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!

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.