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!