but of course we then start at about 7:20. Again, it’s Bolivian time here! So the music and we all just started following the instructors “moves”. I must say I had a hard time keeping up to the beat!!! I was laughing so hard and then Cesia (my host sister) was losing it because she saw me struggling to keep up! Oh goodness. The room we were in was really small, only one open window, and about 40 woman in this room. At the end of the hour, it was deadly hot! But a good work out!

 So I got up this morning and made my way over to the gym again. I realized after that I probably won’t go alone again, the gym was full of men and it was a bit intimidating. I am hoping to keep this up though!

I wanted to share a bit of my conversation that I had with Cesia last night after the gym. We got onto the topic of Bolivian culture compared to North American. It was quite interesting. I talked a lot about how here in Bolivia the abuse, poverty and homelessness is so much more visible here. We also have the same in North America, but here abuse is considered a normal way to discipline a child. For instance, I was the on the micro coming home and there was a woman and her child who sat down in front of me. The kid started crying and so the first thing the mom did was hit her child with her umbrella. It’s funny how at the time it didn’t really shock me to see that. I think that is because I have just seen it so many times where a child is getting kicked, smacking or hit by parents or others that it is almost “normal”. I don’t like admitting that I have become accustomed to this but it’s a fact that is so real here. So last night Cesia and I got on the topic of abuse etc. and brainstorming ideas of how someone who wants to help can come and stop that trend from happening. We then got onto the topic of teenage pregnancies. Now, here in Bolivia teenage pregnancies are completely normal. For example there is a girl at my work who is 15 and has a one year old. This girl explained to me that her mom had her when she was 16 years as well… and so that trend is just continuing. So me and Cesia where just brainstorming about HOW someone who wants to help can come in and try and change the trend. Cesia mentioned that she started a class with girls about these topics (especially pregnancies etc.) at our church and it started out well but Cesia was the only one who was enforcing the healthy ways of living, and when the girls went home their parents wouldn’t continue the reinforcing but instead did the exact opposite. Turns out one of the girls she worked with left the church and got pregnant at 13 years of age. So here is Cesia trying to help, but it’s not getting anywhere because the parents aren’t doing the same kind of help that is needed. I find this very interesting and frustrating all at the same time. If someone is willing to put the time in and change their life then I think it is possible, but how do you come in and try and change an issue that people aren’t willing to work at?? Cesia mentioned that I need to go back to Canada, finish my Social Work degree and come back to Bolivia and help to solve these problems!!! The thing is that here in Bolivia there are limited (very minimal) resources or places people can go for help. For instance if someone was shot here, people would try calling the police but it’s not likely that they would show up. I find that so confusing and so sad! Same with child abuse- there are limited resources of places someone can go and report child abuse etc. AH this is all so frustrating to me. I am so intrigued by all of this and want to solve everything but where do you start!!!

After our chat, Cesia asked if I could go back to Canada and ask for help. I am so willing to but where do I start? It’s frustrating to work with kids at the Guaderia who are in these situations, but I don’t have the words and ability to express my thoughts and  sympathy to them! If this job was in English I would be expressing myself SO much better! Another frustration of mine these days!

So those are my thoughts and ramblings for now. I know I will continue to ponder and question these topics. Frustrating but so real to me! I also wanted to share an address to the monthly newsletter than is written in English about Guaderia Moises (where I am volunteering). AND.. my picture is at the bottom of the newsletter. I am working with 3 kids- whom I love dearly! It says a bit of my job. So please if you have time check that newsletter out! Here it is: http://www.stansberrychildren.org/newsletter/pdf/2009-12-guarderia.pdf 

That’s all for now! Hope you are all well!

Much love! 

A much needed update!

Hello everyone!
Happy New Year! Updating my blog has been on my list of things to do. I apologize from my lack of effort! Well I do have a lot of things to express, many stories to tell! Christmas here was great! It was such a mix of emotions with not being home with my entire extended family in Calgary. I definitely missed that, but realized that I am only going to experience one Bolivian Christmas here. So Christmas came and went... we had a nice celebration at our church- I played Noche de Paz (Silent night) as our church sang. I played horribly! I had to read the notes by candle light... didn't turn out well! Hopefully they won't ask me to play piano again!!! We then came back home around 11 pm and me and Cesia then set off some fireworks in our street. Honestly people were setting off fireworks till about 4 in the morning. We had a nice little family gift exchange. I am so lucky to be apart of such a great host family here. Christmas day I made my family pancakes. They had never had them before... they loved them!

On the 28th in the morning me and Cesia went and bought our tickets to La Paz. We got in line around 5:30 am and waited till the bus station was open. I was amazed at how many people were in the bus station at that time. So that night, me, Cesia, Corrie, Kim and Dia (Cesia's friend) got onto our flota (bus) and began our trip to La Paz. It was about 16 hours of travelling. Stopping once in the middle of the night for our bus driver to have a break and then we kept going. We got there and I couldn't believe how COLD La Paz was compared to Santa Cruz. Now when I say cold I am talking about 5 to 10 degrees celcious.... which really isn't that cold back in Canada but it was cold to all of us! We were lucky to have 2 bolivians travel with us to help us make our way around, find a hostel and then figure out what to do for our first day there. La Paz is beautiful! You are surrounded by mountains and moutains. It was huge city, lots of people and noise but beautiful! We managed to find a street full of Andian Markets... we got some really neat things to take back home.

We were able to tour around a Cocoa Museum. It was very interesting. There is such a long history of where the Cocoa leaves come from that everyone chews here and it's relation to the drug cocain and history about that. I will write more about that once I get more info. We also got to see a part of the city that is full of different objects and dried animals (sounds gross) that are used for sacrificing. Pretty interesting to see. I found it a bit challenging at points to travel with Bolivians because Cesia and Dia had both travelled to La Paz before, and their idea of shopping was going to a mall and our idea of shopping was going to the different markets. It was a bit challenging but in the end it all worked out. We were planning on going to go see the famous Ruins that were about 4 hours out of La Paz, but it turned out to be really expensive for us to go. We were able to go to a very cool look out that overlooks all of La Paz. Very cool!

We then made our way to Copacabana located on Lake Titicaca! It is beautiful! I have pictures posted on facebook, for some reason posting pictures on here takes a very long time. So we were at Lake Titicaca over New Years. We were able to take a boat to the Island of the Sun. This Island has a lot of history related to people believing that this Island is where the sun was formed. Pretty interesting. We wanted to get the best seats on the boat so we got to the very front, top level and thought we would have a great ride. Turns out the boat ride was 2 hours long and it was a freezing day so it was windy and cold. So after about 1 hour we decided to go back downstairs to warm up. I feel like I have so many stories to tell but don't know where to start.

Copacabana was full of tourists from all over the world. Apparently Bolivia is the place to go for New Years Eve! It was very interesting to celebrate it with random strangers but a very unique and interesting experience. Overall a very great trip in La Paz and Lake Titicaca! I hope to go back some day!

This past Monday I started work again! It was a wierd feeling to be back, but a good thing. I was working in the Stansberry homes with the kids. This place is located on the same campus as the Guaderia and After school program. So I had to look after 2 girls (ages 6 and 8). So in the morning's I helped them take showers, did their hair, fed and played with them. A pretty relaxing job. Both of them have head lice, so after this week my head is starting to get a little itchy.. hopefully it's all in my head!

Yesterday was SO muddy! I was walking to my bus to go to MCC and slipped and fell in the mud. My legs and clothes were full of mud. I then decided that I didn't want to wait for one hour to get to MCC so I decided to take a taxi. So I was walking to the taxi and some woman walked past me and looked at my like I was completly bonkers for being so muddy. It was hilarious! The taxi driver was also not so impressed but I had a good laugh out of it!

Last night I was about to go to sleep but my feet were still so dirty so I went to wash my feet in the sink. Turns out I accidently bumped the sink with my foot and then entire sink fell apart!!!!! Our dog then started barking cause it made a huge bang and so both my parents got out of bed and ran outside. So here I was holding the sink together and then my host mom started laughing so hard. In the end the sink was fixed and we all had a good laugh out of it. Another moment that I will cherish with my host family!

So that's my update for now. I hope everyone is doing well! I am doing well here and finding joy in each day!
Much love to you all!