Retreat Center at Last!

Very good news!

Shirley and Carlos have completed the purchase of the new property, have the keys, and all is well! You can tell from the pictures what a nice place it will be to have retreats in. When Matt saw it, he said, "This would be a great place for hammocks!" And they discovered just last week that there are already hooks in place for that wonderful activity.

It is located in Valencia, a small town about 30 minutes away from Jeremy's school. The altitude is actually much lower than other parts of La Paz, certainly lower than here in Llojeta! That accounts for why everything looks so lush and green - palm trees, giant aloe vera plant, flat lawn perfect for croquet...they have it all.

Shirley and Carlos will be working at getting the place ready over the summer, and then moving in sometime before Jer starts school in August. So, I won't get to live there...but hopefully I will come back and visit, when it's up an running as a retreat center!

NEED HELP: I'm facing a 15-hour layover in the Miami airport on my way back home - can you people help me come up with suggestions for what I should do to pass the time?? I shall try to sleep a bit, but I won't have many books for my awake times...I was thinking audio books on my iPod, but I'm not sure how long a battery lasts in an iPod... Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated!!

24 days until I leave...

Love to all,
Rachael

This Is How We Roll

Greetings, everyone!

Today's video: a surprise morning sneak-attack serenade, for Jimena's birthday! It is the tradition for the people from our church to get up really early and serenade the birthday person (notice Jimena inside, just waking up!) and then go inside for a birthday breakfast. Notice also Matt, who doesn't know the words to the song, but is doing a good job of faking it.

I recently attended a Toma de Nombre ceremony, also for Jimena. It's part of the graduation celebrations in a Bolivian school - the grad class chooses a spokesperson or sponsor to represent their class, and they choose a theme for their year. Since Bolivian schools finish in December, they still have half a year to go, but this is part of how they graduate. It was really fun! Jimena definitely had the most international group of supporters - Andreia from Brazil, me from Canada, and Bianca from Germany!

On the tutoring front, things are going very well with Elisa. We just finished her math module for the year, about a month ahead of schedule! To celebrate, we devised the following celebration: we extended our "reading out loud" part of the day to a whole hour, and made it into a game. I brought a bunch of gummy bears, and we divided them into two bowls. Anytime Elisa skipped a word, I took and ate one of her bears. Anytime she pronounced a hard word perfectly, she took and ate one of mine. Needless to say, by the end of our hour, I had practically no bears left, and her bowl was full to overflowing.

Prayer request: please please PLEASE pray that I can figure out how to get rid of the bugs in my bed. Every night I wake up itching and it is driving me crazy. Multiple sheet-washings and vacuumings and mattress-in-the-sun sessions are not seeming to help.

Love to everyone!!
Rachael

The Big Decision

Greetings, friends, family, and everyone else.

So, just thought I'd give everyone the heads-up on the decisions I've been making lately. The big question: should I stay down in Bolivia for a third year, or go back to Canada to stay?

I have been thinking and praying about it for the last few months, and so have Shirley and Carlos. And a couple weeks ago we met to talk about what we have been thinking and hearing. The general consensus seems to be that my time here is finished. The Vargases will be moving out of this neighbourhood soon, and that will effectively curtail my involvement here with the youth group, the worship team, my English class, my guitar lessons, etc. Also, I don't work much with Jeremy anymore, and things just feel like they're at a good place to finish up.

However, now that I have made this decision, I'm beginning to realize how much I love Bolivia, and how sad I'm going to be to leave. Mostly because of my friends here, and because it will be sad to not live with the Vargas family anymore. If you could pray that I can deal well with the transition, that would be appreciated.

Here's a picture of me looking out over La Paz, a city that will always be close to my heart.

Love to everyone,
Rachael

Culture Night!

Greetings to everyone!

Last night was the long-awaited Culture Night at our youth group. Because we happen to have three missionaries from other countries as part of our group, we decided to take advantage of that fact and have a fun night learning about other cultures.

Bianca, who is here for a year from Germany, gave a very entertaining program, which included a sample of German dance, and a tutorial on how Germans have to sort their garbage (see picture). My favourite part of her presentation, though, was a picture of a pair of feet wearing socks with sandals, and the assertion that you can always tell Germans by the fact that they commit this fashion scandal!

Andreia, a girl from Brazil, made us all jealous of the wonderful beaches in her country, and taught us to dance the samba. The cool thing about Andreia is that she's just moved here to work with the church, for a four-year commitment, and she's just learning Spanish! I like being around other people who are learning the language.

And I gave a presentation that mentioned the size of Canada, all our beautiful lakes and trees, our national values, and, of course, hockey!! I was the only presenter who didn't have powerpoint, but afterwards a couple people asked me how to get visas to go visit Canada, so I figure I did a good job!

We finished off the evening with a presentation of Bolivian culture (I got to learn some steps from one of the traditional dances!) and a short address by the youth leader. All in all, a very successful night, and a lot of fun.

Love to all,
Rachael

Bolivia Day at Highlands

Dear loved ones,

So this past Saturday was Bolivia Day at Highlands International School, where Jeremy goes to school. The main event is watching the students perform various traditional dances, with their accompanying gorgeous costumes. The video is of the kindergarten/pre-kinder kids, who, as always happens, were unbearably cute.

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while, I'm getting busier and busier lately! I'm back to singing on the worship team, and teaching my English class (plus several one-on-one English teaching times), and taking my guitar lessons. I (wisely? unwisely?) made a behavioral contract for guitar practice - I have to practice for at least an hour every day before I'm allowed to check my homework that day. Penalty: paying Matt 50 Bs.

Also, having Matt around means that we do more fun things - we've been playing Wallyball a couple nights per week! Wallyball is essentially volleyball, but you get to bounce the ball off the walls. And Matt is planning movie nights and camping trips and all that kind of thing.

That's about all for now,
Lots of love!
Rachael

The end of the 3 Musketeers

Hello all you faithful readers!

Yes, sadly, it is true. The end has come. The fabulous trio has been wrenched apart as I, Katie, have returned to Canada. BUT, save your tears. For 2 remain, and will continue the battle faithfully in my absence. It will be hard for them. I'm sure there will be many sleepless nights wrought with tears and anguish. But nevertheless they will be strong. They must be.

And what would an ending be without a list? I started my time with a list, so it seems appropriate to finish it with a list.

Katie's Top 10(okay, 12) Things She Loved About Bolivia (in no particular order):
1. Saltena's. SO GOOD.
2. Minisips. aka: juice bags you can buy on the street.
3. Camping on the Isla del Sol.
4. Biking Death Road with 3 crazy boys. (see pictures above)
5. The FABULOUS jewelery and bags.
6. Hippie pants!
7. The delicious fresh fruit juices.
8. Submarinos! (bolivian version of hot chocolate, watch for an installment near you)
9. Many, many moments of hilarity with Rach, Matteo, and the Vargii family
10. Paying $3 for a 7 hour bus ride...and then paying $3 for one can of Pringles.
11. All the dogs. everywhere. all the time.
12. The random street performances in the crazy traffic. Crosswalk Zebras!

I could go on but, I won't. Suffice to say, I had an amazing time and I would go back in a heartbeat. And if you ever get the opportunity to go down there, do it. Just do it!

This is Katie, signing off.

The Visit Continues

Dear Everyone,

Here are some pictures of various trips to the zoo, Plaza Murillo (where the Presidential Palace is), and the Island of the sun. It may be hard to tell from these photos, but Matt and Katie have been doing their level best to get tanned. They may have gone a little overboard, but we actually found some aloe vera gel down here, so things are looking up.

Today is our last day in La Paz before we head out adventure-bent again. Tomorrow, Katie and Matt are going on Death Road, the most dangerous road in the world. It's about 6-hours of downhill biking madness on this skinny road that drops into sheer cliffs at the side. Look it up on Wikipedia if you want to be motivated to pray for them!

And where will I be? Well, I'll be taking a leisurely bus down to Coroico (a lovely town in the Yungas, a jungly area) and checking in at our hotel, and waiting for them to show up in the evening, exhausted and covered in mud! We'll be at the hotel for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights, returning to La Paz on Monday. Katie leaves on Tuesday, which I'm trying not to think about too much.

Well, that's all for now. Prayers for safety would be appreciated!!

Love to all,
Rachael