random bits and pieces

First of all, I´ve made changes to my blogspot profile and you can now email me from my blog.

This past weekend I went to the main plaza to help out with babywashing. Earlier I had been walking around the down town area with a friend and noticed that the 7th Day Adventist church was having a parade (and totally screwing up traffic!). I didn´t think too much of it as different groups have marches, demonstrations, ect all the time. My friend and I grabbed some coffee near the plaza and noticed that the parade had entered the plaza. I swear it was like a never ending line of people in this parade. We couldn´t see much from the coffee house so after the marching stopped we went to the plaza. The parade had congregated exactly where babywashing would have been set up and there were hundreds of people in the plaza. My friend, being more observant then I, noticed that the whole thing was against SMOKING! There were large cigarettes on top of cars, huge blackened lungs, a coffin, a few different floats, ect. We didn´t get close enough to hear what was being preached to the crowd but I think we can guess what the message was! I couldn´t stop laughing! Only in Bolivia would that happen.

Walking down the street yesterday I saw a man walk strait into a post, hey, he even thought it was funny.

Last sunday while I was helping my group in Sacaba they left me alone with my kids. Not two or three mind you... but 30! I had brought photocopies of coloring sheets for them to do but no one remembered to bring the coloring pencils. So someone bought a pack of 14. 30 kids, 14 colored pencils... hmmmmm. I learned the word ¨to share¨ and they actually did a halfway decent job! They didn´t get a bible lesson from me but they had a great time coloring and were so happy they were allowed to bring what they had done to their homes. Next week I will be much more prepared. These kids become more and more precious to me every week.

Everything that happens to me ends up being so stinkin complicated. Last week I had an ATM malfunction and not give me any money yet it was debited from my account. This actually happens to a lot of people. Normally you just call the number on the back of your reciept, tell them what happened, and they credit your account. Well, I didn´t get a reciept! So I wrote down the number on the ATM and hoped that would work. I went to the bank that owned the ATM, explained what happened and they said a lot of things that I didn´t understand. But I did understand that I didn´t need to do or call anyone else and it would be taken care of. haha, no, didn´t happen. A week later I had a teammate help me make the call but they couldn´t do anything over the phone, we had to go to an office building downtown, which took a while to find. Once we did they said they needed a copy of my bank statement to prove the money had been debited. So we had to find an internet cafe with a working printer. Easier said then done. Then we got back to the office and he sent a message to the bank in the states and said that they money would be put back in 1 or 2 weeks. Pray that the money gets credited soon!

I visited an english church on sunday and enjoyed singing in english and hearing a friend preach. More odds and ends later!