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.
Monday, 21 July 2008
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Other Projects
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..
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..
Saturday, 12 July 2008
New blog entry below ugly party photos!
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
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
Monday, 7 July 2008
Fiesta Fea (photos)
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!! :-(
Emma, HannahSR, me, HannahW
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..
Sunday, 6 July 2008
Holiday and Kids Camp
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
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
Sunday, 15 June 2008
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
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
Monday, 9 June 2008
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 flatsHola..
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!
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