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

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

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

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.

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

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