Wowww well it's been about a month since I've last blogged. Life has been a bit crazy. But I finally have some free time today so I'm here to catch you up on everything in life in Bolivia!
Where to even begin! I guess I can start by saying that I finally am starting work consistently! I know it's horrible I've been in Bolivia over a month and I haven't even truly started working. But I am finally getting caught up with school and I am now free enough to be able to start! I have already built so many relationships with the kids in the different projects and I am so excited to really get to know them! So here is my schedule as of right now...Mondays: Monday nights I go to Niñas de Obrajes at about 5pm to spend time
with the girls. Ivelisse then teaches a dance class at 7:30-8:30 at the
orphanage that I help out with... or try to. Bolivian dancing is not
quite as simple as American.
Tuesdays: 9am-1:30pm at Betaña nursery (in the poorest part of Bolivia)
Wednesday: Spanish day blahhh. Wednesday morning is devoted to working
on my Spanish work with Ivelisse. God bless her. Then 12:30-5pm
at Casa de Paso nursery (where most of the parents of the kids
are prostitutes or work in the streets)
Thursdays: 12:30-5pm at Casa de Paso nursery again!
Fridays: Free day! Which means spending the whole day working on
homework... so not free in the slightest bit.
So this is officially my schedule and I love it so much! Brie and I were just talking tonight about how much we love our job. And if spending all day with kids wasn't enough, the days we are in Caso de Paso we are working with another volunteer! Her name is Helen and she's from Scotland, which thankfully means she speaks English... little confession I didn't know that they spoke English in Scotland. Anyway it is so much fun working with her and being able to build that friendship! She was originally suppose to go to Peru for the year but last minute she got changed to Bolivia, to Arco Iris, in the same daycare as Brie and I. God works in amazing ways! But aside from Helen there are about twenty two volunteers not including the Hope team. Two of them are from the United States, sisters from California; three are from Scotland, one of them being Helen; and the rest are all from Germany! So needless to say they almost always speak German to each other, but they do all speak English for the most part. It's so much fun getting to know them and we're starting to spend time with them and build relationships. It's nice to have a group of gringos from eighteen to twenty three that we can relate to and share adjusting stories with!
Since I haven't blogged in so long, I have to write all about Coroico and our vacation there! Two weekends ago we had the opportunity to escape the busy streets of La Paz and Rio Selva, a resort in Coroico! The rest was amazing and such a needed time just to relax and have absolutely nothing to do. But the best part was driving there. The whole drive was through the mountains and we literally drove through the edge of the Andes. To get to Coroico, you have to drive two hours up a huge mountain before descending into the tropical city. The sights were incredible; I literally could not believe my eyes. I'm also pretty sure it was the first time I legitimately used the word majestic in a sentence. We drove through the highest point in Bolivia and at one point we were so high that we were literally driving through the clouds. It was crazy we couldn't see anything in front of us; thankfully we had a very experienced driver who said this wasn't even bad. But it was incredible and this was before even getting to the resort.
Just a few pictures from our drive:
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Like I said the weekend was just a time to spend time together and stop of lives. We were right on a river that was absolutely beautiful. The perfect spot to spend time reading and praying to God; you couldn't help but feel surrounded by him and his wonders. On Sunday morning Brie, Kevin, my mom, and I decided to go on what we thought was a little trail up one of the mountains. It turned out to be a real hike; Kevin said it reminded him of when he hikes the Appalachian. Of course Brie and I looked cute too cause we knew we would be taking pictures but had no idea what a real journey we were going on. But as hard or tiring as it was going up, once we got up there it was worth pushing past every time we wanted to give up. It was beautiful. There are no other words. But as cheesy as this is gonna sound, my mom pointed out to me that it's like everything else in life. If we push past the hard time and don't give up no matter how much we want to, we get to experience something spectacular. It really put into perspective how little our lives really last and how all my persecution and trials are gonna pay off. In other words it just made me so excited for heaven. Goodness I cannot wait to spend eternity with the Alpha Omega. After we got to the top of the mountain, it started to rain. At first this was a nice little cool down, until it started pouring rain. I'm talking like a storm. And this was while we were still at the top of the mountain. At that point we kinda just gave up on the fact of staying dry. We made our way down the mountain and found a random shack to stay under until it stopped. Of course it didn't and we got a ride back from someone to the resort. Poor Aunt Noey though was stuck back at the resort and was worried sick. Thankfully she was waiting right by the main entrance to greet us with towels!
So since our little adventure to Coroico things have been pretty chill around the house. Let me clarify when I say around the house. In La Paz, not so much. We're literally living in history. There have been tons of strikes of the people revolting against the government and the president Evo Morales. The people having being refusing to provide transportation in the city during these days and if you get in a car they'll supposedly stone your car. Staying away from being biased and just stating the facts, a lot of these protestors have been missing or harmed by the police. As well as the people in La Paz, for the last two months the Tipnis people have been marching to La PAz. The Tipnis are an indigenous group from La Paz whose land has recently been taken to build a road straight through it for the selling of coca leaves. The people have spent the last two months marching to the capital, La Paz, to protest against this construction. They finally arrived yesterday with loud cheers from the people in La Paz. There were crowds there to meet them with food, shelter, and care. The Arco Iris hospital was at the spot to admit some of the marchers into the hospital immediately. These people have been marching for two months without much food. They are from the Amazon so the cold weather has given many of the pneumonia and the altitude is another problem. Because these people have spent two months of their lives marching, they had to bring their children along the journey. Children of just one or two years old have been walking all the way to the capital for the past two months. My mom, Kevin, and Gwen went with the hospital to welcome the Tipnis and later help them in the hospital. They couldn't even begin to express how incredibly it was without bawling their eyes out. No matter if I agree with what they are fighting for our not, you can't not respect these people. They have given up months to fight for something they believe in. It's incredible. But so now that they arrived no one quite knows what's going to happen. Evo conveniently left La Paz thirty minutes before they arrived to go see a soccer game in another city in La Paz, so I guess we are all just waiting for him to return. But that's a little insight of the history of La Paz that we're actually living!Well that's a little insight on what's been happening the past few weeks here in La Paz! I'm trying to upload a video I made for the kingdom kids at North River but of course it's taking forever. So hopefully you'll get to see a little visual bit of our adventure!
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