Interior Designers

Sundays in Bolivia have been for the most part relaxing and fun. I am glad to have gotten connected with a church here called Cochabamba International Church - I've been able to meet a bunch of new people here. The congregation is made up of about half Bolivian families and half foreign missionaries, which is a neat mix, and my spanish teachers help lead worship. This morning the church had our first meeting in the newly constructed sanctuary, and today was a dedication Sunday. After the service we went out to lunch with a bunch of people from church and the Samsel's - a family who has been visiting to learn more about the work of Casa de Amor. Later on today we took the Samsels to the airport to fly home, and I got to go running. Tonight Jennifer made dinner for Katrina & me, and we had a movie night - always a good time. We had a flashback to elementary school with a bootleg copy of Mujeritas...otherwise known as Little Women. Seeing as our copy wasn't exactly legit, it was funny to read on the back of the box that our copy said Little Women is rated R for "Horror, Violence, and Nudity." (The movie is actually PG - and I think that's a stretch.)

This afternoon I also got to watch the last quarter of the Titans game thanks to Dad pointing his skype web cam at our tv at home...sadly, I don't think I'm missing too much so far this season. This is unfortunate, because Miami is the perfect stop for me to fly to the Superbowl real quick this January. I'm not losing hope yet!

Lunch on the Prado - Katrina and Jennifer

Katrina and I had a little home-decorating project this evening...This week we did a little shopping at La Cancha, the biggest open-air market in South America. It is absolutely enormous - I would get lost so easily by myself. They sell literally EVERYTHING at La Cancha - groceries, clothes, school supplies, tv's, live animals...you name it, La Cancha's got it. Seriously. Anyways, we made some wise investments in purchasing mosquito nets for our beds at night - I've had mosquitos in my ears at all hours of the night, so hopefully these will be helpful. The fun began when we made several attempts to actually hang up our mosquito nets - Katrina's from a nail in the wall, mine from the top bunk. It was not pretty, but I think we agree that the beautiful shades of peach and army green netting add a lot to our little room.

 HA - katrina in her princess bed

Hopefully in the morning we'll be able to get out of these things in time for breakfast.

Saturday Shift

Today I spent 13 hours at House 2 with some of these guys!

Don't these faces look angelic? Sometimes that's the case...!

I love working with Tia Nahara!

(picture courtesy of a 6-year-old photographer)

Happy October!

Casa 2's Night on the Town

This afternoon Katrina and I got to take out all of the kids from Casa 2 for the evening. We left this afternoon and headed straight to a great park in town - it was really nice, and the kids had a blast playing on the swings, sliding, and running around. After the park we took them out to eat, which was a little bit of chaos but also a lot of fun! Throughout the evening we had one boy bust open his chin at the park, one boy wet his pants, and one boy threw up in the back of the full taxi...overall, a very successful outing!? Katrina and I had lots of laughs today, that's for sure. These kids are too much fun. Of course, our traveling was done in normal Bolivian fashion - we had 17 people in one taxi! It still kind of makes me scratch my head to see how so many people can fit into one car...(and our taxi driver was pretty nice about cleaning off his floor mat after our little carsick episode!) We did end the evening with a little trip to the hospital for some stitches, but minus this, I think a good time was had by the whole gang.

Team of Tia's

Shoutout to Katrina...I have THE best roommate/translator/visa assistant/amiga

Cochabamba

My Town

Just wanted to put up a few pictures of where I'm living. Our home isn't downtown but is more on the outskirts of the city. The city of Cochabamba is really neat - it definitely has beat all expectations that I had. I'm surrounded by mountains, there are plenty of parks, trees, and green, and the weather has been unbeatable so far - every day it's been sunny and in the 70s or low 80s, then it cools off to 40 or so at night. Summer is approaching though, (SO excited to be skipping winter all together this year!) But unfortunately, summer here brings the rainy season, so we'll see how that goes. I'm thankful for the sunshine right now.

You can't really see from the above picture, but on top of the hill there is a big statue of Christ that can be seen from all over the city - it looks especially pretty lit up at night.

On Saturday of this weekend, the Alseth family, (they run Casa 3 here,) had planned a big hiking trip to climb Mt. Tunari. The peak is 17,000 ft and has incredible views of Cochabamba. I had been looking forward to this trip since before I even arrived in Bolivia, but unfortunately, I woke up early Saturday morning too sick to leave my room, let alone join the adventure. That was the first real downer of a day that I've had since getting here, but I think we'll for sure make the trek again before June!

Today we had lunch after church with the Alseth and the Holman families. It was my first time meeting the Holmans - they are a missionary family from the US who have 11 kids, and they're a really nice family. I'm loving meeting so many new people.

Here are a few more pics from around where I live

Just like the Golden Gate, huh? :)

Love the mountains

The horse stadium has been a good landmark for me learning my way around. Sidenote: IMBA is the chicken factory on my street...mmm lovely!

El Cristo again...can still barely see it...sorry!

I love Cochabamba, and you would too, so just let me know when you book your flight to come visit!

Learning My Way Around

The past few days I've been taking kids to various doctors' appointments with Katrina - I am learning how to get to and from the different hospitals and offices around town. So far we've taken kids to get hearing aids inspected, to work with speech therapists, to get hip x-rays, and to the pediatrician.

This happy guy had to wait a LONG time to get those x-rays! Sorry for the bad picture - I'll have to get another one.

Traveling with toddlers on public transportation is quite the experience! Most of the time the kids have been really great about sitting pretty still and behaving, so it's as easy as it could be. I just still have to learn the 984759348 different bus routes or "trufie" routes...(just big vans basically.)
I'm surprised at how much I enjoy going to my language school here - it's been fun to meet people, and my teachers are just great people. It's helping a bunch, but I know that I still have a long ways to go! For the past 2 weeks I've repeatedly thought I was telling people or kids that I was going to be right back, but instead I've been telling them that I'm stirring. Awesome. :)
This week a mother and daughter from Texas are visiting to learn more about Casa de Amor - this means that we have lots of fun activities planned to show them a good time.

Last,

2 Weeks Old! Do you think she's getting bigger?

During our nights together, she thanked me for being her roommate by soaking through her 2 layers of clothes, my 2 blankets, sheets, and pajamas at 3:45 this morning...good thing she is this cute!

Slumber Party

Last night I got newborn duty...and not quiiiite as much slumber as usual! It was probably a good thing that my roommate spent the night at her family's apartment in town. :) I had some quality bonding time with the little one, so definitely no complaints! She's really sweet.

Waving to all of her blog fans?

Getting sleepy

:)

Haircuts x 2

This morning was crazy around Casa 1...all of the Casa 2 gang came over for a little bit, so there were kids evvvverywhere! It's fun having so many together, though. Midmorning Jennifer and I took the twin boys to get haircuts. Of course, the new baby came, too!

Matching shirts for everyone? :)

Pre-Haircut

Twin P...calm as can be (once he had a cookie!)

Nice pose

Checking himself out

Twin A...different story!

All gelled up and lookin' good!

We took them to a children's barber shop, which was good because I'm sure they were used to babies crying throughout their entire haircuts! After haircuts we stopped at the big Saturday market downtown to buy fruit - it was great!

It's hard to believe that already a week has gone by. It has kind of been a blur, but it's been such an awesome week. I know all of the kids at houses 1 & 2 now and mosttttttt of the staff...still have a few names to get down though! I also started going to a language school downtown for a couple of days a week to improve my Spanish - especially with medical terms, which I have very little knowledge about. It's been a week full of meeting new people, exploring Cochabamba, figuring out routines, doctor's appointments, running, changing diapers, and loving on kiddos. I have learned a lot in 7 days, and I know that there are lots of good times to come.

1 Week Old

Our baby is a week old today! Katrina and I took her out to her first appointment with the pediatrician, and she's doing well. It is so fun having a newborn in the house!

It's A Girl!

That's the text message that I got yesterday morning from our director...and by lunch time, look who we got to meet!

Oh yes...we have a new baby in the house! Jennifer picked up our 5 day old newborn girl from the hospital yesterday morning. She's about 6lb and just tiny...most of the newborn sized clothes are too big for her right now. All of the kids and staff were surprised when Jennifer brought her in, and it has been so neat to watch everyone here welcome her into our home.

So many caregivers!

Practicing :)

Thanks, Jennifer, for the pics!

What a sweet time it is here!

Fashion Show

Today I was at the Baby Home all day, and I got to work with the second half of the group of Tias here. I am slowly learning names! They are all so great to help me with my Spanish and everything else that I need to learn here...like how to make diapers out of two cloth blankets. :) I'm learning the routine around House 1 here, and every day I am feeling more and more at home here. It is really a great place to be.

Right before I left for Bolivia, I had lunch with my grandmother who surprised me with all of these cute outfits that she and Mrs. Ford had made for some of the babies here. I didn't get a ton of pictures, but I wanted to share the ones that I did get. Between my grandmother's sewing and my mom's shopping, the kids here looked really cute running around in the outfits that y'all sent with me. A lot of the outfits that we brought were for the twins, since it's hard to find matching outfits for them to wear here, but I couldn't get a pic of two of them in one place! I will try to post more pictures soon...

Playing Outside

Little Brother & Big Sis

Twin Boy

Cute little monkey

Posing for the Camera

Day 2, Casa 2

Yesterday was my second day here in Bolivia, and it was long but lots of fun! I had a 12 hour shift at Casa de Amor 2, which is home to 12 precious kids ages 3-12. Tia Nahara was my teammate for most of the day, and she was great to work with. When I got there in the morning I helped everyone get dressed and ready for church while she prepared lunch for when we got back.
Church was definitely an experience! First, we piled 12 kids, 2 Tias, and our driver into one car. Seatbelts are kind of a non-issue here, I think. The church that we went to today was completely in Spanish. I knew a couple of the songs that we sang in English, but I didn't follow a whole lot of the 2 hour long sermon...I will have to get better at my spanish still. I am learning a lot every day but still have work to do! In the afternoon we had lunch at the house with all of the kids and got to play for the rest of the evening. Then we had dinner, changed everyone into pj's, and called it a night. A few of the kids get to watch a movie on Sunday nights if they have behaved well during the week. :) Last night after I got back I met my roommate, Katrina. She is 17 and has volunteered here for a while now, so she's been very helpful with my 2937498 daily questions! Here are a few pictures from yesterday:

How many kids can we fit into a car?

Playing a game called Chase the Car Out of the Driveway?...

Some of y'all know that Cheaper by the Dozen is my all-time favorite book - in the back of my mind I've always kind of thought it would be neat to have a dozen kids...let me tell you, today cured me of that real fast! These were 12 great kids, and I have a newfound respect for families with so many children...I just don't think that I could ever do it myself! I loved being at Casa de Amor 2 yesterday.