This is a blog about my sight seeing trip to Oruro and Uyuni, two areas in sounthern Bolivia. I went with 14 people from my language school including two of my teachers. This blog is mostly pictures with a little narrative. Picture descriptions will be beneath the photo.

This is a shot of the town of Oruro. We left Cochabamba early on a Wedesday morning and traveled 4 hours in a bus to arrive in Oruro. We had some time before our train left for Uyuni so we saw some of the sights in Oruro.

This mural depicts the story behind the National holiday of Carneval which has its roots in Oruro. It has to do with lizards and frogs and snakes coming upon the city (miners mostly at the time).

A woman, The Virgin, came to the rescue and delivered the city from the plagues.

This is a giant slide outside a church we visited. Yes I went down the concrete slide and I have the bruise on my tailbone to prove it!

Inside the church there is this mural the depicts hell, the world, and heaven.

Close up of a demon

Close up of the world

Below the church is an old mining cave. People there believe that hell is underground and have made statues of what they call "tio" a name for the devil (though literally it means "uncle"). People bring coca leaves, cigarettes, and other things to these idols to appease them.

This is another "tio"

Finally we boarded our train to Uyuni to begin out 3 day tour there.

We rode for 8 hours and arrived in Uyuni at 3AM

This is the group that I traveled around southern Bolivia with. The SUV was provided by our tour agency and is a must for most of the travel is off road (there are no roads!). Our driver was very cool, played english music for us, and often refered to us girls as "mis chicas (his girls)" or as his "beautifuls"

Our first stop was to the train graveyard in Uyuni. I actually red the graffiti after I had this picture taken. Feliz Viage para Todos, rougly translates to our phrase, Happy Trails to everyone.

This one says, This is the life. Underneath someone wrote "no"

This one made me laugh too. It says "an experienced mechanic needed" below and not in the picture it said "ugently"

This is the group of 15 of us. I still can't believe I climbed up on top of that thing!

We stopped at a place where there are a lot of natural rock formations. I could have spent hours there but we didn't have time as this was near the end of the trip and we had sick people we needed to get back into the city. Can you see the face in this picture?

Can you see the eagle?

Can you see the baboon face?

This is a sunset over the moutains

This is a volcano that is on the border of Bolivia and Chile. The chile side is active.

In the middle of the salt flats (pictures coming up next) are a few islands. There are a lot of cactuses there and we spent several hours climbing around and eating and resting on the island.

This is a view from the top of the island looking out over the salt flats.

Hug a tree, though at this altitude there aren't any trees, its way too high. So I hugged a cactus instead, ouch.

Watching the sunset from the island.I'm sitting on the salt flats

This is from earlier that day when we had a tour of how the process the salt to make it edible. This is a mountain waiting to be taken to the small town to be processed. Looks like snow huh?

The salt flats of Uyuni cover over 4,000 sq miles and goes down 5 meters. When your standing there it seems like it never ends. It just keeps going and going in all directions. It also contians 80 percent of the worlds lithium reserves. It is mostly untouched.

We stayed at a motel made compeltly of salt. The floors, chairs, tables were all made out of salt.

The walls too

And even the bed frames and end tables. The doors were made out of cactus wood.

This is a close up of a gyser.

The gysers from farther away.

This area is semi volcanic. The dirt/clay is liquid and is boiling with steam coming up from it constantly. I literally felt like I was on the moon of something, it was so other worldly. It smelled like rotten eggs though.

This is our time of swiming in the hotsprings. That was a nice treat!

A little piece of heaven.

Me and some new friends just chillin while we observed the afore mentioned volcano.

This is the red lake. Its red because of the mineral that it contains. When the wind is blowing stongly as you can tell by my hair in this picture, the lake water is bright red. The white part of not water.

More of the red lake, it was one of the coolest parts of the trip for me.

This is the green lake. Also contains a mineral causing it to turn green.

This is the stinky lake. So called because it contains sulfur. It stinks! But the flamingos like it. 3 different varieties of flamingo live in this area.

This is the sign for the lake, roughly translated, The Stinky Lake

This is how you fill your gas tank when you are out in the middle of nowhere.

Most of our meals were on the road and provided for us by our tour guide agency. Considering the available resources, the food was really good!

Our cook and her stove.


There were signs that made me laugh along the way. This is roughly translated says " only the wind runs here, all other must drive 5Kmh"

this is one just says "No peeing"

Back in Bolivia

I have been back in Bolivia for 2 weeks now and it feels as though I never left. There is evidence of my absence in that my kids all got older and have learned new things. Not to mention that there are two new kids that joined us while I was away. I have been taking pictures like crazy so here are some of the best.

This is most of our kids, missing 4 though. This is not an easy picture to take thats for sure!

This little princess is our newest addition to our daycare. She is still adjusting, meaning, she cries A LOT. Once she gets through this period I think she will be just fine.

Manolo here is our newest resident and he is quite the bundle of energy. And ever so cute!

Lily is growing by leaps and bounds and crawls around like crazy. She loves to practice standing up, her legs are already very strong.
Baby G is not letting a little something like open heart surgery slow him down! This marks 4 months since his operation. And he is now walking rather then crawling and learning new words.
Here are some pics of my kids just being darn cute. The sibs have all the toys they can possibly play with, but what do they do? They play with the plastic buckets that hold the toys of course!
Our kids are getting much better at the concept of sharing toys. I'm told they even have a system of "trade" where one child will give another child a different toy in exchange for the one he had been playing with. They still have a long way to go though, I still am breaking up fights several times a day.
Marcos here is proudly showing off his newly repaired teeth. His front teeth were completely rotted through. He used to rarely smile but now he can't get enough of smiling for the camera!

Baby Mateo as grown the most in the time I was gone. He is our premature baby and he weighed only 5 pounds or so when I left. I'm not sure his exact weight now but you should see his chubby little body, his double chin, and fat little cheeks! He is also much more alert and makes good eye contact.

In a very short time we will be recieving yet another new born baby, actually possibly two. I will post pictures just as soon as they arrive!

The latest arrival

Over the next couple of weeks, we at Pedacito de Cielo will be recieving a number of children to live in our orphanage for children affected by HIV/AIDS or have been classified as having special medical needs. Just this last Friday a new little boy arrived. I haven't been told of his "name" yet so I will just tell you what I do know about the little cutie pie.

He is one year and two months old. I was trying to see where he is developmentally and its hard to say. The first couple of days are always hard as the kids are adjusting to being in a new place with unfamiliar people. He can sit by himself but when I put him down on his stomach he didn't seem to know how to crawl. Or he was possible just scared. We'll know for sure in a couple of days. He walks when guided and holds your hands but his legs are not strong.

I am told that he has had digestive problems for most of his life. As you can see, he is plenty chubby! Well, I think "stocky" would be a better description. The other kids are doing very well with trying to be his friend and include him. They like to give him kisses and share their toys. And believe me, sharing is not one of their stronger points! They are all making me very proud!

2 1/2 weeks till furlough!

I can´t hardly believe how fast time is going! I´ll be visiting the states in no time at all! I am going to miss ¨my¨ kids sooo much as they are all growing and learning new things every single day. However, I do feel I need a break. I know that sounds terrible! We currently have 3 children potty training, 3 children cutting teeth (first teeth and molars), and currently nearly all of them have headcolds of some sort or other. All of this adds up to a lot of crying!

Just last week we added another baby to our home bringing our number of residents to 8. His name is Mateo and was born at 30 weeks (about 7 months into the pregnancy). He was abandonded at the hospital at birth and has struggled with respiratory problems ever since. He came to us weighing about 4 pounds! He is literally smaller then some of the dolls our other kids play with.
In other news... Lucas is finally crawling. We at Pedacito de Cielo have been working on developing his leg muscles for over 6 months. He is also finally starting to try to pull himself to his feet while holding on the furniture. He hasn´t gotten there yet but he´s trying hard!

I don´t have a picture of her, but baby Lily has learned how to roll over and over and over again. She is really kind of comical when she gets herself rolled into a corner that she can´t get out of! She looks at a toy and gets a very determined look on her face...it won´t be long till she starts inching along on her tummy which in turn will lead to crawling. We are all very impressed by how strong and chubby she has gotten in just a few short months!

Over the next several weeks we are expecting several new arrivals. So far I know about 2 more boys with heart conditions, a baby girl with facial deformities that don´t allow her to drink from a bottle, and a little boy that has digestive problems. Very soon PDC will be a full house! And all of them arriving just as I´m leaving, thats makes me sad! But I will have plenty of time to bond with them when I return to Bolivia in late October.

Please be in prayer for all the staff and new volunteers at PDC as we accept all these new little ones. Many of them are undernorished and underdeveloped. Some of them will be requiring surgeries or even multiple surgeries. Please pray also for my time in the states. I need to raise a significant amount of money in order to be able to stay on in Bolivia for another year. My monthly budget is about $1000 and I need about $1400 for my second year visa and health insurance. If you are able and would like to contribute to my support you can mail a check to Operation Harvest P.O. Box 1410 Burbank, CA 91507. Thanks!

Update

As promised, here is some of those photos a mentioned in my last update. I can't help it if my kids are just too cute!

Marcos likes to play with baby Lily. He is the oldest of all our kids and is an excellent big brother

Miguel likes to lick the bowl!

One of volunteers is taking a nap with Baby G in isolation. Glad I had my camera handy. Sorry about the glare!

Unrelated to the pictures above I wanted to share about some things I saw on a recent walk I took.

I sometimes don't notice the everyday sights and sounds anymore. I'm just so accustomed to life here that nothing really surprises me anymore. However, I found myself laughing out loud the other day as I walked home from having dinner with a friend. In one block of Cochabamba I saw: A young couple making out on the curb of the street, both his hands planted firmly on her behind, a hippie/gypsi w/ long long braids and a small guitar on his back talking with some one grilling some food outside a restaurant, and then a young boy peeing against a tree.

The sights I mentioned above are just normal things I see everyday. There are somethings you never get used to and make me want to cry everytime I see it. For example, in the main market, La Cancha, I saw a man half running through the market with a very heavy load literally strapped to his back. It was nearly as big as he was. He ran hunched over. I'm sure if he was upright he would have tipped over backwards from the weight. He was an old man and I almost started to cry. He was a human donkey. No one should ever have to carry a load like that to make a living.

Another time I saw a frail old man sitting on the ground in the main market. On the tarp in front of him was just a few candy bars to sell. I've never seen someone look so sad and so desparate. I'll never forget the day I saw 3 men sitting IN a dumpster sorting through the trash for anything that could be eaten, sold, or recycled.

The smiles on my kids faces, seeing them get stronger and learn new things brings my heart a lot of joy. But I also live in a big city and there are things I see everyday that just break my heart too. I hope this has given you a little more insight into my life here.

Overnight with Baby G

This will be a little different then normal. Why? Cause I don´t have any pictures! I can actually write fairly well so I will paint you a word picture of Baby G´s home away from home.

For the second time this year, Baby G has been admitted into Hospital Velga, reported to be the best heart surgery hospital in Cochabamba. The first time he was there it was to run a test on his heart that required he be under anesthesia (sp?). Now he is there for pre-op observation.

I walked in the front door yesterday and went directly to his room, no security was present at the time. The hospital doesn´t look like much from the outside. Just a drab looking building with bars on all the windows. Down a short hallway and there is actually a very beautiful garden area with a winding ramp going up to the second floor. Signs leave you a little confused and it took me a few moments to locate his room which is different then his first visit. Finally on a whim, I walked through an unmarked door and stumbled on his room. This is a double room but he is the only ocupant and there are two twin beds provided for caretakers plus his metal, white crib. He was thrilled to see me and even more excited about the toys I brought for him. At this hospital we are required to bring his bottles and his milk and clothes for him everyday and diapers. Yeah, I know, welcome to Bolivia, its a little different down here! The room is surprisingly warm for this cold season of the year and the best word I can use to describe it is ¨drab¨. Bolivia is vibrant with colors but this room is gray and white and well, its feels like a hospital.

We played with blocks and books for a little bit as nurses zipped in and out. The poor boy has to be on oxygen until the surgery (which at the moment is postponed until Tues or Wed). He is just 1 1/2 years old and doesn´t tolorate the tube very well. So the nurses have to use medical adhesive tape to tape it to his face. He´s not crazy about it but he leaves it be. He needs to have the oxygen to bring up his levels before the surgery. He goes to bed at 7:30 and I got to sit back with a book for a little while. I´ve been struggling with either a sinus or a stress headache for the better part of the week so even when it was time for me to sleep, I couldn´t and needed to take some meds to relieve the pain so I could sleep. Sleep is also dificult because I keep imagining the worst case senarios, trying to prepare myself for whatever may happen next week. The tears come immeditetly. So I keep praying and giving him to God.

He did very well that night and slept just short of 11 hours. The last overnight I did with him he woke up at least 3 times in the night. So I thank God for that. In the AM he was bright eyed and more or less happy. He´s bored and wants to crawl around like he normally does when he´s not attached to oxygen. I wish I had a picture of him sitting on an adult scale as they took his weight. That was pretty comical. At 8AM my replacement came in and I headed home. I will have another overnight with him this coming Monday, hopefully his last night before the surgery. Please keep us all in your prayers during this very emotionally dificult time. thank you.

Park trips

Hello! Its been a while since I updated... again. I really wish I had more time to share what goes on in my life here its just that my life is soooo busy that I don't have a lot of time for internet cafes, much less for updating the blog. So that said, welcome to a photo blog of our once a week trip to the park with kids from Pedacito de Cielo.

Here is our kids, doing their best to walk in a single file line.


And this is me and "my" baby girl. She normally sleeps through the whole park outing in her baby carrier sling thing.



We play on a lot of different things including a VERY big slide and swings. The slide is great fun as long as there is someone at the bottem to do the catching!




We also have snack time.


And who wouldn't want to take a group picture in a great big car?

This is usually a once a week event and gets the kids off the property for a bit. Its a lot of work but well worth it to see the smiles on their faces!