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)