A Year in Bolivia

Reflections

2010-02-04T17:30:00.000-04:00

Well... it's been about 6 months since I've been back in Canada. Wow. I was warned about culture shock, but to be honest... I hardly felt any. I don't know if that's good or not.

The only thing I really noticed coming back to Canada was how open and spacious everything was here. I was told that it would probably be a bad idea to go to a mall soon after getting back because I would feel overwhelmed. I went to a mall about a day or two after getting back and felt nothing.

I did come back with a greater amount of disgust at the addicting habits of consumerism and I was happy with less. I felt ashamed sometimes when I saw how much I had in my house... but is that culture shock? Perhaps it is... just mildly. I understand better the conditions in other parts of the world and I understand better the world views held by other people... and that there are many other world views.

I miss Bolivia. I miss the trees between my host house and the church. I miss my host family. I miss talking with my host mom. I miss the dogs and the cat. I miss all the trees everywhere and all the fresh fruit ready for the picking straight off the tree. I miss my church... and the rain... and the tienda down the street from MCC (with the cheap ice cream). And the siestas! And the hammocks and the geckos and all the crazy-looking flowers. And Spanish.

I'm glad to be back home in Canada, but I wish it were easier for me to visit Bolivia.

Getting back into school-mode took a long time. I was really surprised how hard it is to get back into homework/study mode after being gone a year. But, I think I'm settled pretty much back into it. I've kept some of my laid-back, manana-thinking with me... so that doesn't always serve well with school, but it serves nicely for life.

Before I went to Bolivia, I was very quiet and introverted and my self-esteem was rather low. It's crazy to look back and see how much one year elsewhere has changed me sooo much! It's so cool! Bolivia taught me independence and how to look out for myself. I learned that I can make decisions all on my own and that I can make friends by just being me.

I made some fantastic Canadian friends that were also volunteering in Bolivia and their interest in me and their friendship has meant so much to me. (here's to you, you crazy Winnipeggers!!). They showed me that I'm cool just the way I am. They also taught me a lot about not being judgmental. I used to have ideas of right and wrong and anyone who did anything that lay out of what is right, was a "bad" Christian and needed fixing. I still have ideas of right and wrong, but if someone doesn't fit into my mesh of what I believe is right, I realize it's not my place to judge them. Sounds simple, but it's such a huge truth to realize and put into practice. I can still love the person no matter if I agree with what they do or not. Thank you Kat and Toni for helping me so much. Even if you never realized it, you guys have impacted my life a lot (all for the good!).

All the Bolivians I met at my church were fantastic and I really miss my Bolivian church. I learned how to last through 3 hours of church and I learned to really enjoy it!

I've come back to Canada and I've kept the confidence I gained in Bolivia and it feels amazing! I never knew I could talk to so many people and make friends with so many different kinds of people. I've discovered that I'm not the introvert I use to think I was and I'm not so scared of being awkward. It's amazing the confidence you can gain when you lose the fear of being awkward! heh... well, I haven't lost that fear completely, but perhaps it's healthy to have a little of that fear. :P

Anyway, I wanted to post one last posting on this blog... I felt like it should have a little bit of closure. So, I'm back in Canada. I'm so glad I've gained experience outside my country - no matter how difficult it was. And... yes, there doesn't seem to be much else to say.

So... thank you to everyone who read my blog and who prayed for me when I was in Bolivia. I appreciate it so much! Perhaps someday I'll go somewhere equally exciting and blog on that... in fact, I'm planning on it... so stay tuned!

"Good Grief!" (-Charlie Brown)

2009-06-09T21:07:00.005-04:00

It is July 2 (Happy Belated Canada Day!). I have 2 more weeks in Bolivia and 3 more weeks before I return home. Good grief! I have 1 more week of work left. It feels weird. I want to go home and see my family and continue on with life, but I don't want to be forced to say goodbye to Bolivia.

When I chose the url for my blog, I was thinking that when God says go, huge things always happen. I've been realizing this year that "huge things" aren't really what I thought they were. There were over a hundred volunteers for Orientation at the beginning of this volunteer year. Each and every one of them said "yes" when God said "go." (so check out ALL their blogs!!... or just a few... or not). Of course we all had different experiences, different ups and downs - but I'm fairly positive we all were forced to trust God this year, and when is that ever a bad thing? I learned lots of things: more patience (a lot more patience...whew... I'm doing pretty good now at lasting through 2.5hour church services and actually enjoying them!), more humility, greater faith in God, greater knowledge of God, and I'm sure lots of other things I didn't list or don't realize yet. God could've taught me these things in Canada, too, but I really appreciated the opportunity to learn them in Bolivia! That taught me more about the world, about great hospitality, about the value of different culture, and good conversational Spanish. See, that's what happens when you say "yes" to God's "go." :P

I love Bolivia. I'm [obviously] going to miss it a lot. I'm a little nervous about heading to Calgary for school in September. After the constant natural beauty of Bolivia (there are always flowers blooming somewhere here!...at least in this part of Bolivia) it's going to be hard to return to the cold, seemingly desolate Calgary landscape of early evenings and leafless trees. But, it can be done!

I realize it's been almost 3 months since I last wrote. Oops. And yet, I don't have much to write. Um... so how about that weather? The cold front I was warned about has failed to show up yet. Still fairly warm. Um... I'm doing fine, thanks for asking. How are you?

Heh...OK. One week left of work! I can hardly believe I actually did it! Wow... 9.5 months of changing diapers...OK, to be fair, I worked with the bigger kids for one month and had one month of holidays... so 7.5 of changing diapers. I still think that's pretty good. I'm going to try to calculate how many diapers I've changed.... bear with me... change the kids twice a week... on average about 15 kids each time... er... 17 (sometimes they go twice!)...that's 34 kids a week. Good grief!! that's 136 diapers a month! Multiplied by 7.5 months is 1020!! Now, that is a lot of diapers. I wonder what my contribution to the local landfill looks like.

I'm glad I only have 1 week left. I only have 34 more diapers to change. I will miss my coworkers and the babies, but, gah, it takes a lot out of you. I can hardly believe I spent most of the past year working at this job. I've never worked somewhere for so long before, and, to be fair, I would've quit long before if I hadn't realized that God put me here... or if MCC wouldn't have been upset at me quitting... or if it wouldn't have meant that I'd have had to leave Bolivia. I'm glad I stuck it out when it was hard. I learned a ton. I met lots of cool people. And maintained a good habit of getting up early. Er... well, we'll see how long that habit lasts when I get back to Canada. I'm also especially grateful that I was able to learn to be content. I don't think I've fully learned that lesson, but I got so much closer to learning it than I ever did before!

It's going to be hard to say goodbye to my host family here. They've been sooo amazing! I love them so much! I don't want to think about it. I want to spend as much time as I can with them. Soak everything up before I leave. It's such an odd feeling. I'm sure every other volunteer who has ever done anything like this knows what I'm talking about. After giving so much to my life here in Bolivia, after calling this place "home" for the past 11 months, and after forming great friendships with people here, how do you say goodbye to it all, realizing in two weeks that suddenly it's all going to disappear as fast as snapping your fingers and you're probably never going to see it again? How does something you've put so much effort into, so much love and sweat and pain and joy, just disappear? I suppose it can't. Heh... well, obviously it can't. That's what makes it so hard to leave it. And, I'm glad it's hard. If it wasn't, it would mean that I didn't get much out of it or put much into it.

Anyway, enough pondering. Actually, that's probably enough writing, too. I'm tired. :P

Possibly I'll write once more before leaving Bolivia or during re-orientation... or posibly not. So, thanks to all who've read my blog and prayed and supported me throughout this year. It is so greatly appreciated!

Life and the what-not

2009-04-12T15:49:00.007-04:00

Hmm... what cool things can I share about Bolivia? What deep, inspirational insights can I bestow on my dear Reader? Uhhmm....

Meanwhile... as I'm thinking up something fantastic to share...

I went to Samaipata for Easter weekend (yes, I know... that was a while ago... wow... that was a really long time ago). Time certainly is going by fast now. All us volunteers were told that the first 6 months were slow, but the last 6 would just fly. - well... February (the first month of the last 6 months) did not fly... it dragged. So, I started to doubt. And then April hit and things started to really pick up. I don't know if I'm glad or not.... but anyways, that's off-topic. Will get back to that later.

Back to Samaipata. Samaipata was fantastic! It was my second time there, but definitely no less exciting! I went with a bunch of other volunteers from Canada and the States who are all working here in Santa Cruz. It was a lot of fun (especially the crowding of all 7 of us into one taxi - one in the trunk (station-wagon-style), four in the back, two in the front - ok, not so much fun... the drive was aproximately 3 hours and our cramped positions were a little trying at times). Well, we arrived safely and sorely to Samaipata at around mid-day and commenced to walking around the town looking for a decent place to stay. We eventually found a super cool hostel whose older owner insisted that we were all family and that he was our papa.

We ended up doing a bunch of different things such as shopping in the market, exploring and finding a bonfire hang-out with lots of young people, cars and super loud regatone music, rummaging through souvanire (how do you spell that word?) shops and - best of all - visiting some awesome waterfalls!

The road to Samaipata is probably my most favourite part of Bolivia (which also is the road to Moro Moro). It's absolutely gorgeous! This is how I described it the first time I went... and it describes it just as well for the second time I went, too.

Everywhere the mountains rose, bubbling with green trees and, at times, revealing waves of smooth rock and moss-like meadows. At one point, behind the meeting of two green hills, the view of grand mountain majesty emerged in black and red rock, draped with small vegetation... a jumble of warm mountains would suddenly expose soaring bare rock.

There were hills so fine in their greenery you could nearly feel yourself soaring up their sides and down their troughs. There were mountains so densly massed with trees that you couldn't help but feel the need to tighten your shoelaces and pull your hood up just a little bit farther.

Our road wound its way through the green waves of the sea. Our small boat teetered on the side of deep valleys and rushed along welcoming mountain arms. Frightening deep canyons shot out to our right and fantastic rock faces leapt out on our left. And then they were gone and green light filtered to us through the rows of fair trees lining our path.

Our road wound on and on and I wondered how anyone could leave these mountains. How could anyone say goodbye to this place?

Here I will add pictures to help you imagine....

and the waterfalls?

Yes, well... that was Samaipata. Good fun had by all.

Getting back to work, of course, was difficult. I'm slowly learning the lesson of being content in my job. My work is not something I'm particularily excited about, but I'm finding things that I do like about it. The kids (when they're not crying... heh), my co-workers, the fantastic corner store a few blocks away. We (me and my co-workers) have some good times sometimes. You know, painting the kids faces with Canadian flags and fitting ourselves through little play tunnels to rescue a kid who forgot how to get out. The kids and I have a good time sometimes, too. Throwing them up in the air... biting their noses off with hand-puppets and forcing them to walk when they'd really rather crawl. Actually, that really is an exciting part of my job: seeing all the firsts. Seeing the kids celebrate their first ever birthday, take their first steps, start walking, learn to use the toilet (now that's exciting!), learn a new word... things like that. That's exciting. And, of course, it's also beautiful when you enter the room and the kids see you and excitedly grow big smiles on their faces, jump up and down (as best as a baby can do) and scream "hola! hola! hola!" at you. heh... that all makes being content easier.

Me, two of my co-workers, and some of the kids

Well, I only have 8 weeks left of work (once this week is done). Happy? Sad? Yes. A week after I finish work, I leave for reorientation. Wow! Two more months of Bolivia. Too long? Too short? Yes. I'm super excited to get home and see everything and see how things have changed and how I've changed. I really want to see my family and I'm super curious to see how I'll view Canadian culture after I've been use to Bolivia's. But, after 9 months here, Bolivia feels normal. The toborochi trees are always there. I love my host family and my church here. I'll miss walking the path behind my house to the church. I'll miss the walk to catch my micro. I'll miss my micro ride to work. I'll miss all the ice cream and fresh fruit. I'll miss my co-workers and speaking Spanish and visiting MCC and eating pluf-plufs (amazing ice cream!). Most of all, I'm going to miss my host family. They are the most amazing family I could've wished for. My "I'll miss" list could go on for awhile. So... sometimes I want to be home right now and other times I just want a few more weeks than what I have. And so, I guess, 2 months is a good amount of time. I can enjoy Bolivia for 9 more weeks.

Not much else has happened since Samaipata. I've continued to work on the weekdays and read lots on the weekends. Sometimes us volunteers have sleepovers at the MCC center and eat junk food while watching movies. And sometimes - like today - I don't end up at work (you may blame that on the intense rain and lack of my micro) and remain sitting on the couch, or on my bed or in front of the computer... being really lazy and just reading and writing and listening to music from youtube. Well, I believe we need days like this.

Well, that about sums everything up for now. Time to... hmmm... read?

Cochabamba

2009-03-20T18:42:00.012-04:00

Sometimes time doesn't seem to go by all that fast, and then you look back and realize you haven't written a blog for over a month and a half! Good Grief! I apologize for the large delay.

So, last weekend - starting Friday night - all us SALTers and YAMENer and our coordinator and two other people from MCC left for Cochabamba. We were all completely full of exciting energy! This trip came at a good time. We needed a break from work and from Spanish-immersion. God has also blessed us with a group of volunteers who have been able to really click together... so we were all excited to be able to hang out together again, as well.

I took a half day off of work on Friday and spent the afternoon going to the bank and feeling like an idiot... I was kind of a little bit stupid. Couldn't log onto my account and had to have the impatient bank people tell me that was because I was using the wrong numbers. heh... Well, these things happen.

Anyway... I hung out at MCC after that with some other people and at about 7:30 we all left to the bus terminal. We didn't have to wait too long before our bus pulled up. It was the most fanciest, most amazing bus I'd ever had the pleasure of riding on. The seats were huge and cushioned and had little light-up signs designating seat numbers. Everyone was super impressed and we couldn't stop talking about it for quite a while. Unfortunately, our movie (yes, they had working TVs, too!!) didn't reflect well the luxary of our bus. "American Pie" would definitely not have been my pick for a family-friendly movie to start off a long, night-time bus ride, but it was theirs. So, you were either reduced to watching this movie, or to placing your sweater over your head, curling into sleep position, and trying hard to blot out all the Spanish words you know. I had brought a flashlight, so I was able to attempt an immersion into a book I'd packed along. When the movie finally ended I was sure I'd fall right asleep... but despite the cushioning of the seats and the overall pleasing atmosphere of the bus, it just wasn't very comfortable to sleep in. So I stayed awake awhile longer watching the dark scenery pass by and trying to see the star constellations. And, like most of Bolivia, it was beautiful.

I did eventually sleep and in the morning we all sleepily tumbled off the bus and managed to make our way to two taxis, which took us speedily to our hotel. It was a really nice hotel... There were even TVs in our rooms (as badly working as they were)! The staff were super awesome, though and they let us check into our rooms (at 7:30 in the morning!) and have a free breakfast!

After depositing our stuff in our rooms and eating breakfast, we met a guy named Evan who was going to show us around a bit while we were in Cochabamba. He was from the states, but was living and working in Cochabamba with the Maryknoll Center, which is where we headed. The Center is gorgeous. So green and with lots of trees. We headed to a classroom and talked a bit before our speaker, Jose Luiz, arrived. He talked to us about the "new" Bolivian constitution. We'd already heard a lot about it, but never directly from a person from the west part of Bolivia. Bolivia is a bit of a divided country, East and West, and the views can be very different. It was really interesting to hear a different perspective. A perspective that didn't bash Evo Morales or his corrupt thinking. I don't remember everything he said, so I won't try to relate it, but I remember the talk being very good. It began the process of opening me up to different views of Bolivian politics and life. The meeting was also held entirely in Spanish... and I understood nearly everything that was talked about! That was also really, really fantastically wonderful!

Afterwards we made our way to another room where we met with the guy in charge of the whole Maryknoll Center. He told us about the center, gave us a bit of its history and a short tour. It's the Maryknoll Language Institute. It's a Catholic institute, but they accept people of different Christian denominations as well. It seemed like a pretty cool place. Nearly all the students stay with host families, too (which really does help so much with the language). If you want to check out more about them their website is http://society.maryknoll.org/index.php .

It was then lunch time, so we headed outside, to the gorgeous green Maryknoll grounds for a picnic and something that, on our schedule sheets, was called "a ritual." What that meant, we had no idea. It turned out like this..

A lady from western Bolivia "performed" and explained the ritual for us. First she took out some ribbons and laid them in 3 seperate circles on the ground. They represented the 3 different levels of... the universe, I guess. The first was the sky, which included the birds, the butterflies, outerspace, and Creator God and the virgin Mary. The second represented this earth that we live on. It includes us, all land animals, plants and Pachamama (Mother Earth). The third was the "infienro," but she made very clear that they didn't believe it to be Hell. It is below the earth and includes the animals in the oceans and the dirt and El Tio. Each level seems to have its ruler; although, Creator God made it all.

Then she brought out a little altar she'd prepared (or possibly bought). She set it infront of her on the ground. It had different things on it. I'm not sure what all of them were, but it included llama fat and wool and flat sugar squares with images carved on them. The images represented different things and she passed them all around the group explaining each one. There was a rooster and a church and a bank and other such things. The drawings on each weren't very good, so I wondered why she was handling them so carefully... but I suppose they really did mean a lot to her and that's why she was so careful with them. I read that they are charms, but they seemed to be more representative of important things in life.

She also handed out a bunch of coca leaves to each person and asked that they pick the best one out to place on the offering. She said to imagine it as us offering up our year of service. I thought it was a little odd, but did it. And then she told us to eat the leaves... or, rather, chew them. I'm not a big fan of coca leaves, kind of have an interesting flavour, but they also have many good medicinal qualities, so I chewed on a few. I was a little weirded out by all the symbols and the crazy mixture of Catholicism and some native religions (didn't seem very Catholic with all the Pachamama and El Tio and such, but Mary was included as was the Creator God... and Catholic people were performing the ritual). I didn't really understand what was going on. She then asked us to participate in the offering. We were to go up and sprinkle a bit of wine (and this other stuff) around the four corners of the offering, on the ground and then throw some of it away from the group and say "que sea un buen día" ("that it will be a good day"). It was an offering to Pachamama... sort of a "thank you for letting us live and work on this land, please let us continue here." That really surprised me. This lady was Catholic and all of us who participated were also Christian. How had Christianity allowed these thoughts into its beliefs? There is no Pachamama. God created this earth. He's the one who put us here and who allows us to be here - not Pachamama. I was really, really confused. Fortunately participation was voluntary. I did not participate. Was that right of me? Or was that being insensitive to their beliefs? I had just placed a coca leaf on the offering... was that OK? Was it all "no big deal?" These are questions that stuck with me for the next day. As it is now, I probably wouldn't choose to participate in the ritual again and I don't like the idea of mixing religions (as it seemed to me they did), which I'll explain more about later. Still, I understand how the ritual could be used to represent respect towards God and as a bit of an offering of our lives and service to Him... although I don't believe that really is what the ritual is all about.

But, anyways. The ritual eventually ended by throwing the offering into a smoking, coal fire.

When it was over, I asked one of the ladies there a few questions about how the ritual (called "Q'owa") fit into Catholicism. I didn't really understand the answers. The ritual wasn't meant at all to be idolatry or worship to higher up beings, but an act of a reciprocal relationship with the earth and universe. Still, what can the earth give back to us but what God allows it to? Why give honor to the earth and not to God who gave it to us and who sustains it? Perhaps I didn't understand everything and I'm not trying to bash the ritual... it just brought up a lot of questions. Still, after the ritual we all enjoyed sharing a meal together... eating without plates and just with our hands!

Then we left and headed off to La Cancha (an absolutely enormous market!) We were told we'd have guides to show us around and I was disappointed at first because I would've liked to have just wandered where I wanted... but I was very glad we had them when the time came, because that place was a busseling maze of vendors, pick-pockets and cries from all directions. It was insane! But it was also a lot of fun.

We all split into 3 groups and the guide for my group gave a whirlwind of a tour, bringing us to, what I like to call, the "llama fetus area." It was the natural medicines area. It had a really strong smell of spices and herbs and plants and, most of all, llama fetuses. Why llama fetuses? Not exactly sure, but I know they're used when building a house. They're burried under the cornerstone as a bit of an offering to keep the workers safe and for some other reasons that I can't remember. There were big llama fetuses and small llama fetuses and they all smelled really bad. I thought I'd look at one big one for a little bit and see what a llama fetus really looks like... but, with that strong smell and the dead llama looking deadly back at me with its nearly-developed nose, I had to look quickly away or feel really sick. I'm glad we didn't spend too long there. Then off we went to the artesan area. So much better! We met up with the other groups and spent a good, long while exploring all the booths and little shops and buying lots of stuff!

We were all pretty exhausted by the end of this and were all so happy to arrive back to our hotel and collapse into our beds for a siesta. After a fantastically refreshing nap we decided to split up and go for dinner. We all actually ended up in the same restaurant, though. It was full of Bolivian people and so we thought, since it was so popular, it would be a good place to eat. What none of us had noticed (until we'd ordered our food) was that no one else was eating. They were just drinking and enjoying the karaoke/music-playing thing. So, we sat for about an hour getting stared at by other groups of people and bothering the poor waiter with where our food was. Still, the food did come eventually and it was fantastic! Worth the wait? Probably not... we wouldn't do that again, but it was still very good.

Then Sunday came! We all had breakfast together (bread with butter and jam and tea and coffee and fruit). We were scheduled to drive over to a poor neighbourhood in the south part of Cochabamba and attend a mass there. We arrived late, but that was OK. I really didn't feel like sitting for a long time on a cold, hard bench listening to a service in Spanish. After the service ended we talked with the priests, who are missionaries with Maryknoll. They were both really nice and talked a bunch about their work in the barrio (neighbourhood). It really is a very poor neighbourhood - probably the poorest I've been in here in Bolivia. They're doing a lot of good work, though. There's a school and they have an after-school program for the kids. They have about 160 kids! 80 in the morning and 80 in the afternoon (school is only half a day in Bolivia)... and they only have 4 profis (teachers/helpers)!! God must certainly be giving them an enormous amount of strength, courage and patience! They also are helping organize the barrio and have helped form a petition to get buses/micros/trufis to pass through the neighbourhood so that the people can get into town.

There is also a water-shortage problem in Cochabamba (also affecting many other parts of Bolivia, too). I'm not sure all that is involved with that, but it does make it a lot harder to get water to the houses.

After our visit there we headed down to Evan's neighbourhood. It was a nice neighbourhood and even Evo Morales (the Bolivian president) has a house close by! Pretty cool. Anyway, we went to a restaurant close by and sat down at a super long table... we ordered our food and they brought out two large jugs full of fermented chicha. We were scheduled to have a meeting with the members of a barrio council. We were told that there would be two people coming. Six people showed up. A little unexpected, but whatever. We were suppose to hear about what they're doing in the community and kind of how they opporate. I'm not sure if it was because of the Spanish, the big distances between us all due to the table, or what, but it felt more like the members were discussing barrio problems and complaining and arguing amongst themselves more than providing an opportunity for us to make or ask any questions. I don't remember what they said. I didn't pay very good attention. But! The food was amazing! and we learned the custom of drinking chicha (a corn drink). If you ever find yourself amongst a group of Bolvians, drinking chicha, here is what you do: First, wish the person who served you good health, then drink the entire cup (or just pretend to drink it all if you're like me and hate the stuff... gross), then say "te invito" (I invite you) to the next person and serve them some chicha. Not too complicated, but it seems to be a little rude if you don't accept the invite. We were all made to drink a little more chicha than we would've liked... we heard the words "te invito" quite a few times. I, fortunately, managed to escape having to drink more than a few sips.

After our filling lunch we all moved ourselves to another worker's house. I had collected a nasty cough and runny nose and wasn't feeling too great (seems to be my custom... if I'm traveling, I'm sick). We were going to go to El Cristo, but I didn't want to. I wanted to sleep. Now I wish I had gone to the Cristo when I had had the chance. But, I had a good nap instead while the majority of the group went up to the Cristo (which is apparently so huge, you can walk inside it!).

Anyway, we all met later at the hotel and sped off to a really cool pizza place. Here we were able to talk with another volunteer from Maryknoll about the ritual we had performed on Saturday. It was a fantastic discussion! He was very good at answering our questions. I'm afraid I don't remember it all. I wish I did. I won't attempt to write his answers because I don't want to quote him wrong, but here's a question I asked, When is too far, too far? When do you reach a point of mixing beliefs when you've over-stepped the bounds of Christianity and compromised too much? When have you allowed Christianity to become something it was never meant to be? I was scared that by accepting (being tolerant) of native beliefs, Christianity would be forced to evolve and pretty soon the added beliefs would just be a part of what defines Christianity. Christianity would then evolve into something that isn't Christianity. I think the missionaries here want to be sensitive about native beliefs. They said that Bolivians wouldn't accept Christianity as it is, they wouldn't understand it. So they allow Pachamama and el Tio into Christianity... they say it's important to have the balance of male and female. I can't help but feel that Bolivians (just like Canadians or Hondurans or Iranians) can and do accept Christianity just as it is... as the truth. I wish I could write out the whole conversation, but you'll just have to be satisfied to know that the discussion was very helpful and very interesting.

Anyway, we went back to the hotel after that and slept. The next day we were able to sleep in a little more. Then off we went to The Democracy Center. That was a fabulous talk! I'm so impressed with the work they're doing here in Bolivia! I definitely think everyone who reads this should check out their website and blog! (website: www.democracyctr.org). So interesting! Of course, I am a little biased since I'm living in Bolivia right now anyways. But, I think it's important to understand what's going on. A lot of the decisions we make in North America affect Bolivia more profoundly than they sometimes affect us. Especially in regards to trade laws and US involvement in coca development and our expendature of fossil fuels and over-consuming. Not that we need to feel guilty, but I think it's important to understand that the decisions we make in our own country don't just affect us. It's a big world and it belongs to everybody.

After that fabulous discussion... we headed off for lunch at Ayni Ruway. We were told it was a place for the capacitation of women who were former prisoners (most imprisioned unjustly under law 1008...which you can find more information about here http://ain-bolivia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=28). The lunch was really amazing (Cochabamba sure did serve us some amazing food!), but the place didn't end up being what we though it was. It was still cool. It is a bit of a school for kids who want to learn a trade while they're in school. They can learn to cook or bake or act or play the guitar or paint or carve and a whole bunch of other things. I think it's a really wonderful place for these kids! It gives them some professional training to get them going! It was a pretty cool place.

After that we headed off to the Andean Information Network. We were early, so we explored a few of the streets around the office. I was really tired and my throat was super sore, but they served us tea and coffee.The first part of the meeting wasn't all that interesting... possibly because I was so tired and the lady who spoke did so for such a long time that I feel like I should have been worried that she didn't breathe enough. But, she was very knowledgable about Bolivia (she's been living here for a super long time! 19 years? something like that I think) and the conversation got more and more interesting as it went on. They also seem like a super cool organization. You can check out their work in Bolivia at http://www.ain-bolivia.org). Especially check out their information on coca. They've done some cool work and research on that.

So after all these meetings, it was a bit later and we all headed off for dinner together. It was nice to all hang out (minus Remy - volunteer from Moro Moro, who had to go back earlier). We shared our high points of the trip and low points. It was a nice catch-up.

Then off to the bus station to catch our bus (which turned out to be even nicer than the last one!!). I was really sure that I'd fall asleep right away this time... and it's quite possible that I might have, but there was an old Patrick Swayze movie playing with lots of fights and loud noises and the speaker was literally directly over my head. So, I stayed awake. And so ended the trip to Cochabamba and so ends this long and overdue blog entry.

A Month of Holidays PART 2

2009-01-25T16:04:00.007-04:00

to continue....

I arrived back to my house in Santa Cruz on the 8th and that night was met (at about 11:00pm) by a crowd of singing people. My birthday was the next day and a bunch of people from the church had come over to give me my birthday serenade (see below)!

That was pretty cool. They sang a ton of songs and we all ate jello and empanadas (dough wrapped around cheese... pretty good, no?) and drank coca-cola. It was fun, even though I felt a little awkward because I wasn't exactly sure how I was supposed to act as the sung-to person.

The next day my family (the most fabulous host family in the world!) gave me a meal with my favourite foods and then a cake! (see below.... me with my host parents... the cake later had candles... that refused to be blown out... honest. I blew them all out and then they relit - a few times. Silly candles, they even kept going once they'd been pulled out of the cake).

The day after my birthday I was off again with my friend, Kat, to La Paz. I would like to relate to you the journey there (which was scheduled to take 24 hours... to start us off, we left 2 hours late):

Hour 1 - Heidi and Kat don stoic faces and excitement is high for the trip to La Paz

Hour 2 - Light begins to dim and eyes roam outward to watch fading landscape

Hour 4 - Sleep descends

Hour 7 - Bus stops for an undetermined amount of time. Kat and Heidi make a mad dash to the bathroom bushes - bus leaves unexpectedly and made chase ensues. Heidi and Kat clambour onto bus, victorious, tired and slightly abashed. Endulge in salty crackers.

Hour 8-9 - Flota jumps line and passes a plethora (and I mean a very large amount) of parked trucks and buses causing two sketchy road blocks and some very amused passengers.

Hour 15 - Still in unimaginably long line [later discovered to be the cause of a road collapse] - but much further along. Heidi and Kat wipe sleep away long enough to lament over their static position and "ooh" over the gorgeous scenery.

Hour 18-19 - Arrive in Cochabamba (half-way point??). Happy yet numbed by the late arrival. Buy snacks and nibble on tasteless crackers. Bus leaves late. Wonder how stupidly late the bus will arrive in La Paz.

Hour 24 - Kat and Heidi realize a bus should not be judged for its outward appearance. Their esthetically-stunning flota (bus) sucks.

Hour 27 - La Paz sparkles into view. Breath is taken away - literally.

Hour 28 - Starting to lose patience. Traffic is heavy - so are our bladders.

Hour 29 - Safe exit from flota. Kat and Heidi make hurried escape away from terminal.

Hour 30 - Undramatically, yet exhaustedly, arrive at Arthy's (hostel). Play a short-lived game of pool. Wander aimlessly to bed - sans shower.

So, we did eventually arrive.... and we slept a lot. And then, the next morning, we peaked outside with our backpacks on and became quite frightened by the frenzied activity outside. La Paz turns out to be an amazingly crazy, busy city. I have never seen so many people running before. The first person running made me stop a second and watch. I wondered what was wrong... turns out a lot of people run in La Paz. Perhaps they enjoy the exercise of carrying a briefcase and jogging up enormously steep hills at a giant altitude of 3600m. Then again, perhaps not. It was a little amusing for Kat and I since we'd been getting use to the slower Bolivian pace in Santa Cruz. We wandered a bunch around La Paz and I shopped a ton! La Paz has got such an amazing artesans' market! I wanted to buy one of everything!... almost.

After a few days in La Paz we signed up for a tour to Lake Titicaca. That turned out to be an amazing trip! The lake is absolutely gorgeous! I got a little ocean-sick (as in... I started missing the ocean). The lake is over 8500km2 (squared kilometers), so there were places where the other side was not viewable. It was spectacular. We stayed on a tall Island on the lake called La Isla del Sol (The Island of the Sun), which was 4000m into the sky and took an incredible amount of will-power and lung-capacity to climb. Thank goodness for a cool little plant called muña, that we held close to our noses as we walked and inhaled its abundant supply of oxygen. We stayed at a really nice hotel there and ate some fish native to the lake. Absolutely delicious!

(the view of the lake from our hotel)

After our fantastic journey to the lake, we spent a day or two more in La Paz, hanging out... meeting more people from all over (we roomed with a pretty awesome group of people from France and Brazil... that was a lot of fun). It was, all-in-all... a pretty super trip. The trip back was not very eventful. We arrived early to Santa Cruz.

Well, that about sums up my vacation month (actually... a bit over a month). I've really enjoyed the chance to travel and all my freetime, but I suppose I'm now a bit excited to return to a routine. The time will move faster when I start working again and I'm excited to be working with some new co-workers and with some new kids.

Until next time! (hasta el proximo!)

Heidi

A Month of Holidays PART 1

2009-01-04T15:15:00.003-04:00

Well, it's been a while since my last blog... so...

Christmas was cool. It was harder than I thought it would be to spend Christmas away from home (especially with record breaking cold and snowfall at home!!). I missed my family's Christmas traditions and found it really odd to have nothing happen on December 25. In Bolivia Christmas is celebrated on the 24th in the evening. My whole host family got together at about 9:30 that night and talked and took pictures by the tree (it was a fake Christmas tree.... a little difficult to get a real Christmas tree here in Bolivia) and at about 11:00 we sat down around a long table and piled our plates with chicken, pork, different kinds of salads, yucca, and other foods... whatever they were... don't remember. We sat together there for about 1 hour, although I took a break from the food with my host brother and niece and nephew and set off some tame fireworks and some firecrackers. That was fun. Once midnight hit, we all congradulated each other on the new year and kissed each other on the cheek and hugged and blessed each other. Then we went inside and my papi handed out the presents from under the tree. The presents weren't big (except for two cellphones), but they were nice and it felt good to be included in their family tradition and holiday. But, then that was that and we went home and I went to bed. Christmas Day came and no one did anything. Honest. It was a day of sleeping and relaxing and doing nothing. I skyped my family a bunch and was able to share a bit in the Christmas I'm use to over the computer. Not quite ideal and I really wanted to squeeze through the computer screen and join the rest of my family in Canada. So, my Christmas was different, but I suppose it's kind of cool to now know how Christmas is celebrated in another country.

New Years was pretty cool. I was invited to go to a party with my host neice in a small town outside of the city, but ended up staying in Santa Cruz and going to the New Years celebrations at my church. Every family was supposed to present something like a song or a testimony or a skit or something. Most families didn't have anything prepared and some whipped up something on the spot, but others had songs ready or testimonies and those were shared. I played a piano piece and felt so good because everyone loved it and my papi (the pastor) got me to play it twice. My whole family also sang a song and I accompanied them on the piano. It was cool to be a part of their family presentation. Afterwards we sang songs and then got into groups to pray for each other and for the new year and for the church. After that my papi prayed until midnight and then we all rushed around hugging and kissing and congradulating each other and hurrying out the front door to watch the awesome fireworks! We had an enormous meal outside our church and then wandered tiredly to bed and collapsed asleep.

A few days later I made a trip to Sucre, the capital of Bolivia. I wasn't able to find anyone to go with me, so I ended up heading off alone.... which was a little bit scary, but kind of exciting. The trip was supposed to take 16 hours, but it ended up taking about 22. The problem? Rain.

Being from the west coast of Canada, I'm use to rain and I like rain, but... well... there's a bit of a different attitude towards rain here in Bolivia. When it rains, it pours, and when it pours, rivers flood and streets flood and suddenly there are no more streets, only rivers. That's what happened at about 1:30 in the morning while I was dozing on the bus. I noticed the bus had stopped, but was too tired to care why. So, I fell asleep and woke up at about 2:30... we still hadn't moved. So, I fell asleep again and woke up at 4:00... we still hadn't moved. I got up and out of the bus with a bunch of other people and we discovered that there was a long line of trucks and busses ahead of us and no one was moving because the river (normally crossable) was flooded and there was no longer any road. I think I was still a little too tired to let that sink in and I clamboured back onto the bus, wandering when a new road would be ready for us to cross. It took 6 hours... and when we finally approached the river my heart did a few backflips and sank. It was a dark, muddy, rushing river. "We are going to die," I thought (not completely serious... just a little) and more rain started to fall.

The first section of river was crossed slowly and at one point the bus leaned frighteningly to the side (releasing many tense gasps from us passengers within), but we made it safely and clapped heartedly for our talented bus driver. Then, we were delayed again on a good-sized mass of land in the middle of the river. I got out again (almost missed getting back on the bus...oops) and watched as other buses tried to make the crossing. There were some wobbly crossings and I wondered how on earth the baggages stored under the bus weren't getting wet (perhaps they did) as the water was waist-high (I know this because a few people stripped off their pants and waded across with their backpacks). There was also another truck that got stuck on the other side and wobbled and teetered and slid and made me very frightened for the people sitting in the back. They managed to get out fine. Then it was my buss' turn... I most certainly have much respect for our bus driver. We made it over and out without incident! I definitely gave thanks to God for that safe crossing.

The rest of the trip was made without anything much more exciting and I managed to make it to my hostel in Sucre with the help of a kind Bolivian gentleman. My hostel was really amazing! I met so many people from all over the world (although mainly from Ireland)... Ireland, Holland, Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, England, Chile. I had a lot of fun wandering the city and talking with people and hearing stories of travels and going to super cool museums. I didn't actually end up doing too much while there. Lots of relaxing. It was a really good time and made me feel more confident: that I could plan and take a trip like this all on my own!

Anyways... I'm going to end this post and start another one so it doesn't seem like you're reading one enormous long post, just two fair-lengthed ones.

Thoughts and Stories

2008-12-10T14:06:00.006-04:00

Whew... it's almost Christmas. I hadn't quite realized how much of the Christmas spirit is initiated by commercialism. Heh... I kind of miss it. But, anyways...Christmas is coming and I'm getting pretty excited to see how the celebrations go here in Bolivia. Apparently it's mainly celebrated on Christmas Eve. Stay up late with the entire family and eat a HUGE meal at midnight and then sleep all of Christmas Day (because it's so hot... and you've just eaten a ton of food). Sounds great!

Bolivia is cool. I like it. On my "culture shock chart" I'm on the part that's going up and leveling off. As in... things are getting better (not too homesick) and I'm beginning to find a rhythm in my Bolivian life (some things are beginning to feel normal... more familiar). That feels pretty awesome. I'm sure I'll still have some more downs and ups, but I'm feeling so much more comfortable here. Now, just to learn the language!!

This past weekend all us SALTers went to visit another SALTer and some other MCCers in Moro Moro (a tiny town off in the foothills of the Andes). It was suppose to be a 10hour bus ride, but both the ride there and back turned out to be shorter than that! yay! It was an amazing drive... through gorgeous, green hills and the view of mountains in the distance. It was also a little dangerous with enormous cliffs falling off the road and lots of twists and turns and ups and downs. Thankfully the bus drivers take this road quite frequently and there were no close-calls.

Anyways... the town is amazing! Although I'm glad to be living in the city, I was a little jealous of the Bolivian life MCCers in Moro Moro get to experience. The town is so tranquillo and people greet you on the street and talk with you and it's all so exactly what you'd expect to see in a town in the mountains. Fantastic! I'm not sure how to explain it exactly. Staying in Moro Moro, you can begin to forget about North America... and all it is is Bolivians in Bolivia, living the Bolivian way. It was pretty cool.

We ended up doing about 8 hours of walking/hiking around the town and to other small villages close by. Our first full day there we ended up walking 6 hours to and from La Abra (spelt correctly?). What a hike! We were all so tired and sore and out-of-breath!! Well, all except the MCCers from Moro Moro, who do this sort of walking all the time and think nothing of it. It was so gorgeous, though. As you climbed the mountain/hill you could look across the valley and see farms stretching across the hillsides and tiny cattle far away and then you could turn and see the farms and cattles sitting right beside you along the road. The dirt along the road was also pretty cool... it changed colours quite consistently: from brown to red to purple to white to red to rock to purple... heh, that was the first time I can ever remember seeing purple dirt. It was kind of pretty. Our second day there, we hiked 1.2543 hours (or so) up to see a cool rock that looked like a Tortoise... well... the tortoise was kind of a sad looking creature. We made the most of it though and took a lot of pictures of it and laughed at our enjoyment of it. Good times. We played lots of Scum (card game) and ate some amazing food and then came back home to Santa Cruz and the heat.

I'm learning lots of things here in Bolivia that I didn't think I would... things not entirely Bolivia-related... like how Americans say "washroom" instead of "bathroom." Who knew?! Interesting. Thanks to my American friends down here, I have an increasing - although still very limitted - knowledge of American politics and economics. I never had in interest in such things before, but my friends make it sound so very interesting... It's also cool to hear American opinions on American issues. I have also aquired a growing reading list, thanks to the extensive MCC library and my many very well-read friends here. Who would've thought the non-fiction genre could hold so many interesting books!?

The past two days (Monday and Tuesday) I played piano for a youth camp at their evening rallies. It was a lot of fun... even though... well... it was a good Bolivian experience where no one knew exactly where my music was, or when we were going to start playing, or what we were going to be playing - neither did anyone know the order of songs or even which song would be played until it showed up on the wall behind us. I'd been able to practice with the rest of the band twice before Monday and we'd practiced about 4 songs. I ended up playing only 1 of the songs that we'd practiced and there ended up being quite a few songs I couldn't even play because they didn't have music for them. I was so impressed with everyone else in the band, though. None of them needed music. They either knew the songs so well or had such a great ear, that they didn't need to see any chords. Despite what seemed to me, at first, as disorganized worship leading, everyone had a lot of fun and I think everything went super well! I really enjoyed both nights. It was especially cool when Oscar (worship leader) was introducing the band and asking people "And, what's the name of our drummer??" and the kids would scream the answer... , he asked "And, who do we have playing piano?!" the response was amazing! All (I'm fairly certain just about everyone screamed back) the people from my church screamed, "Heidi!!!!" I'm not being vain, it actually was the biggest response of all...I'm pretty sure. I was so... touched. Wow, I thought, people know who I am and they're excited to know who I am. That really felt amazing. It showed me that I'm a wanted part of my church. I can't really describe how fantastic it was to hear that response.

Anyway, things are going really well down here. I feel like I've actually got (or am getting) a real life in Bolivia. I'm going to work, I'm talking with friends, I'm doing some traveling, I'm hanging out with my family. God is taking good care of me.

God is good - He knows what He's doing - I can trust Him

what I have to say

2008-11-22T11:49:00.008-04:00

Well, it seems like it's time for another update...

It's been super hot today. The newspaper said a cloudless sky with 35degrees. But, the thermometer here in the shade says 38... um... perfect... really hot. This seems the perfect day for doing absolutely nothing but eating ice cream and watching movies of the North Pole. How do you describe 38degree weather with added humidity? Well, I really don't think I should... it's just hot.

What I've been doing...

Last Thursday I went to work feeling a little sick and ended up lying in my sala on a mattress trying to sleep and gaining a phlegmy cough and a fever. Eventually the secratary came in and then the nurse and they gave me some pills and sent me home. I slept quite a bit for the next two days... well, off-and-on slept. I was really wanting to get better for Friday evening when a bunch of us from work were going to head out to Samaipata (a gorgeous small town in the Bolivian mountains). Friday came around and I still wasn't feeling too great, but I decided I really wanted to see this place, so I went. It turned out to be both a good and a bad idea.

Samaipata was absolutely gorgeous and magnificent! Unfortunately neither mine nor Kat's (other volunteer) cameras were in any mood to cooperate and take pictures (Kat's was forgotten at home and mine refused to accept my memory card - which I later learned was because it wasn't actually a memory card). But, we have decided that we have to return again sometime in the new year with the other two volunteers here in Santa Cruz (Toni and Sita). We'll definitely be extra careful to make sure our cameras are present and in working condition then.

In Samaipata we stayed at a hostel and there met a person from France and another from Italy. Like Kat said then, it was cool that none of us (except the Bolivian friends we traveled with) spoke our native language, but we were still able to communicate - in Spanish! Saturday we all journeyed up to El Fuerte and saw some amazing vistas of green rolling mountains and valleys that were so beautiful that they just cannot be described in words (stay tuned for pictures in the new year!). We also saw Inca (pre-Incan?) ruins! That was absolutely incredible! They were older than my country!... well, Canada isn't really that old... but that's kind of the point - these were the oldest things I've ever seen! 500+ years! Yeah, I was pretty excited. I was also pretty happy that I wasn't feeling too sick... still a little feverish and what-not, but pretty good.

After El Fuerte we began the long, hot trek back to the town of Samaipata (stopping off for a "jump" in the river with all our clothes on - it was really hot). We met two guys from Israel as we were walking back... they were driving by in a taxi and we only managed to say "Hi! Do you speak English? Where are you from?" We also met them again later on that day. I got sunburnt really badly on that walk - I didn't feel it coming until it was too late... and I'd put sunscreen on! Luckily a jeep/4x4 thing drove by and stopped to give us a ride about an hour into our walk. There we met two people from England, one guy from Switzerland, one from Brazil and another girl from Germany. Wow! People from all over the world!..er, well, mainly Europe. That was pretty cool.

Anyway, it was a pretty neat experience all-in-all. Sunday we went to a museum and saw some cool artifacts from the Incas and then headed home through gorgeous scenery! I was so tired, but it was difficult to let myself close my eyes - I wanted to soak everything in!

So, I got back from Samaipata and felt awful... sick, sick, sick. I had a grand cough and was really, really tired. I didn't want to go back to work the next day... I didn't want to go back ever. I wanted to go home to Canada for good. Luckily there are a lot of doctors and medical people in my host family and my host-brother-in-law was able to write me up a perscription for some different medications. So, I didn't go to church that night, instead I skyped my mom and then went to bed. The next day I slept and Skyped my mom again - it was really, really nice to talk with her, but it was also hard because I was so homesick and I was so discouraged with my work. I spent a long time crying and complaining and ranting to her. I was also able to talk with my twin in Calgary - that was so nice, too! Thank goodness for SKYPE! I didn't go to work on Tuesday either. I spent most of those two days feeling tired and sick (I might have had bronchitus...still have the cough) and longing to go home. When homsickness hits and you're so far from home, it hits hard... like a brick wall. Those few days were really tough for me. I didn't want to see anything Bolivian. But!...

The end of last week was really fantastic. Thursday morning I decided to adopt a better attitude towards my job because this is something I'm doing because I love God. It so happens that good attitudes produce better feelings and better feelings help sustain better attitudes and not-so-good days turn into that-was-a-really-good days. And so, I ended up having two very good work days on Thursday and Friday. The kids were the same as always and I ended up having a lot of fun. I'm also feeling much better about Bolivia. Not so homesick... I still miss my family and my friends, but not unbearably. I'm happy to be in Bolivia.

Still on this good note, I've begun to feel much more at home in my house here in Bolivia. I'm feeling more comfortable, more relaxed, more like it's my house, too. That's such an awesome feeling! I d0n't feel so much like a boarder, but more like an actually member of the family - not completely... but enough to make me feel at home. That makes such a difference! I'm not a stranger in this house anymore, I can sit in the living room whenever I want and read or write or talk... I like it a lot.

What I like about Bolivia... (not in any specific order) 1. My host family (including all the pets) 2. The markets 3. Chance to learn so many new things (Spanish?) 4. Everything costs less 5. So many trees! So many fresh fruits! 6. My church 7. There are more things I like than just the six previously stated reasons.

Hasta luego!

...change!

2008-10-30T13:10:00.000-04:00

So, this week was my first week of not working in the curso I talked about last time. I have switched over to Sala Cuna or The Baby Room. I like it a lot better, but...

Is it too easy!? What about all my goals and what-not that I wrote about last time? I had thought God had wanted me in the other curso, but was I wrong? ... ... ...then again, maybe God wanted me in the other curso for the time that I was there and now He wants me in Sala Cuna.

Well... the Baby Room isn't all babies... there are a few (4-ish), but the rest are about 1.5-2.5 years old. There's still quite a bit of violence, but not as much as in my other curso. There are also only about 17 kids and 4 or 5 Tias (Aunts). So I find I have a lot more time for myself, to rest. The kids also sleep a lot more and I get a longer break for lunch and seista (2.5 hours... approximately). The other workers in Sala Cuna are really awesome. They have so much energy and a crazy sense of humour - I really enjoy working with them. They do try to be inclusive of me quite a bit, which I really appreciate because I can imagine it's hard to always be inclusive to the new, foreign girl who doesn't really understand too much of what you're saying.

That all said, it's not completely easy. I get tired... I get bored... I get to change dirty diapers. But now when I come home at the end of the day I can usually say, "I had fun today." - I think that's super important. I'm still teaching kids love and gentleness and I still hope to be a fond hazy memory someday in the back of these kids' minds.

On to other news... Yesterday I went go-karting with Kat (the other SALTer at the Guarderia) and 5 other girls from our work. I didn't want to go at first, but I was convinced finally and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I didn't imagine something very fancy - I imagined it being a little run-down... it wasn't at all! It was fancier than any go-karting place I've seen in Canada (although that's not to say there isn't any place fancier). We had special head coverings and cool helmuts and gloves and vests and there were flags and lights and races. It was pretty awesome. Afterwards Kat and I ate some ice cream and then went home. I was tired and my leg was tired (the one constantly pressing on the accelerator), but I was happy... that sounds cheesy, but it's true. It was a good time to connect with other people from my work and to see more of the city.

Yesterday was also halloween. I saw a few decorations for halloween around and some new stalls were up here and there with halloween stuff, but it definitely wasn't very big or popular. Not much happened. I saw a few kids around with some candy buckets... but there were no parties or big halloween advirtisements or anything like that. And, seeing as how I'm not a halloween fan, it was nice to nearly skip it for a year.

In still other news...
I have a pretty good weekend lined up. Let me tell you about it.

Tonight us volunteers (and some others) are getting together to make pizza and watch a movie and eat snacks and hang out. I'm pretty excited for that. It's nice to get together with friends every now and then and speak English and watch an English movie.

Tomorrow my church is going on a paseo (outing... not sure if I spelt "paseo" right). It's to some place about 20km from Santa Cruz. I'm also super excited for this. There's a pool and we'll eat and play games and talk and have a good time all around (so I hope... it might rain). I really love my church here. I can't really describe fully why, but it's awesome. The people are really friendly and there's a bunch of youth (with whom I still need to try and connect with... whew, not so easy). I'll have to blog at another time all about my church.

Monday is "The Day of the Dead." - a holiday where nobody (or nearly no-one) works. It sounds kind of morbid, but it's more of a Rememberance Day than anything halloween-y... if I have understood it correctly. I'm not really sure what happens, but I'm pretty sure it's more popular here than halloween (if only because one gets a day off from work). It also happens to be my Papi's birthday. So... a serenade will occur the night before at about midnight and the next day we shall have empanadas and cake!

Anyways, that's about all the news I have for now. I'll be back in a couple weeks!

Chau!

My work....

2008-10-10T18:47:00.000-04:00

So... I finished my first week and 1.5 days of work and spent most of the time asking myself that infamous question, "What on earth have I gotten myself into?" I am one of three teachers (profis) working with 21 two and three year olds who have immense amounts of energy and knowledge of violence.
For my first day, my host mom rode on the micro with me down to my work (it took a bit over half an hour - much shorter than what we had thought it would be!) and she walked me right up to the door. I have an amazing host mom! I was rather nervous, but there didn´t seem to be much to do, but kiss the cheeks of both my co-workers (in good Bolivian fashion) and dive straight in! The kids were just putting away their toys and getting ready for song time. Not such an easy task as it may sound. They put their toys away easily enough, but it was next to impossible to gather 21 energetic little kids and seat them against the wall and have them remain there. It is a constant battle of pulling one kid off of another and racing after kid #1 while seating kid #2 and having kid #3 running off from where you had just seated him. This continues for the entire day. There is a lot of crying; there is a lot of chaos; there is a lot of hitting, kicking, spitting, biting, pulling hair, and screaming....there are a lot of tired profis at the end of the day.

My days go like this:

Stretch #1 - Get up at 7:00... eat breakfast at 7:30... leave the house at 8:10... catch micro at 8:25... arrive at Guarderia Moises at 9:00

Stretch #2 - Song Time with the kids.... craft time with the kids...refrigerio (snack) time at 10:00... play on the concha or with legos or something that occupies the kids so that one profi can clean the classroom.... 12:00 lunch..... change the kids from their food-dirtied clothes and attempt to place them all on mats for siesta... lie down with kids and try to put them to sleep.... 1:30 hopefully all kids are asleep.... read or wander or do some sort of task, or possible escape for a short nap (I´ve already learned from experience that it is a rather stupid idea not to rest during this time... one gets rather completely worn out by the end of the day otherwise)...

Stretch #3 - 3:00 kids get up.... get kids changed... possible teeth brushing (now, that´s an adventure).... 4:00 refrigerio and the disappearance of one profi to her home... the next two hours are spent playing with toys or reading books and exhausting oneself playing "mommy" with a plastic dinosaur until all the parents have come and collected their children.

Stretch #4 - 6:00 (or so) leave to catch micro... 6:18 hopefully the micro stops and picks me up (it gets SUPER full)... 7:20 arrive at home and collapse on my bed for 5min.... eat dinner... read or study Spanish... talk with my host family (hopefully!)... take a shower.... go to bed

REPEAT! (warning: schedule may change without warning, although meal times shall remain constant)

It´s tiring and draining and exhausting, but it´s where God wants me. I spent quite a bit of time my first week asking God, "This is some kind of joke, right? What am I actually going to be doing?" But, it turns out that when God says go, I end up blowing noses and breaking up fights between 2-year olds. Not exactly glamerous.
I didn´t enjoy my first week, but I began to see perhaps why God had placed me here. All 21 kids are from very poor families, mainly with a single parent. Their home lives aren´t the greatest and they have had to learn to stick up for themselves. There is an awful lot of violence in my curso (class) and there is always revenge - which begins a nasty cycle until a profi steps in. I think that maybe that´s why I´m here. I need to be an example of non-violence, of love and forgiveness instead of revenge, of calm instead of chaos. This is definitely not easy in this kind of environment, but I can do it and it definitely helps by giving me a sense of purpose. I´m not exactly sure how to go about being this example, but I´m starting to try. I encourage hugs and kisses and already I can see the beauty when one child puts their arm around another who is crying and asks them what´s wrong.
It´s fantastic to have a goal. My goal is to teach these kids about love and forgiveness. I´m sure it´s going to be exhausting - at least for the first while - but I think it´s going to be so rewarding! I have a chance to shape the next generation. I want these kids to look back and remember Heidi as someone who never hit them, who was gentle and who loved them. I think this is why God wants me here. I think He´s going to shape me quite a bit here. I´m going to learn patience and discipline and work ethic and how to love those who don´t know how to be loved. It´s going to be an amazing year. ... but it´s not quite enjoyable yet (thank goodness for an absolutely amazing host family!!).
I really like my co-workers. They´re fun and everyone is really nice and friendly at the Guarderia. It´s a little difficult to communicate because my Spanish still isn´t very good, but it´s getting better and I still manage to communicate pretty well. The grounds are gorgeous and green! There are hamocks and cows and pigs and dogs and totoises and lots of trees! It is so nice to work in such a beautiful place.
Anyway, that´s a bit of a summary of my work. Thank you for all your prayers and encouragements, they mean a lot to me.

Chau!

Las Policias ... but not really...

2008-09-27T16:21:00.000-04:00

So.... I had a bit of an adventure about a week ago, which was pretty scary but also makes for a good story...soo.... I´m going to relate that story here.

I had taken a taxi home, but given the driver poor instructions and ended up about 5 or 6 blocks from my house... not really a big deal - so I thought. The taxi driver seemed a bit concerned for me, but I didn´t understand what he was saying and I figured I´d be fine, so I got out of the taxi, crossed the street and began walking home.

I had my big backpack on since I´d just gotten back from a trip to Santiago with the other SALTers and IVEPer and I heard a lady call me. "Señorita! Señorita!" I thought that maybe my backpack was open, so I stopped.

(*side note: all this took place in Spanish... I shall relate it in English with a few Spanish words inserted here and there... please forgive me if my spelling is bad)

Thankfully my backpack wasn´t open, she just wanted to know the time. It was 4:38pm and still perfectly light out. After giving her the time I turned to walk away, but then she started asking me which micro she should take to go North. I told her that I couldn´t help her because I didn´t go that way, but she persisted in asking, telling me that she´d been looking all over for her micro. I apologized again and again tried to walk away. Just then a man walked up to us and said, "Excuse me ladies." and began to reach into his shirt pocket. I half rolled my eyes, expecting some sales pitch on a calling card or something, but instead he pulled out a laminated card that stated he was a Policia (Police officer) and asked to see our documentation. My heart skipped about two beats and I started to pray. "Dear God, please let me have my passport." I did. I remembered that Laura (the MCC Bolivia connecting peoples person and all-round cool person) had said if we were ever approached by "policia" and asked for documents, we could give them the copies of our passports, but we had every right to refuse to go anywhere with them. That proved to be a very helpful piece of advice. ... Especially since these people were not actually real police.

Anyway, I showed him my passport and he read out my name. I was hoping that once he saw I was Canadian and had a right to be in the country, he´d let me go. He didn´t. Instead he said, "I´m afraid you´re going to have to come with me."

All my eye-type fluid flushed into my ear canals and I decided to get angry... well, not really angry... just a little angry. I stuffed my stuff back into my backpack (they were nice enough to point out some of my clothes on the sidewalk), swung it onto my back and said ¨No puedo.¨(I can´t).

The man continued on about something to do with having to take foreigners to their office for questioning. "It´ll only be 5 minutes," he said. At about this time a taxi pulled up and asked "Do you need a taxi?" to the fake police. They said, "yes."(... since when do police use taxis?).

"Please get into the taxi," the man said. I shook my head again, "No puedo." (I seemed to have forgotten how to say anything but "I can´t" in Spanish). The other lady tried to reassure me, "It´s OK, I have to go, too... There´ll be two of us females. You´ll be fine." 'What?!' I thought, 'You´re going along with this??' I was pretty scared at this point because I didn´t understand what to do. I prayed, "Dear God, please keep me safe."

Again the man tried to convince me to get into the taxi..."It´ll only take 5 minutes." I again said "I can´t!" Then another man showed up. I thought he was coming to help me... coming to see what the commotion was about. Nope... he was a "policia" too. He showed me a card quickly. I tried to look at it, but he wouldn´t let me... instead he gave it to the other lady and said, "It´s hers." Oh dear, I thought, she´s one of them, too! I´m in trouble.

Again they tried to get me to get in the taxi, telling me it would only be 5 minutes. I figured I was going to have to think of something better than "no puedo" to get out of this, so I said "No puedo!" a little firmer.

Man #1 asked why not. My chance! "My family," I said guestering towards my house... I tried to get them to understand that I was expected somewhere... that my family would miss me (although I don´t think they cared too much about that).

"OK," they said, "just get in the taxi, it will take 5 minutes and then we´ll take you to your house."

Throughout this exchange I focussed my attention on man #1... not on purpose, automatically... I think that helped me not feel so overwhelmed. And, since there was absolutely no way under any circumstance for any period of time was I ever getting in that taxi, I told him - very strongly (Yay Heidi!) - "NO." I was quite proud of myself as I became more and more frustrated and more and more angry.

"OK," I said, "let me call my family, OK?"

"Sure," they said, "just get in the taxi. It´ll only take 5 min and you can call your family after."

"No," I said, "Before!"

"Before?" They seemed confused... maybe they were starting to lose confidence... "Why don´t you get in the taxi and we´ll take you to your family after."

I was tired of their constant, obvious lies and was getting frustrated at having to make all these arguments to let them know that I didn´t believe them and that they weren´t going to get their way.

"No," I said feeling somewhat in control of the situation (perhaps that feeling was false... turned out alright, though), "Before!"

"Fine," they said. "OK." They were letting me make a phone call? "There´s a phone booth down there. Two blocks. No more! Two blocks!"

Yes! Finally! I planned on calling my host family and not going anywhere until they came to get me. I was so close to tears at this point. I was scared at what they might try to do to me, but I was also pretty mad and proud of myself for sticking up for myself so well (even if it was with very few words).

I started walking away and I thought man #2 was coming with me, but he stopped. I walked 2 blocks and didn´t see the phone booth. God was looking out for me, though, because those two blocks took me straight to the road that leads to my house. I looked back to where the policia had stopped me and I couldn´t see them, so I turned down my road and started walking to my house. If they followed me and asked what I was doing, I´d say I was looking for the phone booth. I was scared that they were in each taxi that passed me. But, they never were and they didn´t follow me. I don´t know why they didn´t follow me. Maybe they realized that they weren´t going to get the better of me, or maybe they were scared I was going to call the police instead of my family, or... I don´t know. But, I do know that God was taking care of me. I got to my house safely and my whole host family was amazing at comforting me and making sure I was OK. I felt very much loved.

...and that´s my story... hasta luego!

Toilets flush counter-clockwise and Bug bites should not be itched

2008-09-13T16:31:00.000-04:00

Well, seeing as how tomorrow marks the 1 month anniversary of arriving in Bolivia, I figured I should probably write another blog entry...

About 3 weeks ago I suddenly realized that everything I´d been told about toilets flushing the opposite way on the other side of the equator was undeniably true! It was a revolutionary moment... or not so much, but it was exciting to see first hand. My point with this comment? I don´t really have one... except that there are often times when I forget I´m in a different country and then something like toilets flushing backwards (or someone speaking to me in Spanish) jolts me back to the realization that I really have left North America. It´s kind of cool. I wonder if this is a good thing. Have I become so comfortable with Santa Cruz that it has started to become home? normal? Or, am I living in denial of the fact that I´m in Bolivia and need constant reminders to tell me I´m here? Hm... I don´t know. I know that I´m enjoying being here and that I´m enjoying making new friends and learning a new language and buying things for less money, and seeing God take care of me through a bunch of different circumstances. I think that´s good enough. If it´s not, I´m sure I´ll find that out soon enough.

If you haven´t heard the news yet, there´s quite the conflict going on in Bolivia right now. I won´t try to explain it very well because I don´t understand it very well. It´s got something to do with autonomy and taxes and a few other things. I can´t really say what started it (because I´m not quite sure), but the results are at least 10 deaths so far and a bunch of raiding and riots and violent demonstrations and the closure of markets early as well as the transit system. All these conflicts make the city a bit more dangerous, but it is still safe enough for me to walk around in the day. At night I´m at home and I try to get home before dark... which isn´t that hard to do. So, life goes on as usual, more or less. And, I don´t mean to paint a scary picture of Santa Cruz right now, it isn´t really that scary. It´s a great city and I´m still loving it.

Well, I´m going off to the Hipermaxi (department store?) with my host mom soon, so there´s one more important story I need to share...

About 2 weeks ago I was watching TV with my sister, when a mob of mosquitoes attacked my right foot. Well, not a mob, but I ended up with six large, incredibly itchy bites on my foot. That night I itched them really hard a few times to calm the itching and then I fell asleep. The next morning my foot had begun to swell. Uh oh... I was a little scared. The next day it was worse, so I showed my host dad and he didn´t seem concerned, so I felt better. I went to MCC and showed some people there and they seemed a lot more concerned. I was told to leave it for now, but if it got worse to see a doctor. I finally ended up talking with a lady who works at MCC who use to be a nurse. She thought that perhaps my itching had caused the bites to open up under the skin and I was bleeding under my skin. Hm... interesting. My foot didn´t hurt at all, it just felt rather large and stupid and was annoying to walk on since it felt inflated. I was told to elevate it when I was sitting or sleeping, so I did and it started to get better... slowly. I started feeling a lot better. Once the swelling was gone, it started hurting a bit... but it was concluded to be from the bruising. At this time, my foot is as good as new! Yay! and... that´s the story. I want to add a picture of my foot for you... we´ll see if it works.

The moral of this story: Don´t ever itch your bug bites unless you want them to look like a disfigured empanada!! ---->

Bolivia: First Impressions

2008-08-19T17:07:00.000-04:00

Whew... I´m finally here! I arrived in Santa Cruz 5 days ago and I can hardly believe I´m here! The MCC complex is beautiful! I really love it. There are some awesome people here, too. Actually, everyone here is awesome. They are all so friendly and hospitable and lovely.

It´s been a little crazy getting use to the new environment here. It´s a lot more crowded and traffic is all over the place! It´s pretty exciting, but it will definitely take a little while to get use to it.

One of my favourite parts of being here is being able to see all the different vegetation and wildlife. I see palm trees and mango trees and mandarine orange trees and papaya trees and yucca plants and cool looking birds with unknown names. I love standing outside and realizing that I´m in Bolivia. It´s so different from anything that I´ve ever known.

I´ve begun to realize that as often as I´ve seen pictures of poverty, I´ve never really understood it. I also realize that I still don´t understand it. But, I can see poverty first hand now... that makes it so much more real. I see Bolivians scraping up what money they can by racing through parked cars, trying to sell a newspaper or some bananas... and I see stall workers so exhausted that they´ve fallen asleep on their seats. I saw a lady without shoes a few days ago and I felt so bad. But, what can I do? I can afford many shoes... many nice shoes, and she can´t afford any. I probably won´t ever see her again and even if I did, could I give her my shoes? I don´t know.

Anyways, that kind of paints a depressing picture of Bolivia. It´s not actually that depressing. Some parts are sad and others are quite happy. The people here are hard working and friendly and wonderful. I really love everyone I´ve met.

Yesterday, all of us SALTers and YAMEN (except for one who was in Concepcion...did I spell that right?) piled into a jeep/truck/car and headed off to an Old Mennonite Colony with two MCC workers who work with the colonies. It was an amazing experience. It took about 1 hour to get down there and suddenly everyone was in overalls or traditional Mennonite dresses. We drove down many many roads that held no understanding of the concept of ´smooth´or ´flat´. It was actually pretty fun driving over them... especially riding in the back with no seatbelts.
Our first stop at the colony was to their cheese factory, which was pretty awesome. I really wish I´d brought my camera (apparently they don´t mind cameras here). The process was pretty cool. It would´ve been fun to try. Mixing cheese pieces (that looked an awful lot like cottage cheese) with your hands and shoveling them into boxes to be squashed together and de-juiced. Was pretty cool. Everyone there had huge smiles and were quite happy to show us what they do. They let us try a piece of cheese, which was quite good, but very very salty!
Then we headed over to a Mennonite store. It held lots of cloth for clothes (interesting patterns...) and shoes and baby stuff. It was pretty interesting. Apparently they are not allowed to wear regular buttons, so they have snap buttons instead. They showed us how they put those onto shirts, which was pretty cool.
For lunch we headed over to the house of one of the colony families. They were so friendly and his wife made a ton of wonderful food for us! Mennonites certainly do eat a good amount of food.
They took us to the River (I don´t know how to spell the name...), which was nearly all dried up...it was almost like a miniture canyon. I think the bottom was about 5 meters below us...and in the rainy season it fills up to about 1 meter below the top. Pretty incredible because it is incredibly wide! We managed to find a way down into the riverbed (which was an interesting climb in my skirt... skirts were required for all us girls) and walked along it for a ways before finding another way out. That was a lot of fun. All-in-all it was an amazing experience I probably won´t ever forget.

Today we visited Talita Cumi (where one of the SALTers I traveled with is going to be working) and to Guaderia Moises (where I and one other SALTer will be working). It´s an incredible place! It´s absolutely beautiful with lots of green field space and playgrounds and nice classrooms and preschool area. They even have a few cows and a pig! I´m looking forward to working there. Apparently I will be working mainly with the toddlers and babies (so cute!), but also may be asked to cover for some volunteers in the after school program. I´m glad I can do both. I like a variety of work. I took a bunch of pictures and hope to post those soon-ish... although I keep saying that to myself and it never happens.

I´m not sure how often I´ll be able to blog after this because on Sunday I´m going to head off to live with my host family (which I´m pretty excited about) and I don´t think they have a computer. I´ll try to get over to the MCC center regularily, though.

Tomorrow we´re sleeping in and having a pancake breakfast (awesome!). Aftwards I think we´ll head off to the market to do some shopping... which will be super nice. I am in much need of shampoo/conditioner (although I was told I should use soap...don´t know if I´m convinced of that yet). Chao!

Akron

2008-08-13T20:38:00.000-04:00

Akron is beautiful. It's a super tiny town, but it is really gorgeous. There are many rolling hills and lots of green trees and grass. The complex here is amazing! There are four different "houses" with about 12 bedrooms each (2 people to a bedroom), a living area and a "kitchen." They are really fun. I have a fantastic roommate who is from Santa Cruz, Bolivia (where I'm going) and we have a lot of fun teaching each other Spanish and English and learning about each other's culture.

I absolutely love meeting so many people from all over the world. There are about 50 of us from North America and 60 from elsewhere. There are a lot of different languages echoing around here. I'm enjoying my time here, although every now and then I get a pang of homesickness when I realize what I'm doing. It's comforting, though, to know I'm not the only one who feels the same way.

One of the things I love the most about being here in Akron is the chance to see people from all over the world praising God in different languages. We've sung a few songs in a few different languages and it's awesome to know that it doesn't matter if you're singing in English or Cambodian, God understands both. I had someone from Korea pray for me in Korean and that was no less powerful than it would've been if she prayed for me in English. At the commissioning service there were many many people praying to God in their own languages. It was beautiful... not necessarily because the language was beautiful, but because I realized that there is no language barrier with God. It sounds so obvious when I'm writing that, but it's so profound and awesome when you finally understand it! We're all different in language and customs and physical appearance, but there is something greater than any physical difference could hope to be and that is the love of the one God. God is the same in Nanaimo as He is in Santa Cruz as He is in Cairo as He is in that little village just outside Mexico City. That is very encouraging to know.

As all of us SALTers are getting ready to go (the IVEPers have already all left... :(... sad), we're all feeling the same anxieties and excitement. We're terrified, but thrilled at the opportunity. It's like one of my friends here said, we have to remind our selves of the simple truths, of God's steady promises. Remembering these things strengthens our courage and determination to persevere. The leaders of my Going Global small group gave me a helpful saying to remember. It says "God is Good. He knows what He's doing. I can trust Him." That helps. It helps to know that this is where God wants me, so I'm going to be OK. It helps to know that everyone goes through culture shock and that what I will be feeling is normal. I'm very scared, but I'm also terribly excited to see how God is going to use this experience to strengthen my faith and trust in Him.

Oh! And another HUGE praise item! I was sure I had at least $1500 owing to MCC when I got here, but when I received my donations report I had nothing due! Thank you sooo much to everyone who supported me financially through this! It was an amazing God moment to read that statement and realize that God is certainly taking care of my needs as I trust Him.

am I actually doing this??

2008-08-05T16:46:00.000-04:00

Wow, I'm scared. I leave for Pennsylvania on Saturday. That only leaves me 3 more days here in Canada with my family. I keep wondering if I'm actually, really truely, going to Bolivia.

I feel different from all the other SALTers - more unprepared. But I suppose that's not a fair assumption since I don't know what experiences the other SALTers have had overseas. I've never been overseas before. Not even for a week-long missions to Mexico. I really have no idea what to expect from Bolivian culture. I don't understand much Spanish, either. I know a few phrases and words, but not much at all. That's also very frightening for me. I have been away from my family before... when I'm off at college, but I've always had my twin with me. Now I'm going somewhere by myself. Whew... what an adventure!

Thank you so much to those who have been supporting me through donations and prayers. I really can't express how grateful I am! It means so much to know that there are people here who care so much for me... no matter where I am.

I could really use prayer for confidence and that I'd remember everything I need to do before I go. Also for my language studies and calmed nerves. Thank you, again!

July 11

2008-07-11T18:27:00.000-04:00

I've made my way back to Nanaimo (home for a while before heading to orientation). It was a bit of an adventure getting here. I was late to my flight and arrived 15 minutes before my flight was going to leave. I was so upset that I had tears flowing down my face. There was a really great lady at the check-in area and she phoned down to my gate and they agreed to let me on - especially because I was crying (tears can help!). It was hard, though, because I wasn't able to say a good goodbye to my sister - I was in too much of a confusing hurry. We're twins and I've never been apart from her for more than 9 days... so it was hard to imagine not seeing her for over a year! I did make it onto the plane though and the lady sitting next to me gave me a kleenex for my runny nose and tears (so nice of her).

It's interesting - the emotions you face when you say goodbye. They were with me for the rest of the day and I still miss her, but I know that this separation will be good for us. Teach us both greater independence. One of my friends at church prayed for us and asked God that we would learn to find our identities in Christ and not in each other. How true! That request is so perfect. I hadn't really thought of how much my identity is found in being a twin (I've always been one of the Banman Twins). I think this experience will be life-changing (obviously). I think I will view my individual purpose in life differently. God's plan for my life is not dependent on what my sister does or wants, it is dependent on what God does and what He wants.

I've been thinking about the url for my blog ("when god says go"). I wondered at first if that sounded kind of arrogant - to imply that my blog is all about what can happen when one (namely, myself) is completely dedicated to going when God says 'go' and to let everyone out there know that I am an excellent child of God. That's not what I meant and maybe the url doesn't sound arrogant... I hope it doesn't. I chose that url because I do believe that when God asks someone to do something, the best possible thing for that person to do is exactly what God asked of them. I think when you respond willingly to God's request of you, you should be prepared to see magnificent things done to the glory of God. I don't mean magnificent in the sense that the whole world will know about it. I mean magnificent in that God's will is being done - and that is always a marvelous thing. I understand that the url isn't really a big deal, but I still think it is important to let you know why I chose the name I did. It holds a special meaning to me.

On it comes...

2008-06-12T21:16:00.000-04:00

Less than two months and I will be flying off to Akron Pennsylvania to start orientation for my year of volunteering. Every now and then it hits me that I'm going. I'm so excited! and, yet, super scared.

MCC sent me two books to read to help prepare me for working overseas. They're called 'Ministering Cross-Culturally: Second Edition' by Sherwood G. Lingenfelter (kind of a cool name) and Marvin K. Mayers and 'Foreign to Familiar' by Sarah A. Lanier. I really enjoy reading them both. They're interesting, informative, easy to read, and all that good stuff that books can be. The books talk about becoming incarnate in the culture you're living in/going to. Jesus became incarnate and fully human when He came to earth. And, this is what we need to do when we head to a different culture. We become incarnate in the culture. We take on the values and norms of the other country. It's like Paul said in 1 Cor 9:22, "I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." This action will gain us a more intimate relationship with the people and give us insight to why people do what they do. It help us become less judgmental and more accepting, which creates such a greater opportunity for sharing God's love! I think everyone should read these books. Even those who have no plans to travel. Canada is a multi-cultural country and these books help you understand the different actions of those from a different culture.

Well, so far I'm struggling along to learn the basics of Spanish. It's pretty difficult to learn a language in two months. Too difficult. I don't think I will learn it all before I go - although it's possible; God can do anything - but I still hope to understand the basics. When I get frustrated trying to learn the language, I'm told that when I'm immersed in Spanish it will come super easily. I'm kind of skeptical about that, though. Does that really happen? How? How can being immersed in a language teach me how to conjugate verbs? I'm scared I won't make good progress learning Spanish. I will try, though.

There is so much to think about and do before I go. I got my last travel shot this morning. Yay! I leave for home in 18 days. I'm really excited to go home. I'm excited to pack. heh... which reminds me: I've received all my itineraries for my flights to Victoria, Akron and Santa Cruz and had to have a laugh at my luggage requirements. For my flight from Calgary to Victoria I am allowed 2 checked bags at 60lbs (I believe it was), my next flight is from Victoria to Akron. For this flight I am allowed only 1 checked bag at 50lbs. My final flight from Akron to Santa Cruz allows me to take 2 checked bags at 50lbs. Hm... I think this means I can buy a whole suitcase of stuff in Akron. :P OK, maybe not that funny, but I thought it was.

Adios for now!

The Preperation!

2008-05-24T19:35:00.000-04:00

Hey all!

I thought I'd start a blog to keep those who are supporting me updated on what's going on, and to post photos and because I like writing about myself. :P ... and I just like writing.

So, the 10 paged, 10 essay-ed application I filled out to go with MCC on their SALT program was an accurate foreshadowing of the preparation that I would have to go through before I actually made my way to Bolivia. And I've only made a little dent in all the things I need to do! It's a little overwhelming when I think about it, so I'm making lots of lists (lists are lovely, helpful tools) and I'm soaking up what information I can on how to prepare for going overseas.

I know I really need to rely on God through this, but I don't think I've been doing a good job of that so far. When I first applied I asked God, "If this is what you want me to do, then let the process go smoothly and let everything work out fine. And, if this isn't what you want me to do, then stop this process right away and tell me a clear 'no'." The process went super smoothly and everything worked out beautifully. I applied very late, but was accepted, interviewed, approved, and warmly accepted again in a short period of time. There was only one small glitch and that was a misunderstanding in one of the emails I had sent. So, I concluded that this truly is God's will. Wow. That was encouraging because I was scared (and still am scared). It is an amazing comfort to know God is behind your decision 100%. Knowing that this is God's will banishes reservation. There is trepidation, but God has His arm around my shoulders and that makes me so excited! Still, sometimes I forget that this is for God and not for me. I get consumed with "what should I pack?" "what shots do I need to get?" "How much is this going to cost me?" "when am I going to clear customs?" "What if the airport loses my luggage??" Of course all these questions are important (except, perhaps, for the last one), but I start to forget to relax, to lean back in God's arm and trust that He's taking care of His plan. I mean, if this is God's will (of which I am positive it is), then don't I think He'll make sure everything works out? You'd think I would think so. I should think so. I will try to think so.

Anyway, I guess I should give some information on where I'm going, why I'm going, with who I'm going, etc.

I'm going with an organization called Mennonite Central Committee, which works with relief, development and peace. I'm in their program called SALT, which stands for Serving and Learning Together. I love this acronym because it shows that the mindset is not one of North American superiority. It's about coming together with people from different cultures, with different views on happenings and life, and learning from them - giving and taking to become the best disciples of God. We will serve each other and learn together. I've heard many experienced overseas-ers explain that we often end up learning a lot more from those we visit than we ever teach them. I'm excited to learn.

My assignment is located in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I still don't know a lot about this city. It has approximately 1.5million people! is built in 8 concentric rings, a taxi will take me wherever I want to go for CAN$0.50 (not bad...). Santa Cruz is located at the "foot of the sierras where the Andes Mountain Range begins to rise off the tropical forest floor." I've looked up lots of photos - which have been surprisingly hard to find - and read some other travelers' stories/blogs and they all seem to love Santa Cruz and Bolivia... that makes me soo excited! The pictures I have found show a beautiful city (poor areas and business areas alike).

And, Why am I going? Because I want an adventure and I want to do God's will and I want to help others who need it and I want to grow and gain confidence, learn a new language, and earn the bragging rights that come with living in another culture.

Anyway, my eyes are getting a little tired of looking at a computer screen, so I'll be off for now and will return with new updates!

Santa Cruz