Team Bolivia 08!

2010-06-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

Hola

It's hard to keep updating the blog every week because I keep forgetting what I've done! Our days are so packed with little bits 'n' pieces rather than big events. I'm going to have to buy a diary to help me keep track of my days. I wish I'd brought my filofax, right shaz?! haha

Last Saturday I was sick in the morning and couldn't do the apoyo escolar (homework club) at the community centre. We all went yesterday and it was just as well because the regular teacher didn't turn up. So we just let the kids on in and took the class ourselves. We hadn't anything prepared because we'd expected the other teacher to be there so we could only encourage them with their homeworks and try to keep under control those who apparently had no work to do. There were only 6 kids so it wasn't too stressful. Next week we'll come prepared with colouring in or puzzles for those with no work.

On Tuesday night Hannah and I took our first English class at the community centre. I've no teaching experience although I have a TEFL qualification from a 40 hour online course I did - this did not prepare me! haha People often think that to teach English the only skill you need is to be a native speaker but this is not the case, there's a lot more to it! As chalklenging as I found it, (and as much as I played the classroom assistant under Hannah who has experience, confidence and no stupid N.Irish accent to deal with..!) I'd never felt more alive! haha how cheesy does that sound?! But I loved it and have been looking forward to next week's class ever since. The class was advertised to be 7-8.30pm but in typical Bolivian- style the students arrived at 7.45pm so we started at 8 and taught until 9. There were 8 students all of different ages and levels and all from the surrounding barrio.
One of the students is called Winder. He's the only one of the students we knew before the class and he's 'supercool'! He another leader of the holiday bible club that we've been planning together. He's a christian who attends Marcos's church in the centre. He actually lives with his 2 brothers and his mother in the centre grounds. As you've gathered from previous posts and photos, theft is a huge problem here. Despite the graphic deterents and the high metal fences surrounded each property, the leave the centre empty each night would be unthinkable. So, this lady lives in a little house out the back of the centre as a sort of care-taker of the property. Marcos can't afford to pay her a wage but providing her and her family this place to live free of charge is her payment.

On Thursday night we had another planning meeting for the holiday bible club. We had dinner together and got the chance to get to know each other a bit better. There are only 8 of us including us girls and Marcos, then Winder (21), Milly (30), Emma (14) and Ramundo (16). During the night, Marcos told us more about how him and Gwen ended up in this barrio, and some events that happened. This community centre is completely run on faith. They aren't supported by any charity or organisation, nor do they have a build up of funds to work through. They simply take each day at a time and see what they can do with what they've got. It's incredible. I really encourage you to follow their progress, find out more about them, get in touch, support them, check out their blog..

I'm beginning to feel that the more time I spend at this community centre on the outskirts of the city, the more time I want to spend there. I love it, I really feel something special each time I'm there. Tonight we went out there again because the community church's service on Sunday evenings is always held in somebody's house, and this week it was in the home of a couple we had visited last week with Marcos. You wouldn't believe the place they live.. they have quite a large piece of ground, with just a little brick shed in the corner, like one or two rooms. The size of a car garage. And tonight the church of about 25 kids and 15 adults met around a campfire in their garden with Winder playing guitar - the only musician. I have never seen a church that is such as a family as these guys are. Being invited there to join with them was such an honour and each of us, me, Hannah and Lois all loved it so much. I can't even express how I feel about this church, this centre, this group of people.. everyone I've met here.. I just absolutely love it. I would like my Spanish to reach a level (asap) from which I could properly converse and get to know the guys more and be able to create proper relationships. I would ask that you pray for this for me as I'm struggling a bit with the language at times and I become frustrated with myself.
This Wednesday coming is San Juan which is a national holiday and a pretty big deal. It's supposed to be the coldest night of the year. The community church is meeting again in the same place around a bonfire again, so we'd love to go there for that!

We've been in touch with a volunteer who is working at Free Hands, which is the organisation supporting disadvantaged women and thier children, most of whom are freed or on probation from the women's prison in Cochabamba. They've moved premises and we visited the new cafe which is much bigger and better than the previous. Also there is an adjoining unit which will soon open as the shop from where they'll sell their handicrafts. We're going to arrange to meet with the volunteer, Laura, this coming week to see if there is any aspect of the project that we can help with.

Also we will be visiting El Refugio (The Refuge)- a home for disadvantaged girls and boys who come from either living on the streets or from abusive or neglective families. My Bolivian friend Julio works here as a psychologist hoping to provide the help these kids need. So on Friday he will show us around and introduce us in the home so that the following week we will volunteer in the afternoons and do some activities as it's the school holidays soon so the kids will be in the home all day everyday with not much to do! Any ideas for activities with these guys would be welcomed.

Ok that's all my news for now..
Thanks for reading, leave a comment if ya like..sometimes I think I'm writing to nobody on here..
:o) hasta proxima vez... chausitos x

Photos!2

2010-06-12T06:43:00.000-07:00

Guess who! Haha ok it's me and my friend Ever..
Having a sing-song with some church friends at Ever's birthday party!
My fav photo so far.. This figure hangs from a lamp post in the sumumpaya barrio, just a couple of blocks from the community centre.
Dice: ''todo ladron sea atrapado sera quemado'' In spanish it has a sort of rhythm and rhyme to it.
In english it simply says: Every thief that is caught will be burnt.
This is the noticeboard of the community centre.
I got given a rose :o)
This lady is a Cholita, she's one of many women you'll see around the streets dressed like this, normally selling sweets, fruit, or juice.
Amazing setting for the concert..
We went to a Christian music concert in the footbalkl stadium, check out the background scenery!
In our apartment - Hannah taught me how to make omlettes!

Photos!

2010-06-12T06:11:00.001-07:00

Hostel-bound for a long time, we stocked up on snack food and learnt new phrases..
The view from our bedroom in La Paz
El Alto, La Paz, Highest city in the world i think.. La Paz airport being the highest airport in the world. They say the planes have to adapt their landing methods because they can't dive down in to land as much because the airport kind of meets them half way haha
This is the view from the taxi journey between La Paz airport and our hostel.. breath taking..
We first arrived into Miami airport, where Lois and I had a full day to kill so we hung out at South beach!

2010-06-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

Well, unfortunately due to minor sickness, I am missing out on our first community centre task :-( Hannah and Lois went this morning to help out in the Saturday morning homework club. This is something we've offered to do every week. We had a planning meeting on Thursday night for the holiday bible club and met the rest of the team. Everyone's lovely and I'm looking forward to it, it'll be the second week in July I think..! Next meeting is this Thursday inc a BBQ at Marcos yummmmmmm
This barrio (or community, but even when we talk in english we refer to the 'barrio') in which Marcos and Gwen moved into is crazy! haha Seriously, the stories that Marcos has told us about some of the people, their backgrounds, what has happened there, *cough* how many of the kids fathers are in prison *cough*, it's unbelievable. And if im honest a little scary, but it's great, because obviously this place has such a need for this centre, for this church, for this opportunity to change the way of life here! Already in the community Marcos and Gwen have established themselves and have obtained a level of respect, although Marcos admitted how difficult it was at first! 'Who are you? What you doin here? What you buildin there?' He talks about this project with such compassion and enthusiasm, and as he gave us the tour 2 years on, we couldn't quite believe the progress and the potential still building! Their blog address is http://quinterosclan.wordpress.com/ if you'd like to follow their progress..

Last Sunday hannah and I went to our old church Calama. We were gutted to discover that there is no longer an English service here! We were so looking forward to getting involved and it being a great meeting point for other foreign missionaries and travellers. Entering Calama for the first time in 2 years was strangely not as strange as I had anticipated.. It just felt 'normal'. We were warmly greeted at the door and throughout the service and after :o)

We enjoyed the Spanish service although to be honest by the end I was exhausted from concentrating so hard on the spanish sermon etc! After the service I got to hold my friends 4 month old baby ignacio who I was sooooo looking forward to meeting! I held him for a couple of minutes before he started crying hahaha! I think he was hungry though, nothing to do with me..

Normally on Sunday evenings in Bolivia we went to the Portguese service then out for a bite to eat after. This day we didn't feel brave enough to go, so we just agreed to meet our friends from the service after! We swapped stories and filled each other in on the last 2 years, and just like that it was just like the good old days and no time had passed. They've invited us round to their place on tonight to play guitar hero, can't wait! In all seriousness, these guys are class. They've always been like big brothers to us, looking out for us and checkin to see if we're ok, lettin us know to ring them if we need anything at all. I mean, where we live is safe, but it's nice to know we got people like that nearby :o)

I had Spanish classes every morning this last week. I don't feel I've learnt anything new, but it was good to refresh and I had a lot of talking and listening practise. I also got to meet the amazing teachers and some other students. Last night a few students and teachers got together at one of the students house for a games night. It was really good craic! The girl whose house we were at is called Laura and she's out here with Latin Link Stride working at Free Hands - www.freehandsbolivia.org (it's worth a look)
We had tried to find the new Free Hands building during the week but couldn't find it, so hopefully now we'll be able to meet Laura this coming week and offer her any help she needs with that work.

I've just imported my photos from my camera so I'll try and get some pics up asap...!

2010-06-06T12:27:00.001-07:00

Well hello there! It's been a while since I've written to this blog.. about 2 years!! Wow. Who would have thought after that last one there would be another RackersInBolivia entry in 2010.?!

I just thought a blog is the best way to keep everyone up to date with what I'm up to and how I'm getting on, I know ya all worry :o) haha

If you're coming onto this blog then obviously you'll know that I decided to come back to Cochabamba, Bolivia again for 2 months this summer. I'm not with a church or charity, it's just me, Hannah Woods and Lois Browne. We've all been in cocha before and fallen in love with the place and so decided to spend summer 2010 hanging out, seeing all the friends we left behind, brushing up our Spanish and offering help to various charity and church projects in the city.

Our collective journeys to Bolivia were pretty awkward..
I did successfully avoid the ash cloud over UK airspace by flying to london a few days early and stay with my brother who then brought me to heathrow airport on thurs morning ( 27th may).
Here I met up with Lois. Due to the BA strikes, we had been transferred onto a different flight to miami pretty last minute. Lois had already checked in so I went to the desk where they told me I didn't actually have a ticket.. but it turned out the Expedia lady who transferred our tickets over the phone had messed up, and it was all ok. The BA woman disappeared with my passport for about 15mins and then came back with my ticket.
Arriving in Miami, we learned that Hannah's flight in from Texas was delayed and so she missed our flight down to La Paz. Poor Hannah took it well and set up camp in Miami airport until the next available flight to La Paz the same time next day!

Meanwhile, Lois and I checked us into a hostel in La Paz for the next few days. Little did we know that the annual street festival El Gran Poder, was happening that weekend and our hostel was pretty much right in the middle of it. So the streets were closed for 2 days and we couldn't really go anywhere. We had to grab Hannah from the airport and come straight to the hotel before the roads closed and we'd be blocked out. The festival itself wasn't even enjoyable.

Lois and I had a few things we wanted to do in La Paz, hence the reason for staying there rather than go straight down to cochabamba. However these things didn't take as long as we'd anticipated, and after spending 2 days pretty much in our hotel room we were a bit disheartened. However, we all get along great together and enjoyed hanging out, getting to know each other better (as we all live in different countries, weird!) and it's amazing the fun you can have with a deck of cards!
Monday and Tues were good days in La Paz. We went to see San Pedro prison, without going into all the details of how much this meant to me, and to Lois, i can just advise you to read 'Marching Powder', by Rusty Young. Real life story of a Brit drug smuggler's time in this prison. As we sat and watched the hustle and bustle at prison gates, a young man approached us and offered us a tour of the prison - 2 and half hours inside, seeing all 7 sections, and a bodyguard would be provided. Unfortunately his tours weren't operating that particular day and we were leaving the next..

Wednesday we had an 8 and half hour bus journey from La Paz to Cochabamba. It was long, uncomfortable and hot. But we were heading to our cocha so we didn't care, it was great!
Arriving in Cocha we met the lady who would take us to our apartment. It's lovely! We got the keys, threw down our luggage, sprayed a bit of deodourant, and went for a big feed in the poshest restaurant in town hahaha and had a two-fold toast.. to us in cochabamba, and to me getting into queens for nursing in sept!

From Thursday until today (Sun) we have taken a few days to relax, buy in some essentials, adjust to being back in Cocha, and settle-in really.
Thursday morning some of Lois's friends from her church here which was nice. They're lovely and it was a nice first experience of spanish!
In the evening, something very special happened... I finally met someone who I've been facebook friends with for more or less one year! hahaha
This guy, called Ever, and I have been really good friends chatting all the time online, but we never met each other the last time I was in Cocha, it's kinda weird. Anyway after so long we can finally be proper friends in real life -yay! He dances in a Bolivian folklore group and he invited us to a show. It was amazing! We loved it. The dances, the costumes, the atmosphere.
Hannah and I also bumped into our brazilian friends William and Renato at this show - completely by coincidence, so that was cool!

We met with our old Spanish teachers at the language centre and Hannah and I have signed up to Spanish classes next week from 8-10.30am Mon-Fri. I'm only planning to do the one week as I'm hoping this will be enough just to kick-start my Spanish into gear.
We also met with Marcos who is a Bolivian guy married to a Scottish lady called Gwen. Just over a year ago they opened a community centre in a very needy area on the outskirts of Cochabamba. They have also started their own communtiy church within the centre which Marcos himself pastors. At the minute Gwen is back home in the UK so we are planning to help out at the centre. We've agreed to start English lessons one night a week and to help run a holiday bible club for 2 weeks in july.

I'm sorry this update was rather long. It was a quick decision to start writing this blog and I felt there was a lot I needed to get you caught up on!
To sum up.. I'm in Cochabamba, I'm safe and well and really really enjoying myself, and looking forward to '' stop messing around and do something useful'', to paraphrase the words of my brother, Peter. :o) hahaha

The End..kind of.

2008-08-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

Hola

Well, as of 7th August my team has officially ended and everyone has gone their separate way. Except Hannah Woods and I. Those of you who have facebook will have noticed my statement that I am 'no loger bound by the Tearfund contract'. This, of course, means that I no longer work at Mosoj Yan or represent Tearfund, now do they have any responsibilty for me now. HannahW and I got our flight pushed back a couple of weeks so we can spend some time enjoyig Cochabamaba independently before we have to return home.

Our plan is to do an intense two week Spanish course (ie 4 lessons per day, every day) and around that fit in a few morning at Peter's orphange, at the community centre, with Gladys and the Nucleus project, and some touristy things as well. We want to explore the city a bit more, and we bought a disposable camera for these two weeks for some photo safari fun!

HannahW, Heather and I saw the other three off at the airport on Thursday afternoon. It was a strange feeling being at the airport watching my team board a plane that I should have been on with them. A feeling, though, that had been there for the whole previous week as well. The week was filled with goodbye parties for 'the Tearfund team'. Literally every single day from one Thursday to the Thursday they left had at least one goodbye party.

It was Connie's the first Thursday as she went back to Canada; Friday night the Mosoj Yan staff held a party for us with speeches, gifts, dancing and the first tears; Sat night our Spanish teachers cooked (hired a chef) dinner for us; Sunday after we led our last service at Calama the English service (and Brasilians who helped out with music) took us out for lunch; Monday I went back to Albergue, my first centre, with the Hannahs and said goodbye to the staff and girls there; Monday night we said goodbye to our friend Gerry from Singapore (yep,thats his whole name haha); Tuesday I went back to Trabajadoras to say goodbye to staff and girls there; Tuesday night we played wally and went for icecream as our Brasilian goodbye; and Wed night we spent the day as a team and went for dinner and then bowling. So really it goes without saying that it was a hugely emotional week for everybody. For me it was exceptionally bizarre having these goodbyes but knowing I'll see most of the people again in my extra weeks. But my teammates wouldn't. Bizarre week. There's no other way I can describe it really.

Tino and Ross Mary, from Mosoj Yan, drove us to the airport on Thursday. Ivan came too with his 3 weeks old son, Paulo. William (who is back from Brasil, finally! yay!) and Jonathan came too. Some girls from the seminary came too but they were too late and missed us. It's so nice that people come out of their way to the airport to see their friends off. It's so surprising to us because it's something that's not really done in the UK. Of course there were many tears at the airport. HannahW, Heather, William, Jonathan and I stayed with them until they went through the gate. After that HannahW and I headed to La Cancha. We needed some retail therapy.

It was only Thursday morning that HannahW and I found out where we would be living in our extra two weeks. We hought we had it sorted but that kind of fell trough. This is Bolivia - people are very laid back. We sort of adopted this laid back attitude (yes, even me) and still on Wed night joked that we didn't know where we would be sleeping the next night. On Thursday morning we spoke to the director of the seminary and he offered us the apartment upstairs. It's the one Connie, phil, Dave all lived in at one time or another. The apartment I'd wanted since we decided to stay on longer. It's a long story but basically the people who were living in it up until now were swapping with us. They moved down into oiur old place while we moved upstairs. The move didn't happen until Friday so Thrusday night we had to spend in our old place just the 2 of us. It was strange without the others! We love our new place and are very excited about starting this new part of our time in Bolivia.

2008-07-29T14:06:00.000-07:00

Hey!
Finally got round to sticking up some photos. Only a few though - I wasn't sure if it would work. Also my battery died - something about me and batteries, it´s very annoying!Now that I know I'll try and get some proper sets of photos of work etc up asap. For now enjoy these couple of randoms..

This is me and my chums out for lunch (charque, I think it was llama..) after church one Sunday afternoon. It was one of my best days here - great fun.
Here is HannahSR with jose, amanda and carla who live at the Restauracion centre, and Gladys, the psychologist there. They're dressed in green for a dance they performed for the Day of the Teacher.
This is the dance they performed..
Random pic but I don't have many of Wally yet! This is regula(a girl I only met twice, she was only here for 2 weeks), Bart (we miss him), Renato and Hannah W.
HannahSR´s birthday at our centre. They gave her a card which she models here. This is at lunchtime, in the dining room of the centre.

British Evening!

2008-07-22T11:50:00.001-07:00

Every month the Mosoj Yan cafe opens fo a cultural evening. We've been to an African night and a Brasilian night. This time we were asked to present Britian! Paulina asked us and we of course said yes. It's such a nice gesture that they gave us a night and want to get to know us and our culture. That's another good thing about working at Trabajadoras - it's where the main Mosoj Yan offices are so I can get to know the office and behind the scenes staff a bit more. So it was on Friday night past. It was fantastic! Best cultural night ever, if I do say so myself..but I'm not because we got a lot of praise for it. Brasil had a dance on their night though, which was pretty cool. They asked us to do a traditional dance but we don't really have one except maybe Morris dancing which we weren't prepared to do so we had to decline that suggestion. Pity. There's a Scottish night coming up in September so we also didn't want to steal Alison's jig!lol

We started preparing at 3pm. The other four of our team came to our centre (where the cafe is) to join Heather and I. It was actually realy nice to be doing something together as a team. We've not done that in a long time - we work in pairs and it's very rare, even socially, that all 6 of us will be out together. We had a really good afternoon setting up, making decorations, playing English music (ie dancing in the closed cafe to Duffy - Mercy..best song EVER) and preparing the food. It was a really good fun afternoon, for me anyway..poor HannahSR was a little stressed about the presentation and Katie near had a hernia over the stew (thanks Alison for coming to the rescue!). Me? I spent the entire afternoon making two huge union jacks! Why can't our flag be one simple block of colour, maybe two stripes would be ok, but seriously.. it's so difficult to make and so time consuming! Although they looked good and Ludwing, our Bolivian friend, now has one in the back window of his car, haha.

The night was great fun, all of our friends came to support us and Alison had gone mad on the invites too. The small cafe was packed out with people. The menu had the usual dishes plus our British add ons - stew, eggs and chips, scones with jam and cream and shortbread. Oh and good old Nambarrie tea! (Thanks mum - I knew I'd find a use for them lol!) It all went down a storm. They loved the stew. The kitchen was complete chaos with no system or organisation whatsoever. Enter me and HannahSR! We tried to delegate jobs and areas (the kitchen's tiny and had too many helpers) and organised the orders into 'done' and 'to do'. It was crazy and I was rather stressed out at one point but then I took a deep breath and said to myself 'this is Bolivia..roll with it'.

We did a powerpoint presentation to music with photos of Britain and facts. HannahSR and I did the talking. She did most, I just wanted to be a part of it so she gave me two paragraphs to read haha. Then Paulina opened question time! Oh wasn't that fun. Bolivians are soo interested in Britain. They asked things I didn't even know the answer to. Lots about the Queen and the flag and the government etc.. HannahSR and Katie, our strongest Spanish speakers did a fantastic job in answering all that was fired at us. There was such a great, friendly, light-hearted atmosphere in the cafe that if we said the wrong word or something stupid in Spanish they kinda laughed but in a nice way corrected us. Of course the whole thing - presentation and questions where in Spanish. The atmosphere was so relaxed that it prompted one guy, who was with Marcus, to wave his British flag (that's what you did to ask a question) and say, "I have two questions. First question, what's the difference in the United Kingdom and Great Britain? Second question, what's your name?" As he looked and pointed at me!! It was hilarious! I don't think I've turned redder and the whole cafe erupted with laughter, haha! It was a hilarious and all round fantastic evening :o)

A pretty great week!

2008-07-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

Hola!

I've had a pretty great week this week so I'm going to share a little bit of that with you.

Work at Trabajadoras is good.I'm enjoying it more and more each day. It's had much more structure this last week because school has re-started. The school holiday was supposed to be one week but it got extended to two weeks to keep the teachers happy who were threatening strike about something else. Then, and this is funny, the government then extended the holiday to a third week because it's "too cold". Extending a school holiday because it's too cold is ridiculous anyway but even more so here because we are averaging about 16degrees in the morning and mid 20s midday! haha, freezing eh? Anyway the kids that come to Trabajadoras all go to school either in the morning or the afternoon. A typical day runs like this : the kids arrive from 8.30am and eat breakfast; they then start homework. Education here is dreadful - I'll not even get into it now but it's a terrible system. They then have some recreation time then lunch starts at noon. Before lunch the girls all have to wash their hands then, as the morning group are mostly young children, they line up and sing a song and one of them prays. They pay 1Boliviano(that's the currency..they don't trade people, girly..) for lunch and breakfast. Lunch runs from 12-2pm because there is a changeover of girls. Those at the centre in the morning go to school in the afternoon and vice versa. So the morning girls eat lunch and leave while the afternoon girls come straight from school and eat lunch.Then after lunch there is some recreation time and homework begins around 2.30pm. They get a snack around 4pm and leave at 5pm when the centre closes. From time to time there are special talks on hygiene etc.. Since I've been here we had an afternoon headlice talk.

what I'`ve called 'homework time' the girls do schoolwork or, if they claim to have none, are encouraged to read.The schools are rubbish and the girls get little or no help or encouragement from home. Their parents don't care much about education - they send their kids to school cause they have to and it's free but as soon as possible they'll have their kids back out selling and working their stalls. So here the staff encourage learning and help teachthe girls if they don't understand things from school. They want the girls to do well in school and want to continue their education and make something of themselves.

The older teenage girls who come in the afternoon are given more freedom. They can do schoolwork if they want but actually most of them go to technical colleges and so make good use of the craft room. Here they listen to music and make various bits n pieces that are then sold in the Mosoj Yan shop.

I've found out recently that all of the girls at the centre now have come from La Cancha. This will mean nothing to you but I'm going to tell you about the cancha project called "Nucleus".

"Nucleus" is right at the heart of the Trabajadoras centre. One member of staff, called Gladys, runs this project. Basically she goes onto the streets and, more importantly, La Cancha, to promote Mosoj Yan. La Cancha is the largest outdoor market in South America. I don't know exactly what size it is but it's a huge place, I've never seen anything like it. It's so big it's like an actual town of venders and stalls. I don't even know how to describe it - it's just something that has to be seen. And smelt. It's where all the poorest people sell things, and more often than not the people manning the stalls are children. Girls as young as 8yrs old vending in the streets.

I've been through La Cancha many times just with friends and seen things but going there with Gladys when she lets me tag along is a totally different experience altogether. My eyes have been opened. What she does is such a vital work. She's an incredible, passionate, caring woman who loves what she does and is so good at it. When I first went with her I felt like I was filming a behind the scenes watchdog-type documentary. I first went with her on a Wednesday morning. It was just me and her and I've never spoken to her before that day and she doesn't speak any English..butI had the best time ever with her. I love her to bits now! My Spanish just seemed to click into place and I chatted with her the whole 30 min walk down and back. She was telling me all about Bolivia and Cochabamba, La Cancha and about "Nucleus". Usually what she does is play games for an hour with the kids who are hanging about the market selling or whatever. This just gives them a bit of fun and laughter, a change from sitting behind a stall selling oranges for example. In this time she builds relationships with the kids who come back each week to meet her where they play andshe can tell them about Mosoj Yan. However, this time when we went to the usual place to play ther were no kids. So Gladys let me come with her walking around the cancha talking to people. If she say a girl manning a stall on her own she went over and started talking to her and telling her when and where we usual play games and also about this place called Mosoj Yan where she can come to spend her days. On that Wednesday she was chatting to one girl at a stall and was writing down the phone number etc. of Mosoj Yan. Meanwhile I noticed a man selling shampo and deodourant out of his wheelbarrow pull up and stop nearby. I thought this could be the girl's dad and he was going to tell Gladys where to go. Lots of kids can't come to Mosoj Yan or even to play for one hour because their parents don't let them leave their stalls. La Cancha is a scary place too, I would love to take some pictures to show everybody but I daren't even carry my camera with me nevermind take it out and get snap happy. Anyway, Gladys finished talking to the girl and the man called her (eek!). He actually turned out to be the loveliest man ever. Just looking at him while he spoke to Gladys was heart-breaking. He was quite old and had obviously had a very hard life. He'd overheard Gladys talking about this Mosoj Yan place and he wanted to find out more about it. He said he has daughters himself and was very interested. It turned out that his children were too old for Trabajadoras at Mosoj Yan but Gladys was able to give him the name and number of another similar organisation in the city. After their chat he brought Gladys over to another woman and told the woman to listen to what Gladys had to say. The woman had a 5-6 yr old daughter by her side as she sold some horrible brown juice. As Gladys told her about Mosoj Yan it touched me just how much hurt and longing was in this woman's eyes. She listened to Gladys and she looked at her daughter and it was clear that she didn't wish the life that she had had on her own daughter as well. We continued aruond la cancha for an hour, stopping to talk to any young girl venders or woman with children. Gladys does this four times each week and every Thursday night she does the same thing (playing games and promoting Mosoj Yan) but in the main plaza in the city, not la cancha. I'm hoping to go down with her next Thursday. The first Wednesday that I went down with Gladys was possibly the best day of work I've had here. It opened my eyes to so much and I had a miracukous injection of the Spanish language that enabled me to learn more about Nuclues, Cochabamba, and get to know Gladys.

When my Tearfund contract ends on 7th August, Hannah Woods and I will hopefully try to get more involved in the Nucleus project. We've now confirmed we will be leaving Bolivia on 23rd August. Staying the extra couple of weeks independently. Woohoo!!

Now and again when we arrive at the centre at 9am we see the girls' mums dropping them off. We don't ever talk to them or anything, but yesterday the mother of two very sweet (but they know it and use it to their advantage) girls was there. She was sitting with Emily, her youngest daughter, and I walked past and said hello. Then Emily ran at me with a hug and kisses - score! I look good in front of their mother!haha Then her mum called me over and asked did I speak English. Then she shoved this phone to my ear and asked me to translate what it said. It was ringing for ages and went onto a voicemail answer service. So I told her what that meant. I thought this was a good opportunity to chat and I was feeling a little more brave that morning so, without knowing what to say, I sat beside her. She started telling me that that was the father of her daughters she was trying to phone. He's been working in the States for 5 years as a mechanic. He always said he would return to them but he hasn't. She tries to call him all the time but he never answers her. What do you say do that? This hurting woman, mother of two girls who are in a centre for working street girls and whose father has taken himself off to the States and won't take her calls. I don't even know the right response to that in English. I sat and had a really good conversation with her for a good while, whilst playing with her girls. It was nice. I'd quite like it if I got to see her again.

That same day, feeling now even more brave, I made a big effort to talk to Luidmila, the Argentinian volunteer. She's hard to understand because of her strong accent. We were doing a British evening that night so we talked about that. Then I did it. I made that universal connection that bonds woman everywhere. I mentioned boys. Haha. I mentioned the rather "guapo" young man who was at the centre two days previous and that opened up a good old girlie gossip and totally changed the atmosphere between us I think. She's such a lovely girl, only 18, and I think that if she spoke English or I spoke Spanish we would probably be quite good friends. Which is a pity because there is the huge language barrier.

Other Projects

2008-07-15T18:50:00.001-07:00

I've mentioned before about meeting people and hearing of their own work here in Cochabamba. Finally in the past few weeks I got the chance to visit a couple of them.

Gwen and Marcus are a lovely couple who I think I've told you about before - about how they met. He was the Youth Pastor at Calama, she was 18-19 on a missions trip similar to mine, they fell in love, got married and lived happily ever after. Well, they've bought a big empty house on quite a large site and are in the process of turning it into a community centre. Gwen showed me, Emma and Dave Barbon around one Saturday and I got goosebumps of excitement about the place! She pointed out bare rooms which will be the offices, the medical attention room, dentist room, gym, and upstairs the childcare centre. It's got huge painting of Noah and the ark and a rainbow taking over one whole wall. It's class, and we painted a red wall in one of the rooms adjacent and the other rooms will have one wall painted one colour from the rainbow too. We also sanded the bannister in the morning that we were there. I hope to get the time to helo out a bit more with any painting or cleaning needing done before I leave. They hope to open in November, the childcare bit anyway cause they want it to be open in time for the school year to start.

There's a man called Peter, from Australia who comes to Calama. He runs an orphanage with his wife Dehlia. They've been here for 10 years but only in November they bought their property and have been developing it since. The inside is pretty much finished except the kitchen needs torn apart and re-done as it's a big space but not well used it's not very practically designed. I had to be repetitive but I got goosebumps of excitment here too. Perhaps even more so! There is a huge garden with a multipurpose playing court, a half finished swimming pool and an animal coop with ducks and rabbits, and Peter wants to have goats too. The grounds are a mess. The builders he had were really untidy and left loads of dirt just piled at the bottom of the garden and everything. Peter says that there is no steady income to the orphanage and they can't afford to do anything more at the minute. They rely on donations and volunteers. He had some fantastic stories for us I can't tell you them all, maybe when I'm home you can ask for more! For example.. The swimming pool was sitting useless for months it wasn't in a useable state but they couldnt afford to do anything. Then a 65yr old woman from Canada came to volunteer who happened to have been an interior designer in her youth and she knew how to tile. So she actually just bought all the tiles they needed and started last week to work on tiling around the pool. Another one.. Peter's minibus broke down and he couldn't get it fixed. About a week later he got a phonecall from one of a group of volunteers who had been with him a while ago saying that they still had some money and was there anything he needed. So he was able to buy a new minibus. Two weeks ago a man was passing by Cochabamba and visited Peter's orphanage for a day. After being there he really wanted to help in some way. This man happened to be an Optician and so he offered free eye tests to Peter for all the kids and free glasses and any treatment they needed. So last Monday some of the kids got their glasses and that was all free. I really could go on and on with these kinds of amazing stories.
There are about 25 kids at the home at the minute. Most of them are referred to Peter from the Government. There are, however, some exceptional cases. One heartbreaking story is of a boy who was abandoned on the steps of the church. A woman found him and brought him up to Peter and asked could he take this boy. So Peter did. The boy didn't know his name or his age. After some research over a period of a few months they finally found out that this mother was a prostitute and had another young baby as well. She would often leave her children behind while she went away with her clients sometimes for a few days. When Peter brought the nameless boy home he asked the other kids what they should call him. They suggested 'Peter Pan' because they'd watched the film the night before, haha, but then they settled for 'Jack'.
Adoption is tricky here and not very popular. So the turnover rate of the home is very slow. Most of the kids there at the minute have been with Peter for about 6 years. He's adopted 3 himself. He ecnourages the kids to learn English. There are no classes at the home but Peter and Dehlia speak to them in English and bring them to the English service at Calama. It's really paying off because the kids are actually speaking fantastic English just from being around it so much, watching English films etc as well. There are no jobs in Bolivia anyway, but if you know English, especially starting from such a young age, you can go far.
The kids are fantastic I love them. A couple of boys in particular have stolen my heart I want to bring them home with me! Don't worry mum, I won't, but I´m definately going to try to spend some more time at the home before I leave too. There just isn't enough time to do everything I want to do here. I'm not ready to leave yet :-( I don't want to say goodbye..

New blog entry below ugly party photos!

2008-07-12T06:49:00.000-07:00

Hola,
There is a new blog entry underneath the ugly party photos..! I started that one before I put on the photos so the date is earlier and I can't figure out how to change the order of my posts so this is just to let you know to check it out below..! thanks! haha
x

Fiesta Fea (photos)

2008-07-07T07:22:00.000-07:00

UGLY PARTY PHOTOS - at last!!! (They didn't upload in the right order so are a bit mixed up sorry!)

This is Bruno the 'ugly nun' haha.
There was a catwalk competition at the end of the night!
The pastor of the Portuguese service at Calama!
Bart here won the best costume prize
All 5 of us with some new friends :o)
(slippers do not count as dressing ugly!tut tut)
Us all again with Bart, our hero. Can't believe he's now gone!! :-(

Katie and HannahSR before we left

Emma, HannahSR, me, HannahW

My fav photo of my entire 3 months to date, honestly!!

These are 3 of my favourite people in the world. L-R.. Renato, Jonathon and William

Love this guy soo much. Jonathon. He's the funniest guy here!

More 'ugly' Brasilians..

So there you have it.. When I said a fiesta fea, I really meant it! Awesome, awesome night!!!!!

Holiday and Kids Camp

2008-07-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

Hola!

Well well well..so much to write. Firstly though.. I can't believe how many complaints I get about a non-updated blog considering none of you ever comment on it. For all I know I´m writing to myself. Well, not just myself.. (hi andy). And Kasim! Yes, you! Hannah's told me what you said. Haha!! Funny..

I´m pretty much just home from 2 weeks holiday and I'm off on Monday - it´'s a tough life this. Seriously though I am working. The second week of 'holiday' was with work so it doesn't really count cause I definately do not feel rested after it, but more about that later. I´ll start with the real holiday..

We left last Saturday night on our main holiday of the trip (we get 2 weeks off in the 4 month trip). We´'d had a pretty bad week previous of sickness, exhaustion and there was a strong sense of nobody wants to go away this week, but we needed to cross the border for our visas sake so had no choice. We got the overnight bus (7 hrs) to the Bolivian capital La Paz which got us in at around 6am to the terminal. In Bolivia you can't book any travelling tickets in advance, only on the day of travel. So arriving in La Paz we booked tickets on an 8.30am bus to Copacabana so we went and had hot choc in a cafe in the bus station to wait. Long story short, HannahW's rucksac got stolen. Luckily her passport was in her handbag but she lost all her clothes, wash stuff, some money, camera (with awesome pics), and just everything you'd take on a weeks holiday! It was terrible. Her and HannahSR had to go report it etc so we had to cancel our tickets and buy later ones for Copacabana. HannahW handled the situation soo well, she was a star. She actually commented that 'the guy who took it obviously needs the stuff more than me' and she proceeded to pray for him later in our team time - how awesome is this chick?!

In Copacabana we booked into a hotel. It was nice enough but we got ripped off big time by the price. Though of course it was the first time we'd booked a hotel so we didn´t know any better at this stage. We stayed here 2 nights. My first impression was 'I dont like this place I wanna go home'. This mindset quickly changed and now I´d honestly saw I love it! I´d go back for sure. It´s very small and very touristy. I hardly saw 10 locals the wholoe time, it´s full of gringo backpackers and hippies selling jewellery. Lots of cafes and funky restaurants. One place pretty much became our home we ate there so much but we just loved it. One night we met 2 guys who were travelling and had just in fact met each other that day so we had a good laugh with them over dinner. It was great to meet strangers and hear their experiences and stories from their travels. Pete, one of the guys reminded me sooo much of you! He looked like you, had a similar sense of humour and just the way he talked and everything. You didn't come across an Aussie named Grassie on your trip??haha Oh and since I'm addressing you, Pete.. I have a photo of us Harrisons at Colin n Shaz's wedding party in my bible and the girls at my old centre saw it and they all loved you!lol

So, Copacabana is on the Bolivia side of Lake Titicaca. We went out one afternoon in little pedal swan boats (not unlike those at Bangor's pickie park!). It was awesome. There was a moment of realisation that 'wow..I´m on a pedal swan having a great laugh with HannahW in the middle of lake Titicaca just before sunset'.. pure bliss, it was such a feeling of happiness and how lucky I am to have the opportunity to be here. We took a boat trip out to La Isla del Sol which is a beautiful island in the lake. We spent a night there. Emma was quite sick my this stage and she spent most of the time here in bed, poor girl, and Heather had spent a whole day sick in bed in Copacabana. We saw the most spectacular views on isla del sol. It was just beautiful - we saw a sunset over the lake, then got up for sunrise the next morning - fantastic. But the most amazing sight was the stars. I'm really not very into star gazing or anything, I mean I always like looking at stars but I don't get overly excited or know any constalations or anything, but when I looked up and saw what I saw on Isla del Sol it literallt took my breath away. I was speechless! The sky was crystal clear and covered with millions of stars all over, I actually saw my first every shooting star here. I'll never forget that sight. It was phenominal.

Trout is a very big dish around the lake, so in Copacabana and Isla del Sol we all enjoyed lots of trout dinners! It was really good.

Without being able to book things in advance we only had a rough schedule we were trying to follow for the weeks holiday. We had planned to spend a night or 2 in La Paz but none of us had any desire whatsoever to spend more time there than absolutely necessary - perhaps just because of the bad first impression of arrving in the early hours and having the bag stolen. It seemed strange that we didn't like it cause everyone keeps telling us how lovely it is etc. I guess we didn't see very much of it, maybe there is a better side to it. But anyway, so we decided to not spend any nights in La Paz and instead we went back to Copacabana for another night! There's an excellent restaurant that has a movie room. It's free to use you just have to buy food so we watched Evan Almighty and ordered pizzas!

We left the next morning for Puno, Peru. We didn't really want to go to Peru but we needed to leave Bolivia and return to get a tourist visa on the way back in. I hated Puno. We all did really! Karen McCoy what were you thinking!? lol She told me how pretty and lovely it was.. mentirosa!haha we'll have fun talking Spanish when I get home muhaha! Anyway yeh we spent a night in Puno. It wasn't bad we found a nice cheap hostel and a good place where we got to try Alpaca for dinner. Then we slept and left. We thankfully did get tourist visas on the way back into Bolivia no problem but only 30day ones and we wanted 90days! So we went to the immigration office in La Paz and got them extended for free, no problems. So that's me sorted with my visa for my extension as well which is good. One less thing to worry about!

It was an eventful holiday. I really enjoyed it, lots, but it had it's dramas, sicknesses and stresses. It felt good to be home on the Friday night and it meant we had the whole weekend to rest. Which was needed!

Saturday was spent shoppig with HannahW to replace her lost belongings. We had a lovley day. Nice lunch, and found some nice shops - which is super hard here - all the shops are like Quiz only worse!! Dave Barbon (the name's growing on me) invited us all round for a BBQ at his house in the evening. We chatted, ate and watched a movie. On Sunday we went to the English service, stayed for th Spanish music then had lunch in a lovely Chinese restaurant. We went back to the Portuguese service in th evening which was the funniest time ever..those Brasilians are hilarious, crazy. But that's a story for when I come home. I dunno who reads this blog!lol As usual we went to the Cine Center after for food. It was Bart's last night. He's gone now it's so sad. He's not coming back either, he's just left and is going to continue studying in Brasil! So we saw a movie with him and said our goodbyes while holding the tears back. Bart is a fantasic guy. Kind, friendly, supportive, funny, really looked our for us and was like our big brother while he was here. He will be greatly missed.

On Monday it was all change. Emma swapped centres with Heather and HannahW swapped with me. So, Heather and I had our first day at Trabajadoras. It was great. Very different to the houses we'd worked at up until now as it's working with younger kids - the children of women working on the street. It's more a preventative thing I think, cause if the kids weren't at this centre they would likely be out with their mums on the street.It's school holidays here at the moment so there were no structured activities. We just played with the girls all day, chatting to them, getting to know them a bit. As a grand finale to the schoool holiday programme Mosoj Yan took the girls on a gran campamento! A camp to Chipare. Heather and I had only been at the centre a few hours when the staff asked us to come along on the campamento! Honeslty I didn't want to at first - I don't know the kids, I don't know the staff and I've never been camping before. It was a recipe for a horrible few days surely. But I came around to the idea and decided it would be a good opportunity to overcome all those reasons I just mentioned. Afteral, I jumped on a plane to Bolivia for 4 months out of the blue.. why not take a group of 60 Spanish speaking kids I don't know to camp in the Bolivian jungle?

So we arrived at the centre at the usual time and it was a very laid back - holiday atmosphere. The kids were very chatty and friendly and happily came to talk to us which made me feel better. They like me.. phew! haha The staff, too, are lovely but they were busy getting prepared and so we didn't speak to them much. There are 2 other volunteers at Trabajadoras at the minute. A German guy called Cristoph and an Argentinian girl called Luidmila. They don't speak English but can understandn it and I think Cristoph knows more than he lets on. The first day they didn't seem very friendly toward us but we chatted a bit more this time. They're nice. Although they don't seem to understand that we don't know much Spanish cos they talk so fast to us and it's difficcult to carry a conversation. Then there's Julie. She's been here for just 2 weeks, from North America. She'll be helping at Albergue, my old centre, but she came to help out on camp too. I really like her she's cool. She hopes to work with Galdys, the psychologist at Albergue to introduce music therapy with the girls and also more exercie things such as aerobics etc. I was glad she came on camp it meant that we had a translator if needed! She speaks good Spanish. When they arrived, Luidmila told us about an injection she'd got to protecft against these bugs that bite you and lay eggs under your skin! So yeh straight away Julie, Heather and I went to the nearest pharmacy to get the jab before we left!!lol I hope it worked cos my legs are covered with bites from the camp..! They were actually terrible. I had to go to the chemist and get cream for them yesterday cause they were still itchy and sore. When I tell people they just say 'yea.. that's Chipare!' haha

We hired a bus to take us on the 5 hour journey. It was about a 40 seater bus I reckon with over 60 people on it. The kids were 3 to two seats and volunteers stood or sat in the aisle. It was boiling hot and the kids were hyper - add in a rather crazy bus driver and that was quite a journey! After about 2-3 hours some kids squished tp to give me a seat. But by this time I was tired, sweaty and hungry and so understanding all the kids around me talking to me was difficult!

This trip lasted from Tuesday to Friday. The best way to describe it would be challenging and moulding. I say moulding because it really was a life changing time. No spectacular moments of change but I mean I did feel pushed to my limits at times. And I came through it all. I'll not go into the details of it now but i faced challenges and overcame them, I was well proud of myself. Generally I'm a quitter. Just ask my mum! But I perservered through a lot of stuff and came out the better for it. One tough thing about this centre is that I understand more Spanish than Heather and so I put myself under pressure, maybe unnecessarily, to understand for the both of us what the staff and kids are saying. It's good though, I like the pressure and responsibility.

I think going on this campemento was a really good boost for my Spanish. There was a moment of realisation of how far I've come when walking back from the lake one day. I was walking with Heather and a girl came along and grabbed my arm to walk with her. So I ended up walking with this girl for at least 15mins and had a good conversation the whole time. It's encouraging to think that when I arrived here I knew 'hola' and now Im having long conversations with 12 yr old Bolivian street girls. She says when she's older she wants to work with street girls because she loves Mosoj Yan and how they've helped her. Isn't that incredible?!

On thursday afternoon was the highlight of the trip. Chipare is famous for monkeys. That's all the kids talked about - monos, monos, monos. There are lots of animal parks in Chipare that have lots of monkeys. We'd been told by anyone who's been that it's fantastic and they climb on you and everything! The park we went to was tiny and to be honest I was a little disappointed. To be fair though I think we just went to the cheapest park - 60 kids to pay for is a lot. I've no doubt thqat all I've heard is true but I didn't get to see that being with the group of kids! When we arrived at the park we got stripped of everything - bags, jewellery, camera etc.. I soon saw why when a little cheeky chimp sneaked up on Luidmiola and snatched her ice lolly right outv of her hand and then went and sat on a car roof tov eat uit only a few metres away! lol it was sooo funny. The kids loved it. Apart from that the monkeys didn't interact too much and we only saw a few. A couple were actually tied to trees on very short ropes so that they could always be seen. There was a parrot place and in their tiny cages the parrots were also tied to their perches. The most shocking, however, was that there were 2 men with a brown bear. It was on a lead and was obviously veryheavily sedated or something. They sort of dragged it around the park by the lead.

The other afternoon was spent at the lake. In the mornings Christoph and Luidmila led team games. There were 3 teams of mixed ages from 6-18yrs. It was nice, and surprising, to see how well the age groups mixed together and got on. The older girls looked after the youngers and the youngers really lookedc up to their peers. I imagine in a similar group of British kids they would create a divide in ages straight away and not mix with the others. It's maybe like this here because of the huge emphasis on family and that multiple generations remain very close. It was really good to introduce the older girls to responsibilty as well. The teams would lose points if any of them were late for breakfast etc so the older girls would help the younger ones get ready, making sure they brushed their teeth etc..

Thankfully we didn't sleep in tents. The place we stayed was as basic as it gets though. It's the property of a Quechuen Christian couple which also has a church being built on it. No beds, no furniture, nothing. There were 3 sections of the big room cordoned off into rooms for the 3 teams of kids. The staff and volunteers had to sleep on the concrete landing outside the rooms. It was freeeeezing at night time. Roasting during the day, almost unbearable. The building was open with some walls missing here and there which didn't help the temperature at night. The toilets were the most disgusting I've ever used, literally. They were squats outside. I can't even tell you any more about them I just don't want to remember them. All I'll say is that they were too close to the outdoor food perperation area. It was horrible. The flies and eugh no more. Moving on..

On Thrusday night the volunteers ( Christoph, Luidmila, Julie, Heather and I) did a mime. You all know how much I don'tv like acting and dramas but I absolutely loved doing this one. I originally volunteered myself to be the ticking clock in this story but then I got so into it that I wanted a bigger role and so swapped! I surprised myself by how much I got into it and enjoyed myself.

So yeah, this week I pushed past so many struggles and brick walls and gave everything my best shot and I feel all the better for it. I love this experience! It was a great way to introduce myself and get to know the girls.

A couple of extra musings from camp..
I think I saw an eagle soaring while on the bus on the way, so Andy if you coupld check that out for me, are there eagles in south america?? haha I dunno. Might have been a big bird but it was pretty incredible whatever it was! Also, I saw soo many log trucks! Going in both directions! Passing each other!! haha just for all you Brian Regan fans.. Another one.. at my old centre where I worked with HannahSR there is a toddler called Nicole who is 2 and a half yrs. HannahSR cut her finger and Nic saw it and brought her over beside a tree where she ripped off some leaves and wrapped them around it! She actually instinctly thought - get some leeeaves! No joke. It was hilarioous and I tried to explain this to HannahSR but Brian Regan was lost on her. I think I'd have needed Goo (or sorry is it Graham now?) to help me with the impression!

Sorry for the time taken for this post to be posted, I've been writing it for literally 2 weeks! Just didn't have time to finish it so kept returning to it.

Thanks for reading.. now you can comment :o)
Chao x

2008-06-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hola otra vez..

I had to leave work early on Wednesday because poor HannahSR was feeling very poorly. She´s not been sick but just got a bad tummy ache and almost fainted on me so I took her home. We came home then to join the other 2 sick - Katie and Heather. They were properly sick..poor guys. Katie had some blood tests done. She had amoebas and had to take antibiotics. We were dropping like flies for a while there!

Hannah W and I went to a Christian music concert in a sort of mini odyssey. It was really good, I enjoyed the experience. There were 5 bands playing, one was good. haha The seats were concrete steps and instead of selling glowsticks as at any concerts in the UK they sold balloons! That was funny waving our balloons along to the music!

Quite often the sports hall at the seminary here plays host to various church events. A few weeks ago there was a church talent contest which we watched for a while. Lots of church team spirit, church teeshirts and chants! We saw lots of traditional Bolivian dancing.
Last Saturday myself, HannahW and Emma went to an event for kids at the seminary. Mosoj Yan were invited so we went as part of them. The girls from my centre were there, as were the kids from Trabajadoras. It was really really good!We sang ´Jesus loves me´in Spanish - loved that! Same tune and everything!
In church in the Spanish service we sang it again and with an extra added chorus of ´God is so good´which we sang in Spanish, then English, then Zwaheely (not spelt right sorry) because Evan picked up some of the language when he was in Africa! It was fun. He´s awesome leading the songs!

Well sorry this is such a short entry. I´m actually really frustrated I wanted to put loads of photos on. I brought the correct lead this time but my camera battery died in the middle of trying to upload there!! argh!! I was at an ugly party last night - don´t worry, I´ll tell you details and show photos as soon as I can get to internet next. Grr this was the perfect opportunity to upload, can´t believe my silly battery died on me! :o( sorrrry

2008-06-09T18:42:00.000-07:00

I didn´t take this pic, I stole it from facebook, but here are faces to names.. Renato, William, Jhonnathon, Phil (who is no longer here..sniff sniff)

Eating llama on the salt flats
Andres, William, Lewis, Katie, HannahSR and myself at wally

A pic of the Chirpie chirpie!
Katie, me, Emma and HannahSR on the island at the salt flats

Hola..

Lo siento, it´s been a while since my last update. The reason is my very busy schedule at the minute. Literally no time for the blog but here I am - alive and well, with lots of stories to tell!

Things are going well at work. I feel that my Spanish is improving and so my relationships with the girls at the centre are improving as they now initiate conversation with me more. For a while they had sort of accepted that I dont speak much Spanish but now it´s getting better and I´m having more fun with them.

There is a new girl with her 2 and a half year old daughter living at the centre. Esmeralda and Nicole. Esmi is 20 and she is lovely, she´s a fantastic mother. It´s quite sad though because her and Nicole lived at the centre for a year in 2006. So obviously whatever she moved onto didn´t work out and she´s found herself back here. However, talking to her she says she doesn´t want to be here for more than one month - she just needs to sort some things out.

There´s another new girl called Paola. She´s very hard to understand as she seems to have a different accent, I think she may be from Santa Cruz. Though I´ve been getting on well with her. She likes to paint nails and she´s very good at it so the first day I met her she gave me a manicure which was a good girlie bonding thing to do! I really enjoyed that day.

There have been a few special days in Bolivia recently. The Day of the Mother was 2 weeks ago. It´s a really big deal here, much nicer than in the UK. Here all mother´s get a half day off work and are fussed over and really truely shown how they´re appreciated. At our centre the girls were baking a huge cake for 2 days and prepared a drama which they performed on the day for the female staff. Tommisita is the house mother who lives with the girls 24/7 and she´s like a mother to all the girls. So throughout the day girls who used to live at the centre kept calling to see her, bringing her gifts and everything. It was a really lovely day. The Day of the School Teacher was last week. It´s a huge public holiday. Not for us though.. we had the day off from our centres but on Friday we started a huge gardening project.

The garden at Heather and Katie´s centre is huuuge and a mess. There´s a man called Hans who is a gardener and we are working with him to try and make something of the garden. We´ve started building a chicken pen so they can keep chickens to eat.. they´ve also bought 2 rabbits which they are breading for food as well. We may work on a vegetable patch as well. We think we are going to take every Friday from now til the end off from our projects to go here and sort the garden. On Friday past we were doing mostly building work more than pulling weeds. All the girls were saying to me Áw Rachel your dad would be so proud of you´. I had to reply, "no, actually he´d be saying thats no child of mine" haha I was terrible! Didn´t have a cement mixer so I had a go at mixing it with a shovel, only for Hans to quickly steer me onto another job! Anyway. It´s got so much potential, as does the house. Unfortunately we got some bad news last week that the owners are selling the place. Mosoj Yan just rent it at the minute and I don´t think they can afford to buy it. It´s dirt cheap for what it is, 3000sqft site with huge potential if it was in the UK. It´s selling for $250,000. So we don´t know what´s going to happen. Katie and I were chatting and we realised that her dad would love to tackle the garden, and dad - you would love to play about with the house! I´ll get you his number, you two should talk.. haha

Our accomodation is beginning to bother us a bit now. Not so much the house but the water situation. We don´t get much water from our kitchen tap, it´s a dribble. But there are taps outside so that´s ok..but the toilet doesn´t flush very well. It could sit for a whole afternoon and the flusher just not work. Then last week the kitchen sink completely broke. The pipe under the sink had been leaking a bit and we´d contacted someone about fixing it but.. well, this is Bolivia. So after another week the pipe completely came apart so we managed to hold it in place with an upside down bucket, otherwise when water went down the plug it just went straight onto the floor. So it was fine, it did the job. Then came Saturday ie clothes washing day. So I got up and told everyone I was about to do my washing, I´m taking the bucket so don´t use the sink. So that´s ok.. Then I decided I wanted the basin that was in the sink as well, but it was full of water so without even thinking I lifted it, tipped the water out, and flooded the entire kitchen. Such an idiot!! After me telling everyone else not to use the sink! Nightmare. Anyway the plumber came out on Saturday and fixed it. It still doesn´t work. Dad, we need you! I promise I´ll never take your handyman skills for granted again, ever!

Two Sundays ago the man who runs the English service at Calama returned from his trip to Africa. The service was awesome as usual. My team lead it :o) I did a couple of readings - thanks to those guys who sent me chords for that song, I didn´t do it in the end but in a fortnight I´m leading childrens songs I think.. eek! So I´ll def do it then. There´s always a 30min break between English and Spanish services when they have tea and coffee, but this week the kitchen was being used for something else so no refreshments. So Evan, the man in charge (a fantastic man - love him. he speaks fluent English and is just a really nice man) invited everyone out to this Saltena cafe round the corner from the church. Saltenas are a really Bolivian snack, kind of like cornish pasties. He then bought about 20 saltenas and bottles of coke for everyone! Then we all went back for the Spanish service. It was so kind of him! Lyndsay, you reading this?! haha

We´ve begun a weekly game of "wally" with our Brasilian friends. It´s my favourite night of the week - it´s such good fun! Full of laughter and fun. Wally is like volleyball and squash. The same size and layout court as volleyball, but it´s indoor and the ball is allowed to bounce off the walls. Last Wednesday we played and after we went to Dumbos for ice cream. It was really nice. It was HannahSRs birthday so I spoke to the waitor and asked was there anything special for birthdays so later he brought out a little cake with a candle for her and as he came out all the Brasilian guys started singing and clapping. It was awesome!

We had to say goodbye to another good friend here on Saturday night. English Dave is gone. We will miss him lots he´s such an awesome guy and we´ve really enjoyed getting to know him over the past 2 months. It won´t be the same without him around. It was very hard for him to leave after 9 months here. I´ve only been here for 2 and I can´t even think about saying goodbye yet.

I think I´ve left out loads but I´m super tired right now - didn´t get to sleep til 2.30am last night. Katie´s not well she had to go to a medical clinic in the middle of the night last night. She started to get a stomach ache when we were at dinner last night and we came home with her after an hour. Then me and HannahW and Emma went to the cinema and when we returned she was screeching and squirming in pain on her bed with HannahSR by her side so after a while of this not improving we rang our emergency number and were advised to take her to this clinic. We had to get Ross Mary, our link with Mosoj Yan and Tearfund, to go with her as a translator, and she had to get one man from her church to drive - this all around midnight. It was an awful time. She´s better now but still not great - has to go get tests done tomorrow.. I´ll keep you posted. But for now this is all I can manage!

2008-05-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

This top photo was taken at the salt flats. I love this pic!

This photo was taken at Terrain´s (blond girl in the black top) leaving party. This was the party we first discovered the chirpie chirpie!! good times. here we have, heather terrain katie hannahSR me hannahW emma bart and william!

So just a couple of random photos there that other people had put online so i stole them for you. I´m being rather lazy about uploading photos from my camera, I´ll be honest. It just takes ages, and means going to a specific internet cafe etc etc etc yawn yawn. These couple will do for now, I´ll get more on soon, just I didn´t realise the time I need to go pretty much now! Gonna be late for Portuguese service - noooooooo chao chao x

2008-05-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

Hola, Como vi vo sey?

No,don´t worry all you Spanish GCSEers. Don´t doubt yourselves. That was Portuguese.Just ´cos I can. Haha

On Sunday evening Hannah Woods and I went to the Portuguese service at Calama. We went for two reasons. Firstly because the Brasilians are fantastic musicians, singers and worship leaders. Secondly because we wanted to keep building our friendships with the Brasilian guys we´ve met - Bart ´Simpson´, ´Prince´William, and Jonathon. It was a great service,we both really enjoyed it. It was a little scary when we arrived we didn´t know which part of the church it was in , then as we walked passed one open door a woman grabbed us, did the greeting kiss and started talking in Portuguese as she led us into that service! Luckily Bart appeared seconds later and we sat with him. There were 2 guys beside me who I assumed were Brasilian (well what idiots would go to a service in a language they didn´t understand). After the service I asked one of them did he speak English. To which he replied in the broadest North American accent, ýeh we both do´. They went to college in America for 7 years. That taught us not to assume anything. As did a taxi driver who, after a 5 min journey of us slagging himoff for overcharging us, began talking and asking questions to usin English. Hmm..

In the English service at Calama,Katie and HannahSR led worship with Alison. They struggled a bit cos they both sing and HannahSR plays keyboard but there are nomore musiciansat the English service at the minute. We need guitars or drums. The Brasilians are helping out this Sunday whichiisniceof them. I might ask them to teach me the drums..whatya reckon Dermo? Chris? haha

An opportunity has come upfor us to be involved in teaching English atCalama. It depends onhow manypeople are interestedin attending classes. When Canadian Phil was here he taught a class.There were 3 classes of different stages. So Alison is looking into starting thoseclasses upagain. I´m not sure if I personally willtake a class. It´s a huge commitment of 2-3 nights per week. Our weeks are hectic enoughI dunno if i´dcope with more! AlsoI´mnot sure my Spanishisquite up to thatyet. But we shallsee.

I had a tough few days at the endof last week. I was really frustrated with my Spanish at the centre and found it hardto connect with the girls at the centre. It´sallgood now though. I had a great day today and sofar this week´s been great! When HannahSR and I arvied yesterday Rosa ran up and linked arms with us both, then Jose ran up to me and wiped her wet handon my face..it´sjust their way of having fun with us and it was really nice. It was the best reception I´ve had from them in the 5 weeks I´ve worked there. Little momoents like that really make the sturggles and hard days seem worth it, and I think maybe I am having an impact even if it´s not thatobvious to me.
I was rather thankfulfor my fear of dogs this week too.. Last week thr big puppy I mentioned before sort of chased me out of the centre one day. It really is as ridiculous as it sounds so I´ll not try and defend myself haha. I was leaving anyway and the girls had got the dog allhyper and crazy so when I walked pastit it started running after me and barking cos it wanted to play. I freaked out a little at made for the door a little faster and closed it straight behind me. It was funny though and I did (jokingly)do a little scream and exaggerated a little. Anyway, all the girls saw this and were in absolute fitsof laughter at me. They remind mne about it all the time and imitate me etc but hey - it´s hardtoconnect with the girls . I can´t have deep meaningfulconversations with them, but making a fool of myself so they like me? That I can do. We allhave our gifts. Haha

Yesterday at the centre the woman who does handicrafts with the girlsin the afternoons didn´t come. So, Gonzalo (awesome man who helps run the centre) asked HannahSR and I todosomething. So we made cards with them. We had done this before with a design Hannah showed them. This time I was able to teach them the old envelop folding cards that Pamela McCrea taught me years ago! Thanks Pamela-Iknow youread this my mum told me haha!Thanks. The girls loved it.

We are nearing the 6 weekmarkat our centres and are beginning to talk about changing. We spoke to Ross Mary,our Tearfund link person from Mosoj Yan and I think the plan will be this.. After 8 weeks we will change. Hannah wants to stay at our centre, soI´m gona move to Trabajadoras with either Heather or Katie.. One of them will stayat Renovacion, and Emma willmove there with whoever stays. Then Hannah Woods will move to where I am now with HannahSR. We´re gonna take a weeks holidaysomewherein there too.

I´ve beenin contact with Karen and Graham in Peru.Finally! I´ve been trying to contact Kaz eversince I arrvied here and apparently she was the same. It got to the stage of me ringing Emma and getting another number for Karen and Karenringing my mum to get another number for me. We were soclosebuty sofar! Anyway, we finally got through to each other and have had a few chatson the phone whichis great. Unfortunately Tearfund wont let usleave Bolivia due to problems they had with last year´s teams.It´s a shame as I would have liked to popover the border and visit the campsite etc.. Karenis travellingfor a weekinJune somewhere quite near the border and so we´re talking at the momentof my team taking our holkiday at the same tim and trying to meet up somehwre. Nothing´s definate or anything it´s all justideas. It would be awesome if we could meetup!

Speaking of ideas..
I wasn´t sure whether to mention this yet or not untilit´s definate but I´ve already cleared it withmy`parents soI think it´s ok to disclose. Hannah Woods and I are really keen to stayon in Cochabamba for an extra 2-3 weeks after the time we´re supposed to come home. We fele that since we´ve come this far with the language - 4 months of one onone lessons and being submersedin the culture - that we may as well take this greatopportunity to study it further. We both have p,ans to go to Uni which doesn´t start until beginning of Oct (ish) and have noplans for the time between coming home and then so-whynot stay?! Our Spanish teachers can do a 2-3 week intense language course withus. Another reason for me wanting to stayis tovisit other projects in the city run bypeople we have met. They´ve all invitedus to visit and helpout whenever we cn but working full time for Mosoj Yan it´s impossiblw to do this. We spoke to Tearfund this morning on the phone. Matt said that he´llcheck out the flights and getback to us. He was really positive that it can be done, he said the flights were booked quiteflexible and it wouldn´t be that expensive to change them! Whichis goodnews. Now I justneed to sort out some health insurance. HannahW already has insurance which will lastbut mine runs out after the Tearfund trip ends. It´s pretty easy and cheap though for 2-3 weeks so that won´t be a problem. We justneed to wait on a call from Tearfund to confirm our flights can be changed then that´s it confirmed that we´llbe staying! It´s so exciting!!

Now Imustapologise for the terrible grammar and spelling throughout this entry.I´m not this bad at Englsih, I´mjusttyping super fast cos´I´ve somuch to say and I´ve not muchtime on internet as well.Hopefully it´s not sobad that youcant understand it :o)
Thanks for reading, feel free to comment!
Chao chao

2008-05-16T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hola.. I didn´t bring my other memory card here with me tonight so I´m afraid that´s all the photos I have to share with you for now.

Except this random one below.. I dunno if you´ll be able to tell how squished we are but this is quite normal for in a Bolivian taxi. Here we had Katie and HannahSR in the front beside the driver, Dave, HannahW, Emma and myself (sitting on emma) in the back, and Phil in the boot! Crazy fun.

Had a strange week at work this week. So much change is going on. One girl is staying with her mum until next Sunday which is great. It´s a big step towards her being ready to move out of the centre. She´s called Niaves and she´s been at the centre for about one year- one of the longest.
A new girl came on Tues night - we met her on Wed just. I´m not actually sure of her nameand I dont know how old sheisbut she can´t be older than 14 I´d say. She´s Quechuan so she doesn´t speak Spanish. Most of the staff at the centre speak Quechuan but none of the girls do. I think her name is Darcy or something along those lines. She is pregnant. Which is really sad because she has problems.. We think she has psychological problems, just watching her for a couple of days was heartbreaking. One point in the day a staff member asked her to do washing and she came downstairs without her trousers on, just carrying them. She doesn´t interact, even if she could speak Spanish I dont think she would talk. She also has epilepsy and she had a fit in front of everyone on Wed. It was awful, I´d never seen it happen before so it shocked me a little. The staff were great though and acted fast and she was ok. However, being pregnant this was obviously more serious. So, yesterday they took her to a medical centre and I think she might be moved there permanently. Which is for the best - she would need constant care and attention which isn´t possible with only one house mother there 24hrs a day with 7 other girls. It´s just a very sad situation.

Well you are now pretty up to date with what´s been happening. I´ll keep the photos coming to keep you interested!haha

chao chao

Photos from Uyuni´s Lake of Salt

2008-05-16T17:31:00.000-07:00

Hola..

I know what you all want to see on my blog is photos, so here´s a bit of a backlog of pics I´m only just getting round to uploading..
This first lot is of our holiday to the Salt Lakes in Uyuni!

Here are Christina and Madeline in Oruro (I spelt it wrong before!)- the North American girls who came with us. Madeline´s back home now. Miss her already :-(

Us on the train about to start our 7 hour journey to Uyuni.

The train went through a lake for a while - it was so cool!! There were flamingos by this lake, but on the other side than we were sitting on. I managed to get one or two photos but they aren´t great quality!

This is a photo from the inside of our tour jeepon the way to the salt. We had to slow down for a llama crossing. It was funny when our driver announced ´there goes lunch´!

Here we all are watching the sun set over the salt planes. Doesn´t it look like snow?! This half hour was one of the best ever. It was such a beautiful site, and so peaceful- we were the only ones around. We even had a little sing-a-long. I don´t think our driver felt the same about it though - after twenty minutes we heard the radio blaring from his car. We took this as our hint to start heading back! I guess the novelty wears off after you´ve been doing these tours for so many years.

2008-05-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

Hola..

Last week I think was the best week so far at my centre. I felt that my Spanish was oming along well. I´m understanding a lot now, just finding it hard to speak. Two new girls, Liseth and Amanda, joined our centre at the start of the week bringing the total to 9 girls. Both really lovely girls who Hannah SR and I spent a lot of time with. However, Liseth has left already. She didn´t like living here at all. We think that there as possibly an issue of class, in that Liseth appeared to come from a slightly better background than the rest of the girls, had better clothes etc. and so perhaps this made it harder to fit in with the rest of the girls. Amanda is still here and appears to be settling in well. We are now down to 7 girls again though because HannahMaria left quite suddenly. It was her birthday at the weekend and so she went bck to her family for a night but is still not back to this day so I think tht things went really well at home and she is moving back for good. Her mum and sister had visited her at the centre a couple of times since we´d been there so this was perhaps a planned move.

We made bread here 2 days last week. We then went with the girls to sell as much as we could in the neighbourhood. It was a good few days. Two weeks ago Tino (centre co-ordinator) arrived with a stack of plastic bags with ´Casa Alberge´and the centre´s motif on them. I thought at first they were t-shirts for the girls and was rather puzzled at why we needed plastic bags with names on. All became clear when we made the bread though - we sold it in the bags!

The puppies here have all been given away now. It´s rather empty without them! Tomi (house mother) hs a big puppy though and it´s a nightmare. I mean it really really scares me. It makes me as uncomfortable as I am around harold (chambers) when he ´smiles, or as on edge as I feel when sally ´sings´Happy Birthday! The girls are terrible for winding it up and making it bark - it´s awful! I´ll not be holding this one.

At el centro de renovacion, there is a suspected pregnancy. Heather and Katie haven´t been told officially yet but clues point to one of the girls being pregnant. I´ll keep you posted.

Last Thursday we went to an English Bible study. A class Scottish woman called Alison Curry runs it in her house. She´s lived here for 2 years I think and she works with Charles and Suzannah at ´Helping Hands´, the prison work I mentioned before. Alison also plays a huge part in the Eglish service at Calama - she´s the one who grabs all the volunteers who come and rope them into taking part!haha At the study we met English Dave. He is a student of, and lives with, our other Spanish teacher, Susie. We met Canadian Dave no.2. He´s volunteering at a boys project in the city. Lois and Philippa are English girls volunteering at another city project. You may suspect this already but here´s the fact - Cochabama has the highest ratio of missionaries to citizens in South America, so I´ve heard. People say that once they come here it´s too nice to leave. I´ve spoken to numerous English and American missionaries who would back that up. In fact, I met couple in church yesterday. A Scottish woman (who lived in Belfast and has friends in Carrick!) and her Bolivian husband who met here when she was on a volunteer scheme, and (very long and amusing story short) they´ve lived here happily ever since! Haha I´d love to read my mum´s mind as she reads that it will be working overtime lol.

Anyway, the most important thing I took from the bible study..TEA! Yes, proper real norn irish tea. Well, I say ´proper´- it´s made by the Tetley people. But before you judge me - if you hadn´t had a cup of tea in a month you would be thanking God for Tetley too! So I took the name of it an bought it in the supermarket the next day. Although mum, I´m still waiting on this promised parcel of Nambarrie..!

Canadian Dave no.2 (the others call him Dave with beard, but I don´t like that) invited us round to his place for movie night on Saturday. It was a party for Madeline cause she´s leaving tonight. sniff sniff. He borrowed the projector from his project so we could watch films on the big screen. Lois, Philippa, Eng Dave, Ludvic (Bolivin guy who speaks good English, comes to Eng bible study) and a Bolivian couple from Calama came. We had heard stories from everyone about this áwesome´huge big pizza from Eli´s Pizza Place so we ordered oe to see what the fuss was about. Now i´m not even joking, this pizza wouldn´t fit in the front door. We had to tilt it almost vertical to get it in it was sooooo big!! I didn´t have my camera otherwise I´d post a photo but don´t worry - there will be plenty more I´m sure!lol It was good.

On Wed night we went to the cinema. It´s like walking into the Odyssey really, you totally forget you´re even in Bolivia! We met Phil and Dave (canadian1) there with their Brasilian mates. There were a few girls and 3 guys. The guys are awesome, haha so much fun!! They just happen to be medical students.. just a by the by there. Anyway, they insisted on paying 3 of us in - Cause on Wed´s it´s 2for1 in the cinema. It´s funny cause I dunno if you all know but Brasilians don´t speak English. Nor do they speak Spanish. No. Brasilians speak Portuguese! Haha aww dear. Yes it´s good fun chatting to these guys. It´s a good thing I´m awesome at charades. Actually one of them does speak Spanish, and one speaks a bit of Enlish. As it would happen the one I got paired with doesn´t. Haha! They´re awsome and so friendly and they try to speak Enlgish and I´ve been getting taught Portuguese by William - their names are William, Bart and Jonathon. They all play in the Portugeuse worship band at Calama - I mentioned before how good it is. Hannah W and I have become quite good friends with them, we hung out with them at Phil and Dave´s leaving party on Friday night and got introduce to more! It´s awesome - I think I have a bigger friend circle here than in Carrick haha I love it everyone´s so nice! We are gonna go to the Portugese service next Sunday. They keep inviting us. I wanted to go before just for the music but felt a bit too random but it´s ok now that we have friends there. I´ve learnt a couple of Portuguese phrases. I know ´hello´, ´how are you?´, a few colours and Í am going to church on Sunday´. I know what you´re thinking - and yes I am going to come home with 3 languages. Haha

Philippa and Lois have invited us over to their plce for dinner on Tuesday night and the Daves (Can2 and Eng) invited us for pizza before the bible study on Thursday. We were out for chinese after church on sunday with some people, and ohhh we had the nicest Chinese of my life last week out with Phil and Dave(can1)! It was delish. It´s so cheap to eat out here, it´s terrible; I already have plans to rejoin Fortfields Gym when I come home!!

I´ve also met a woman from Scotland who´s been travelling for ages writing a book. She plans to publish it when she gets home and she says herself it´s gonna be big. She does have some interesting perspectives and fascinating stories so.. Yolanda Bruce. Watch this space. ( I sat beside her at lunch! ahh )

It´s going to be a sad few days. Phil and Dave(can1) and Madeline all leave tonight. They´ll be missed loooooads.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading, commenting, emailing and most importantly, praying for me and the team here. Please keep it up! :o)

photos - the seminary accommodation

2008-05-01T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here are photos of our little apartment. It´s the ground floor of the white building. You´ll see us doing our clothes washing outside, some studying of Spanish going on outside, my terribly uncomfortable bed, also Katie taping up the cracks in the kitchen worktop tiles to try and get rid of the ants. PS - anyone know how to get rid of ants?! I´m serious, if anyone has any tips please leave a comment..

photos - Calama Baptist Church

2008-05-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

Chirpie Chirpie!!!!!

2008-04-26T18:08:00.000-07:00

Hola..

Back to silly stories, just for you pete..

Thursday, Felipe (Phil likes to use his Spanish name) knocked on our door and invited us to a party! woohoo! It was a going away party for Terrain, the female canadian who was going back home. This invite came just as we were hoping to get more friendly with our neighbours, canadian and bolivian, at the seminary. We really want to be a part of the seminary community and become friends with the students there. So perfect timing he invites us to this. We had actually planned to go to an English bible study run by a Scottish missionary who works with Charles and Suzannah I mentioned before. But that´s on every week so we´ve another 12 weeks to get to that!
So yeah, we got a taxi to the party and had a great night! I may have to add it to my list of the best days ever actually. I think it was in the apartment of one of the groups friends from Calama (the church). It was lovely. It was outdoors, we sat around in garden chairs outside, had a BBQ, were introduced to a few people. A Canadian couple who preach at the seminary where there. Then about 20mins after having arrived, they cleared the chairs around the edges of the gazebo place, and put on some music. It was time for games.. haha. I love games, I do - you all know this, but also you know I´m a bit shy especially with people I don´t know!! Which was everyone - I´d only known the Canadians who invited us a few days really lol but I thought aw why not, its a good ice breaker, and given that I couldnt converse with most people there given the language barrier, it was a good chance to make friends and have a laugh. But in Bolivia, they dont do silly games. They dance!! haha! Yes. Bolivians loooove to dance. So the first thing we did was dance the ´chirpie chirpie´. It was HILARIOUS. I mean my tummy hurt by the end I was laughing so much. It´s a game/dance. I dont think I can explain it here but Dave, Jonny, and all other YF-ers, I´m bringin it back to carrick with me! Something for you to look forward to. So the night went well, everyone was really friendly to us and really welcoming.

Last night we stayed in just at the seminary. I´d bought a ball (there´s loads of outdoor playing space, inc a concrete football/basketball court) so a few of my team were out playing volleyball when Felipe and Benjamin (Bolivian guy we met at party who goes to the bible college,lives in seminary) came over and so we got a few games goin (some more il be able to bring back to YF!) . There are about 7 kids I think who live in the seminary grounds who as soon as they hear people playing they run to join in, so we played tag with them for aaaages. It was great fun. And good for us mixing with the Bolivians. The kids are great. They know we dont speak good Spanish and are so patient with us. I love ball games, like we can play with the kids for hours without needing language, they´re such lovely kids.

I know the above is pretty useless information and I didnt need to tell you, but it just sums up so well life at the seminary. I love it. If we had been placed in a house just on the street on our own there´s no way we would be meeting to many locals and especially local Christians. It´s such a friendly, family-like atmosphere here. It´s a lovely place to live and I´ll be super happy to live here for 4 months!

This morning we ventured up El Cristo ( google it). It´s this huuge statue of Christ which is symbolically set high above the city of Cochabamba. About 2,000 steps up to it in what must have been high20s - hot heat. There are cable cars up and down but we were feeling rather enthusiastic so walked it. Felipe and Benjamin and Dave took us up. It was good craic. At the top I mean, the hike up I near died!! I blame the altitude though, not my fitness..ahem.
The view from the top is breathtaking. You can see the whole of Cochabamba. You really can see the staute from almost anywhere down in the city too. The seminary is pretty much right beside it (hmm I wonder if you would see it on google maps?! mayb andy could check that out and let me know?!) so it´s handy if we ever got lost in the city we just look up at the Cristo and walk towards it. It´s lit up at night time and it changes colour every now and again. It´s really scary looking when it turns red!

Project Information

2008-04-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

Hola..

It´s been brought to my attentoin that my blog consists of too many sily stories and useless info and not enough details of the work and the projects..sorry mum! So I´ve put together some notes on the projects of Mosoj Yan..

The Centro de Trabajadoras is for high risk young girls of about primary school age whose mothers mostly work on the street selling things. It´s a bit like a homework club. The girls have some lessons. This week a heaslice epidemic broke out so they brought someone in to talk about that and have their heads all showered with chemicals! The girls get breakfast and lunch here. In the afternoons there is a changeover when the younger girls leave and teenage girls arrive. Some of these older girls have come through the other Mosoj Yan centres and now back living with families. They come to get vocational training here. Products they make are sold in the Mosoj Yan shop (bread, cards, bags..). Hannah W and Emma are helping out here now.

The Centro de Motivacion is mostly practical work on the streets. This part of the project provides access to hygiene, life skills and sex education. The aim is to motivate girls to want to change and come off the streets into one of Mosoj Yan´s centres. Due to the full-on ness (no other way to describe haha) of this work none of us will be involved with it.

The Centro de Renovacion is a home for girls who have chosen to change. The girls may have addictions to drugs an alcohol. The staff team includes a psychologist, social worker, educators and a house mother. The girls may have babies which come into the house with them. Currently there are 4 girls and 1 baby in the centre. There were 5 girls, but one was évicted´along with her baby earlier this week. This is not a regular occurance but rule and method must be followed and the girls must have a genuine desire to better themselves. The door will be open if this girl is 14 and her child do wish to return. Katie and Heather are helping at this project now.

The Alberge de Restoracion is where Hannah S-R and I are placed now. It is a home for girls who either have successfully changed through the renovation centre or whose situations were not as severe and could enter straight into this project. This centre aims to prepare the girls to return home or live with some family member. The staff team again includes a psychologist, a social worker, an educator, a practical skills teacher and a house mother. At present there are 7 girls here. There is talk of one girl)and her baby) from the renovation centre moving in shortly but I don´t know much about that situation yet. Three of the girls go to school in the afternoon. The girls learn how to cook, clean, wash clothes, do gardening, and skills such a crochet and knitting. All skills to prepare them for leaving the centre and beginning to look after themselves properly when they mocve back home.

As Mosoj Yan is a Christian organisation, every centre is run by passionate Christians. The main aim of the centres is to provide physical and emotional support, but they manage very well to integrate bible studies and play Christian music etc., and of course the very example of the leaders! At every centre the girls are encouraged to pray - they must say Grace before their meals, etc.. The linking between centres means that although a girl may only stay at one centre for a few months to a year, they are still a part of Mosoj Yan and build strong relationships with the staff.

I hope this gives you a clear picture of the work I´m involved with out here and I´m sorry it´s taken me until now to clarify.(mum!) It´s just that with such bust days and so many things happening I´m bursting with things to share with everybody and get carried away and leave out the facts. But there you go, now back to my stories..

happy happy joy joy!

2008-04-21T13:39:00.000-07:00

Hola!

Since last entry I have had 2 of the best nights of my life - not just in my time in Bolivia, no I really think these will go down in the ´best days of my life - period.´ list. Friday night was the 17th anniversary of Mosoj Yan. We were invited to the party in which each of the centres took part. Our girls performed a dance routine they made up (with the help of Hannah and I, of course). They did so well. Hannah and I both commented that we were sitting feeling sick with nerves for them perhaps as a proud mum would of her kids in a school play or something. We were so proud of them! After the evening officially ended Hannah and I hung out with our girls from our centre. It was just nice being with them outside of their house (the anniversry party was in the main Mosoj Yan building). We took lots of photos, met lots of people, lots of fun! I was the happiest I´ve been since i arrived here - if I ever manage to get photos on here you´ll see my grin hahaha! Get your grill out! (Or traintracks?!ha)

Last night (Sunday) was the joint service at Calama Baptist. Best church service I´ve ever been to! (sorry lyndsey haha only jokin..) It was incredible! It was a joint service for all languages at the church and each nationality took part. Spanish, Portugeuse, and Quechen, and my team plus the canadians represented the English speakers. The Portugeuse music was crazy! We loved it! It takes a lot to get me clapping my hands but last night it took more to keep my feet on the ground! It was absolutely fantastic, the whole service. Such a sense of union. Each nationality sang and clapped along to everyone elses songs etc.. At the very end of the service the final song was in spanish (words translated roughly something like ´the victory is mine, the victory is mine, over and over´with a couple of closing lines). Anyway yes, so everyone sang it through in Spanish loads of times, then the lead singer was like ´can we sing this in portugeuse?!´looking at the portugesue crowd and a couple of them started it off and the rest followed, then in quechen one man came up and took the mic for a couple of verses, then he looked in our direction for an english representative. We were the minority so I dont think he really expected much response from us but as we were all nudging each other and trying not to make eye contact with the guy, phil (canadian) runs up and grabs the mic and leads it in English! Aw it was awesome. Such craic. Our part in the service was a drama which went quite well I think. Well, it must have done cause the pastor made it very clear that if we wanted to do anything next week it´s totally fine. I politely declined.. We were also asked to lead a whole English service! So that´s gonna be in 3-4 weeks. They just can´t seem to get enough of us haha.

Oh I´ve totally fallen in love with all the girls at my centre. It took a few days to get settled, but now after the party on friday and everything its just great. I really look forward to going and I´m really really happy. They are such amazing girls, I dunno if I mentioned their names before but in case not they are Joseline, Naomi, Carla, Nieves, Rosa, HannahMaria and Lydia. Between ages 12 - 17.

My Spanish is coming along well. I´m underdstanding more each day, slowly but surely..
We had our first sickness this week - Katie was sick fri/sat but totally recovered now. Heather was a little too but she´s also fine. I´m still fit as a fiddle and heathly as a.. hmmm *insert your own similie*
So much I could write but only one min left here. Oh! I held a puppy today - and got my photo taken - I promise! haha
Chao Chao..

2008-04-17T14:49:00.000-07:00

Hola..

Time is tight again today, I shan´t tell you why - mother might worry. Ha ha yeah this is a story for when i come home and someone makes me a cuppa tea!

So a quick update then.. Sunday we went to Calama Baptist Church. They have an English service at 9am we went to.About 40 attended. Afterwards we were approached by one of the leaders who introduced himself and sp did we and he asked us to help with 2 songs in the service next week as well as doing a drama for the 5.30pm joint service - eng, span, port, quecha! We also met there a (rather lovely) canadian guy who happens to be staying in the apartment above us in the seminary.

This week´s been hectic with working full days at the centre, along with putting a drama together at such short notice. On top of that we also have 6 hours of individual Spanish lessons each per week. Which is awesome - very much needed!

I was introduced to 2 forms of Bolivian public transport this week. Taxi on Monday which ripped us ´white people´off somethin shockin! But the main thing is the bus. Like I said - crazy roads. Dad, you wouldn´t last 5 mins on the roads!haha! Actually, you might fit it perfectly as one of these crazy bus drivers..!! Another observation about the roads... Yano how on ´pimp my ride´(over 40s? - ask your kids..) ya can never quite believe that those horrible, falling to pieces vehicles are on the roads? Well, now I believe it!

More little things whice may paint more of a picture of Cochabamba..
Dogs. Everywhere. Stray dogs are at every street corner. It´s really strange to be honest but I´m used to it now. There is no place for fear of dogs here! They don´t come near you like they just sit about.. Oh - At the centre I´m working at there is a stray dog that lives just outside the grounds. It´s stinkin but it´s got 3 one month old pups! They are gorgeous. They are stray yet the centre staff and girls always nurse them and look after them etc so it´s ok. Listen up everyone - I have actually stroked them all! Me! Touching dogs!? IIIIIII know! I´m determined to hold one before my time´s up at that centre - I´ll make that promise to all Chambers! I´ll get photographic evidence to prove it too.
Yesterday I was sitting on a bench with Heather just killing time before our Span lessons and a boy of about 12yrs I´d guess, came up begging from us, with a bottle of glue in his hand. He was just a typical street boy that you´d see on TV or whatever but when you come face to face with this situation it actually makes you feel a way you never have before, it´s heartbreaking. I couldn´t look at him.
Right, must go.. eek. Bye, ps please keep commenting and emailing - time is short so I can´t always reply but I always read them!love..x

2008-04-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hola..

Got cut off pretty abrubtly last day so carrying on.. yeah so we start work on Monday. Bit of a change though - i´d mentioned we were going to be working on our own at some projects, which meant travelling on our own and if you had seen the roads and buses then you would understand the concern we had. I mean, every third vehicle on the road is a bus, but there are no bus stops?!It would appear you just hail a bus anywhere, or actually I saw someone jump on a bus while it was stopped at lights for 2 secs! And getting off? pretty much jump out wherever. Tearfunds policy is that we shouldnt ever be alone in the city so we chatted and decided we didn´t want to do it - phew. So we will always be in pairs now. Each pair will work for one month at a project and rotate for 4 months.

We were at a business meeting at Mosoj Yan were we met an English couple who were 2 of the nicest people you could meet. Charles and Suzanne. They set up a project to help people in prison and their children - it´s a pretty complex project that I don´t have time to get into now but they invited us to visit them and help out if we have any free time cos they are struggling. They gave us their number and offered any help about anything at all while here just to contact them - also gave us a few tips for living in the city.

It was children´s day in Bolivia on friday. They have days for everything here! So we were at the party at Mosoj Yan. It was great. Pretty similar to kids parties back home. One thing I notice is how well behaved the kids are! It´s quite different to youthclub I´ll tell you!haha! We all had lunch together and I was a bit uneasy with the 4 yr old (very like Adam in junior yc!) sitting beside me eating his chicken drumstick on-the-bone with a steak knife.
It´s heart-breaking when these kids are clinging to you and turn and say something to you or ask you something and the only response you can give is ´no entiendo´. The kids are adorable and so friendly with us.

We had a meeting with our Spanish teachers. They are so lovely and had a chat with us one on one to see what sort of level we are at. It looks like we will be having 2hours one-on-one lessons a week. And if we go in pairs it will be 4 hours. They actually invited us all round to one of their houses for dinner tomorrow night to get to know us and chat about our cyllabus for the 4 months.

chao..

ARRIVED!

2008-04-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

Hola!
Firstly - sigh of relief I just spent about 10 mins trying to access my blog - i think emma knows what im talkin about, silly passwords. But I´m here now and i´ll try my best to fill you in on what has been a crazy couple of days..

So i was due to leave Belfast on sunday afternoon to go to my send-off orientation in wokingham with my team. Well my flight to Gatwick was cancelled which I only found out once I´d joined the check-in queue at city airport and glanced at the screen in front of me. So rather than go into the quite traumatic :s details - I ended up flying into heathrow on monday evening where Stephen ( awesome bro!) picked me up and drove me to the centre.

Upon arriving i was told that Katie mightnt have been able to fly out with us the next day! She has a medical skin problem (I won´t embarrass myself by trying to spell it) and InterHealth, the people who gave us medical clearance to travel, weren´t happy for her to fly out because she had had a flair up the week before. They told her this on Monday evening! So she left an hour after I arrived to go home and ring her consultant first thing Tuesday morning - she managed to get an appointment for that afternoon. Meanwhile matt had given her until 4.30 as a deadline to meet us at the airport for our flight before he would have to consider cancelling her ticket! ( We left the centre for the airport at 3pm Tues.) So at 3.20 she rang me and said she was on her way. Pheew!

The flight to Sau Paulo which I was stressing about being 8 hours long, actually was a 12hour flight! "I was way off"(any dumb+dumber fans?!). Anyway, it was totally fine! I wasn´t even that anxious getting on. It was extremely long, dragged in at times. The seats weren´t very comfy tho I sort of dosed on and off throughout. Arriving at Sao Paulo I actually remembered a text Phil sent me regarding one of his flights to j´berg or somewhere, he said you literally start to sweat once you step off the plane. It was crazy heat. Had about a 2 hour wait then a 2 hour flight to Ascuncion, Paraguay, another hour wait there til our final flight into Cochbamba. All flights were totally fine and it´s such an answer to prayer. I want to thank everyone who prayed for me over that journey, I really felt like I was being looked after, I was very calm and relaxed!

Emma´s bag didn´t turn up, but we were able to go and collect it yesterday because that same flight comes in at the same time each day apparently, which was lucky.

Ross Mary ( Rosemary) met us at the airport. She works at Mosoj Yan and is one of our main links in the projects. She speaks good English. She took us to the seminary where we are living for the 4 months. It´s.. emm. Alright. haha no it´s fine like it´s pretty basic. There´s a little kitchen, a quite big dining room with a 6-seat table and a desk. There are 3 rooms. The 6 of us picke our names out of a hat to decide rooms. I´m with Hannah S-R in the smallest room, but it´s nice. Bunk beds, I´m on the top and there are no ladders to get up there. Or down - which is more tricky cause the floors are very hard tiles so it hurts to jump - I´ve managed to create somewhat of a safety mat of blankets etc which i launch onto - it sounds fun. It´s not. Also there are no side bits on the top bunk so if i roll in my sleep im a goner really.
The bathroom´s a bit manky to be honest and hot water isn´t even an option with there being only one tap turning one way. Though in the heat it´s somewhat refreshing.. once you pass the ´frozen, can´t breathe´stage. I think I´ve been pretty negative there, honestly it´s not that bad. Its very much liveable for 4 months.

Yesterday Ross Mary took us to Mosoj Yan. I don´t even know where to start describing it. Which is why I left it til last (or maybe I wanted my rant out of the way first haha). Literally, I dunno what to say haha. Emm it´s fantastic, it´s amazing, just awesome. All of the people are sooo friendly and welcoming. We got shown around the main Mosoj Yan centre, then the other projects. They are all just so overwhelming?is that the word? I don´t know. I don´t have time now to go into each of the projects. We were given a bit of a shock yesterday which to be honest hasn´t sunk in yet. There are 5 projects. So 2 of us will work at one, and the rest of us at one each of the others. That´s for 2 months, then we change to a diff one for the last 2 months. Thankfully I´m working with Hannah at the first project at Mosoj Yan for the first 2 months. I hope that by the time I have to go off on my own I´ll have a better grasp of the language. The language is the hardest thing about this. The situations I have found myself in already are just so hard beasue of the language. These projects would be extremely difficult in themselves like if the people we were working with were English, but the Spanish is such a difficult barrier. We are getting 2 one on one Spanish lessons a week for the first month, inc in the price of the trip. Please pray for my Spanish to improve greatly - this is the main thing.

I´m sorry this has been such a long entry, thanks if you´ve managed to reach the end. So much has happened since we arrived it´s hard to put it into words! I don´t have my camera leads to get photos on yet, and I´v only taken about 5 anyway - we are just too busy to take pictures - honestly. It´s been crazy. And it will be for the whole time. We´ll be up about 7am each day - be at our projects for 9am start. Work (yes, work - for anyone thinking this was a doss about travelling trip) there til about 4.30 / 5. Bare in mind this is work with no one else who speaks English.
Ahh must go - ran out of ti.... ha bubi!

2008-03-29T08:56:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to my blog!

I've set this up to try and keep everyone informed of what I'm doing and how I'm getting on out in Bolivia. Hopefully I'll be able to get access to the internet during my time there and will be able to upload some photos for you!

This photo was taken at our Tearfund orientation at Oakwood in January.This is the first time each of us met. It was a week of team building activities inc. silly games, newspaper-tower building and a fantasic low ropes course! We did various personality tests and exercises in order to get to know each other better and look at our team dynamics and roles. We listened to seminars on real issues such as 'What is poverty?', 'Gender issues', 'Child protection', 'Culture' and more. As a team we did an activity in which we were to recognise our collective hopes, fears and goals for the trip. We thought that our team-motto, focus, or purpose even was found in James 1 v 27. (I'm purposely not writing out the verse to encourage you to go and have a look there yourself, haha).

So, the photo.. left to right.. Hannah S-R, me, Hannah W, Katie, Emma, Heather. This might be helpful as I start to talk about the team. You'll have faces for the names!

I leave Belfast on Sunday 6th April so I'm entering my last week here. ( I'll be spending this week sifting through and packing and re-packing my stuff - no chance it's all going to fit in! ) I'm flying to Gatwick to meet Katie, then we will travel together to Oakwood again where we meet the rest of the team and have our second orientation. On Tuesday 8th we begin the journey together.. Fly at 22.30 from Heathrow to Sao Paulo.. from Sao Paulo to Asuncion.. from Asuncion to Cochabamba, arriving there at 14.30 on the 9th.