ok, so not a whole lot has been happening since the crazy days of VBS. I´ve restarted Spanish tutoring at a different school. I´m now there 3 days a week and working mostly on remembering what I actually already know. Its just lost somewhere in my brain.
Last week I was ALMOST run over by a bicycle, remember, pedestrians have no rights whatsoever on the roads. Anything that has wheels has the right of way. I ALMOST took out a motorcycle with the door of a trufi, though I could swear I looked over my shoulder first... they appear out of thin air it seems. I also was ALMOST robbed on a trufi (this would have been the second time, the first time I lost my camera). However, I am proud to say that I have learned a thing or two in the last 9 months. I figured out quickly that something just wasn´t right. I put my hand to the latch of my purse to find the man next to me´s hand in my purse (not an easy task, my purse is hard to get into). When I looked at him and said ¨SEÑOR¨ he immeditaly took has hand out and got off the trufi. I checked and he didn´t take anything, didn´t have enough time before I caught him. So praise the Lord for that!
The rest of life continues on as normal. I´ll soon be preparing a special day to teach the kids about dirt and germs and the importance of washing their hands, ect. Having come from the street, our kids normally put any food (or anything for that matter) in their mouths that they find on the ground. Even after living in a good place for months, they still have this habit. So thats the next project. I´ll let you know how it goes!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The new kiddos
ok, well, on top of everything else last week, we had two new children arrive in our orphanage in Villa Isreal. Also known as home #2. Here they are, in all of their cuteness. 
Their story is a sad one. The older brother will be 6 years old in September. His name is Elion (I don´t know if that spelling is right). The baby is 2 1/2 years old, his name is France (again with the spelling). The little guy doesn´t respond to the name France but to the name ishmeal. But we do have their birth certificates and that is his name. They are not completely orphans. Their mother died of an epileptic siezser (I am sooo sorry about my spelling!). Their father is an out of control alchoholic. They have old siblings but none are able to take care of them. It is hard to try to comfort them, talk to them because they don´t speak spanish, only Quechua. They are both extremely small for their ages and terribly malnourished. The little guy is worse off then his brother. In the 6 days they have been in the home, he has been to the doctor every day, some days twice. He has a skin infection and resperatory something that needs in office treatment. They both needed several shots to get rid of stomache bugs.
This is sadly the story of nearly every child that comes to us. In a few short months the children will be much healthier and adapting to their new home and family. Please pray for this home and the house parents. There are now 9 children living there (8 boys, 1 girl) and the parents have one child of their own who is often sick.
During our VBS days at the home, the older boy kept saying something to me in Quechua that I couldn´t understand. Ana, the only girl, translated for me into spanish. She said that he was saying that he missed his family. That was his first day. It was all I could do not to go to tears right there. It broke my heart! I just got down on my knees and just held him. And he didn´t respond, that made it even worse. ok, I gotta quit now or I´m gonna cry in the internet café!
Their story is a sad one. The older brother will be 6 years old in September. His name is Elion (I don´t know if that spelling is right). The baby is 2 1/2 years old, his name is France (again with the spelling). The little guy doesn´t respond to the name France but to the name ishmeal. But we do have their birth certificates and that is his name. They are not completely orphans. Their mother died of an epileptic siezser (I am sooo sorry about my spelling!). Their father is an out of control alchoholic. They have old siblings but none are able to take care of them. It is hard to try to comfort them, talk to them because they don´t speak spanish, only Quechua. They are both extremely small for their ages and terribly malnourished. The little guy is worse off then his brother. In the 6 days they have been in the home, he has been to the doctor every day, some days twice. He has a skin infection and resperatory something that needs in office treatment. They both needed several shots to get rid of stomache bugs.
This is sadly the story of nearly every child that comes to us. In a few short months the children will be much healthier and adapting to their new home and family. Please pray for this home and the house parents. There are now 9 children living there (8 boys, 1 girl) and the parents have one child of their own who is often sick.
During our VBS days at the home, the older boy kept saying something to me in Quechua that I couldn´t understand. Ana, the only girl, translated for me into spanish. She said that he was saying that he missed his family. That was his first day. It was all I could do not to go to tears right there. It broke my heart! I just got down on my knees and just held him. And he didn´t respond, that made it even worse. ok, I gotta quit now or I´m gonna cry in the internet café!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
VBS
ok, deep breath. Last week was a little crazy in my life. ¨Little¨ being an understatement. My team and I held a VBS for our kids in home #2. Keep in mind, that home is on the complete opposite side of the city from where we all live. 30 mins in a car (if your lucky) and 1 - 1 1/2 hours in a Micro (bus). Well, things got intresting when neither of the two vehicles owned by our team were working. Yep, both were at the mechanics. So we all were traveling in Micros. Not bad per say, its just long travel time.
Even with the travel complications VBS went very well! And I took plenty of pictures so here you go. As I´ve mentioned, I was preparing 3 days of puppets. Here is Day 1, Jonah and the whale. Taking the styrofoam on the Micro was quite a trick! With a little team work, it survived the trip.
I had chosen a theme verse for each show. Here is a friend helping to teach the verse and the kids standing up to recite it from memory.
The each day we had a craft time as well. A friend made a fishing game and others had drawing and coloring crafts for the kids to do.
I really enjoyed the time I was able to spend with the kids during VBS. I feel like I have finally connected with them and they accept me as part of their lives. After the final puppet show they were chanting ¨una más, una más¨, I guess they wanted an encore :) Finally, here are just some cute pictures of our kids.
Check back soon for information on our two new arrivals, pictures too!
Even with the travel complications VBS went very well! And I took plenty of pictures so here you go. As I´ve mentioned, I was preparing 3 days of puppets. Here is Day 1, Jonah and the whale. Taking the styrofoam on the Micro was quite a trick! With a little team work, it survived the trip.
I had chosen a theme verse for each show. Here is a friend helping to teach the verse and the kids standing up to recite it from memory.
The each day we had a craft time as well. A friend made a fishing game and others had drawing and coloring crafts for the kids to do.
I really enjoyed the time I was able to spend with the kids during VBS. I feel like I have finally connected with them and they accept me as part of their lives. After the final puppet show they were chanting ¨una más, una más¨, I guess they wanted an encore :) Finally, here are just some cute pictures of our kids.
Check back soon for information on our two new arrivals, pictures too!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Puppets!
I´ve have become rather lazy when it comes to updating this blog. I did promise to update every week. As I kinda expected, the longer I´ve been here the busier I´ve become. Somedays I´m lucky if I can spare 30 mins to sit in an internet cafe. And even then, thats not enough time to write my family and post a blog. So there is your reason. However, when I have had a crazy experience or there is important information to pass along, I always ¨make¨ the time to update.
Last Sunday I preformed my first real puppet show. It was a crazy time getting it all put together. I spent a lot of time shopping (sorry, no hobby lobby here folks), spent time writing a puppet script and finding a place I could print it out, and creating the puppet stage and props. And I am glad to report that all that time I invested made a for a very sucessful puppet show! One of my good bolivian friends helped me to perform the story of Noah and the Ark. I wrote the script in a way that it was a Grandmother telling her granddaughter the story. I also worked it so that my bolivian friend had the majority of the speaking parts as my pronuciation and speaking speed still need a lot of work. I also found a Noahs Ark childrens song in Spanish and we sang along with the CD as part of the show.
The children loved it! We had their complete attention the whole show (which, granted, wasn´t THAT long). A friend did a practical application afterwards and then I gave out coloring sheets related to the story.
This week coming up is pretty much the same for me. My team is planning a VBS for our orphanage kids and I have written a 3 part puppet performance. The theme is Obedience. I´ve almost completed the shopping portion and now I am working on creating the props and other helps.
I´ve been despartely looking for something I can make props out of instead of posterboard. Posterboard is rather ¨floppy¨ and can´t stand on its own. I decided that I needed styrofoam. And then I saw someone carrying a huge sheet of it in La Cancha. If the man hadn´t been a soldier I would have asked him where he bought it. I described in spanish the best I could to my house mom but she wasn´t understanding. Then I was talking to my teams interns and one guy said ¨You mean the stuff they sit on at futbol (soccer) games?¨ I was like, you´ve got to be kidding me, could it be that easy? That what I told my house mom and she´s like ¨of course! We call that ´plastoformo´¨ and she told me where I could find it. Well, that turned into an adventure all its own... and in the end, I did find my styrofoam! And its soooo cheap too. Now to make the props out of it, hahaha. So thank God for plastoformo!
I´ll update up the VBS as soon as its completed :)
Last Sunday I preformed my first real puppet show. It was a crazy time getting it all put together. I spent a lot of time shopping (sorry, no hobby lobby here folks), spent time writing a puppet script and finding a place I could print it out, and creating the puppet stage and props. And I am glad to report that all that time I invested made a for a very sucessful puppet show! One of my good bolivian friends helped me to perform the story of Noah and the Ark. I wrote the script in a way that it was a Grandmother telling her granddaughter the story. I also worked it so that my bolivian friend had the majority of the speaking parts as my pronuciation and speaking speed still need a lot of work. I also found a Noahs Ark childrens song in Spanish and we sang along with the CD as part of the show.
The children loved it! We had their complete attention the whole show (which, granted, wasn´t THAT long). A friend did a practical application afterwards and then I gave out coloring sheets related to the story.
This week coming up is pretty much the same for me. My team is planning a VBS for our orphanage kids and I have written a 3 part puppet performance. The theme is Obedience. I´ve almost completed the shopping portion and now I am working on creating the props and other helps.
I´ve been despartely looking for something I can make props out of instead of posterboard. Posterboard is rather ¨floppy¨ and can´t stand on its own. I decided that I needed styrofoam. And then I saw someone carrying a huge sheet of it in La Cancha. If the man hadn´t been a soldier I would have asked him where he bought it. I described in spanish the best I could to my house mom but she wasn´t understanding. Then I was talking to my teams interns and one guy said ¨You mean the stuff they sit on at futbol (soccer) games?¨ I was like, you´ve got to be kidding me, could it be that easy? That what I told my house mom and she´s like ¨of course! We call that ´plastoformo´¨ and she told me where I could find it. Well, that turned into an adventure all its own... and in the end, I did find my styrofoam! And its soooo cheap too. Now to make the props out of it, hahaha. So thank God for plastoformo!
I´ll update up the VBS as soon as its completed :)
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Finally starting to feel like...
A Missionary! After 7 solid months of having restricted time available for ministry due to langauge tutoring, I have finally cut back to just one hour of class a day. There were multiple reasons for this one of them being that my team leaders are now on furlough and I wanted to have more time available to help my team. All my newfound ¨free time¨ is getting scarce because something good is happening. I´m busy preparing and doing ministry! I can´t tell you how good it feels to be helping my team and bringing my own gifts and abilities into play.
For example, last week I spent a good deal of time preparing for an upcoming puppet show in my church´s ministry in Sacaba. There was a lot of shopping for supplies, creating a puppet stage, and most important, writing a script in Spanish. It is looking very probable that early next month we will be hosting a VBS of sorts for our kids as they are on their winter break (remember everything is opposite here). I am excited like you wouldn´t believe to begin preparing a three part puppet show for our kids. I have also begun going to our 2nd orphanage once a week to help ¨watch¨ our kids for a few hours. I prepare some small things for the kids to do during this time as well. I´ve also picked up some misc chores that the team needs done.
I´ve been praying a lot about what my role on this team is suppose to be. And at some point, I couldn´t tell you when exactly, I discovered that I have a really strong desire to see these kids develop their individual personalities, gifts, and strengths. What exactly this will look like I don´t know yet. Mostly I think it will have a lot to do with giving them opportunites to express themselves, be it artistically, with writing, with music, ect. Please pray for me as God continues to reveal this vision to me. Its quite a stretch for me considering I´m not artisitic, or musical, and not entirely too crafty. But it is what God has laid on my heart and He will enable me to fulfill this vision. How would you know if a child was created to be a painter if no one ever put a paintbrush in his hand? Think about that.
For example, last week I spent a good deal of time preparing for an upcoming puppet show in my church´s ministry in Sacaba. There was a lot of shopping for supplies, creating a puppet stage, and most important, writing a script in Spanish. It is looking very probable that early next month we will be hosting a VBS of sorts for our kids as they are on their winter break (remember everything is opposite here). I am excited like you wouldn´t believe to begin preparing a three part puppet show for our kids. I have also begun going to our 2nd orphanage once a week to help ¨watch¨ our kids for a few hours. I prepare some small things for the kids to do during this time as well. I´ve also picked up some misc chores that the team needs done.
I´ve been praying a lot about what my role on this team is suppose to be. And at some point, I couldn´t tell you when exactly, I discovered that I have a really strong desire to see these kids develop their individual personalities, gifts, and strengths. What exactly this will look like I don´t know yet. Mostly I think it will have a lot to do with giving them opportunites to express themselves, be it artistically, with writing, with music, ect. Please pray for me as God continues to reveal this vision to me. Its quite a stretch for me considering I´m not artisitic, or musical, and not entirely too crafty. But it is what God has laid on my heart and He will enable me to fulfill this vision. How would you know if a child was created to be a painter if no one ever put a paintbrush in his hand? Think about that.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
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!
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!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Well, it finally caught up with me
After a very proud 7 months of being free from any serious stomach bugs, I came down with terrible stomach pains at the beginning of this week. After a sleepless night with frequent trips to the bathroom, my house mom called in a doctor to see me. Yes, they do that here for only about $20 US. Oddly enough, by that time I was feeling much better, just tired and weak. He didn´t do any tests but made sure I was ok, assigned some meds for pain and what not and left. That night I started feeling bad again so my house mom decided we needed to go for blood and stool tests. 8AM the next morning I had blood drawn for 3 or 4 tests. By 5pm we had results. Again, costing only about $13. Really a waste of money to have insurance down here! But anyway, the tests showed no stomach bugs, THANK GOD, but a high white blood cell count. Meaning that I had an infection in my intestines.
So basically I laid around and slept for 2 days, didn´t eat a whole lot and by Wednesday I was back to life as normal. But it has been a very odd week! I am very happy to be eating normally (after having a somewhat restricted diet for the week), feeling strong, and alert.
This week also contained a ¨surprise¨ party for my spanish tutor and a going away dinner for another one of my teams interns. This morning I took two of our newer interns to Viviana´s physical therapy as they are psychology majors and were curious as to what kind of therapy she had.
This afternoon I began a log that I will continue to update every month on our kids. Simply put, its a height and weight chart. But I am trying to make it as fun as I can by using fun stickers, asking questions about what they want to do when they are grown up, and possibly building on those answers in the future. What did you want to be when you were 9 years old? I think I wanted to be a nurse! The chart will be used for when the kids go to the doctors so we can give a month by month history of their growth. I believe it will also help us to see if they are having a stomach issue if they are not growing and gaining each month. Many of our kids came for very malnurished situations and are still on the mend. I look forward to getting to know our kids more personally in this way as well.
So basically I laid around and slept for 2 days, didn´t eat a whole lot and by Wednesday I was back to life as normal. But it has been a very odd week! I am very happy to be eating normally (after having a somewhat restricted diet for the week), feeling strong, and alert.
This week also contained a ¨surprise¨ party for my spanish tutor and a going away dinner for another one of my teams interns. This morning I took two of our newer interns to Viviana´s physical therapy as they are psychology majors and were curious as to what kind of therapy she had.
This afternoon I began a log that I will continue to update every month on our kids. Simply put, its a height and weight chart. But I am trying to make it as fun as I can by using fun stickers, asking questions about what they want to do when they are grown up, and possibly building on those answers in the future. What did you want to be when you were 9 years old? I think I wanted to be a nurse! The chart will be used for when the kids go to the doctors so we can give a month by month history of their growth. I believe it will also help us to see if they are having a stomach issue if they are not growing and gaining each month. Many of our kids came for very malnurished situations and are still on the mend. I look forward to getting to know our kids more personally in this way as well.
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