My Blog

The Evolution Of Dance

2006-10-21T08:57:00.000-07:00


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

2006-09-25T21:00:00.001-07:00

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

2006-09-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

The First Day of Work

2006-08-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-08-02T06:52:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-07-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-06-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

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.

Uniting

2006-06-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, So I am so sorry it has taken me so long to get this updated. I just returned from ten days in Caracus. I am not going to lie, at first I really didn't feel like going. But it turned out to be one of the richest experiences I have ever had. I was in Caracus for a regional conference for the Latin American countries where Youth for Christ can be found.

It was great. I learned a lot. There were 44 of us in all and when we were in the meetings there was so much wisdom and experience... It was refreshing to be in a room filled with people with the same vision and desire to see every young person in Latin America have a personal relationship with Jesus. One of the cool parts was, each Youth for Christ in each country has their own strengths that others can learn from. For example, Brazil has a very strong prayer program called Despierta Deborah (Wake up Deborah), and Columbia has a strong board and Bolivia has a strong missionary program. And likewise, each country YFC has weaknesses where they need others to come alongside them and pick them up! We became a family, lifting each other up and loving one another.

One vision that I really caught during this conference was the partnering of ministries. For example, we have a ton of YFC ministires that are flourishing all over the US. But many of them don't even realize that there are YFC's found all over the world. Wouldn't it be cool if we could get a YFC ministry in the US to partner with a YFC ministry in another country. And by partnering I mean they could pray for one another, support one another and love one another. Wouldn't that be cool? There is a program out there called World Link that has been working on this. I am anxious to see how it continues...

Salt, Manure and Light

2006-05-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

It is so funny how God works sometimes...

I love our Wednesday night Bible Studies. It is supposed to be a time of community with the shoeshiners where we get to share my Best Friend with some who may not know him. But last night, what was talked about, spoke right to me... Salt, Manure and Light.

Let me give you a little bit of background. This past weekend I went on my second backpacking trip ever. (It was not the death march like last time!) We took twenty kids from one of the Bolivian schools that we work with on a backpacking trip on a trail named Takesi. It is a beautiful trail that takes us down into more of the jungly area in Bolivia. (Is jungly a word?... oh well). I loved the trail. It was the first backpacking trip where we took girls, so I went as a leader (scary!). During this trip I learned that I have a lot more pride than I ever thought I did. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do the trail all by myself without any help. And I didn't want to be the last person trailing behind like last time. That lasted for about three seconds!

I couldn't see much of anything. We were going downhill most of the time, which makes it even more difficult for me! I fell twice in the first hour...the second time respraining my ankle. I was so frustrated with myself. Why couldn't I do it? Why did my faults have to be so visible, especially to the kids that I was supposed to be ministering too?

Well, I quickly found out that no one was disgusted with it but me. Randy helped me a ton. He was my eyes for about 75% of the trip, and some of the other boys on the trip where my eyes and crutches for the other 25% of the trip. They seemed okay with helping me, I wasn't a burden like I feared. Randy and these boys believed in me more than I had. They saw me as a person with an eye problem, not someone whose whole identity was my eye problem.

What does this have to do with Salt, Light and Manure? Well, on Wednesday night Randy talked about how we as Believers are supposed to be the salt of the world and the light of the world. We are supposed to show Jesus' love to nonbelievers. In the New Testiment times, they would mix salt and manure together because it would make fire burn hotter. I believe that Jesus would use this illustration to show us that we (as the salt) are supposed to mix with some of the manure or sin of the world, to show Jesus' love to the world.. Does that make sense?

Well, Randy drew a conclusion from this illustration that spoke right to me, when we are showing Jesus' love to the world, we are not supposed to show that we are perfect, because we are not! We are supposed to show that we are human. It is okay that we show our faults. It's called being real.

Vomiting...I don't know if I will ever get used to it!

2006-04-29T11:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, so last night we had our April Outreach Night here at the house. Our theme was "Challenges". We had several food challenges planned. The funniest was the "Milk Challenge". The participants had to drink a gallon of milk in an hour and keep it down for fifteen minutes after completing it. Let's just say that this is nearly impossible! The milk curdles in your stomach, and more times than not you end up throwing up the milk before you are even done drinking the whole gallon!

David (shoeshiner, not from our team!), came close to completing it, but at one point he was leaning back in his chair. He had a weird look on his face. He didn't even move, and pewk just spewed out of his mouth. Gross! It was a gooey, stringy mess and it was now all over our carpet and chair. He just sat there. He didn't move for like two minutes after throwing up! It was disgusting! (Check out my pictures on my website for a picture of David, @www.hannahbarnett.org)

We had two more people throw up, but they each made it into the barf buckets that we had set up!

I have seen this Challenge done several times and I have yet to see someone actually complete it successfuly. Have you seen this done?

Also, I changed the settings on my blog so you can now comment on my blogs, even if you don't have a Blogspot Blog. You can comment as Annoymous! Please comment! I want to hear what you think!

I wonder what I have been eating...

2006-04-29T11:13:00.000-07:00

So here in Bolivia they have some great foods, like Saltenas and Sopa de Manne. But they also have some very weird types of food. I have tried Anticucho (I am not sure if that is spelled right!), it is Cow's Heart. It was a little chewy, but pretty tasty.

Well, on Tuesday at La Curva (the resturant we take the shoe shiners to after practice), I had another weird type of food! They brought out this fried piece of meat. It definitely looked interesting. I took one bite and (my stomach is turning, even as I write this to you!) it was the weirdest thing I have ever tasted! It had a nasty after taste. Well, I was hungry, so I thought I would try one more bite. After the second bite, I couldn't do it anymore! I asked David (whow was sitting across from me at the table) if he knew what it was we were eating and he told me "cow's stomach" or "Panza". Okay...nasty! I almost threw up right there on the table!

That got me thinking, what else have I eaten and not known it!?! That's a scary thought! After eating the Panza, I was pretty much sick to my stomach for two days. UGH!

Have any of you ever eaten any thing really weird like that?

Oreos

2006-04-18T20:04:00.000-07:00

Last night, we got into a little debate (not something that is unusual for us!). Oreos are sold all around the world, even here in La Paz! Some of us on our team believe that Oreos taste the same here as they do in the US. However, others on my team disagree. I am not sure what they think tastes different, some say the creme filling. But it makes no sense to me. Don't they have a uniform formula that they use at all of their factories? What do you think? Have you ever tried Oreo cookies in another country (other than the US). Do they taste the same or different and why? Because to me they seem to taste the same whether you are in the nothern hemisphere or the southern hemisphere!

Praising Together

2006-04-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

So my team and I have been involved in a ministry that happens at midnight for the past seven weeks for lLent. Here in Bolivia, Lent is very important, especially to the Catholics. And the Catholic Church has mass every Friday morning between 2-5am during Lent. Thousands of teenagers attend these masses. Many of them walk down from El Alto to a Church in La Paz where the Masses are held. Many of them walk or run for hours. It is a great ministry opportunity to get to know the kids and just be with them.

I have to say my attitude towards this ministry was not always very positive to say the least. It was exhausting and cold. I am I am going to be honest, I am not a vert extroverted person, so just going up to kid and introducing myself was a stretch. Last Thursday night/Friday morning was our last night for this ministry. To say the least, I was very excited that it was almost over. I didn't realize at the time what an experience this last night was going to be!

Randy and Jon took out their guitars and led pretty much two hours of worship. It was Awesome! The rest of us sang along as we could. We started with a few English songs and then began to sing in Spanish. At one point during the morning we found ourselves surrounded by a group of kids, all of us worshiping the Lord our God together. It was a cool experience. I forgot about the cold and about the fact that I had been up for almost 24 hours straight, all I cared about was praising God alongside my brothers and sisters. And this got me thinking. This is what it is going to be like in heaven. Everyone, no matter what their color, race, nationality, or backround is, or what language they speak. We are all going to be worshiping and praising Jesus together as one big family. How cool is that?

I don't know how many of you have actually been a part of a multicultural worship service, but if you haven't I urge you to try it sometime. It is definiatley an experience you do not want to miss!

Shoe Shiner Church

2006-04-02T10:40:00.000-07:00

The idea started when we were just hanging out in the living room. I can't remember who made the first comment, but all of the sudden we were talking out how great it would be to start a shoeshiner church. We all thought it would be cool. The next thing we knew we were having our first meeting.

It was last Wednesday night. We held it at the "projects" where many of the shoeshiners either eat or live. At first we were a little nervous, 7:00 rolled around and we didn't have too many in attendence. But slowly they trickled in. By the end of the night, 10 guys had showed up. How awesome is that? The talk was about an hour long. Randy did an awesome job. He talked out of Acts. We discussed the early church and what that encompassed. The whole hour, the guys were engaged, writting in their new Bibles and truly wanting to learn what this was all about. Afterwarda we shared a meal of coffee and bread.

It was really cool, because in my opinion it was a lot like the first church. Meeting in their home. That is what the first churches were people meeting together in their homes to talk about Jesus. Many times they shared a meal together, they loved eachother, mourned with each other, laughed with each other and lived together. In many ways, in my opinion the shoeshiners have a better idea of what church is supposed to be than many of the churches I have seen in the US. They already live together, eat together, mourn together, laugh together and love each other. They are there for one another.

Let me give you an example. Two weeks ago Ishmeal, one of my favorite shoeshiners' nephew fell (I think from a roof, but I am not sure) and severely injured himself. He was in bad shape. In fact they didn't think he would make it for a while. He was in intensive care, and had two surgeries. Ishmeal's family could not handle the hospital bills. It was very expensive. One day after a shoeshiner basketball practice, David asked the shoeshiners if they could help out Ishmeal and his family while they were in need. The cool thing is, almost every one of the shoeshiners gave David some money. Although they are poor themselves they rallied around Ishmael and his family.

What a great example of what a church should be like, don't you think? I know I am going to learn a lot from them.

Breaking my fall

2006-03-21T17:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I am not going to lie. I am sick and tired of falling over all the time. I fell twice today, making it a total of four times just this week! The first time my face broke my fall. I have a bruise forming nicely on my right cheek. The second time I rolled my ankle and it is quite swollen right now. I haven't done that in years!

The thing that made the second time worse is I definitely got light headed almost to the point of passing out! It was quite embarrassing! I do think the altitude has something to do with it. At least that is what I am telling myself to make myself feel better. I don't understand.

I thought I was doing so well. But I have fallen a lot this week. Maybe God is trying to teach me something. I hope I learn it soon, before I do some real damage. One thing I do know is that God is alwasys there to pick me up. Every time I have fallen someone has always been there to pick me up. whether it is one of my team members or one of the Bolivians on the street trying to hold in the laughter from seeing a tall blonde eat it. Maybe that is what he is trying to remind of. No matter what happens, every time I fall over he is ther to pick me up and carry me when needed.

Those are my thoughts for now. More to come later.

Mysterious Pink Paper

2006-03-11T17:33:00.000-08:00

For as far back as I can remember my mom always has a stash of Kleenex in her pocket. She always needed to blow her nose. Come to think of it my grandma always had a running supply in her pocket as well. I grew up in Colorado. It is very dry in Colorado. My guess is that they did this because it was so dry that they needed to blow their noses a lot.

You may be asking yourself what made me think of this. Well here in La Paz it is very dry as well. And they do have Kleenex here, but I think it must be a little on the expensive side, because no one ever buys it. And the pink mysterious paper can be found anywhere! They always have rolls of pink recycled toilet paper in their bags or pockets. It cracks me up. I saw one of the girls in my English class whip out this entire roll of toliet paper from her bag when a friend of hers asked for something to blow her nose.

Everyone has it. I think part of the reason is they need something to blow their noses with, but I think the other reason they have it is because many times in the public bathrooms in La Paz they either don't have toliet paper or you need to purchase a couple sheets to take care of business.

I have a had time using this paper though. Because it seems a little cheap, and in my experience when I used this type of pink paper is disentigrated and my hand got wet anyway... it was slightly frustrating. If anyone knows the secret to this mysterious pink paper let me know. In the meantime, I think I am going to stick to regular Kleenex and toliet paper.

Something I thought I would never do...

2006-03-06T07:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, So something I am continually learning every day is that God is full of surprises. I think he likes to keep us on our toes. He likes it that way.

On our ride here from the airport on the day of arriving here in La Paz, Randy and Jon told us they had a surprise for us, they had entered us into a Tournament for a fundraiser. What type of tournament was it you might ask, well it was dodgeball. Yep, that's right just like the movie. Well, when they said dodgeball- the first thing that popped in my head was oh great- a bunch of balls flying at me how fun is that going to be, well it turns out quite a bit!

We had the tournament on Saturday. And it was really fun. I truly enjoyed it. God surprised me again. Randy led our team with great creativitiy. We definitaly stood out as the team with the most team spirit. Our name "The Mechanics" Our Game "Reaching kids for Jesus" and kicking butt at dodgeball. We were complete with uniforms, plays, warm ups and theme song and cheers. It is keeping with a rule of our house, if you are going to do something funny and you do it seriously it is even funnier! Yes, I now own a mechanics outfit! The best part of the outfit is that it is a onesie (I am not sure if I spelled that right!) And when you lift your arms up, your pants go up about two inches- it is like highwaters! They are awesome. (Check out my website for a picture of us!)

We lost our first game, and we did get reamed for it. But we came back with a vengence. And made it to the finals. The finals was a three game stretch. We lost the first game. But we came back strong and won the next two games- winning the entire tournament. We have some really cool shirts to show for it too.

My team was great. Ali was a great dodger and catcher. Ross was quick with his throwing and David just kept pelting our opponents. And Randy and Jon were great in coaching us in our plays and attacking with full force. It was great.

God definitely surprised me with this one. I can't' believe that the first tournament that a team that I was on won was dodgeball. What a sense of humor He has.

Home Cooked Meal

2006-02-27T06:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, if you know me at all you will be shocked when I say this, but I had my first real home cooked meal last Saturday night and it was glorious! If you have known me for any amount of time at all, you know that I love to go out to eat. It is terrible for me, but it is my weakness. Here it is almost cheaper to go out rather than eat in, so we end up eating out quite a bit!

Randy's parents are visiting right now and his mom made chicken enchiladas for us and homemade chips. It was awesome! I guess I realized that you don't really realize what you have til it is gone. My mom used to make wonderful meals (she was a good cook), But I didn't realize how good they were until I didn't have them anymore!

One thing my parents always said is to be careful for what you wish for, because it just might come true. Well, when I was little I used to wish that I could eat out for almost every meal. And guess what that wish came true and I am not sure how I feel about it right now. Don't get me wrong, it is a great experience and I like trying all of the new foods, but I sure miss my mom's cooking.

It has been fun having the Davis' visit. It is like having parents around again, they may not be mine, but they have been loving us like we were theirs and for that I am truly grateful. So thanks Denny and Elaine. I hope you guys are having as much fun as the rest of us are having.

Hannah

Sucking Wind!

2006-02-20T06:29:00.000-08:00

I feel so out of shape here!

Tomorrow my team and I will have been here in Bolivia for a month. Bolivia is way up in altitude if you remember. When we landed at the airport, we were almost at 14000 ft!

I've been told that it takes your body a while to adjust, and let me tell ya it has! I still feel as though I am sucking wind when I walk up the street to our house!

I really noticed it on Saturday at basketball practice with the shoeshiners. First of all, I have never played basketball in my life... and it shows. But I want to step out of my comfort zone and try something new. I am enjoying it, and everyone is being patient-which is good. But by the end of practice I thought I was going to die! I couldn't get any oxygen! I never realized how much running you actually do in basketball (and I know I probably still have no I idea!). I have always been active and in pretty good shape, so this is definitely a new experience for me!

Basketball is definitely a sport!

¨Doggie Bags¨ and ¨Paper Napkins¨at a new extreme!

2006-02-13T10:04:00.000-08:00

Okay,

so here are a few things that I have just chuckled at these last few weeks. First, the term getting a ¨doggie bag¨is very true here! When you go out to eat (which we do quite frequently here because it is cheaper!) and you have left over food, you actually put the food into a bag to take home! It is very interesting. At first I thought it was weird, but it is probably a lot cheaper!

What else? Oh, milk is also in a bag. I used to be pretty picky when it came to milk back home (Just ask my mom!) , but here I could care less. I also didn´t used to like cereal all that much, but now I love it. It is awesome!

Another thing that just cracks me up is here we truly have paper napkins. I can now say that I have enjoyed a meal with a piece of paper across my lap, just in case I spill. How funny is that!
It works pretty well, most of the time as long as I don´t spill all over myself.

Another thing is people love soda here. That is all they drink. I truly did not think that it would be that popular here. Who knew? They drink pop like it is water here!

I can´t think of anything else right now, but I will keep you posted

People Drive like They Walk

2006-02-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I am sitting at my first Internet Cafe ever and I decided I needed to tell you a little about my new home. First of all, I live in La Paz, Bolivia which the capital of Bolivia. There is about one Million people living here. I love it. It is very packed and it is at about 12,000 ft. La Paz is actually in a bowl surrounded by the Andes Mountains. The streets are actually relatively clean and I love all the little parks that you can find in La Paz.

The people here are very friendly. I enjoy it here. There are a lot of things that I am getting used to here. One thing that I am glad about is the fact that I don´t need to get used to driving. Here people drive like they walk and you cross the street at your own risk! You can´t just follow someone across the street because if a car is coming at you they will just honk and keep going, they don´t worry about hitting you! I am learning to appreciate the importance of frogger!

It is the rainy season here. Which is aweome, but you have to look out for wet streets! The streets are straight up and down just like San Fransisco. When the streets are wet I learned that you can slip pretty easily going down hill, especially when there is tile.

I love the streets they are stone and beautiful, they are however a little bumpy.

What else? What else? Other than trying to figure out this keyboard (it is different because of the different spanish letters!) I think that is all.

Oh- within the next few days you should be able to look at my website and find some pictures of my home and my new team.

Talk to you later.

Growing Pains

2006-01-30T07:08:00.000-08:00

Okay so I went on my first backpacking trip this last week. And I have to say that God showed me that I can grow in ways I never thought possible. For three days we were either walking straight up or straight down. It was hard, really hard. To me if felt like the longest and hardest swim practice of my life that would never end. But you know what it was still worth it. Because the beauty that I saw was wonderful. It looked kind of like Scottland. Granted, I have never been there, but that is what I thought up when I say it. We also got greeted by some llamas. They would just come onto the trail and just stay there. It was quite interesting. A few of my team members spat at them, and they kind of jerked back.

It made me think about this next year and what is going to be like. First, it is going to be hard, really hard. But in the end it is going to be worth it. And regardless of what happens God has me here for a reason and he is taking me through this stuff for a reason. So I just need to hold on and just like this last week, I just need to take it one step at a time and God will lead me through the rest of it.

History is changing

2006-01-23T13:56:00.000-08:00

So after about 24 hours of traveling my team and I land in La Paz to see red carpets covering parts of the runway plus quite a bit of security. Come to find out that the reason is because there were some pretty important leaders flying in including Castro (I think) and Chavez (from Venezuela).

The day after we arrived, the 22, there was the inauguration of Morales. This was the reason all of the leaders were flying in. Our team walked up as far as possible to the plaza were it was going to take place. We could only get so far because the streets were blocked off. Also, about 300,000 people from La Paz were there to witness it. But it was still amazing to think that we were three blocks away from some major world leaders. History for Bolivia is changing and I was here to see it!

I Can't Help But Go!

2006-01-19T20:57:00.000-08:00

I can’t help it but go!

I am a day out from leaving. And I have to say my life is pretty hectic right now. It is not a bad busy, but a good busy. As I have been preparing over these last few weeks I have learned a few interesting facts about myself. The first thing is that I am truly an introvert. I am in the midst of saying goodbye, which is awesome and very emotionally difficult at the same time! It is a sort of paradox. I am wiped out and I haven’t even left for Bolivia yet! Oh Lord give me strength!!

The second thing that I have learned over these last few weeks is that I can not not go, if that makes sense. Many people are amazed at the fact that I have decided to pick up and leave my home, family and comfort zone and move all the way down to Bolivia. Many of them say… “I could never do that!” I know the road ahead looks somewhat scary but it is exciting to. I can’t help it but go! Yes the road is going to be tough, very tough but it is going to be worth it. So I will see you again on the other side of the world!

My First Blog Ever!

2006-01-19T20:52:00.000-08:00

My first Blog ever! I have to admit, the first time I heard about blogging, it didn’t make much sense to me. But after a few of my friends started blogs I realized they were pretty cool. So I decided to use a blog to help document my stay in Bolivia. (Because I am going to be a missionary in Bolivia!) So please come along and follow me through the next year. Please comment on my entries, I would love to hear from you!