Getting Away All Over Again

Preparing to head out into a new Journey  abroad, I have returned to JPUSA (Jesus People USA). JUPSA for those of you that don't know or remember is a christian commune which I just learned is associated with the covenant church. Within the community of about 300-400 there is a large range of people. All christian and all wanting to live in community with each other. I have come here as a selfish source of volunteering. by that I mean, I am working as a volunteer in the community, so far washing dishes mostly, and in return they allow me to live with them in their community. Some people stay a few days, a few weeks, or a few years.  As a visitor I am required to work and attend church with them. I am excited to get into the swing of things for the next month before returning to Goshen to visit my family for two weeks and say good bye to them before I leave for around 15 months to complete my Jr. Year of study abroad. JPUSA is an interesting place full of lots of open people with interesting stories. With so many people coming and going people are generally very welcoming and inviting, I look forward to getting to know more people and settling in. Here are some pictures from a concert I went to Last night (Friday 5/24/13).

Well Sometimes I tend to forget about this blog, sorry I haven't kept it up more frequently. =/  But anyway. Since my last post it has just been some weird inbetween time. Not until this week did I actually start english lessons again. My weeks have been filled with working with school supplies. Every year IDI provides a package of supplies to each child in the project with note books, pencils, folders, etc. and although that seems simple. but when handing supplies out to more than 500 kids its hard to keep organized. I often felt like it was out of my control at times, but I always did fine and kept my head up.

Since my last post one of the biggest changes is that My sister Rocio left for Korea and the new Korean volunteer has arrived. It was hard having Rocio leave because she was someone I could always talk to about anything, especially culturally. Although Its sad to see her go it has been nearly a month since she left (shows how long ago my last post was yikes!!) The new volunteer speaks very little english and is continually growing in spanish. when she arrived she knew NO SPANISH. yea... learning from scratch.... So watching her learn is a lot of fun. Teaching her things like voy vas va vamos van (I go, you go, he goes, we go, they go) and the basics. I remember when my spanish felt like a babies level when i couldn't talk with people and the other volunteers who had been in bolivia for a while already were like spanish master minds. I know realize that I am that to the new volunteer. Sorry I just realized I haven't told you her name, it is Eun Hye and goes by Ester in spanish. OH! and today was her birthday and she got cake in her face like any good bolivian birthday! Ah, haha not only me!

Next weekend is Carnival. That should be fun. I will be going to Stansberry, the orphanage that Jacob (another RAD participant) works at and we have a camp there of another church. Every year during carnival there are 'campamentos' for different churches, its away to get away from the city while they are all celebrating Carnival. Carnival can at times be dangerous, which means if you stay in your house you stock up on food, so you don't have to leave you house. I don't think I quite yet have a grasp for how crazy it gets but I hope from the after math that I get a better idea of this massive part of south american culter.

I think for lent I will be giving up Internet, which is very do-able but a big change, haven't really told my parents that yet, so I hope they read this or I talk to them before that.... Well.... yup!

Sorry this took so long!

JD

My House

So I just realized there is an acuate way to find where I live here in Bolivia. At the same time as wanting you all to know, I don't think I'm going to put it here in this blog because this is completely public.... So I'll put it on my facebook where you have to be friends with me to see it. So you can visit me on facebook.

Profile Info page you should be able to click there, and log in and friend me or just look down to my favorite quotes ! Questions? Just comment, email me (JDBoliviaUpdate@gmail.com) or facebook me!

An End to Summer Vacation (Jan. 5)

Happy New Year! Similar to Christmas for New Years here they light off tons of fireworks all over the city, from peoples indiviual homes. Mind you these are big fireworks that would be illegal in the US, so its quite beautiful, from full sized firework show type fireworks going off to chinese firecrackers as well as everything inbetween.

Next week, monday the 10th, will be the end of my rather short summer vacation. though it starts with a work retreat to a hotel =). But my days of relaxing at home and translating spanish novels will be much more limited as well as I'll have to wake up before 8. But that is whats to come, I've mist the best part of my vacation! My family came and visited!

So to start my xmas summer vacation, yup its the same thing here cuz its summer, my family arrived here in Santa Cruz. As is here the plans changed almost daily, from how I picked them up from the airport to how I dropped them off. The day before I picked them up I finially got someone to drive up the the airport to help bring them back, I live a good 40-50 minutes away. But things work out in south america they just do. (though sometimes it works out poorly, though this didn't turn our poorly, turned out quite well actually!). Monday and Tuesday, the first two days we visited my two work locations--Which are both churches but run after-school type programs--and had Christmas services at both churches. Wendsday we went to the church I attend for its service and Thursday we all celebrated Christmas, on xmas eve, with my host family. For our Christmas day we slept in after a long nights party, relaxed around our house, my family stayed in the house of my pastor while they were here, and watched movies in the afternoon. It didn't quite feel like xmas but we were all enjoying the bolivian climate. I don't recall saturday.... =/ I think we tried to go to the movies but failed to watch one because they were all in spanish, which was actually odd because the theater we went to was almost always in english with spanish subtitles, so we failed at that. Sunday we went to church and then headed off for Samaipata which is a beautiful vacation town. We stayed in a German Hotel called Land Haus.  It was quite beautful there, with cactus, and flowers of all colors all shaded by large overhanging trees, except for some space by the pool to lay in the sun. I was kinda sick througout our stay in Samaipata but everyone else seemed to be alright the first few days. Our last day in Samaipata my mother joined me in being sick. We returned to Santa Cruz Tuesday afternoon. Wendsday my dad got pretty sick and we stayed at home and watched more movies. Thursday afternoon we caught a taxi to the airport. Though Wednsday I wasn't sure if there were going to be any public transportation because mid week Bolivia's government, Evo Morales--CAUGH  CAUGH-- Decided gas should nearly double, so there was quite a bit of violent riots and strikes where all transportation would freeze. (Note: Non of the violence was anywhere near us, and we say and heard nothing of it at the time). Monday for example there were no public busses and for thursday there was a threat for no busses or taxis, which would make it hard to arrive at the airport.(My buddy who picked them up from the airport had his breaks go out) ANYWAY, we took a taxi and they made their flight, and everyone got home safe with all their lugage =)

Since then I've just been relaxing cuz its my summer break. =) ahhhh....


More photos that gloria has gone to the work of uploading!

Christmas is coming!!!

Next week is xmas and my family is coming (oth parents and siblings)! they are getting here on monday, which is less than a week. Still planning what all were going to do because this south american culture and lack of knoldge of the city makes it hard to plan, but I think It will all be good, I've got plenty of back up plans =). maybe go swimming?

For christmas with my host family here, we decided to do a gift exchange, rather than buying for each person. Don't know what I'm getting my person yet, but I think we were going to make a list of what each person wants. So hopefully I can find it, here in the city without getting lost for too long, or better yet already know where it is.

Lately my english class has been as unstable, I think thats a good word to describe it, as ever. Its hard to know if there will be any students for each class period. Alot of that is due to that there on their school vacation, so they don't have there other classes. But we will find out in January if it was because of summer vacation or because of.... who knows what else. But I'm still enjoying teaching I taugh a kid "She sells sea shells by the sea shore" the other day, that made me happy cuz he was good at it.

Since this is summer vacation here (Because its summer here if you forgot/Didn't know) some of my friends are going on different vacations here, I would love to hop along on one but nothing is ever set in stone much here, so the plans are constantly changing and I never know if I can go or not. I'll most likely decided the day before and then just go. It's how it usually works here.

In all these blogs I never remember quite what I've touched on and what I've skipped over. I should probably go back over them and look for things I forgot, but if any of you have any questions I'll put it in the next blog! and for those of you who arn't uptodate on my blog feel free to just ask a question even if I may have answered it.

Settling in... (Oct. 31)

I'm doing pretty good. I have some of those uncomfortable mements with culture, but so far they haven't caused problems. My family has been awesome, I have two brothers (Kevin and Alfredo), two sisters (Yea Jin<also known as Rocio> and Kely), and karsten. I'm getting more used to Santa Cruz itself also, I took a micro yesterday by myself to downtown.
So I'm enjoying my time. I have had the one or two days when I just wanted people to just speak english or just transport to and english speaking zone, but It never lasted long (one ocassion was after a very frustrating session of teaching english, not to successfully). But I'm starting to feel very comfortable (used losely) in my spanish. Some days I feel like I understood everything said to me (Sometimes with lots of repition, but I understand what they say). At the same time everyonce in a while I (and I've found others feel this too) I just can't understand anything said to me no matter if its simple. Sometimes brains just refuse to think in another language I guess. But with all the Spanish practice my english is declining a little bit, hehe. I just typed "sed"(which means thirst in spanish but is pronounced "said") instead of "said" and had to correct it.

Here are some pictures for you to see = )
 This is my album that I should be updating regularly??? though I might put it into more than one album if there are lots of pictures.
Octubre By Kim Kim Kim (Friend) Don't know if this is public? Most of these pictures are from the birthday we had for the kids a Tajibos. Project IDI (Korean, Food for the Hungry) celebrates birthdays in groups. So on wendsday this week we had a birthday for like.... 500 Kids? I should find out the right number... But I have some pictures that I will link RIGHT (not done yet, it will be blue) HERE of the same event that I have on my camera... once i get around to it of course. =D

Gloria Showalter's Bolivia Pictures  I'm pretty sure these are public.

Work and a New Home (Oct 11)

Well yesterday after church I went home with my new host family (the one I will be living with for the rest of my time here). The house is nice, its actually sorta two houses, but thankfully I will have internet while Im here though no WiFi, which means I will have to borrow someone elses computer to use. Currently I am at the "Price of Peace" church. They have four computers here. This morning first thing when I arrive at work they tell Karsten, Carlos (Karsten is a hard name so we are changing it), and I that we will be teaching english to children. It freaked me out at little bit initially because I feel very incompetent when it comes to english(classes, I feel comfortable speaking obviously). Though after thinking it over it is only the very basics, like abcs(Spanish keyboards dont let me use apostrophes) and greetings. So the more I think about it the more comfortable I feel.