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.