It has only been 3 weeks but Bolivia has already been a crazy adventure. Let’s start with the basics. I live in the jungle in a small house with 6 Bolivian girls and another SM. I have already seen 4 tarantulas here and 1 of them was in my room. Scratch that. I just saw another tarantula last night on my bathroom ceiling while I was on the toilet. So make that 5 tarantulas. We eat completely vegan food here which is very new for me, but I am getting used to it. Most of our meals consist of some type of bread such as banana bread, carrot bread, corn bread, fruit bread, garlic bread, or wheat bread. We also eat a lot of rice and beans. I am learning a ton of Spanish but need to learn a lot more. The kids don’t speak any English, so it is very difficult to teach my class and also to be a “mother” of my house. All of the kids here have their own machete and use the machetes to work almost every day. I have been learning how to use a machete to work in the garden, but I am getting a lot of blisters on my hands. All of the water at Familia Feliz is cold, so showers are always fun. When it rains here it rains super hard. Recently it has been raining a lot at night and it is very difficult to sleep because it is so incredibly loud. I am actually very surprised that my little house is able to keep us safe and dry. Right now it is winter here, but it is still very hot all the time except for in the middle of the night and early in the morning. The mosquitos are terrible here and I am getting eaten alive. Right now my feet and ankles are covered in bug bites because I always wear my chacos. Most of the kids here frequently have lice and actually just the other day we discovered that my roommate Candace had lice. I have been using lice shampoo and conditioner every day since I got here, so hopefully I don’t get it.
August 6 was Independence Day for Bolivia and we participated in a parade. On the night of August 5 an army truck came to take us to the base and we marched with the soldiers in our Pathfinder uniforms. We marched again on the mornings of August 6 and 7 and also participated in a gymnastics show. It was a lot of fun, but also one of the weirdest things I have ever done. There were tons and tons of people all over the town for the parade so it was very chaotic. It was extremely tiring marching in the hot sun and never being able to sit down. Oh and since the soldiers are not used to seeing American women we got whistled at a couple times and were stared at very frequently. But overall it was very cool to be a part of their parade and to see the whole town.
I am still getting the hang of things here, but overall am really enjoying it. This week we finally had a normal schedule because there was no Independence Day parade or anything. I really like my house and the girls that I live with and I think we are all getting closer. One of my girls had a lot of disciplinary issues here in the past and continued to have problems over these past 3 weeks. She has a huge problem with stealing other people’s things. Sometime last week she stole something from one of the girls and tried to give it to one of my girls as a present and also buried someone else’s soap behind our house. When we found out about this we had a staff meeting and tried to find a punishment for her, but apparently they have tried every punishment possible for her and she’s still not changing. We brought her in to have a meeting with all of us staff and from that she made the choice to leave Familia Feliz. So, now I only live with 5 Bolivian girls and Candace. But, ever since she left on Monday there has been more of a family-like atmosphere in the house. Everyone is getting along and the girls are hanging out with Candace and I more!
Last Sabbath we told our girls that we could take a walk in the afternoon and they all got really excited. We were thinking that it would just be a little nature walk or something and then we could have them read some verses from the Bible and then we would go back to the house. Well, we start walking and decide that we should just let them lead. We begin to leave Familia Feliz and get on the road and start wondering where they are taking us. After walking and walking and walking we attempt to ask them where we are going and did not understand their response to us. We know that they aren’t going to do something that they’re not supposed to do, so we aren’t too worried. After some more walking I ask them how far or how long of a walk it is. They say, “Una hora.” Una hora. ONE HOUR!! Okay I did not want to walk for an hour, but I felt like we had already gone too far so I guess might as well keep going. I was actually having fun though because Candace and I were singing fun songs in English with lots of hand motions as we were walking. Eventually Candace stopped but one of our girls, Angelica, really enjoyed the songs so I continued doing camp songs with Angelica for the entire walk. She did all of the hand motions with me and tried to hum the songs as I sang. It ended up being really fun for me! But also really tiring. Eventually we made it to our destination which ended up being where the grandparents of 2 boys from Familia Feliz live. Their grandma was very nice and she brought us a papaya to share and we sang more songs in English and in Spanish. When we walked back to Familia Feliz Angelica wanted more songs so her and I continued to do camp songs the entire walk back as well. It was quite the adventure!
Apparently if it is your birthday at Familia Feliz you get thrown into the river. I have already seen a couple different kids get thrown into the river at different times, but last Thursday was a little different. One of the older boys, Josue, turned 16 on Thursday. Josue has a little bit of a problem with always having big crushes on one of the volunteers and apparently I am currently his big crush. So for Josue’s birthday, our lovely director Miguel wanted me to throw Josue into the river and all of the other staff loved that idea. When we were all in the “cafeteria” for lunch, right after prayer and before anyone gets dismissed to get their food I grab Josue from behind and just hold him. A bunch of the boys die laughing and apparently Josue’s face was priceless. Everyone immediately knows what is going on and Andrew and another volunteer Yancy rush over to carry Josue. The 3 of us lug Josue down to the river and throw him in. As if that wasn’t bad enough, when we all get back into the cafeteria Miguel says that no one eats until every single person at Familia Feliz kisses Josue on the cheek. Oh my word. So that’s exactly what happens. Everyone gets in a line to kiss Josue and Andrew says we have to save the best for last. It was quite the experience! Honestly it was really cute how happy Josue got when I grabbed him and when I kissed him. I told him that he reminds me of my little brother though, so hopefully that clears up any misconceptions he may have had.
My 3 students are the cutest things in the world, but oh my word they are such a pain. I give them work to do in class and they’re just like, “No quiero. No quiero.” Okay excuse me it doesn’t matter if you want to do this work or not, but you need to do it. I teach all subjects for 1st and 2nd grade from 8:00-12:00 on Monday through Friday. I have a 5 year old girl and two 8 year old boys. I am learning that it is very difficult to teach them when none of them are on the same level of knowledge or the same level of maturity. Maribel, my 5 year old, is finally able to write her name. She is learning the vowels and I am also trying to teach her how to count and write her numbers. Henry knows the song for the Spanish alphabet, but he can’t quite recognize what each of the letters look like. He can count really well and I am beginning to teach him how to add and subtract. Rodrigo is really smart! He can actually read by sounding out the letters and words. He is also very good at addition and we are working on subtraction. I really want to do my best to teach each of them at their own level without holding any of them back.
I am very quickly picking up on a lot of Spanish, but really need to focus on learning a lot more. It will be so much easier to teach when I can fully speak Spanish and understand everything that my kids say to me. When my girls are upset I will actually be able to comfort them and talk with them. I am really looking forward to being good at Spanish!
At Familia Feliz there is absolutely no service or wifi. Every Sunday the staff drive to the nearest town to hang out and get internet. We do not all get to go every Sunday though. Since someone obviously has to stay at the orphanage with the kids, we have a rotation where 3 of us stay for 1 Sunday of each month. Being in town is really nice because it’s a pleasant little break from the kids and there is a restaurant that I go to with amazing ice cream and decent wifi! The wifi isn’t very fast, but it at least allows me to communicate with my friends and family back at home.
That's it for now. I don't really know how to blog so I hope this is okay! Going back into the great and wild jungle!