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!