100 Degree Christmas

(The lovely ladies of SALT: Aubrey, Dovanna, Wendy - our coordinator, and me. Francis just had to get in on this one too!)

Some Christmas thoughts I suppose, right? Well, here we are, December 20th... I think... Thursday, almost the weekend. I've been shut up in the dining hall at the Children's Home for the last three weeks, first scraping all the paint off the walls (cement walls, oil paint... not good) and then painting, so the weekend coming is a good thing. Unfortunately, if we don't finish the job in time, it will only become Saturday's job, which would be largely inconvenient for me, since I have some hardcore Christmas shopping to do. It's hot too, man, seriously not Christmasy around here. I am expecting my parents and sister to come and visit the day after Christmas - that's funny: refering to it as if it's not a set thing.... haha. I mean: my parents and sister are coming on the 26th and staying until the 3rd of January, so I have a lot of stuff to get ready this weekend. Pack some things to send home, wrap some gifts, buy some gifts, and make Jam-Jams for the Bolivian host family.

(Dovanna and Aubrey - looking lovely for the Christmas party.)

I don't have a lot of very exciting news right now, but here are some pictures from the Christmas party that we had for MCC. The SALTers really brought the heat at the dinner: all you can eat buffet, and lookin' flawsy, flawsy. Oh yeah. It was really great for all of us to be together, since we are not often all in one place at the same time. Stephen is rocking out to a hopping social life, Aubrey lives in Santiago, and I am currently just about always working. Of the SALTers , I see the most of Dovanna, who got to go home for Christmas! Lucky. Gets to see snow. I do have to share one wonderful experience that I had last weekend though, that may seem just a little too far left of center to some people. But bear with me. One thing that a lot of us miss around here as North Americans is hymn singing, since music in church here is a whole lot of 7/11 on high volume, out of tune. That can be painful for Mennonites. So when we have our MCC English Potlucks every Wednesday night, we usually sing a few hymns, currently lots of Christmas ones. And if you know Mennonites, you can imagine the lovely four part harmony we fall into... Especially if both Aubrey and Wendy are there, since they are both more musically educated and inclined than the rest of us. Aubrey was in town this weekend, but she missed out on Wednesday night, and really wanted a chance to sing Christmas songs. We went for a walk on Sunday night (she headed back Monday) down to the plaza central where an orchestra and choir from one of the poorest barrios in the city was performing parts of Handel's Messiah in the Cathedral. Although even I could hear the imperfections in the execution of this music, it nearly moved me to tears just because it brought me so close to home, I could feel it in my chest. Aubrey and I couldn't help but join in on the "and he shall reigns". Afterward, we walked all the way to the cathedral and back to MCC singing Christmas songs in the empty streets of Santa Cruz, Aubrey singing alto and me with the soprano parts (mostly cause I can't harmonize. That makes me only half-Mennonite). It was lovely to be able to sing together, however strange it is to sing in English in public, late at night, I think it was strange and wonderful. There weren't that many people, and in any case,everyone stares at two gringas walking down the street: might as well give them something to stare at.

(Me and Stephen. We're pretty much models. I sunburned that day. If you can't tell.)

Here are also some pics of my kids from the Biblioteca and the kids from the Children's Home from when we had a day camp style end of the year thing about a month ago.

(Aubrey, Me, and Dovanna. We are fishies.)

Merry Christmas - though I'm sure there's more to come on this subject.

(The kids, waiting "patiently" for their bible lesson to start.)

(getting ready to play "dinamicos" on the cancha.)

(Paola and Maria René got Profe Aida!)

(Juan Pablo chasing Michele.)

boliviaboliviabolivia

HA! And now I am finally here, after all the months of planning and packing and worrying, I am here in the MCC Compound in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. This first week here is one of orientation and some good old fashioned relaxation before we move in with our families, begin language study, and then start our jobs. We are staying here at on the MCC grounds, meeting the other volunteers, both local and foriegn and basically getting a hold on our surroundings. To sum up the city from my point of view, I would have to say that EVERYTHING is different. The way people dress, the way they talk (Camba spanish is a little different), the way we shower, what time we eat, even directional signals and car horns mean different things. This week is about seeing what we can and becoming at least some what accustomed to it before we leave this MCC property for life with our host families. Next Sunday is when they will come to pick us up and take us to our respective homes to move in. Next week we will start five weeks of language study both with tutors and one on one teachers. In the next few weeks we will also be traveling to Santiago de Chiquitos where one of our group will be working, and to Cochabamba for an MCC ¨focus weekend¨. I will know more about these trips later. This morning we had refreshments (called refrijerio) with the other MCC staff and volunteers, and learned about how our financial matters will work while we are here. I have my first wad of currency - Bolivianos - at an exchange rate of 8 Bolivianos to 1 American dollar. Things seem insanely cheap here, though I know that it is all relative. For example, calling home is 50 centavos a minute, which came to 10 Bolivianos for a 20 minute call. But ten Bolivianos is just over a dollar. It is hard to adjust to seeing the Boliviano as having an equal value in this society as the dollar has in ours.

I am also practicing my Spanish as much as I can, which isn´t hard: most of the workers here at MCC are Bolivian, and there is a rule here that if there is even one person in the room who does not speak English, we speak Spanish. The odds are pretty good that the language of choice will be Spanish at any given time. Good practice for life outside of MCC´s walls. Thats all for now; just taking time to relax and adjust and gear up for the coming months.

Arrived in Akron for orientation

Me in front of "Africa House" where I will be staying at the MCC Welcome Center in Akron, PA for the duration of my orientation. More to come ...

(posted by Mom)

Hello

So, this is my first Blog post ever! How exciting.... There are now nine days until I depart for Akron, Pennsylvania to start my MCC orientation. Orientation will last for a week - until about the 18th - when I believe I will be flown to Bolivia!!! Once I arrive in Bolivia along with the 5 other MCC volunteers I will be traveling with, I will begin my MCC Bolivia orientation, and will then start a month-long period of language study. From there the details get a little murky, but somewhere in there I imagine that I will meet and move in with a host family, unless none can be found for me, and will begin my job at the Guarderia Moises/Stansbury Children's Center outside of the city of Santa Cruz.

With August 11th fast approaching, there is a lot still to do! I seem to be continuously making and losing lists of things I have to do, buy, or remember to bring! Putting time with friends and family first is also a current priority, and I find that keeping the stress level low is difficult and a daily balancing act.

Well, thats all for now! More to come...