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