Big Changes

There so many new things that I have had to adapt to, like a new family, a new church, new friends, new transportation, and at the core of all those changes I have had to accept that I am starting at ground zero. There is confidence and trust that must be built. Right now I am a stranger in a new culture and my prayer is that I can eventually feel at home.

With these changes comes adventure, I have been to the La Cancha twice since I have been here. It is a huge open air market that stretches for miles and there is everything you could ever want. The first time I went with my host sister Cecilia. Because she new her way around we covered a lot of ground, weaving in and out of booths. I started feeling dizzy because there were so many things to see, so many people to maneuver through, and so many new smells to place. Yet over all, I was fascinated by the community within the market. Those that have sold goods next to each other for years pass the day talking and vying for customers, because there are sections in the market that sell the same thing. What fun!

I had another interesting experience with the public transportation. It was my first time checking out a local swimming pool and I only had a vague idea of where it was so I decided to take taxi trufi #110 for 1.5 bolivianos. After fifteen minuets I knew I had missed my drop off because my host mom told me it would only take ten, so I decided to see if the taxi trufi went back around to my house. I thought maybe they went in a circle, but forty five minuets later I realized that I was on my way to no where. Up in the boon dog hills my driver pulled over and told me that it was the end of the line. I had to get out and take two more taxi trufis home. Three hours later I reached home emotionally drained and with a sore back side from sitting to long. This experience is what the locals call taxi surfing, were a person rides all the way to the taxi terminal. Even though it was a bit crazy, I can now say that I know everywhere taxi trufi #110 goes(:

I have so much to be thankful for! Even though I feel like a deer in the headlights at times I have an amazing host family. Anita and her two girls Daniela, 20 yrs, and Cecilia, 21yrs. They are so patient with my Spanish, I am well fed, I have hot showers, and their extended family is so welcoming. Along with that, I have found a church, called Cochabamba International Church, that reminds me of Grace(my home church)! How blessed I am by God's provisions.

In the coming month I will be finishing up my language course and starting my work at the orphanage Corazon Del Pastor and Pedecitos. Along with that, I will be taking a trip to either Peru or Argentina to change my visa from a tourist one to a residential one. These are some changes that I would really appreciate specific prayer for as the directors of the orphanage help me figure out my visa, where I am going to stay for the rest of the year (with my host family or somewhere else), where I will be working, and so forth. Decisions have to be made and they will shape this coming year for me. Thank you for your prayers and God bless!

Arrival

I think time goes a little faster here in Bolivia. It has already been a month! Yet I can vividly remember when I arrived...it was midafternoon and I was early. I happened to get onto the wrong flight so I was ahead of time and the Malos, directors of Ninos Con Valor, had not arrived yet. This was a bit unnerving for me. The whole trip to Cochabamba I was nervous about getting my visa and getting on to the correct flight in Santa Cruz. Now all I can do is laugh because I ended up getting a tourist visa not a residencial visa and I got on to the wrong flight. Yet God had it all orchistraited, on the flight I did end up taking there were three buisness people I met and they gave me buisness cards because one guy travels to Cochabamba every six months and he wants me to let him know if I ever need something from the states. The other card was from a couple in the group and they want to adopt, so when they heard I would be working in an orphanage they wanted to know more. How encourageing to know that complete strangers would care about me and the work that I would be doing. At the time I thought there was nothing more that could go wrong but now looking back I can see the the points where I was at my lowest God provided and made his presense known.