two brits, an española, and two gringas

another week is almost over. crazy. two out of the seven almost gone. this week has been kinda funny. monday and tuesday were great days spent at the orphanage where i’m really starting to feel more comfortable. some of the tías were talking about wanting to take me out one of these weekends which really made me feel like i was starting to be truly accepted, yay! and then… i started getting sick L i guess it started tuesday evening when i started feeling a bit feverish and the headache that had been plaguing me most of the time i’ve been down here (probably just from all the change) started feeling more like a sick headache than just a normal headache. then i woke up wednesday morning with a fever, had to call into the orphanage to tell them i just couldn’t come in, and have pretty much been inside being really lazy and just trying to get to feeling better for the last couple days since. blah. but it’s presumably just a normal winter fluish thing that i guess goes around here and should be gone within four or five days. so, i’ve pretty much been really lazy, reading and lying around, and didn’t get out of the house for two whole days, but it’s been kind of nice to just relax.

it seems that learning to live in the volunteer house is going to turn out to be just as much if not more of a learning experience than what i’m learning through working at the orphanage. it definitely is a situation that is a lot more foreign to me than my work at the orphanage, as ironic as that is, considering that the other volunteers are all westerners like me, but i definitely feel more out of place there at times than i do at hogar san josé. not to say that i’m not accepted by the other volunteers, b/c that couldn’t be further from the truth, but working with children is something i understand, where i still haven’t quite come to an understanding of my house mates. they all lead very different lives than i do and come from completely different backgrounds, which at times is somewhat intimidating or lonely feeling, b/c they don’t understand much of who i am or i them. but it’s been really cool at the same time, b/c i feel like every day we come to understand and respect each other more. not because we become any less different as time goes on, but because everyone is really intentional about respecting one another, not just despite of our differences, but also because of our differences.

through living in this house, i’ve also had to seriously check my expectations and my motives. i’ve realized how much i desire the acceptance of those around me (not that i’ve never noticed this before, but it just became incredibly obvious of late). and i’m not trying to say that being accepted isn’t really nice, but i’m learning more and more that my okayness, my well being can’t be defined by whether or not i’m liked by others. and really, being confident in who i am, and not compromising that, regardless of what the people i’m around are like, or who i think they want me to be. in the end, all that really matters is that i’m living in such a way that in honoring to the Father , and as long as i’m honoring Him, everything else, all of the things of this earth, will fall into place.

so these first two weeks haven’t been the easiest two weeks of my life, i’ve been lonely and confused at times, but I can definitely see why the Lord has brought me here, and i really have had a ton of fun. the people i’m living with really are a blast. we’re kind of turning into some crazy mix of a family. we all look out for each other and learn from each other and just laugh a lot!

please pray for my relationships with people down here. pray for boldness, as sometimes i get timid do to my spanish insecurities or other worries that creep in. pray that i’d be a light, that i would be able to resist the temptation to judge others, and that i would truly just be able to love those around me with Christ’s unconditional love.

family and friends, i love and miss you. i hope all is well in your lives! let me know how things are going!

steve, myself, katie, and one of the little boy's a the orphanage katie works at. steve and katie are two of my house mates in the volunteer house.

tom, anna, steve, and i in the back of a taxi on the way to the plaza one evening. we're kind of a ridiculous group (especially steve and i's ridiculous faces), but that just makes things all the more fun!

no stop signs and lots of tías

wow. it’s been four days now. four days in bolivia. that’s not very many, but i feel like i’ve done so much in these first four days. getting here, figuring out the city, meeting the family, other volunteers, going to the orphanage, working a full day there, really getting to know the other volunteers, tons of laughing, lots of being tired, lots of sweating, read an entire book in two day (the kite runner—i highly recommend it), had a day off for a catholic holiday, and the list goes on and on. all in just four days. it makes me wonder what the next six and a half weeks will hold.

obviously the most important thing that’s happened in the last days is my starting work at the orphanage, since that was really the purpose of my coming to bolivia. i went tuesday with ivone, one of the volunteer coordinators, to see the orphanage for the first time, learn how to get there (it takes about a half an hour, and i have to take two different buses), and meet the tías (aunts) and mámas who work in the orphanage. the orphanage is more on the outskirts of town, in a little bit poorer area, but as we stepped through the gates, i was amazed at how nice the facilities were and how peaceful the surrounding are. outside the gates, everything is really dusty and looks a bit desolate, but walking into the orphanage is a bit like finding a little oasis. santa Cruz is semi tropical, so there’re lots of green grass and tons of trees. the main house has a huge covered patio that surrounds it and many other buildings separate from the main one that have really sweet stories and pictures painted on them. ivone and i had to wait a while, but we finally met a woman they call tía rosario who took us on a tour of the orphanage, showing us all the different areas for therapy and play, introducing us to the kids, and explaining a bit of the philosophy of the orphanage and how they care and provide for the kids. i was at the point of tears a couple different times because the place was just so great—i couldn’t have dreamed up a better environment to do volunteering like this. i actually almost felt like I had stumbled upon a sort of equivalent to camp barnabas, just bolivian style. oh and the kids! they’re really incredible. i think there’s 22 total. rosario introduced me to one little boy who has down’s syndrome named christian. as soon as she introduced me, he immediately jumped out of his chair and ran to gave me a huge hug. oh how i love kids with downs! and let me tell you, bolivian kids with downs are especially adorable.

in my first two days at hogar san josé i’ve been really impressed with everything i’ve seen. i think i wrongly expected to find a place whose standards of care were far below what would be desirable, but that’s not the case at all with this place. first of all, they’re really big into integration, or helping the kids to function as “normally” as possible, so that they can attend normal public school, interact and make friends, and hopefully become fully integrated into society –definitely not the philosophy i expected to see from a place like this. also, all the kids receive a lot of attention, a lot of therapy that’s pretty individualized, and all around a lot of love.

because i have some (although not much) professional training in the area of speech pathology, one of the orphanage’s therapy areas, they’re having me work with one of the tías that works a lot with the children’s language as her aid, and also to give her pointers and new exercises to do with the kids. i was a little bit overwhelmed by them putting me in somewhat of a teaching position (in that i’m teaching another teacher!), and i repeatedly explained that I was only in my third year of a six year program, but they just repeatedly explained to me that i still probably had a lot more specific training than a lot of the tías, because most of them have training as just teachers, but not much specific training in therapy areas. i really doubted how much i’d be able to help, but i think even in my first days, i was able to explain a lot of concepts and programs that we use in the states that tía mauriel (the lady i’m working with) had never heard of and was really excited about. from what I understand, there’s a professional speech pathologist that comes in every once in a while and evaluates the progress the kids have been making and lays out objectives and suggests activities to the tías, but the day to day therapy is largely up to them, and they have little specific training. so what the kids get is definitely 1000 times better than nothing, but there are methods that may be more beneficial. so... i really feel like i’m being used, and helping a lot! i feel a little out of place sometimes, like i don’t quite belong b/c i’m the only foreigner there, but hopefully i’ll feel more at home as the weeks progress.

so yeah, now that i’ve written an entire book… i guess i’ll leave you with just a couple random things about life in bolivia.

• traffic=ridiculous. there are very few lines for lanes on the road and even when there are, nobody pays attention to them, and apparently they haven’t figured out the concept of a stop sign… there’s some stop lights that are more or less obeyed (more or less being the operative words), but i think i’ve yet to see a stop sign… it’s pretty much chaos... i’m glad i’m not driving
• a huge percentage of the time i spend walking down the street is spent blushing at the piropos (cat calls, whistles, random, undecipherable things said under one’s breath) that come from practically every bolivian man i pass
• it’s hot here! and I’m so glad since i’m missing summer at home. i actually feel a bit like i’m at camp because i’m always kinda sweaty from the heat and humidity. shoulda brought more warm weather clothes. woops, but i’ve heard we’ll be getting more cooler days soon, which i guess is kinda bitter sweet, but will be kinda nice.
• even with the really hot weather, we still eat soup (as in hot soup) every day at lunch. today i was sweating like a pig as i ate my lunch of soup and a bolivian version of spaghetti in 85 degree heat with alot of humidity
• ok, i’m drawing a blank on more, but i’ll add to this list soon!
  bueno, hasta pronto!

safe and sound!

welp, i made it. after about 22 hours of travel, from home to tulsa to dallas to miami to la paz to santa cruz... i finally made it. i got into the santa cruz airport yesterday (monday) morning at about 8:30. the whole trip went great, there were some weird parts, like how i had a connecting flight to miami through dallas and i was the ONLY passanger that stayed on the plane in dallas (kinda awkward...). the layover in miami was really long, and then when our plane stopped in la paz (elevation around 14,000 feet!) i almost thought i was going to puke on the plane as we waited for more passangers to board, i guess from altitude sickness and the nasty smells coming from the bathroom right behind me as they cleaned it... it was then, as i fought back sickness, i starting thanking God that i was going to santa cruz (elevation-low) instead of la paz. His hand is definitely in me coming here.

yesterday was spent getting settled in my room, meeting katia, the mom or woman who cooks and cleans and takes care of the house for volunteers, her kids, and the three other volunteers that are here right now. one is a girl in her mid twenties from colorado and the other two are british guys who are around my age and have already been in south america for 6 months, traveling around. katie the girl from colorado will be here almost the entire time i´m here while the boys, thomas and steve, will only be here for two more weeks. the living situation is less of a family situation than i had expected, as the volunteers have their own seperate living area away from the family, but we still see the family alot and it seems like the other volunteers have gotten especially close to katias little boys who seem like really fun kids.

after eating lunch and taking a nap, one of the ladies from the volunteer organization came and met me to show me the ropes. we walked to the plaza in the center of town while she filled me in on all of the does and donts and a little more of what my responsibilies would be. she then took me back to the project office and showed me a really long slide show all about hogas san josé, the orphanage for children with special needs i´ll be working with. i really think this project is going to be perfect for me. it seems like they´re doing really cool things for the kids that live there, helping them in all areas of their development, with their ultimate goal being to integrate them into normal life and school as much as possible. today ibón, the lady who showed me around yesterday, will take me to the orphage and we´ll figure out even more of what my schedule will be and what i´ll be doing. i´m really excited to see more than just pictures and see how i´ll be able to fit in to this home that they´ve made for these kids.

so yeah... i´m here, and i guess pretty settled in for only being here one full day. bolivia´s definitely alot different than chile. alot less modern, and i´m even in one of the richest areas of bolivia. there aren´t as many american-like supermarkets and american restaurants which is really cool. there´s still alot of questions about what my time here that are unanswered, but who ever said that i´d ever have all the answers. so i´m just taking it one day, one hour at a time. trying to resist the urge to plan everything out and the desire to know exactly how things will be. it´s so obvious that the Lord has brought me here, obviously for a purpose, so i really just want to stay open to what He´s doing, which is really alot easier to do when i don´t have a checklist of plans of my own, so i guess i´m in a really good place!

well, that´s about it for now! i´ll update again soon, after i have more time to figure things out and see what´s going on. in the next days, pray for my relationships with the other volunteers, as i figure out how to relate to them, yet still be completely myself. pray for the place i´m going to volunteer and that i´d be put in a role where i´d be most used. also pray for wisdom in what to do with all my free time, as i think there will be quite a bit of it.

bueno, les quiero mucho! (welp, i love you all lots!) i hope all´s well. please write or comment and let me know how you´re doing!

my bags are packed, and my computer's... dead?

well, the day has almost arrived. just one more sleep and a car ride to tulsa in the morning are all that's between me and my trip to bolivia now. i can't believe it's finally here.

so some snippets of my last full day at home: this afternoon i met up with the accountability girls and another friend named megan for lunch and then free tickets to stomp at the walton arts center which was a blast. i've always wanted to see them, and they were really spectacular. then i came home, dreading it all the while, because i knew coming home meant packing, which i've put off until this evening. so i got home and pack i did. and it took quite a while, interupted only by the awesome french toast my mom made as my last taste of american breakfast food. finally at somewhere around 11:00 pm, i fit the last of my clothes in my internal frame bag WITH LOADS OF ROOM TO SPARE! i was amazed and shocked at how easy it ended up being to pack. i had figured i'd have to pack, only to find i had too much stuff, and then have to scrutinize over what not to bring, etc. etc. but no. it all worked great. the first time around! praise the Lord! seriously though. i definitely think He alone made that possible, b/c i'm the worst overpacker ever, but i think he gave me some good discernment!

and then... tragedy struck. you see, my computer, my good ol' trusty computer, has been making some pretty icky noises lately and freezing up every once in a while, which isn't really characteristic. so today, as i was packing, it was making some exceptionally terrible noises followed by extended freezes=bad news. so i decided to turn it off, to give it a rest. i said a prayer over it b/c i really think the Lord even cares about computers, especially when they're going to serve as my only connection to home over the next two months. but sadly, when i turned her back on, some strange error message came up, telling me to ctrl+alt+del to restart, and when i did that, the same message, over and over again, broken up only by more of the terrible noises. upon calling matt, my trusty computer go to, he informs me that i should probably say goodbye, it's probably dead, or at least not fixable before i go. all, less than 10 hours (many of which need to be spent sleeping) before i need to be leavin the house tomorrow. and i now believe the devil can even target our computers to try and stress us out and distract!

but all hope is not lost. tomorrow, i'll try to turn it on again, and if that still doesn't work, i may be able to talk my way into borrowing my mom's laptop while i'm gone, even though i know that's alot to ask and wouldn't blame her at all if she doens't let me. and if all else fails, i'll just become very well acquainted with the local internet cafes!

so yeah... i leave tomorrow. it's really surreal. but i think i'm finally starting to feel some real excitement, not that i wasn't excited before, but the getting ready to leave had put a serious damper on my excitement. transition times are really hard for me, and this one especially left me feeling really blah and not myself. but now that there's hardly any more preparations that can be done, and the hours and minutes are ticking away, what i'm about to do is finally starting to hit me, and the reality isn't scaring me or freaking me out, but rather i feel more confident and sure now than ever (even after the huge computer setback). the Lord has definitely affirmed this trip over and over to me, showing me in little ways that this is where He wants me this summer. so knowing that, it's really exciting to finally be at the point where i'm puting all the plans into action and finally about to see more of what's in store for the summer.

well, it's off to bed! my next update will probably be from way south of the equator! yay!!!