Wow that title is long, buts It’s been a while since I wrote anything on my blog so here goes nothing! I don’t have anything profound to say, but I thought I would recount the whirlwind that has been the past two months.
Thanksgiving was just a normal Thursday here in Bolivia. The girls all had school during the day so we spent all morning and into the afternoon working on school. In between homework we were watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade on my phone. The girls loved it! They were enthralled by all the balloons! I loved watching how excited they were. In the evening we were invited to the MaryKnoll community to participate in a Thanksgiving day Mass (in English!!!) and dinner with other missionaries in Cochabamba. It was so nice to be with others from the USA and share a meal. We even had all the Thanksgiving food staples!
Later in November all the sisters, volunteers and girls celebrated my birthday with me! It was a day filled with lots of dancing, singing and gluten free cake! All the girls practiced and performed a dance for me! And they all made me cards as well. I can say that I have never had such hullabaloo about my birthday before. It was for sure lots of fun!
In early December we finished up school with the girls for the year. And a good majority of them left to spend time to be with their family contacts during summer/Christmas break. Well, you might be wondering, ‘I thought you worked at an orphanage, why are they going home?’ Well, it’s more like a foster home, so a lot of them still have family. Bolivia stresses the importance of keeping family connections between families. For this reason they have a law here that basically says the girls have to go with their family connections during summer break. With the condition that their homes are safe and they are regularly checked on by our social worker. Because most of the girls would be gone it gave us volunteers a great opportunity to explore Bolivia before Ann returned home after her year.
To start our trip off we spent 3 days in the department of Potosi in the Salar de Uyuni (salt flats) as well as the desert in the Altiplano (bordering with Chile). It was quiet an experience! With salt for miles in the Salar, and a desert with flamingos, geysers, hot springs and volcanic rocks. After our time in Potosi was up, we headed to Santa Cruz! The altitude is much lower here so it was hot and humid during our stay. While in Santa Cruz we got to spend a night and two days in Amboro national park, a transitional rainforest. Here we saw lots of birds and a diverse array of plants! Due to rain we were not able to see many animals, but it wouldn’t be the rainforest without rain, right? Although the rain did complicate things on the way out of the rainforest. But, on our flight back to Cochabamba we met up with my older sister, Faith! I was very happy to see her!
For Christmas the sisters took the remaining girls to Santa Cruz. Which left all four of us volunteers and my sister here alone! It was so quiet, but we had a quiet Christmas Eve celebration. We went to Mass at the cathedral, cooked dinner and exchanged small gifts we had bought for each other. On Christmas Day two girls returned from their homes and they began to trickle in after this. The day after Christmas we took the four girls that were home, to our favorite Chinese resaurant to celebrate the 18th birthday of one of the girls.
The next day my sister and I traveled, in the evening, to La Paz. We landed in the highest (altitude wise) airport and town in the world (El Alto). We spent the night in La Paz and took a bus bright and early to Copacabana. In Copacabana we visited Isla del Sol, where we hiked up the ancitent Incan steps, ate trout and enjoyed the view of Lake Titicaka. We stayed a night in Copacabana, and the next day hiked el Camino Calavario (The way of the cross), went to Mass, and hopped back on a bus to La Paz. When we arrived in La Paz we went to El Cementario General, which is anything like I have seen before! La Paz is in a valley, and was constantly growing, for this reason they were lacking space to bury people. For this reason they built a cemetary with walls and rows of space. For our last day we explored La Paz a little more and took a teleferico (almost like a covered ski lift) to El Alto where we then departed for Cochabamba.
Sadly, in late Decemeber we said goodbye to Ann, as her year came to an end here in Bolivia! I am so grateful we got to spend almost 4 months together here in Cochabamba here with her. I am so sad it has come to an end, but so excited for the adventures she will have with her family back in the USA.
For new years eve we prepared games and traditions to do with girls, and we all helped make dinner, salchipapa. We all had fun dancing, playing games and watching fireworks. We stayed up until 1am with the girls, which made for a really fun night, but really tired next day.
Right now the girls are all on their summer vacation still. School will start back up in February. But for now we have been occupying a lot of time with gardening, baking, playing games and of course watching movies.
Thanks for stopping by!
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