A New Team!

An incredible and energy packed team has arrived! I can’t believe that I am in my last week here in Bolivia, or that they year is nearly over. Almost all of the team is here for the first time, but they are going non-stop. They jumped right into helping the boys write letters to their sponsors and Sidewalk Sunday Schools.

Several of us took a morning hike with some of the grandes to watch the sunrise. It was cloudy, but the time with the boys was great. Not all teams can really connect with the teenagers, but somehow this team has been incredibly successful! We found giant flowers on the cactus plants all along the ridge and the boys were everywhere picking them for us :)

We had planned on having a chill “family visits for the holidays” kind of week, but our flooded volleyball court was filling with frog eggs and it is nearly impossible to keep our little boys out of any available water, so the team graciously spent an entire morning digging a trench to drain the water. Both strategic and back breaking! But it successfully eliminated that health risk. The team has also taken advantage of our relaxed schedule to open up the library every morning for reading and games with the boys. They LOVE the time and attention!

(sailing boats in the drainage trench)

Since I arrived earlier in the fall, I have been asking the boys how they usually celebrate New Years (it will be my first Bolivian NY celebration!) They haven’t given me much, and one of them finally just told me they don’t really do anything special. I’m determined to fix this, and the team is right in it with me! They are choreographing a dance and everything!

Bed Making Machines

I have 24 hours between the Christmas team and the New Years team. And I am all alone to clean and flip the apartment! With everything put away, cleaned, and restocked I finally took a break late in the evening. I found two of the older boys hanging out at the bottom of my steps. The rest of the grandes were watching a movie, but these two have a hard time sitting still for that long. We talked a little and when I told them I had to get back to work, they begged to help me. All that I had left was to make all of the beds. Sometimes the boys really like to help. Sometimes the boys say they are helping when in fact they are just playing. I was tired, so I gave them a little lecture on how they needed to really be serious and do a good job if they were going to work with me in the apartment. I wasn’t willing to babysit them and then have to redo the beds later. They promised, so we headed upstairs. They were machines. They talked and laughed and were bed making marvels. Next time I have to flip the apartment, I know who I am requesting to help me!

Merry Christmas!

Last night Santa Claus made his first official visit to the BLC! After Christmas dinner Santa made his appearance to the cheers of the boys. The team acted as elves to assist Santa in gift distribution and then the wrapping paper flew! Thank you Thank you Thank you to everyone who gave gift and money donations to make this night possible!!! The night was made all the more special with a surprise marriage proposal. Beau, one of the team members, proposed to his girlfriend, also a team member, with the help from one of our boys. There was just as much cheering for them as there had been for Papa Noel!


This morning we headed down early to present the Christmas stockings to the boys. Christ Fellowship has done such a wonderful job of stuffing as much gift into one tiny stocking faithfully for several years. The basic agenda for today and the rest of the time the team is here: play :)

Invasion!

Gringos have invaded! It’s just so different to be with a bunch of English speaking North Americans!! But it is so wonderful to see so many familiar faces and to have friends here for the holidays. The Christmas team has safely arrived and with all the joy is a little sadness from knowing that it means my time here is nearly up. But the team provides plenty of distraction!


The luggage all arrived on time and crammed into the busy schedule of sorting stockings and wrapping presents we are still finding plenty of time to play. The volleyball court has been flooded by recent rain. God knows the desires of our hearts and has given us a swimming pool!!

We also had the chance to go to an amazing Sidewalk Sunday School. It was INCREDIBLY far away. And HIGH up in the mountains. Civilization was far behind and the church crew told me that in this particular village the girls are only allowed to go to school until they are 12 years old. After that, they are considered to be old enough for marriage and need to focus on their family. They really needed Jesus!

Car Trouble

A good friend of mine here is moving to the USA to go to school. Today he picked me up from the BLC to go into town so that I can help him search for housing online. We had barely gone 2 minutes down the road when we passed over a man-hole cover. It wasn't a stable one and flipped up crashing onto the bottom of my friend's truck. After that, the truck started making terrible noise, so we slowly and painfully drove to the other side of Sipe Sipe in search of a mechanic. Luckily we found one. We waited for the next 2 hours while he located the broken part, took it off, cut the bent metal in half, reshaped it, fused it back together, and reattached the piece. Grand total...about 10 bucks. Gotta love that.

Christmas Prep

Christmas is nearly here and I am SO excited! The team will be here Sunday and I'm trying to get all prepared. The boys were helping today by making lots of stars to hang on the ceiling in the cafeteria as part of our Christmas decorations. The boys all seem to think that I am going over the top this year with decorating for Christmas, but I love Christmas and I need all the help I can get to feel festive since it is the middle of the summer here! Some of the boys are really catching the spirit and sat with me for hours working on simple paper decoarations. That made me happy. Hopefully we are building some long standing holiday traditions. If even one of them makes a paper chain with his kids one day...I'll know I have succeeded.

Concert and End of School Picnic

We were visited by a children's orchestra today! They performed a full concert at the BLC for all of the boys and even had a short teaching time when they demonstrated the different sounds that each instrument makes.
Afterwards we took all of the tables and chairs out of the cafeteria and drug them out to the park. There we declared the end of the BLC school year and presented awards to the best students in each class.

After that we had a picnic lunch in the park! Lunch included vegetable fried rice, so I especially enjoyed walking around the tables and telling the boys they had peas in their rice :)

The Senate

Today we had an official Senate election. Every boy at the BLC was given a copy of his birth certificate. Then they had to go to their polling location (3 tables depending on age) and show their ID to receive a ballot. After they cast their votes, an official ceremony explained how votes are counted and tallied (this was especially interesting to me as all blank ballots are added into the winner's final total, potentially making it look like they won by a lot more. This is how real ballots are counted throughout Bolivia...really makes me rethink those presidential wins with +50% of the votes. Add on that all Bolivians are required to vote by law and the numbers look even less realistic.)

Our official election site run by volunteers.

Waiting in line to cast their votes.

In the end, one boy was elected BLC Senator with 3 runners up. This election was not run by us, but by an organization connecting many orphanages. The BLC Senator will write and present a report to the group every 6 months with suggestions of ways they can help and support all orphanages. Pretty cool. The ceremony ended by praying over our newly elected representatives.

The Ark

Some of the oldest boys have been asked to paint the ark in nearly life size. No kidding, this canvas is HUGE. They are loving the opportunity though and on several nights have stayed up till nearly midnight (they are such silly teenagers they normally put themselves to bed by 10pm!). I remember doing some murals in my church and plenty for VBS when I was in high school and I love knowing that they are also getting that experience. It is very free-ing and empowering to see your creativity pour out in such grand scale. And it's just plain fun!

Christmas with Levi

Tonight was the Christmas dinner for my Tribe (Levi). We went to a giant house and played games while some of the men folk cooked steaks on grill. Then we ate and exchanged gifts. I was so thankful to be included in this group and truly feel that I have a small group family here!

With some of my Tribe friends.

More good friends.

Claudia and Arturo have been such a blessing. Not only in their friendship, but they are the ones that persuaded me to become a part of the Tribe. They also drive me all the way back to the BLC after every meeting. They live in town, so round trip is almost 2 hours out of their way! Love them dearly!