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.