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.