In the jungle: The only place where two year old's chop sticks with machetes

My camera started acting up on me while I was in the jungle this time (this time for four days), so I was unable to take many very many pictures, so most of these are taken from my co-workers.

Bian Tai Ririn, the new nursery in the jungle!

The past two weeks went by SO quickly. In addition to working at Elijo la Vida, I was also able to shadow a doctor at a hospital called Hospitals of Hope (hospitales de esperanza) in the trauma center. It was interesting to see how he interacted with the patients and worked with them, and he saw seven patients in three hours. The trauma center is for patients who have been in serious accidents, and are recovering. As a result, a woman came in who had been hit by a car, as well as a couple of people who had had broken bones. In all honesty, it wasn't as interesting as I would have imagined it to be, but I also couldn't understand everything that the doctor was saying, so that would have also contributed.

In addition to going to the Yuquis village with Elijo la Vida, we also went to a women's jail to do Pap tests, and I got to do a couple for the first time! We got a new volunteer from the United States, a girl called Karen who is currently in med school, and she guided me through it. It wasn't very hard, and we got to have some fresh pineapple juice after (as irrelevant as that is. It was good pineapple juice). It took us about 2 hours to see nineteen patients. I was really excited to be able to go into the jail, because we had been trying to go in for a couple of weeks, and I'd heard a lot about it. The jails in Bolivia are so different from Canada, as it almost resembles a small city. It's an enclosed square, where the prisoners can roam around in it, and it has a store, chairs, and an open roof. Everyone can wear regular clothes, unlike the traditional bright orange clothes (which I'm actually not sure if people have to wear in Canada). As well, family can visit and go directly into the jail if they want to, and a lot of mothers actually have their children living in the jail with them, because there isn't a foster care system in Bolivia.

About the Yuquis: So much happened that I am going to divide into 4 sections:
1) The project
2) Spare time
3) Food
4) What God taught me
5) What sort of insect bites I got (...just kidding. But it could take up a section)

1) The project

On Wednesday, we left for the Yuquis village again, this time to renovate the church and convert it into a nursery. Over four days, we swept the inside, smoked out all the hornets, gave the whole church a fresh coat of white, painted the tables and shelves, and decorated the whole inside. I was actually really impressed with how it turned out, and am really excited to see how the nursery will run. As I mentioned before, one of the things that I like the best about this initiative is how the goal is to make a self sustainable nursery. Dinah (the girl who I met last time who is my age) is going to be the teacher, and the mothers are going to alternate cooking for the children. As wonderful as this would be if it works out, it will also be a challenge for the women to commit to helping out with the nursery, so they definitely still need a lot of prayer and support.

Kids putting handprints on the sign

Karen working on nailing balloons and posters to the church

The play area

The reading area

Another view of the back of the nursery

We had the inauguration on Saturday in the morning, and the whole village for 50 ended up showing up. After Miguel led worship, Marilyn explained again what the nursery was going to be (the main purpose is to offer a feeding program for the children under the age of 5 as well as providing some intellectual stimulation for them before starting elementary school), as well as introducing the main leaders and telling the community exactly how the program was going to work. Dinah will be coming up every week or two to be trained by a few women from Marilyn's church who are preschool teachers, and then implementing the program when she goes back. Everyone was pretty excited about it, and we also gave out some egg sandwiches to everyone as sort of a celebration.

The inauguration meeting; almost everyone in the village showed up!

Two of the new enrolled nursery kids at the inauguration!

A really cute kid at the inauguration

Marilyn teaching the mothers about the feeding schedule

2) Spare time

My bow and arrows.

So...I was reunited with my bow and arrows. I did end up buying the huge set for a friend, and had a blast trying them out. I managed to get them forty feet actually, although I'm really not strong enough to get them any farther. They're actually a foot and a half taller than me, and everyone laughed at me a lot.

The riverbank (mostly the sand though)

We usually just worked in the morning, and had free time in the afternoon to do other things. One day, we went to the river and swam in it (I still think it's cool that I swam in a tribute of the Amazon) with the kids. I have a lifeguarding certification (although I passed pretty sketchily and never felt comfortable enough actually lifeguarding) and still struggled with the current. The kids were regular little fish though. It was a pretty nice river, but so much smaller than in the summer. The water level lowered so much that we had to walk across 50 metres of sand and mud (that would have normally been covered) to get to the water.

Kids playing in the sand some more

Miguel also led a Bible study for the kids afterwards, and he shared the story of the Good Samaritan with them. It was so cute seeing all the kids know the actions to all of the songs, and that even the eleven year old boys participated! We played '4 corners' afterwards, which I learned from Carachipampa Christian School, although I didn't explain the game all that well.

One of the great things about the jungle is that you can pretty much get everything from the jungle, including bowls and plates. There's an inedible fruit called the 'Tutuma' that you can hollow out and use the shell as a bowl, once it has been dried in the sun, so Karen and I spent some time hacking them with machetes and hollowing them out (with the kids help). Sadly, we used them to hold oil paint to paint the church, so I'm not really sure if they are still usable as bowls, but we'll see.

Jocelyn, Jocelyn (the baby) and Vicky

3) Food


Remember how I said that you can pretty much get everything you need directly from the jungle? Well, this includes food, so I have decided to perform a critical analysis of everything we ate. I'm probably going to get horribly sick (the doctor's aren't going to like me very much when I get back), but I think it was worth it.

Catfish: The catfish was so amazing! Some of Miguel's friends caught some, so they gave us two over the four days as gifts, as we deep fried them and ate them. Miguel knew a great recipe for a sort of catfish fry (I think he made it up actually), and I am definitely trying it on whatever fish I can get my hands on when I go back home.

Miguel and one of the catfish

Tropero (jungle pig): Not as good as catfish, but still very, very good. A man shot a jungle pig on Friday morning, so we actually bought a leg before we got the catfish gift, so we ended up having a huge dinner. We chopped it up in small squared and deep fried that, and it tasted sort of like gamey beef.

Papaya: Dinah's husband took one down for me, and we waited three whole days for it to ripen, but when it did, it was SO delicious! I think that was my favourite fruit that I ate while in the jungle, it was so much better than any papaya I've ever had before.

Grapefruit: I had to climb a grapefruit tree to get at that one, and the one I picked unfortunately had a termite nest in it, which only clicked in my head as a bad idea when I started to get bitten. But I got four down anyways, and another boy got another four down for me (he didn't mind the termite bites, apparently), and I took away one of them. It was good, but grapefruit isn't really my thing.

Banana: Miguel and Karen cleared an area in front of the church, made a pile of leaves and garbage, and tried to burn it. While one of the village girls was fanning the flame, she pointed out a gigantic stack of bananas lying behind the pile of leaves, so I went and grabbed it. I swear, there must have been over 50 bananas there (is it called a stack? Or a stock? Or a grove?). The kids were so sweet, they all asked me if they could have one before taking them, and the bananas were amazing. They were smaller than normal ones though (about 5 inches long). When I called the boys playing soccer to have some, there was a bit of a pile up as they all literally fought for them, and would trot away sheepishly holding ten or so. It was hilarious.

This is what a grove of bananas looks like

Mandarins: I wouldn't have liked them if it wasn't for the fact that they were picked off a tree, because they were really sour. But it was fun anyways.

Oranges: Close to the port as we were leaving, Marilyn noticed a grove of orange trees, so I went off with one of the village girls (Vicky) to grab some. She ended up picking nine or ten (after the termite incident, I wasn't too eager to climb the tree myself), and they were amazing. So sweet!

A sideways picture of Vicky in the orange tree

Cacao fruit: In retrospect, I would have liked to try and make chocolate with it actually, what a pity that I didnt. The fruit was alright, although a bit slimey.

4) What God taught me

The average hut

Being in the jungle really taught me a lot about frugality. It's true that this village is incredibly poor by the world's standards, so much so that if they leave to visit other places, they can only get around by begging. But in other ways, they have a lot. They have so much knowledge about jungle food and different things like that, and have an abundance of fruit, meat and vegetables to eat. The kids all seem pretty happy, and everyone is super friendly. A lot of times, I hear that people who are poor believe in God because they have nothing else and need hope. I think its the opposite, that people who have a lot of money have such a harder time believing, because they don't need to think about hope. I can waste so much time just watching TV, or on the computer, that a whole day can be spent in complete unproductiveness. Is it not the same in terms of money? Can we be so preoccupied with money that we end up spending our whole lives not seeking true meaning in life, not considering Christ and the cross?

I also was really inspired spending time with Karen, the new addition to our team. Because she is actually in medical school, she still remembers all of what she has been learning, and for the first time in my entire life, I was actually fascinated by diseases, hormones and parasites (although I've learned it all before). I think when two people are discussing the likelihood of developing hookworms from the fact that they walked barefoot in  dirt and swam in the jungle, it becomes so much more practical and relevant. Anyways, I hope I can actually remember that what I learn in nursing school next  year will actually have practical application, and can be more motivated to study more and pay attention in lecture.

Anyways, there are a ton more things that happened to me these four days, but it would take forever to recount them all, and I covered the biggest parts, I think. Overall, it was just a huge blessing to be a part of this project, and I am SO unbelievably fortunate.

Prayer requests:
-The nursery (it's called 'Bian tai ririn') and that the mothers would stay motivated to continue it.
-Spiritual and emotional strength for Dinah (she's also about 7 months pregnant with her third child, so I'm really impressed with her commitment)
-Focus on things above and not things on earth.

Thanks a lot!
Jocelyn

P.S. This is a side note that I am writing two days after I typed up the rest of this post, but Dinah is not 7 months pregnant. She is now negative two days pregnant. She gave birth the first day the nursery opened, which I find hilarious. She's apparently still going to start teaching next week...

Who's that? Oh, that's just a man with a hundred year old rifle, a dead anteater and a pile of bananas...

One of the views on the way

Sorry that I've been so mia, I really wanted to blog about my trip with two friends to the SIM cabin last weekend (where my friend and I found a hill, climbed it, and discovered a prayer garden at the top overlooking the entire lake and all of the rolling hills), but I got caught up in stuff (aka sleeping and being lazy because sometimes the computer is a bit slow). But I just HAVE to blog about my past two days, because it was the experience of a lifetime and was such a huge blessing from God.

I finally got to go to the Yuquis village! Now, I've gone to villages before, last year, when I went to Honduras with a program with my university, but this was entirely different. Let me start from the beginning.

Starting to get jungley

Getting to the village was pretty much an adventure in itself (worthy of approximately 30 photos). Because it was so secluded, we had to keep switching vehicles, so the trip went like this:

7:00-11:00am: Take a trufi (sort of like a mix of a taxi and a bus) to a small town, where we had lunch. It was really amazing, because as we were driving along, I could see the trees changing from foresty to tropical jungley. Cochabamba is approximately 2000m higher than the Yuquis village, so it also got a lot more humid and sweaty (but it didn't take very long to get used to it).

One of the raised houses I saw on the drive

12:00pm-12:30pm: Take a taxi to a place in the middle of nowhere.

Dead end  (beginning of the river)

The motorized canoe

Marilyn and Miguel

12:30-1:30: Take a taxi to a place even more in the middle of nowhere. When we stopped, I was quite sure we were just at a dead end, but then Marilyn declared 'We're here!' to which I replied 'This is the Amazon?' (this is a paraphrase, by the way. I have a bad memory.). Basically, when I looked across the river, it was so flat, but Marilyn and Miguel (who is from her church and lived with the Yuquis community for 7 years) explained that every summer, the tides come up and push back the land on our side, but also recede from the opposite side, which was why the opposite side looked so barren and just had grass.
1:30-2:00: Wait. And by wait, I mean take more pictures, and comment frequently on the multi-coloured butterflies.
2:00-2:30: Take a motorized canoe thirty minutes along the river to the village

Butterfly!

When the little motorized canoe came, we piled up our stuff and chugged along, and I took more pictures. And yes, this is actually the beginning of the Amazon forest, although the river was not the Amazon river (there was one other river that connected this one to the real Amazon river).

Chugging along  (the scenery and the driver)

Entrance to the Yuquis village

When we arrived, I was so in awe. I recently read a book given to me by SIM called 'The Condor of the Andes', which talks about Wally Herron, a missionary who travelled to the Bolivian villages in the 1920s. I swear, everything I saw (except for the surprisingly violent movie they played in the evening) seemed straight out of that book. Which is where I am going to explain the title of this blog. All of the men hunt with these rifles that look like they are from the colonial days, and one man came back with a dead anteater and a bunch of bananas. I didn't get a picture of that, but I did snap one of a dead macaw that apparently tastes better than chicken.

The community has no more than 30 families, and a ton of kids (I would guess maybe another 30 or 40). Because the Yuquis community is known to be nomadic, they still don't really live in houses, but rather tents or small huts. I think that families shared huts/tents, because in the morning, I saw a lot of families grouped together in the same huts. When we got there, they were having a meeting with the school teachers (all of the women were there, as well as the teachers), so we waited in the community center/guest house. We also got to do a bit of wandering, and met a lot of the kids. There is this crabapple tree that was behind the community center, and about 7 kids aged 6-11 were monkeying around in it, probably up to 40 feet high, dangling on the very ends of the branches and jumping up and down to make the apples fall down. I was transfixed for quite a while because it was so impressive/highly dangerous.

Community center during the meeting

Community center with the monkeys (kids)

Some of the kids

It was so huge!

One of the huts

When the meeting was over, Marilyn gathered all of the women who had children aged 6 and under together, to talk about a program that she was hoping to start. The older children get one good lunch a day through the school, but currently, many of the younger kids are malnourished, because they don't have the same program. As a result, Marilyn was hoping to start a sort of daycare center for the little kids, where they could get a lunch, and also have some intellectual stimulation. The idea was received very enthusiastically, so the next day, we went to check out the old church, in the hopes of cleaning it out and coming back to renovate it and make it more child friendly. After the meeting (sorry I'm kind of jumping around), we handed out milk powder to the women, then made dinner (egg sandwiches) for the kids who were watching the movie outside the community center.

Marilyn handing out milk powder

Kids and milk

The eggs we made for dinner

I was trying to crack the eggs with one hand, but it didn't go that well

Going to sleep was an adventure in itself. There used to be rats, so we had to set up tents upstairs in the community center to keep them out. After they got the two house cats, the problem sort of fixed itself, but still, to be safe...Criss (my co-worker) was bitten once, so I did not mind the extra precaution at all. After about half an hour as well, it started pouring. And I mean literally pouring. The center had a tin roof, so it was pretty loud. So anyways, that was pretty fun.

Marilyn with Dinah and one of her kids

The next day, we weighed and measured the children aged 6 and under, so that Marilyn could keep track of how healthily they were growing. One of the mothers was cooking food for the school and was too busy to bring her baby to the clinic to have her weighed, so she let me bring her over. Her name was Jocelyn, so I laughed to myself that Jocelyn was carrying Jocelyn. Only no one else really got it, because I am incoherent enough in Spanish when I'm not laughing. We weighed maybe 11 children in total, and then handed out this cereal nutrition stimulant package to the mothers. Since the morning was pretty relaxed, we also had a chance to talk to the mothers and just hang out with the kids.

Like chancita (baby pig)

Dead macaw!

Thank you so much for your prayers about Spanish learning! After 3 weeks, my Spanish has gotten so much better, so much so that I was able to do some things independently (like weighing children, explaining how the nutritional packages work, and just talking to the local people). This has been a total blessing, because I was able to get to know some of the women on my own.

One of the women (I don't think I have a picture of her) was named Dinah, and she stood out to me for two reasons:
1. Because I actually saw pictures of her wedding from three years ago.

These are cacao beans (for making chocolate)

2. Because she is the same age as me. She's turning 20 in August, and is already expecting her third child. I just thought it was such a blessing to have that sort of age connection. She was really sweet, and her kids were super cute as well. Her oldest son (who is 3), was helping her prepare a milk formula for her other baby, and kept on yelling things like 'Is this the sugar? Is this the milk? I can't find it!' across their hut. We're going back in two weeks, so I'm really praying that I would keep practicing my Spanish and for an opportunity to talk to her for longer, because I think we could really encourage each other (she's also a Christian).
Her oldest kid is actually hilarious though. When she was cleaning the church, he was grabbing these nuts off the ground and chucking them straight in the air. He also showed them to me, and when I asked him what they were for (playing or eating), he said 'Jugi jugi' (I made that up, but it started with a 'J'), which means 'for throwing' in the Yuquis language. I don't think he really understood that I didn't speak it.

The biggest prayer request that I can think of right now for the Yuquis community is for a leader. At the moment, there is no declared leader in the community, which makes it really hard to come to decisions, and also to maintain order at times. As well, it is very difficult to see spiritual progress if there is no one able to be a spiritual leader.

Anyways, there are a bajillion other things that I could write about (I journalled for eleven pages the first night), but I will be returning there in a few weeks and will update on them some more then!

Prayer requests:
-Leadership in the Yuquis community
-The new program for the little kids, and specifically that the mothers would be motivated and disciplined in keeping it running
-Continued strength and energy to learn Spanish

Ciao ciao!
Jocelyn

P.S. I have to write about one last thing that happened before I left that in retrospect, was just so random and hilarious. As we were leaving, a man came up with a set of bow and arrows the height of myself. This was our exchange:
Miguel: Do you want to buy these?
Me: What are they?
Miguel: It's a set of bow and arrows. How much does it cost?
Man: 25 bolivianos (around 4 dollars). It would make a great gift.
Marilyn: Yeah, would you want to get it for your boyfriend for his birthday?
Me: There is NO WAY that is going past customs.
(We stare at it for a few seconds)
Marilyn (to the man): Maybe you can make a smaller set.

I don't know if a smaller set would make it past customs either...

Funny things kids say, and other stuff

Out of the mouths of the little kids in Carachimpampa:

Two of the kids in the class

The SIM director was speaking to the kids about the story with Moses and Pharaoh, and was using Lego pictures to illustrate. 7 pictures of Lego and ten minutes in, he says "And so God sent in all of the flies..." (picture of Lego and these yellow blotches)
A: Those aren't flies, they're Lego!

Teacher traces a kid in chalk on the pavement.
B: It's like a crime scene!

They really wanted to stick the stickers on their foreheads

Teacher: Okay, so who else wants to repeat the five points of the gospel?
C: (raises hand) Ahm...ahm...can I tell you a joke?

Teacher: Okay, does anyone else have any prayer requests?
D: My dog died two months ago and I miss him.
Teacher: Oh okay.
E: My dog died too!

Ms. Dudenhoffer's Grade 2 class

Teacher: Oh I see, when was this?
E: Ahm...a long time ago, I don't remember.





Not to mention the crazy faces they make. One little girl has this routine where she zips and unzips her mouth, but she does this dramatically with irrelevant popping sounds and sounds like she's gasping for air.

Basically, Carachipampa is going well. The kids are so cute, and it is such a struggle to keep a straight face during the day. Between one boy hopping around like a bunny, another boy making a face I can only describe to resemble the Pillsbury dough boy, the mouth zipping girl, and many others, it has certainly been a pleasure helping out in this school. The girl I've been working with only came for the first two days of the week, but we went through reading and math. Working with her has certainly taught me a lot about the balance of how much to push a student. Sometimes, I'm not sure if she is genuinely unable to do something, or just pretending in order to avoid work. On Monday, the first half of the morning went well, but during math, she decided that she was tired and felt like pretending she couldn't do the math problems.

After praying about it that night, I realized that the attitude that she had of knowing something is right but just not feeling like doing it is something I can certainly relate to. Do I not do this all the time with the Lord? But then I thought about Christ, and His unending patience towards us. "But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us: (Romans 5:8). As much as tutoring can be frustrating, it was certainly humbling to realize that I was even more guilty of frustrating another; God. How then could I think I had the right to do anything but have unending patience towards this girl? Tuesday, praise the Lord, went superbly. I decided to write down the plans we would have for the day, in order to help her be able to predict what would happen and sit through longer, and it went really well. Hopefully, she will be back next week and we can keep working on her reading and math (mainly reading).

Marilyn and Josue (Elijo la Vida)

Elijo la vida is still going well. On Monday, we went to Sumunpaya again to do some more pap tests and give people the results of their pap tests. There, Marilyn and I encountered a woman who had two cervixes! That's certainly not something I see everyday. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were spent in the office, just typing up Pap test results. Since the Bolivian mothers day is on Sunday, we wanted to make cards of the women in the Entre Amigas parenting group, so I spent a morning at Carachimpampa trying to figure out Photoshop. These are a couple of samples of what I cobbled together, we're putting a Spanish poem on it as well after.

Wednesday at Elijo la Vida, we had a short devotional time, and went through Psalm 127, which goes like this (English ESV translation):

Unless the Lord builds the house,

those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord xwatches over the city,

the watchman stays awake in vain.

2 It is in vain that you rise up early

and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious ytoil;

for he gives to his zbeloved asleep.

3 Behold, bchildren are a heritage from the Lord,

cthe fruit of the womb a reward.

4 Like arrows in the hand of da warrior

are the children1 of one's youth.

5 Blessed is the man

who fills his quiver with them!

He shall not be put to shame

when he speaks with his enemies ein the gate.

What a great reminder that was for me. As much as I work with the girl at school, as much as I work at Elijo la Vida, as much time as I spend with the Lord, it is all in vain unless God is behind it. The power of God in this passage really struck me, and so I have been reminded to continually come back in humility before Christ, realizing that without Him, I truly would be nothing and still would be nothing.

In my spare time, I've actually been going out every night (I'm being a busy bee). Unfortunately, since I get up at 5:30 to do devotions, I only get to sleep for like 6-6.5 hours a night, which is quite similar to my student life. But on Monday, I went to a Bible study on doctrine, which was fascinating. We were learning about Satan, it was pretty intensive.

On Tuesday, one of my housemate's friends came to visit her from Argentina, so I went out for dinner with her, her friend, and another friend who is currently working in Cochabamba as well. They are all from Switzerland, so they spoke French, and of course, Spanish. It was a great dinner, we ate at a little Spanish restaurant (I had lasagna), and felt very cultural. I am used to switching back and forth from French and English, because I worked at a bilingual museum last year, and because I am the most comfortable in French and English, but that night, I was switching between French and Spanish. I'm really blessed to be able to speak French even here.

Wednesday night was my coworker from Elijo la Vida's friends birthday, so we went to the movie theater to watch the Avengers in Spanish. Unfortunately, the movie wouldn't actually start until 9:00, so I just went to eat with them and they left by myself. The movie theater here is really different from the ones in Ottawa, in that the downstairs seemed more like a food court than a movie theater. I think the walls in Ottawa are black, which creates a much different atmosphere, but both are nice. I need to try the cappuccinos at this one fast food place though, apparently they're amazing!

At the movie theatre

On Thursday, my SIM life group met up for a dinner and prayer, which was really nice. We ate quesadillas, had an amazing cheesecake and apple pie, a lovely fruit salad, nachos, and basically enough food to feed an army. I was really quite pleased. I also had the chance to meet a lot of other SIM missionaries, and hear more about what their ministries were like, which was really great. We spent the second part of the time in prayer, which was also refreshing. On Sunday is prayer day, where all of the SIM members meet up (once a month) to pray, although this time we're also eating. I'm very excited for that!

Overall, I've been having a great time still (I must not have entered the second phase of culture shock yet), learning lots, and taking quite a few less pictures than before. I'm still praying for my Spanish to improve though, hopefully I won't get lazy and stop trying. I love this language, and Cochabamba, and all of the ministries in general!

Prayer requests:
Travel to the Yuquis next week- Please pray for the hearts of the Yuquis, and for focus on our part and that we wouldn't forget about our purpose being there.
Quiet time- I've been getting increasingly busy, so I need to remember to commit time to sleep, so that I can be refreshed the next morning to spend time with Him.

Jocelyn

Enjoying the little things

I apologize, I was really hoping to have another post written and posted for Saturday, but I got really caught up in all of the things that I was doing, so I am now posting a couple of days late. So much has happened in the past 6 days, that I can't possibly write about all of it, but I will try and cover as much as possible!

Carachimpampa school campus

Tuesday: I love little children. On Tuesday, I went to the school in Carachimpampa to help out the teacher and see what God's leading is for me there, and I ended up spending the morning helping out a little girl who is struggling with the second grade. The school was SO nice, it is an English Christian school, so they learn all of their subjects in English most of the time. What I learned that morning was a little bit more on the value of little children. No wonder Jesus treasured them so much! Although this little girl was quite academically behind, none of the other girls treated her any differently, and were just all so sweet to each other. This gesture really struck me, because I realized that the root of their behaviour was that these precious children are untainted by the status of society. They do not look at another and think that they are better than them because of social status, or academic achievement, or physical appearance, but they look at each other and see other children who need friends and who can play with them. What I would give to be able to look into the eyes of another person and not think at all of their social status, but look at them with the love that Christ would have towards them.

My new friend Maggy :)

Wednesday: I went to the language school, and made a new friend! She was so cute and fluffy, I didn't want to start class, even though she was giving me incredible rashes that quite scared my tutor. After language lessons, I didn't want to go home, so instead, I spent two hours doing my Spanish homework and reading a book in the sun, until a bird pooped on my foot. I'm almost 100% certain that they actually try and aim at people for kicks. Anyways, a nice restaurant let me wash my foot in their washroom (thankfully, my shoe was fine), and I went to Elijo la Vida. The past two days, I had been redesigning a sexual health awareness pamphlet at Elijo la Vida, so  I continued that work.

Doing my Spanish homework out in the sun, before the bird...

Some of the kids at C.D.I.

Thursday and Friday: I spent Thursday morning at a C.D.I. It is basically a children's centre run by Compassion International, that offers free programs for school age children, when they are not in school. In Cochabamba, Bolivian schools are only half day (even for high school students), so kids will spend four hours at school either in the morning or in the afternoon. C.D.I. basically runs during those times, offering free child care, activities, school help, and a lunch and snack. I sat in most of the time, but I also was able to teach a little bit of very basic English to the kids, which was fun. I tried explaining to them about Chinese and how there isn't really much of a Chinese alphabet because you can't read phonetically, but it was hard to explain because

a) I can't speak much Spanish
b) I can't speak much Chinese
All the kids were fascinated anyways, so I just drew all the Chinese characters I knew and make up choppy Chinese sentences for them to laugh at. I will be volunteering there once the school in Carachipampa ends, and I really want to use my time there wisely. I would love to be able to lead devotionals, or teach them English worship songs, and help out with homework too, so we will see.

Estas haciendo tus tareas? (Are you doing your homework?)

Our testing room

Marilyn and I

Thursday evening was really exciting at Elijo la Vida, because we went to a centre a little ways out of town to give Pap tests. There were a lot more women who came than expected, so we ended up actually having to turn some of them down, offering to come another day instead. Basically, to speed up the process (each test took no longer than five minutes), I handed Marilyn all of the materials so that she didn't have to walk around and move so much. We got a pretty good routine going by the next day. Marilyn offered to let me try one sometime, so that will certainly be an experience. We also got to talking, and what I like the most about Elijo la Vida is that it is not all about health care. The organization also spends a lot of time interacting with patients and mothers, encouraging them, and just investing in them. I do think that God has placed on my heart a desire to do a similar thing; to not only help patients, but invest in them emotionally and spiritually.

Our filled pap test bottles

Marilyn, Criss and I

Saturday: What a fun day! I think I'm going to reduce my day into point form, for simplicity's sake.
8:30-10:00- Went to the market to buy my groceries
10:00-11:00-Went to eat saltenas with my roommate and her friends
11:00-12:30- Went to a spinning class.
12:30-5:00- Went to the Cristo. On the top of one of the mountains in Cochabamba, there is a huge statue of Jesus Christ. I'm not sure what the history is behind it, to be honest, but my other roommate, her best friend and I went up to the top of the mountain in a gondala, took some pictures, and actually got to climb up in the inside of the statue! I had a blast, it is such a huge statue, you can see it from any area in Cochabamba that is not blocked by a building.

Roxana and I waiting in the teleferico, or gondola

Great view of Cochabamba and the surrounding mountains from the inside of the Cristo

Inside of the Cristo

Another view of Cochabamba from the Cristo, it's beautiful!

7:30-10:00- Went to my roommate's church for a worship service. I really enjoyed the evening, I always am so in awe when singing Spanish worship, as it reminds me of Revelations, where it speaks about all of the earth praising His name. And I get a little glimpse of that when we sing praises to Him here.

Sunday: I had coffee today with the friend that I met at church last week today, and we had such a blessed time, I am still so grateful for having met her. I'm skipping a lot of things I did today (church and a lunch at my house with my roommate's church friends), but I just really enjoyed that coffee, because Christ-centered conversation just flowed so easily between us. I was able to share about my questions concerning choosing a church, and she really reinforced the purpose of church being to glorify God, and to remember to not lose focus of that. When she said 'just remember to choose a church where the Word of God is being preached', I started to laugh, because Galvin said the exact same thing the previous day. I was just really thankful to have a friend who reminded me of my fellowship back home. The funniest thing is that we come from such different backgrounds, languages and even ages, but when it comes to Christ, we are sisters.

Prayer requests:
-Church finding; that God would lead me to a church where His Word is being preached, and where I can glorify Him.
-The Yuquis natives, we are visiting a small village next week, so to pray for God's continual hand over them.

In Christ,


Jocelyn