Sunday, May 31, 2009

Happy 1st Birthday Lucas!

Oh birthdays are so much fun, even if they are a ton of work and the baby will never remember it! This last Saturday we celebreated baby Lucas' first birthday. This will be much easier to tell in pictures. This is Lucas and his father, Lucas is wearing the clothes his father bought him for his birthday.


I'm not that familiar with his story but I believe his mother has already passed away from HIV/AIDS. His father is unable to care for him but visits with him frequently. Along with his father, we had quite a crowd come together for this birthday including his grandmother, cousins, and other relatives. This is Lucas with his grandma.


The Tias made a typical Bolivian dish called Pique Macho. And boy did we ever eat!

And of course there was the cake!


And this is Lucas trying to catch and eat a balloon and I couldn't help but add a picture of Lily smiling.


The beginning of the party was a little rough for Lucas. He was very overwhelmed and doesn't know his biological family. If he couldn't see me he flipped out a little. As time went on he relaxed and seemed to be having a good time. And lastly, he pooped out!

Maybe I should have taken a picture of the pile of dishes the Tias and I were left to wash...

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Like giving birth

"Its like giving birth!" is what came out of my mouth as another missionary friend and I were trying to get my full sized mattress up my 3 flights of stairs to my apartment. We were halfway there and I was on the pushing end, she on the pulling end. She kept saying "PUSH!" and I kept saying "I AM PUSHING!" and it just reminded me of a woman in labor! We all got quite a laugh out of it, including my bolivian neighbor :) This mattress purchase came after two months of waking up with sore back muscles cause my apt came with a very typical Bolivian mattress... foam. And seeing as I'll be staying in Bolivia for some time to come, I thought it would be a good investment. I don't know a single other missionary in Coch that hasn't bought a good mattress! So that was this weekends adventure. I also helped a friend give away one of her 3 dogs at the doggy market.

So my blogging has kinda slowed down, I apologize for that. I don't have internet in my house and I have very little time to sit in internet cafes and generally have a lot of other corresponding to do during that time. My weeks are pretty typical these days as I am working full time at our daycare. The kids are all growing by leaps and bounds and learning new things everyday. I had a missionary friend visit from Sucre last week and it was so good to see her again and catch up on each others lives. I know her from WAY back in the day as we grew up in the same church.

I turned 28 this last week and enjoyed a couple of meals out (and free to me!) and taking a day off of work. I have been very healthy for a couple of weeks now thanks to some new vitamin supplements I have been taking. I attended an AIDS seminar this last weekend and honestly didn't learn anything I didn't know before. But I'm glad there are professionals who are willing to educate people on what HIV AIDS is and how it is and is not passed from person to person.

Baby G's surgery is scheduled for July 3rd. One of the girls from the home has been placed with her Aunt, Uncle, and cousin. We are looking forward to June and July being very busy months as we host 4 different short term teams. I am plannning to take my second furlough Sept 18th through the last week of Oct.

Last night I saw a motorized cart pulling a kids train with 2 big and 1 small horse trotting along behind it with riders on them. This was on one of the main streets in town. Very very random!

I think thats all the updates for me right now. Look for my email update coming out in June for updates on some of our kids and more pictures! Here are a few pictures of me working with my kids.