Welcome back! Let me give you a little update on what has happened the past few weeks. Also the picture above is taken from one of the buses that are here in Bolivia. The women in the bus are all indigenous people of Bolivia. I love being immersed in the culture of Bolivia. There history is so closely kept and remembered as sacred.
At the end of January three of the older girls left to go up across the way to live with the order of sisters. They are currently aspirants in an experimental year to discern becoming a sister. Before the girls left we threw them a little party with cake and food. The same day that the three girls left we had two more girls come and two more a couple of weeks later! I really have enjoyed watching the girls welcome the new girls.
On the 31st of January we celebrated the feast of St. John Bosco by planning games to do with the girls. In the monring we baked a cake and decorated it to celebrate the feast day of our patron. In the afternoon we played lots of games with LOTS of candy and cookies for prizes. We all had lots of fun! After we played for a couple of hours we ate cake and watched a movie. I personally really ejnoy laughing and playing with the girls. Those are my favorite momments.
The next day on the 1st of February we started school here in the Hogar. Which is back to online school, as it was last school year. It has been an adustment period for everyone this past month, but I do have to say it is very nice to finally be back into a schedule again. The lack of structure during summer break was nice at moments, and school, especially online, can be stressful, it is so nice to be doing something that I know how to do, and to have structure for the girls again.
All of us volunteers are each assigned certain grades from the primary school that we are in charge. I am in charge of the afternoon 4th graders. One of my girls I also had last school year. It has been a challenge with this girl specifically because she does not really speak spanish well, as well as the language that she grew up speaking, Quechua. She understands both languages but is not able to speak well in either language. Her speaking level is closer to that of a toddler, which means a lot of times I am correcting her spanish and trying to teach her the right things to say, as well as trying to decipher what she is trying to communicate to me. As well as not being able to speak well, she also can not read and does not know all the letters of the alphabet. The majority of my time here in Bolivia has been dedicated to teaching her how recognize letters and their sounds. Recently, when I notice that she is getting overwhlemed with school I will take her to our courtyard and we walk around and talk about our favorite food, animals and things to do. I have really appreciated this time with her, I get to see her personality more and more because she feels more and more comfortable talking to me and telling me about her life. These times to slow down during the day have become some of my favorite moments in the day.
I have also started taking my students to our chapel at the Hogar as a little break throughout the day. One day I took one of my girls, that I disscussed earlier, to the chapel for a break after she got overwhelmed. I started out by praying outloud to make her feel comfortable, and after I told her she could talk to God outloud or in her head, or simply be in His precense. She started to pray and very simply and sincerely prayed that God would teach her how to speak, write, and read. I knew as she was praying she really trusted that He would do all of those things for her. This is one of the main reasons I love working with kids, the innocence, trust and joy that they have is so contagious!
I thought I would run through a 'normal' school day here in Bolivia. 6:30am we wake up the little girls and help them get ready/braid their hair. Around 7:20 the girls go and eat breakfast, and so do we. All of us volunteers are all assigned a handful of girls to help/check on the progrss of their chore and clothes everyday. So after breakfast we go and check over the chores of all our girls. Once we have checked their chores we all go to the study room and start on homework and teaching, which we pretty much do all day, with the expection of snacka t 10:30, lunch at 12, and classes in the afternoon. During their classes we sit with them and make sure they are paying attention. Because one of my girls can not read, I actually take notes for her and she copies them down after class. Needless to say, it is very important that I pay attention during their class or else she will not have notes. Around 5pm, everyday, we pray the rosary, and at 6pm we eat dinner. 7pm is when we put all the little girls to bed. Once we pray together with the girls all of us volunteers head upstiars (around 7:30-8pm) to have time off and sleep, then to wake up again to get started at 6:30.am.
The begining February was actually the birthday of one of the sisters. Birthdays are a big thing here in the Hogar, so the girls had been practicing dances for weeks before the big day. Us volunteers actually practiced a dance as well and performed it for sister. All the girls went all out with their dances, especially the older girls. The older girls even went to the trouble of making masks and even putting together carboard guns for the dance. It was an interesting choice in song, as the music video is a bunch of girls robbing a bank and with rifles, but I loved how they got so into making it great! After everyone danced, we had cake and dinner with geletin after dinner. Later we danced with the girls for a while and then everyone went to bed.
The past weeks have been filled with lots of online classes, homework and lots of covering notebooks to the likings of the teachers. All the students cover their notebooks with paper and plastic over that. So I have become a master of covering notebooks.
on February 13th, to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, we watched a little movie about Lourdes and did a little craft afterward. The girls got very into the craft and were very creative, which I loved watching!
Recently I have been trying to focus on the joy of little moments, and I wanted to share one moment in particular that was so joyful. Our youngest here was having a bad day and so I put some Frozen music on and we danced for 15 minutes straight, singing and dancing. It was so joyfilled, and helped me remember to stay in the present. Also, its always fun to dance and sing to Frozen! I hope you are able to find a time this week to slow down and recognize the joy of the present moment.
Thanks for stopping by!
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