So, now that we've been home about a week... :P Sorry I didn't get any updates posted! I've decided to just go back and post the e-mails I sent out while in Bolivia. So, if you got the e-mails: you've already seen all this, sorry!
Hola, everyone!
This is just going to be a very quick update because I only have a few minutes... :)
So far, it's been crazy. The trip here was pretty uneventful, apart from a few moments of panic in La Paz when, first of all, they wouldn't take two of my twenty dollar bills for the visa because they were torn. Amber had already gone through and was getting our bags; I could see her, but she couldn't see me, the dude didn't speak English...I was pretty much freaked until I finally managed to yell Amber's name loud enough for her to hear me and she came over and had two new, fresh bills to give him. :P THEN we weren't sure we were going to make it to our gate in time; we did, barely. :)
Jennifer (the founder and director of Casa de Amor) picked us up at the airport with 3 little cuties in tow...one being one of their new babies, Maria Natalia (it's soooo confusing; all the tias [aunts; the Bolivian full-time staff] call her Maria, but Jennifer calls her Natalia, so we're not sure WHAT to call her!). We stopped by the bridge where Jennifer's "bridge kids" live on the way to CDA and met some of those kiddos, too. It's really heart breaking to see these kids/young people, dirty and with a glue bottle held to their nose or mouth all the time. And one of the girls we've met is pregnant. She has a two and a half year old son (who lives with her mom, I think she said) and she'll be twenty on Sunday. (She keeps informing us of that fact!) Anyway...so we met some of them on Wednesday, and then we saw them again Wednesday night when we went by the bridge after eating out for dinner. As we were getting ready to head back to the house, this girl showed up with cuts all over her face from where she got into a fight with another girl somewhere else. So...Amber and I took a taxi home while Jennifer took Ellie to the hospital. (she got stitches, she'll be OK) We were also with the bridge kids yesterday, at a soccer game (which they won). :)
Here at the house, I'm having fun with the little ones, though my lack of Spanish is sometimes interesting if I need to tell a kid something beyond "no", "sit", "eat", or "come here". Or if one of the tias is trying to ask or tell me something! They speak pretty much no English, so a good part of our communication when someone isn't around to translate is hand gestures and pointing. *shrug* It works! They're all precious, and I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but my favorite would probably be Jhosie. She's blind, 2 years old, doesn't talk and only walks if someone is holding both her hands, though her legs are stronger and more coordinated than a younger child learning to walk. She's also had a lot of eating issues, though that seems to be getting better. Anyway, she's soooo precious and I love to love on her. :) Some of the other kids think it's funny to take stuff from her because she can't do anything about it; she starts hitting herself when they do it. I think they're figuring out it's not so funny to do that when someone catches them, though. :P She likes balls--so far that's the only toy I've seen her actually hold and play with. Others she just feels them to see what they are and then throws them away from her. But anyway...she just needs to know that she is loved, and I think that after a month here at the home she's beginning to figure that out.
Well, I've got to go. I miss all of you! *hugs* Dios te bendiga! :)
Hola, everyone!
This is just going to be a very quick update because I only have a few minutes... :)
So far, it's been crazy. The trip here was pretty uneventful, apart from a few moments of panic in La Paz when, first of all, they wouldn't take two of my twenty dollar bills for the visa because they were torn. Amber had already gone through and was getting our bags; I could see her, but she couldn't see me, the dude didn't speak English...I was pretty much freaked until I finally managed to yell Amber's name loud enough for her to hear me and she came over and had two new, fresh bills to give him. :P THEN we weren't sure we were going to make it to our gate in time; we did, barely. :)
Jennifer (the founder and director of Casa de Amor) picked us up at the airport with 3 little cuties in tow...one being one of their new babies, Maria Natalia (it's soooo confusing; all the tias [aunts; the Bolivian full-time staff] call her Maria, but Jennifer calls her Natalia, so we're not sure WHAT to call her!). We stopped by the bridge where Jennifer's "bridge kids" live on the way to CDA and met some of those kiddos, too. It's really heart breaking to see these kids/young people, dirty and with a glue bottle held to their nose or mouth all the time. And one of the girls we've met is pregnant. She has a two and a half year old son (who lives with her mom, I think she said) and she'll be twenty on Sunday. (She keeps informing us of that fact!) Anyway...so we met some of them on Wednesday, and then we saw them again Wednesday night when we went by the bridge after eating out for dinner. As we were getting ready to head back to the house, this girl showed up with cuts all over her face from where she got into a fight with another girl somewhere else. So...Amber and I took a taxi home while Jennifer took Ellie to the hospital. (she got stitches, she'll be OK) We were also with the bridge kids yesterday, at a soccer game (which they won). :)
Here at the house, I'm having fun with the little ones, though my lack of Spanish is sometimes interesting if I need to tell a kid something beyond "no", "sit", "eat", or "come here". Or if one of the tias is trying to ask or tell me something! They speak pretty much no English, so a good part of our communication when someone isn't around to translate is hand gestures and pointing. *shrug* It works! They're all precious, and I know you're not supposed to have favorites, but my favorite would probably be Jhosie. She's blind, 2 years old, doesn't talk and only walks if someone is holding both her hands, though her legs are stronger and more coordinated than a younger child learning to walk. She's also had a lot of eating issues, though that seems to be getting better. Anyway, she's soooo precious and I love to love on her. :) Some of the other kids think it's funny to take stuff from her because she can't do anything about it; she starts hitting herself when they do it. I think they're figuring out it's not so funny to do that when someone catches them, though. :P She likes balls--so far that's the only toy I've seen her actually hold and play with. Others she just feels them to see what they are and then throws them away from her. But anyway...she just needs to know that she is loved, and I think that after a month here at the home she's beginning to figure that out.
Well, I've got to go. I miss all of you! *hugs* Dios te bendiga! :)
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