Yes, once again I got hit by the stomach bug. I have spent my whole morning sitting on the floor of the bathroom either doing homework or as Matt calls it working on my "diarrhea diet." This is not how I planned to spend this day at all; today was supposed to be my first day in the orphanage that I will be working at regularly. Today was the big day starting our consistent schedule and finally getting settled with what we will be doing from now on; instead I am home alone enjoying all the joys of being sick. But since now I have five extra hours open in my day, I decided to take a break from my schoolwork and blog. Which by the way I do not think I have explained yet. Since I am still in high school, I needed to take my classes for this semester to make sure that I am on track when I return in January. We were thinking about enrolling me in the International School here in Bolivia, which is conveniently a five minute walk from our house, but between the start date, the dues, and having to be surrounded by Americans all day, we decided not to choose this route. Instead I am taking online school through Georgia Virtual School, which is not as simple as I thought it would be. Despite the fact the I am taking four APs online, working school on the internet is so different than a classroom. I took one class this summer online to be able to come down to Bolivia, but the fact the it was only one honors class did not prepare me for this at all. But it is definitely a learning period for me and is challenging me a lot on my diligence and my procrastination. But anyway now you see why I wanted to get away my classes for a bit.

      An update on what is happening, last night I translated for the first time at church! I conveniently sat next to Gwen last night who is learning Spanish and is doing awesome, but understanding a whole sermon at church is still difficult. As soon as church began she whispered my name and I knew automatically what I was about to get pulled into. I tried to convince her on getting Brie to translate for her, but she was set on me. But despite my fear and insecurity, I was able to translate the whole lesson for her which not only helped my spanish a lot but was extremely encouraging that I can do that! In just three weeks I think my spanish has grown so much! It helps living in a country where about every twentieth person only knows about ten phrases in english. 

     But besides my big victory last night this weekend is a HUGE time for FAI. About every two years FAI has a fundraiser and dinner to raise money and spread the word about all the aspects of FAI. On Friday we are all going to a rock concert that the foundation is hosting. Bands will be playing all the classics: Beatles, Rolling Stones, Eagles, and more; a nice taste of America. Then on Saturday we have a non stop day. In the morning we are going to help Edson and Teresa, who lead the church, because they are moving to a different part of town. None of their family is from La Paz, so we offered to go over for a few hours to help out. After that we planned to go on a double decker bus to finally see the city we have been living in for the past three weeks. I am not sure if we are still going on this, because of the big program on Sunday for FAI. Sunday FAI is having what we think is an all day fundraiser. We are going after church for lunch and then a whole day of activities and raffles. Despite the fact that we are literally all working for FAI, we really have no idea what's going on. But what we do know is that there are over 300 donations that will be used as prizes that need to be wrapped. Yesterday Brie, Noelle, James, and I spent a few hours helping Father Jose wrapping up some of these gifts. Side note really quickly, James is James Jacoby who is the most recently, last minute addition to our team. He thinks he will be staying here for about a year and helping out wherever there's a need. Back to the wrapping though, we did it in the hospital so we actually got to go in it for the first time! We saw the office that Kevin, my mom, and Gwen work in every day; I know they're working in an office in a hospital. My mom is dying a little bit; our family is not quite the sit in one spot all day every day and do the same thing. But it's character building right? We also got to see some of the other floors of the hospital where the patients are cared for. Because there are over 300 donations with more coming every hour, we offered to spend Saturday helping wrapping again. Which is why we might have to cancel our tour guide Saturday morning. But I know God will work it all out, like I hope making me stay home today was part of his plan too.  

      Andddd the best part of my past few days is that I got to skype Morgan last night. Which I told him to read this blog so he better be reading this right now. But I was so grateful to just see his face! We got to tell each other all about what we are doing. He's in the athletic program at UGA studying to be a P.A. so his schedule is non stop. Which kinda stinks because now we don't know if he came come down for Thanksgiving. Just another thing I'm having to pray about. I think God's trying to send me a message to trust him more. But I hope this caught you guys up a little bit. I feel like my thoughts are kinda all over the place and I don't even really know what I just typed, but it was a much needed break. Now back to the joys of calculus and physics. What a fun day. 

Adjustment

     Now that all the facts are out of the way, I can actually talk about the amazing things this experience is doing for me! They say that after the first two weeks the reality truly sets in, and it finally hit me. The first few days in La Paz I couldn't imagine ever leaving this place; the mountains, the latino culture, my new church family, these children, all of it. But after just two weeks, I'm already starting to feel that homesickness. It's hard to go so long without my friends and family especially when I can only communicate on the computer, thank goodness for skype though! The person I miss the most though is my brother Morgan; I am literally dying without him! I always knew that I loved him a lot and that he was my best friend, but it doesn't really hit you until you are 3653.425 miles away how much they mean to you. On top of the people, Brie and I keep finding ourselves missing the little things of America, like toilet paper. Who would have ever thought to be grateful for toilet paper but after an encounter at the police station where we all had to give a urine sample in a bathroom with no toilet paper, we learned that someone always needs to carry some Kleenex on them. Also, Bolivia is just now going into spring and because it is the highest elevated city in the world, the weather is perfect; perfect for riding with the windows down in a car blasting John Mayer. My friend Hannah and I use to do this all the time; driving with no where to go and nothing to do. But of course that's not possible here, on account of we all thank God every time we get out of a taxi not knowing how we survived the crazy driving of La Paz. And then there's Chic-Fil-A, which is a sore topic for everyone on the trip. Living in Georgia for the past eight years have given me an addiction. Every Wednesday before or after church I go to Chic-Fil-A to have a number five eight count meal with polynesian, ranch, and a sweet tea. I think I am literally going through withdrawals; we need to get some sort of AA meeting down here for learning to cope with the change of food. Not only for our minds, but for our stomachs too. In the past few weeks, every single member on our team has gotten sick multiple times, except the doctor and nurse of course. It started with traveler's diarrhea, which is always fun. Brie and I got the biggest dose of that and the driving in La Paz did not make it any better. It seems every day we had it the worst would be the days we decided to go see the projects, which entails about forty minutes of sitting in the backseat cringing at the billion bumps and jerks the busy streets of La Paz offers us. Thanks La Paz, we appreciate your kindness. But at least we have more memories that can be the bud of jokes. There have been a lot of these memories already; I think everywhere we go we are the exact representation of what Paceños (people of La Paz) think of Americans. But don't worry, we've been claiming to be Canadians to give America a good name. We just have to add in an "eh" every few lines and bring up bacon and syrup as much as possible. But in addition to our wonderful experience in diarrhea and the barfing bug that has been going around between us all, we have also learned a lot about patience already. We all have to get residency to live in Bolivia any time over three months and I don't think any of us knew how much waiting this would entail. This process included having to go to Interpol, the international police, the doctor to get a quite extensive physical, and lastly the police station we visited last week. Our trip to Interpol was not too bad; they had to check on our criminal records and health records to make sure that we weren't going to bring harm to their country. Ironic on account of we all came here to serve the hurting in the streets of La Paz, but we let the men do their work. We even met an awesome couple from Ecuador that are in La Paz with their two children, a boy that is eleven and a girl that is nine, to do similar work in El Alto, which is no doubt the poorest part of the city. They are a younger, extremely kind couple who we invited to church and they seemed very interested! So we'll just have to see and pray that they will come out! 

     After our harmless Interpol experience, we went out to the Occupational Hospital to get our physical, which is a lot more extensive then the classic check up in America. First we had to give blood and a urine sample followed by a general checkup which came with a thorough questioning, x-rays, and a dental checkup. None us really saw how a cavity or some plaque on our teeth would make us a threat to the country especially Gwen who right now has a metal disk in her jaw that limits her to opening her mouth more than 20 mm, half of what it should. But thanks to God none of us had a detrimental harm, but once again more memories. Because we were giving blood, all of us had to fast from everything including water from midnight the morning before until after the whole process was over. For me, this is almost impossible on account of I eat almost every hour. And due to the lack of fluid in our system, one of our team members tried to turn in a urine sample with literally three drops of urine into the container. Thankfully the nurse was gracious and told her that she had until the end our time their to turn in it, but these became another part of our slapstick humor that kept us entertained in our hours of waiting. Living with three medical professionals also made this trip a lot more nerve wrecking than it should have been. Gwen and my mom were flinching at whether the needles were new and whether the dentist would be wearing gloves. But once we got into the x-ray rooms and there were only two gowns to wear, they were completely grossed out at the thought of wearing the same gown that everyone had worn for probably weeks. They think of a lot things that pass right by us non-medical minded beings. Thursday afternoon Brie, Noelle, and I met the rest of the team down more for our last need at the police station to do some more quick paperwork for our residency. What we thought would turn into an hour trip at most became a three and a half hour journey where the only thing we actually had to do was give our thumb print and sign a paper. I think we were all a little delusional that day and spent the time listening to Aunt Noey talk about how she knew she was in love with Kevin when he bought her a house. The jokes were endless, almost as endless as the time we spent there. 

     After we were finally got done with all of our waiting, we got to spend time at dinner with the new family. It might have been the funniest moments of the trip so far. My mom started dinner with our childhood game of high-point low-point of the past few weeks, but in Spanish; this criteria alone made it hilarious. Between a certain someone getting bed bugs, the first pedestrian day in Bolivia we got to experience, and the strikes going on in the city we've gotten a pretty good feel for the La Paz. We've already had some misunderstandings as well. Kevin, who is learning Spanish from scratch, had been introducing himself for the past two weeks as "Hola, me amo Kevin," meaning Hey I love myself. Once again mirroring the stereotypical Americans. Father Jose, who comes over multiple times each week for ice cream, brought us over a huge tub of what Aunt Noey thought he said we honey flavored ice cream from Germany. So while everyone is talking in the next room, Noey proceeds to serve everyone a huge scoop of this new ice cream. It turns out it wasn't ice cream... we were serving our guests bowls of just honey. These of course made the high-points of us all, while Aunt Noey shared her low-point to be me and Brie constantly criticizing her Spanish. This quickly went from joking to almost serious, but Brie and I saved it by quoting Aunt Noey's first few sentences she says in Spanish every time she gets into a cab. "Hola ¿Cómo se llama usted? ¿Dónde vives? ¿Cuántos hijos tiene usted? Estoy aprendiendo todas las calles de la ciudad. Lo siento. Mi español es horrible." But all joking aside, her Spanish has gotten really good over the past few weeks, Brie and I just have the pleasure of always riding with her. And of course it wouldn't be a family dinner without the confusion between normal and cuss words and dreams about cholera. Although we are a bit dysfunctional, we are the perfect combination. 

     But through all this adjusting and hard times, La Paz truly is amazing. We are living "la vida buena" (one of the few phrases Kevin has gotten down and loves to say). I keep remembering the scripture is Proverbs 31:8-9 (NIV)

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.

I am so confident the God called me to La Paz for this reason specifically; that he wrote this scripture just for me at this time in my life. Whenever I start to feel homesick or miss my friends, I remember what an opportunity I have to be here. To defend these helpless children, to serve these girls my own age. We also have to chance to work with the church down here and we can all already see how God is working. In the past few weeks there has been such a change in enthusiasm and passion to know God; people are changing left and right. The women already set up about twelve bible studies and I had the opportunity to be in my first study this morning! Even better, I understood all of it even though it was in Spanish! God is doing such amazing things in La Paz already and I can't wait to share with all of you everything he continues to do through us while we are here. 

The Heart Of FAI

     Well these first two weeks have been non-stop! Once finally arriving in La Paz, we started learning and visiting all the projects of Foundation Acro Iris. Our first day we went to Hogar de Niñas Obrajes, an orphanage for one hundred and twenty girls. Many of these girl come from dangerous and unstable home lives of abuse and neglect. Although most of these girls are orphans, some of them have parents who

Girls at Niñas Obrajes 

have either disappeared, thrown them on the street, or are in jail. The girls in the home range from five to eighteen years old and live in the orphanage all together. The girls are split in "families" of about twenty girls of all ages with a "mom" to each family that is at the home twenty-four hours a day. Like Argentina, the school in Bolivia is broken into morning classes and then afternoon classes. Most of the girls, especially the younger ones, go to school from eight until about noon while the other ones work on homework or get tutored. All of the girls are home at twelve-thirty for lunch all together and then the second group of girls go to school from one-thirty until about six. FAI works to give these girls the closest to a true home environment that they can offer. The home has physiologists, tutors, social workers, cooks, dance teachers, a nurse, and a weekly doctor all on staff to give to the girls. Each girl in Niñas Obrajes has their own individual story, but each is filled with hurt, neglect, and pain. On our arrival to the orphanage, we meet one beautiful girl named Gabriella. When we asked her her age, she had to refer to Cristoball, the director of all the programs, to remember she was sixteen. Cristoball told us that she had been living in the home until one day her father got out of jail and showed up to the home. The father took Gabriella from the orphanage, which is illegal because Niñas Obrajes has official custody of all the girls, and soon after they left the home the father left Gabriella in the street for a second and she got hit by a car. Gabriella was in a coma for six months and now thankfully she is out of the hospital and back at Niñas Obrajes, but she has been physically, mentally, and emotionally damaged for life and now has to work to remember all the simple things once again, things like her name. This is only the story of one girl, my own age, who has been through more in sixteen years than I think I will ever go through. FAI works with these girls and teaches them skills so that they can hopefully become independent once they reach eighteen. At this age, the girls are moved from the orphanage and moved into Casa de la Estudiante y Trabajadora. These are apartments that the girls move into to finish school, get a job, and become independent from the home.
     After Niñas Obrajes, we went to Centro Betaña, another project of FAI. This project is located in Gran Betaña, one of La Paz's poorest neighborhoods. Unlike Niñas Obrajes, Betaña is not a home for

"I am so broken that I have no desire to fix myself"

the kids to live in, but where kids can voluntarily come to be tutored, to eat, to get medical assistance, and to get away from the rough life many of them have at home. Betaña takes in kids from six to eighteen years old. Along with the main building of Betaña, down the street there is a nursery that takes care of kids from one to five. These children are from the area of Gran Betaña too and despite their hard conditions, they are so joyful and loving.

Fifteen year old mom with her newborn son

     In the next few days we visited Casa Esperanza and Casa Refugio as well. Casa Esperanza is the equivalent of Niñas Obrajes, but for boys. There are eighty boys in this home and many of the boys are brothers of the girls in Niñas Obrajes. Esperanza also has a nurse and social workers on staff and the two floors of dorms for the boys each have a "mom" and a "dad" to give the kids a feeling of true family. The father stays with the boys for twenty-four hours and the next twenty-four hours the mother stays with the boys. Each room for the boys has between two to four beds and FAI integrates boys of all ages and personalities. They try to put boys together with different strengths in hope that they will all learn from each other. After Casa Esperanza we visited Casa Refugio, which was one of the most sobering places
we have visited. Before actually entering Casa Refugio on the second floor, we learned of another project of FAI called Proyecto Apoyo Social Familiar. This program works with the families of the area to help them with financial and medical needs. The team goes and visits the families in their homes to work to better their lives and improve their situations. After this project, we got to go up to Casa Refugio where my heart melted. Casa Refugio is a home for teenagers that are either pregnant or have recently had a baby. The girls live in the home with their child from their point of entering until they reach the age of eighteen. Most of the girls get pregnant at about eleven or twelve years old with 99% of the cases being inter-familiar rape.

Fifteen year old mom with her year and a half daughter

Once these girls get pregnant, their mothers will not believe that either their son or new husband raped their daughter and eventually the daughters either leave to escape the abuse or are kicked out of the home. Many of these girls are still in school so they have a very intense schedule. In the morning they go to work to get money to support themselves and their child, return in the afternoon for lunch with their child, attend specialized classes that teach them specific skills, and then attend school at night. FAI gives these girls food, shelter, support, and love but realize that they will soon be on their own and try to prepare them for this time. The classes, getting more specific the older the mother gets, try to set the mothers up to have a reliable, steady job to support their new family. Casa Refugio offers counseling in helping the young mothers balance their new lives as mothers. In addition to counseling, FAI offers social, legal, and physiological assistance. Because most of these cases are inter-familiar, there are many legal cases to deal with. These cases are generally just dropped however with no punishment to the attacker. Some of the girls stay in the home until after they are eighteen solely because it is still not safe for them to go out alone with their aggressor still on the streets.

Few of the children from Casa Refugio 

     As if all these projects are not incredible and doing enough, FAI has more programs to help the children of La Paz. It's biggest project is Caso de Paso, which addresses every aspect of family needs. The main part of Caso de Paso, like Betaña is a place for children of the area to come to to have their needs meet. The children usually come either in the morning if they have classes in the afternoon or after school if they have morning classes. Caso de Paso provides breakfast, snacks, lunch, and tea to about 300 children they help each day. Caso de Paso also offers recreational facilities such as areas to play basketball and soccer; free medical care from the doctor and dentist on staff; vocational workshops such as jewelry making, painting, and carpentry; and classes with tutors, computer labs, and literacy teachers. Caso de Paso is also home to about twenty boys who lived on the streets and offers all these same programs to these boys including an education and dinner, all of the other kids return to their houses for the night for dinner and to sleep. The children that Caso de Paso serves either live or work on the streets. The difference between these two groups of kids are major. The kids who work on the streets are often ambitious and hard-working to provide for themselves and their family. Most of the children who live in the streets have been through so much and are at the point that they do not care about their lives. They find that they rather live in the streets because there they have no responsibilities and can live as they please. Some of these kids that are affected by these two rough lifestyles are not even five years old yet.
     Caso de Paso has a nursery they offer as well. This nursery is where my heart is. The kids in this daycare, between one and five years old, are mostly children of women who work on the streets, a majority of the mothers being prostitutes. As soon as we walked into the room, all of the children ran towards us and grabbed onto us yelling "hola hola" with huge smilies across their faces. Leaving these kids thirty minutes later was honestly one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. But Caso de Paso does not only care for the children of this area, they work with the whole family. One family we met consisted of a mother and seven children, one of which was mentally retarded. We were told that the women had three children with her first husband until he no longer wanted to care for her and his children and left them for a younger woman. Desperate for help, she soon remarried to a new man with four children of his one, one of which is the one with special needs. Soon after her second marriage, this man decided that he too did not want to care for them all and she was left again with now seven children, four of which that are not her own and having to take care of a special needs son whom she does not even know his mother. The Proyecto Trabajadores, a part of Caso de Paso, works with families like this that work in the streets. The project gets the kids working on the streets to school and tries to keep them out of the daily drugs, alcohol, and crime that they are surrounded by. The project also provides school supplies to the students and scholarships to attend technical training and university. The project helps the workers to save and handle their money and visits the streets to find the workers and help them manage all this. On top of the financial aspect, Caso de Paso also offers social workers and physiologists to help the families deal with their mental or emotional programs they might have.

An addictive drug made of shoe glue,
gasoline, and water

Home of kids living under the bridge

     Another project inside Caso de Paso is Proyecto Calle. In La Paz, tons of people, especially children, live in the streets wherever they can find a "home": under bridges, parks, cementaries, garbage disposal sites, and some are lucky enough to find buildings with single rooms they can rent. Most of these children are orphans, abandoned, or victims of family abuse. A general scenario of these children is that the mother gets remarried and the new stepfather either abuses his new children or does not want them. The kids are either kicked out by their own mothers or run away to escape this life. The workers at Caso de Paso do many different things with these people. One part of Proyecto Calle is called House of Improvement for kids who want to leave their lives on the streets. Caso de Paso help to improve the lives of these children and some are eventually moved into Niñas Obrajes or Casa Esperanza. Another part of Proyecto Calle is daily visits to the "houses" of these street kids and give them medical assistance, clothing, blankets, food, etc. We had the opportunity to do this yesterday with some of the kids that live under one of the bridges. The work with these children right now is only once or twice a week because it just started. The workers first had to gain the trust of these children, the hardest part of this job. After finally winning their trust, they have begun to teach these kids simple math problems and bring them food on their visits. Yesterday we visited the bridge to get the kids and to see where they live. Most of these kids are between fifteen to nineteen years old and have grown as sort of a family. They have very open romantic relationships with each other and live a life of stealing mostly to get by. Most of these kids are addicted to drugs and alcohol or anything they can find to ease some of their pain. After going to the bridge, we took the kids to a nearby park to spend time with them and do some math problems with them. Despite their circumstances, these kids are so giving and just a joy. They loved spending time with us, taking pictures, talking of celebrities, and just being shown true love. Although these kids have grown so rough and defensive on the outside, once you get past their exterior they are some of the sweetest kids you will ever meet.

     After visiting with these kids, we visited the last part of Caso de Paso and Proyecto Calle. This work is visiting houses in the poorest areas of La Paz to give them support. These volunteers have 120 homes that they visit regularly and try to improve the conditions of their lives. These families live all together in small "houses" of generally one or two rooms with the bare minimum of necessities. One family we were told had one bed that all twelve members of the family slept on. The hope for each family is that they will be able to improve to be able to live independently of FAI. The house we visited yesterday is of one mother with three girls of 18, 12, and 11. The family definitely lives in poverty and are fighting to make it through each day. The oldest daughter has Chicken Pox right now that she had gotten from her two younger sisters who just got over it. She did not look up the whole time we were there out of embarrassment and pain. The mother has a severe heart condition and is confined to a wheel chair. She cannot move around her house because of her condition and how weak she is. The mother recently ran out of her medicine and was continually saying that she could not breathe. The volunteers of this specific project are only given 250 Bolivianos, about $30 US, a month for all 120 families for medicine. That gives about $0.30 for each family each month for medicine, which almost every member of every family needs. These families are fighting to get by.

      After two weeks, you can only imagine how soft my heart has grown and how grateful I am. I am not only grateful of the life and family that I have been given, but even more that I have the opportunity, even for just four months, to help these children and make a difference in their lives.

In case you want to read more information about Acro Iris and the other programs you can visit the website http://www.arcoirisbolivia.org/en/default.html

A Taste of Europe

     That is exactly what Argentina felt like. I had the chance to go to Argentina for five days with Brie and my mom to visit the church there and just to see the city! We stayed in Buenos Aires the whole time we were there and I feel in love with the city. It is so beautiful. Growing up in the north, the city reminded me a lot of New York City, but surprisingly a lot cleaner! We stayed with a couple from the church in Buenos Aries who lived right in the middle of the city. It was the perfect spot. The couple, Pancho and Cecilla, had three beautiful children who I also fell in love with. Their first kid was Benjamin, called Benji, who was ten years old and so mature for his age. But of course he was still a little boy who loved to be mischievous and adventurous. Their second child, Tommy, was seven years old and one of the sweetest little boys I have ever met. Both Tommy and Benji spoke English as well as Spanish, which made life a lot easier. Their last child was a little girl named Mia. She was three years old and was a completely diva. She loves everything that is pink and will only wear pink. She did not speak any English, but her Spanish was about on the same level as mine so I could easily communicate with her. But they were so precious all of them and loved us being there.

A few of the teens from Buenos Aires!

     After getting to meet the kids when we got in, we all went straight to bed. After spending thirty-one hours in either an airport or on a plane, we were all dead tired. The next morning Brie and I were picked up at eleven am to go to a birthday party for some of the girls from the church in Buenos Aires. The party was a small, low-key get together but it let Brie and I meet the teens from the church and spend time with them; also time to work on our spanish of course! At the party we sang some karaoke, had a little dance party, and got to try some Argentinian food. During karaoke we encountered some songs we knew but that were in Spanish! That was fun to be able to sing along to those. The dancing in South America is obviously much better than America as well. A lot more rhythm and a lot less random jumping and fist pumping. But I got to Bernie and Dougie a little, at which they all laughed at me when I did both. But a little mixing of cultures is always good! The food in Argentina is amazing! They raise their own cattle so all the meat is very fresh and delicious. After the food, we had cake... four of them! But that was because we were celebrating everyone's birthday in August. Instead of candles though they put almost a sparkler on the cake that shoots up and it looks as if the cake is on fire. It is so much cooler than boring candles.

     After the birthday party, we met up with my mom and Sarai, the minister's wife. Sarai has a fifteen year old daughter that we had met that morning and who came to the party with us. Her name is Camilia and she speaks English!! Once again, this was very helpful. After we met up with my mom and Sarai for a minute they sent us out into the city by ourselves! This was very
surprising of my mom but it was incredible! Brie, Cami, and I took the subway (I don't know if that's what it's called there?) near her house and then got to explore the city for our own! We went to a coffee shop called La Havana which was so classy. All of the restaurants and coffee shops in Buenos Aires were extremely nice with waiters that all wore like white aprons and treated you like royalty. It was so different from the American Starbucks where you go up and order your drink and then they holler your name when your drink it ready. After the Havana, we got to just go and walk around the city. All down the street there are shops on either side of the road and little places to eat. Tons of people are on the sidewalks too; Cami told us that no one really drives anywhere unless they need to. All the people dress so European though and so many of them look American! Brie and I were hoping that we fit in at least a little bit but Cami told us that we both dress very American and even our Spanish is very American. I guess we aren't as European as we thought we were. But it was all made up for when we got to go to the bookstore near Cami's house where we got to see all our favorite books and movies in Spanish! We took a ton of pictures of course with all our favorites and those that reminded us of our friends back home. It was so weird to see all my favorite things in a completely different language!
    That night after our adventure in the city Brie and I went back to Cami's house to spend the night with them. Brie and I got to learn a little bit more about the Argentinian culture from Cami. In South America, because the seasons are switched, they start school in March and finish for summer break in December. They have their winter break for two weeks in July! Their hours of school are also very different. There are two sessions of school everyday. One from about eight am to noon and another from about one to five. Cami and her brother Sebastian both did the first session and got to come home for lunch everyday. But two days a week they had to go back to school after lunch for gym for two hours. Cami's youngest brother Esteban attended the afternoon session everyday so he would be around until one and left for school every day after lunch. Needless to say, I was pretty jealous of this schedule. That night we also got to have Cami's favorite dinner, Milanesa Napolitana. It seemed almost like a chicken parmesan but then you cut up the chicken and but it into a fresh baguette and eat it almost as a sandwich. This might be my new favorite food. It was delicious.
     The next day we had church in the morning and that was so incredibly encouraging to see everyone and get to worship together. Even better I understood most of it too! Which was a major accomplishment because it was all in Spanish. After communion and contribution though, the men and women split up and my mom got to speak to the women. She spoke in Spanish of course but from everything I understood it was amazing and so incredibly convicting! After she spoke, Brie and I had the opportunity to speak to the women for a few minutes each about convictions we have made as teen disciples. We each had about five minutes, but ended up taking twenty minutes each. But we had a lot on our heart and  having to have everything we say be translated takes up some time too! Those are my two excuses. But it was so encouraging to share our hearts with the women and after to hear how God worked through what we both said to impact the women. God can do amazing things!

     Sunday was no doubt my favorite day that we were there. After church Brie, my mom, Ceci, Pancho, their three kids, Sarai, her husband Sebastian, and their three kids, and I got to spend the whole day together. First we all went to get pizza at the best pizza place I've ever been too, even better than New York Pizza. That was so much fun to spend time with everyone. Oh also there were three guys just on vacation from Australia that spent the day with us too after church so that was of course was so cool to talk to them and hear about the other places they had visited in South America on this vacation. After lunch, we all went to this huge park area that was absolutely beautiful. The park had some restaurants on the edge but mostly a bunch of little stands with people selling their own merchandise. There were tons of people sitting around of the lawn and just enjoying the beautiful weather. We also got to catch a glimpse of some tango dancers that were performing on the street. Inside the park was also the Recoleta Cemetery, which is incredible. First of all it was huge; I had never been in a cemetery so big and also so beautiful! It wasn't made up of small tombstones but all huge mausoleums that were very elaborately decorated. A lot of the mausoleums were for entire families so there would be many caskets inside. This cemetery was also the one where Eva Peron, more commonly known as Evita, was buried so we got to see her tomb and there was a plaque about all she had done for the country of Argentina.

     After the cemetery, we got ice cream at a popular spot Freddo and got to just sit outside and enjoy the beautiful view. After ice cream everyone else went back home while Brie, my mom, and I got to shop a little bit in the merchants area and see many authentic Argentina jewelry, bags, and little trinkets. That night Brie and I got to babysit Pancho and Ceci's kids while they had a date night. This ended the day perfectly, getting to spend time with our favorites chiquitos.




     After these long two days, the next two were a little more low-key. Monday Brie, my mom, and I all went over to Cami's house so that my mom could spend time with her parents and we could spend time with Cami. We got there just in time for lunch which was Argentinian meat and mashed potatoes, delicious of course. Unfortunately I was feeling sick so I spend the afternoon sleeping but after I woke up Brie, my mom, Cami, and I got to go walk around the city a little bit  more and get some cafe con leche, our new addiction. I loved being able to see the city once more. Our last day Tuesday we got to go to the historic places of the city, the old university of Buenos Aries, and old monasteries of the city. This was our last adventure until we got back on another plane to head to our new home - La Paz! But leaving I knew this would not be my last time in Buenos Aires. I love it way too much.

Here We Go!

     Well welcome to my blog! This is the first post of many, I promise. But just to start off the blog I'll fill you all in on why I am actually here and what I am doing! I came down to Bolivia for four months with my mom and very close family friends to work for a program called Foundation Arco Iris. It was started by a German priest, Padre Jose, who came to Bolivia because he knew about the 30,000 street children in Bolivia and decided to come with a heart to serve and help these children. He created the Foundation Arco Iris in 1994 in hopes to give these children their basic necessities. Padre Jose gives these children a roof, food, shelter, and most importantly the love they have never seen. FAI now has a well-known hospital that gives free care for children 18 and under and provides affordable care for those above that age. In addition to the hospital, FAI has eight social projects; Home of Girls at Obrajes, Hope House, Student and Worker House, Refuge House, Betana Center, Pass Through House, "Mutual la Primera" House, and Productive Units. 

     Recently, FAI has collaborated with Hope Worldwide, an international charity that works all around the world to provide help to the helpless and give hope to the hopeless. Hope is now working with FAI to bring in income for the foundation to help continue the social programs and also provide more volunteers. This is why our group is able to come! My family has worked a lot with Hope for many years going on different mission trips through Hope Worldwide. When FAI collaborated with Hope, we were given a chance to come to Bolivia to help FAI! 

     The group that has come down is being led by Dr. Kevin Broyles and his wife Noelle along with their daughter Brie, who happens to be my best friend. The Broyles are from Triangle North Carolina and Kevin and Noelle moved here indefinitely while Brie will be here for at least one year. Along with the Broyles, my mom and I came from Atlanta, Georgia and are staying until the end of this year. Four singles have also come down to help the project. Gwen Ellis and Matt Walker from North Carolina and Ivelisse Cardona and Ashley Perry from Atlanta have all given their hearts and came down to serve these children. Gwen will be in Bolivia for two years, Ivelisse and Ashley two months, and Matt will be here one year. 

     Our team is incredible and we are so excited to begin our work! I started this blog a few days into our adventure so the next few posts with be recaps of the past few days in Bolivia and also a prior trip; Brie and I had the opportunity to go to Argentina a few days before Bolivia. But I hope this post gave a little background information on what we are doing and I will make sure to post all the exciting adventures of La Paz! Also Brie also will be blogging while she is here. Make sure to check out her blog! www.briebroyles.blogspot.com

HopeWorldwide Team