The Evolution Of Dance

Inspirational Comedian Judson Laipply dances to clips of music from the 60's to the 2000's. Tell all your friends about this video if you think it is funny.

Noche de Mujeres

I have always loved Fairy Tales. I wasn't sure why until last night. I always loved watching Cinderella. She was lower than low and then her beauty came out and everybody wanted to be her. She was truly the "Belle of the Ball". From rags to riches. It just took one person to recognize the beauty under the dirt.

I think this is a dream of every woman. They want someone to recognize their beauty. They want someone to pursue them and love them and think they are enchanting. Just like when Prince Charming searched the whole country looking for the special woman to whom the glass slipper belonged.

Well, while keeping this in mind, I was able to give the gift of a night of enchantment to my shoe shiner girls. While our last Project Serve team was here, we hosted a "Night of Women". Twice a week these seven women that I have been working with play basketball and share a lunch with me. I wanted to give them a night where they could do girly things. So we invited the girls to my house, where they were able to shower have their hair, nails and makeup done. Then, we gave each of them a new outfit to wear to dinner. They loved it! They were smiling the whole time.

We then took them to a nice Chinese Dinner. It was awesome. I had a great time. And I will never forget it.

Pedro made my night last night. We were at our staff meeting where he informed me that one of the girls told him what she thought of the night. Here is the gist of what she said. "I had a great time that night. And it wasn't because of the makeup or the hair or the new clothes. It was because I felt like I mattered for a night. I am a shoeshiner and people really don't think of me as a person normally. And for one night I felt like a human."

It was like we gave her her own fairly tale. Isn't that cool? I can't wait to introduce them to the One who truly thinks they are enchanting!

Noche de Mujeres

I have always loved Fairy Tales. I wasn't sure why until last night. I always loved watching Cinderella. She was lower than low and then her beauty came out and everybody wanted to be her. She was truly the "Belle of the Ball". From rags to riches. It just took one person to recognize the beauty under the dirt.

I think this is a dream of every woman. They want someone to recognize their beauty. They want someone to pursue them and love them and think they are enchanting. Just like when Prince Charming searched the whole country looking for the special woman to whom the glass slipper belonged.

Well, while keeping this in mind, I was able to give the gift of a night of enchantment to my shoe shiner girls. While our last Project Serve team was here, we hosted a "Night of Women". Twice a week these seven women that I have been working with play basketball and share a lunch with me. I wanted to give them a night where they could do girly things. So we invited the girls to my house, where they were able to shower have their hair, nails and makeup done. Then, we gave each of them a new outfit to wear to dinner. They loved it! They were smiling the whole time.

We then took them to a nice Chinese Dinner. It was awesome. I had a great time. And I will never forget it.

Pedro made my night last night. We were at our staff meeting where he informed me that one of the girls told him what she thought of the night. Here is the gist of what she said. "I had a great time that night. And it wasn't because of the makeup or the hair or the new clothes. It was because I felt like I mattered for a night. I am a shoeshiner and people really don't think of me as a person normally. And for one night I felt like a human."

It was like we gave her her own fairly tale. Isn't that cool? I can't wait to introduce them to the One who truly thinks they are enchanting!

The First Day of Work

Do you remember the first day of work, when you start a new job. It is kind of nerve wracking and exciting all at the same time...isn't it? You're nervous, your palms are sweaty. You want to prove yourself, not only to your boss and co-workers but to yourself as well. Do you remeber how much you learn on your first day of work? Well, yesterday I had my first day of work! I went shined shoes for my first time!

Now, this not a new concept. Many gringos have done this before me, including the majority of my teammates David, Ali, Ross and Randy. And I know a guy named Colby also shined shoes (but he was here way before I was!). Let enme just tell ya, I was Nervous! Did I have what it takes to shine shoes? Was I going to do okay or was I going to make the fatal mistake of getting the polish on someone's socks!?! If this happens, they do not pay for the shoe shine!

Yesterday, as Randy and I boarded the micro headed towards the Prado (close to where we were going to shine!) I prayed that all I would need to do was watch to learn. I didn't think I would actually need to shine anyone's shoes! Boy was I wrong! I shined with Ismael. I promised him he could teach me how to shine. And I am not going to lie, I put it off many times because of fear, pride maybe...I don't know. But he was Awesome! He was a great teacher. He had me watch him and then practice on him. He really helped me to calm my fears. But then it happened. Someone came up for a shoeshine without me even asking! Ahhh! I prayed the whole time, and although I went slow, the guy was very nice and patient! Afterwards I got an applause from Ismael! It was great! I ended up shining four people's shoes and making 2 b's which is 16 US cents! (Don't worry I didn't keep the money I bought the guys lunch with it and I actually ended up in the hole quite a bit!)

It was an experience for sure, seeing the world from that point of veiw. But you know what, I realized yesterday what good friends God has blessed me with down here in Bolivia. The whole time I had someone helping me and teaching me. From Randy going with me and showing me how to put on my mask, to Ismael teaching me to shine and Flaco sitting next tome and talking to the people that I was shining. It was great, God is good. I just hope that I am as good of a friend to them as they have been to me.

Quince!

Okay, so you know how in the United States our 16th birthday is a pretty big deal? For girls it is usually known as their "Sweet 16"? Well here in La Paz, this is not the case! The biggest birthday here for girls is their "Quince"! This is their 15th birthday.

I have been to three "Quinces" since coming to Bolivia. Each of them have been different but all of them have been a VERY big deal and extravagant in their own way! The first one was for one of the girls from an international church that I work with. Here everyone was pretty dressed up and there was a lot of dancing...if you didn't know this dancing is very big in this culture! And everyone drank Champagne at midnight.

The second one was my favorite. It was for Pedro's oldest daughter. It was not quite as fancy, but it was still very special. They had a huge barbeque in their yard. It was full of laughter and fun. I really enjoyed it.

The last one that I attended was for a girl at one of the Bolivian schools that I work with. This "Quince" was HUGE! It was like I was attending a wedding! First, the place where the party was held was beautifully decorated. It was complete with 15 Mujeres (they were like Bridesmaids!) one for each year of the girl's life. It also had a flower girl and each of the Mujeres was introduced and escorted down a big hallway (like the Aisle!). Finally, the Birthday girl was escorted down the Aisle and when she started exeryone stood up! And just in case you aren't following me... this is just like when the Bride starts down the Aisle in her wedding! Then we watched as the Birthday girl danced the Waltz with her father and God father and I think her boyfriend. Then everyone was allowed to join in. It waas so funny. Oh I almost forgot, they also threw Confetti, just like rice! Ali and I were cracking up!

It also had a huge cake (just like a wedding cake). It looked delicious. Ali and I couldn't wait to have a piece of it. We waited till 1:00am and they never cut the cake. Sad, huh? Ali took some pictures. Once she emails them to me, I will post them so you can see what I mean.

Oh... and boys I asked which birthday was the biggest for boys and they told me probably their 18th birthday. But they definately don't make such a big deal over it.

Help me Girls!

Okay so I need some Help!

So as you know I work very closely with 4 guys. Ali and I just recently moved in to the bottom floor of the house where the guys live. It seems to be working out quite well, at least in my opinion!

The name of the entire house in which we live is the 4th of July Flatts. It is named this because everyone who lives here is from the US. Also, we are keeping the Bolivian tradition of naming everything after there holidays. For example, there are streets all over La Paz that are named after their many holidays! Since Ali and I hae moved in, the boys have now named the upstairs portion of the house, "The Man Cave", which I think is a fitting name. However, Ali and I need to come up with a name for the downstairs portion of the house. The boys suggestions are like "Bubbles" or "Skittles" which I don't think are going to work. Does anyone out there have any suggestions on what the name of our portion of the house should be? We really need your help! Give us some suggestions!

Vida Loca

My life has been crazy for the last three weeks! I just wanted to give you a snapshot view of what I have experienced. (You can also check out my monthly newsletters on my website www.hannahbarnett.org!

To start we hit a Cholita! What is a Cholita you may ask. Well check out this story. At the beginning of June my team and I plus the parents of Ali, Ross and David visited Man chu pichu (an ancient Incan ruin in Peru). Two hours into our 16 hour bus ride I was rudely awoken by a "Bang", then two consecutive bumps! To my astonishment, when I looked out the window I saw a poor Cholita laying under our bus. A Cholita is the name given to the native Bolivian women here! It was quite tragic. However, the women was conscious and talking. A fight almost broke out between the bus driver and the people who witnessed the accident. About 15 minutes later, the Cholita was finally loaded onto our bus (along with a police officer who would accompany us to the border) in order that we could take her to a clinic.

When we arrived at the border between Peru and Bolivia we were asked to take all of our belongings and deboard the bus! Neither our bus driver or our bus could leave the country! The last time we saw our bus driver he was being detained! Poor Cholita, and Poor Bus driver! Now, that is a bad day at work!

We had parents and friends visiting until the middle of June! It was fun having everyone here watching them experience all of our favorite Bolivian things including Anticucho (cow's heart), an Argentinian steak dinner of $2.00, and the rolling (usually steep) hills of La Paz.

The day the parents left, our first Project Serve team arrived. They were awesome. I loved their hearts to serve. It was so awesome. We painted two churches, and helped to lay the foundation of another. We also did street dramas and evangelism. It was a great experience, except for one thing...Typhoid Fever! About a week into the trip I started to feel lousy! I was sinking like the Titanic! I usually hate going to the doctor, but I finally gave in and went to the hospital. To my horror, the doctor told me to stick out my tongue and almost immediately he told me "You have Typhoid Fever"- in Spanish obviously. I freaked out! I really thought I understood him wrong. But I guess not, because my blood tests came back positive!

The doctor got a kick out of me though. I seriously asked him if I was going to die. With a chuckle, he said no...maybe 30 years ago yeah! Oh well, I am feeling better and doing well and getting back into the swing of things. Hope you are all doing well.

Exhaustion...

My team and I have been crazy busy for the last two months, probably longer than that... I can´t even remember how long it has been... but it has been a long time. I feel like I am sprinting a race with no gas left. Ya know what I mean? Maybe I am hitting some of the culture shock, it is supposed to hit around this time.

I feel totally inadequate for this job. Sometimes I wish I could just run and hide under a rock at home. I know I can´t runaway. But I want to so bad. I feel like all I do is annoy my team (Bolivian and my team from the US) even when I am just trying to help all I seem to do is annoy people. I know God wants me here, but sometimes I wonder... am I really making a difference or am I just in the way? One of the biggest fears I have ever had is being a burden on people because of some of my eye issues, and I am afraid that my fear has come true. I have a feeling I am going to have to confront some of my teammates about this soon... hopefully that goes well. Becaue I am definately a teddy bear (people from MTI will understand!) and I am afraid of confrontation...


I know it will get better...we´ll see what happens.