Going to the jungle...

Tomorrow I am heading to Chapare, to a beautiful "jungle" camping ground. (ok... so Iĺl give you more details when I come back because I really have no idea...)
I am going with the staff and girls from Albergue because its the girls' winter vacation. And this trip is really special for the girls.
The staff has made a program so that these 3 days are more like a spiritual retreat that are going to be based off the book of Esther.
Please please pray for spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental protection for all of us.

This is a really important time for me to get to go deeper with the girls, gain some trust, and also share more of myself with them.
Please pray for my stomach through this time, that I can find safe food (I have been having problems and I actually went to the doctor on Sat.) And that I can communicate. This is the first time I will be completely without any English speaker, and my spirit is wearing down with the little I feel I can communicate.

Thanks for all your love and support! Iĺl take some good pictures.

The view from Albergue

Me and Abi (sister here) ... Daniel is in the corner....

David, Abi, me and Ruth Gray!! (I live with Abi... David and Ruth are bonus siblings who live in another part of Coch)

New baby Angel!

Beautiful Alejandra and her son Angel

This crazy little thing called Kermesse

            Friday, my first day at Albergue (the center of Mosoj Yan where the girls live) I got a tour from Maribel who proudly showed me around the girls bedrooms, kitchen, meeting rooms, and the psycologist’s room on the third floor. She also showed me the view from the top floor, which looks out over the city and surrounding mountains.  From here you can see the Cristo, the giant Christ statue, perfectly on most days, but today there was smoke from the illegal fires burned in celebration of San Juan the day before.

            We went downstairs and just as I was getting the hang of cutting the cucumbers the right way, Gonzalo brought in 9 grocery bags of fresh meat. For more than 2 hours, we cut the fat off the meet and chopped it into little pieces. Maribel asked me if I’d ever worked as a butcher before.  That was nice of her.

            On Sunday I came back to Albergue for the Kermesse and tables were set up, music was playing, and the girls were working hard preparing fresh food to sell to raise money for their campamiento (or their camping trip) to Chaparé. The place looked like a good ole outdoor barbeque, but Bolivia style. I bought the freshly prepared plate with familiar looking meat, rice, choclo (ummm… to hard to explain… but it’s a vegetable), and white corn on the cob with HUGE cornels. I tried sharing my food and heard the same thing from these girls as from my aunts- no, no, you need to eat!

            My contribution to the day was babysitting Susanna, a very fat baby girl whose mom Julia, 15 and Quechan, was working and selling food. In the past 3 days, Julia really warmed up to me. And in the past 3 months, she’s made huge strides in her self-confidence. She came to Albergue very stoic and shy and hardly spoke Spanish. Now three months later she’s laughing with the girls, teasing her daughter in Spanish, and has been coaching Alejandra, who was 9 months pregnant on Saturday, through the pain of her contractions.

            The Kermesse was a success, and was a mark of celebration for the girls because the day before, Alejandra, 20, had her baby boy, Angel. Today, Tuesday, I got to meet Angel. And I witnessed his first bath. I also witnessed the camaraderie between the girls at the house, especially Julia and Alejandra. They all want to learn how to care for these babies, and they want to know how to one day do more than their parents could for their kids. These girls are great. They are learning a ton, and even if they don’t master everything, they really know how to cook meat. 

Home Take Two

            Mis tias- I have 2 aunts. They are very Bolivian. Very old fashioned. They both are semi-elderly. They are too cute and they both are always sure they always know what is best. They both are so dang loveable. And they both will do anything for me. Their last words will be Comé, comé! (eat, eat) What do you want to eat? Something, anything? The only thing I’ve turned down eating so far was sardines. But tía Mabel hadn’t made it yet and when she asked me if I wanted some, my face gave me away. She started cracking up and said ‘how bout chicken?’

            Tia Eva is more reserved, or at least more quiet. I think she’s amused by me more than not. We’ve had some really great conversations about our faith and lives. We’ve also had conversations where she, smiling ear to ear, calls me out on making up words.

            Daniel is my host brother; Abi, my sister. So far I’ve appreciated their friendship and the way they’ve explained so much to me. They are half gringo, so they understand my perspective. More so than that of their aunts.

            Sunday they took me to church. Sunday evening we went out with some of their friends. (I have Bolivian friends!) Ice cream and the movies. They’ve been awesome about sharing their lives. And friends. One of these friends from church, well they call him “curly.” I tried to do the same but the word I said meant handsome. Oops.

            It’s been really good to take it slow. 2 federal holidays this week= I have had time to adjust to hearing Spanish and I’ve had time to just sit for an hour after every meal and talk to at least one member of my family. I haven’t really started work yet. I’m looking forward to being at Mosoj Yan.

Until then, Bolivia is keeping me enamored- the fruit, family, and politics and all.

Fun tidbits-

FOOD- For breakfast we have yogurt, which is all sold in bags- seriously a good way to do it!, plantains, and cereal with instant coffee in fresh milk. We boil the milk to clean it, but its fresh from the cow!

We eat a big lunch- normally a meat, rice or potatoes, and some kind of chopped vegetable salad. We eat everything on our plates- I mean everything. J People often come home from work for lunch and then go back. Lunch is the biggest most important meal of the day.

Dinner is more like a little snack of fresh bread and some tea. I’ve never been very hungry even by night time. 

Irony in Miami

Irony is the only common factor in my last two days of traveling. Since I've been grounded for a long-term layover in a tourist hotspot, Irony has taken on many shapes.
In Miami airport Irony looks like the lady who tells me I can't get on the plane to Bolivia that leaves at 11 pm because it is 10 pm. (Of course...)
Irony looks like the distressed Senora who comes to the counter a half hour after me saying she's got to get to Bolivia, she's doing medical missions.
Irony is the plane ticket that we both now have that will let us leave on Thursday at 11pm to get to Cochabamba on Friday at 11:15am. (Irony is that I have a friend to make the connection with!)

Irony looks like me crying to my dad on the phone while the security guards at the airport looked sad for me because they could not open up security.

Irony in Miami looks like warm and wonderful conversations from the elder Cuban man at Dunkin Donuts and the Dominican Republican shuttle driver after a youth group with T-shirts about 'God at work in Brazil' looks down at my luggage and won't make eye contact with me.

Irony looks like disappointment because I'm not spending the night on an airplane, and irony looks like me waking up at 11am in a beautiful hotel room realizing that perhaps I needed rest.
Irony is feeling stuck, and then being able to take a cab to South Beach for a day and rest. (and swim!!)
Irony is remembering that I'm not stuck, my new Haitian friend who drove the cab is.
Irony is fearing feeling alone here, because I don't know a soul. Irony is looking forward to getting to Bolivia where I will be surrounded by family, and irony is the sigh of relief because I can still call my family right now.
Irony is that hearing spanish everywhere comforts me.
Irony is resting and letting God hug me with sunshine and time to think. And it's wondering how in the world I would have held up if they had let me on the plane.
Irony, most of all, looks like the most beautiful woman in all of Miami beach- the Senora (approx. 60) in the Chita bikini. She was perhaps unfit for her suit, but didn't seem to care. She ran to get into the ocean much like the 5 year old adjacent to her. She ungracefully went under and came up smiling. Then she floated there with a huge grin. She was the reason I went swimming. It looked too good to miss.
Irony. (That God maybe thought the same thing.)

"What country are y'all from?"

Oh- and just for fun, Irony is this guy's shirt who I was walking behind. Very HNGR.

To Bless and Be Blessed

- dedicated to all of you who have supported me and prayed me through this summer

I just finished my debrief session in SC (a week ago) where I spent time reflecting and writing about this summer. During our sessions, Tom encouraged us to try and sum up our time this summer to help us share our experiences with others. What my summer boils down to is this- as I spent time, energy, and prayer pouring into both little and big people at Casa Bernabe, I received overwhelmingly more blessings in turn.

And because the blessings were so apparent I am sitting here in the airport state side looking back on the long days spent with 17 toddlers and some amazing house moms and I wish I could remember the moments of sheer exhaustion more vividly to ease the homesickness for Guatemala. All I can seem to remember is how precious my new family became to me. And if only I remembered what it felt like for the alarm to go off at 5:20, if only I could remember what it was like to be the one to orchestrate nap times or bedtimes when I needed a nap myself, if only I could remember the frustration of disciplining children who decided to laugh in my face, if only I could remember that terrible smell of po-po every morning and diaper change... if only these memories hadn’t faded in light of the memories of the blessings then maybe the homesickness would ease.

Because what has stuck in my mind is Claudia sitting in her bunk in the morning with her head propped in her hands smiling- Bueno Dias Nena. (short for Lorena) Buenos dias mi amor, good morning my love. I am missing you right now.

What has stuck in my mind is Jose pequeno sitting on the armrest of the sofa stroking my hair that was wet from the rain and every time I would turn and look at him, he would smile his toothless smile and lean over and kiss me on the cheek.

What is engrained into my memory is hugging Magali, Alex, and Rosa when I dropped them off at school and them telling me- Necesitas besitos! You need a little kiss. I would get my kisses and tell them to behave well at school. Si Lorena…

What I will really never forget is Jose David whispering to me during Dora, Lorena, te queiro mucho! ...David, te quiero mucho tambien. I love you David.

These are the blessings that immersed me in joy during my time this summer. And as much as I know that the hard parts of this trip are fading fast from my mind, I also know that the blessings of the beautiful memories only actually came about after the exhausting times when I was obedient to pour out. The biggest blessings only came about after the biggest sacrifices.

For example, Claudia who loves me now, was my worst nightmare the first 2 weeks. She would not listen to me or interact with me positively- she only whined at me. I had no patience left for her and after a couple weeks of working at the house, we started disciplining as well as playing with the kids. Because we were willing to do timeouts and change diapers and spend time at the house just doing dishes, we started gaining Claudia's love. As we affectively put Claudia in timeout and would even take her back to her bed when she started throwing fits, she not only started responding to our authority, she started playing with us. She learned my name and would come up to me and have me sing her a song. (Which I would only do until she didn’t want me to sing with her anymore and would hush me so she could finish the song.)

And Jose pequeno, who was the first to run up to me at the end of our time (and may or may not be my favorite little boy who squirmed his way into my heart) really didn’t pay attention to me very much at all until we started helping with diaper duty (there are only 4 not potty trained in the house.) Andrea and I would take turns changing this little guy’s diaper because he reeked. Every time he had po-po all the kids would tell us because none of them wanted to play with him when he had pooped because he smelled so bad. Bringing Jose down to the house to shower him down after he had po-po was a sacrifice and there were plenty of times when I felt sick to my stomach thanks to him. But Jose loves water, so once he got over the fact that we had interrupted his playing in order to change his diaper, he would get all excited to be in the shower. We laughed every time I bathed him and it was all I could do to get him to not jump in the shower. The face time with him, bathing him and wrapping him up in the towel made me credible and worthy of his love. It was only through the po-po that I could earn the giggles and incessant kisses on the cheek.

And thus the story of my summer goes, it was because we started going early to the house that we got to bring the kids to school. It was only because we spent so much time watching the kids that Jose grew in trust and love for me, enough to tell me he loved me every day the last week we were there. (Yeah thanks for that timing buddy…) It was because we disciplined that we became lovable to Claudia and others, and it was because we were there constantly meeting their needs that they loved us enough to cry when we put them to bed that last night.

My summer in a sentence- as I spent time, energy, and prayer pouring into both little and big people at Casa Bernabe, I received overwhelmingly more blessings in turn.

Thank you for being witnesses and enabling me to experience the Lord’s work this summer. He is at work loving and restoring precious and broken little kids to health and wholeness and I got to be a part of it thanks to you all. Family and friends, you have poured out in me and I pray that you all are blessed in turn by my kids just as they have blessed me.

This is the Lord’s doing, it is marvelous in our eyes. Let us rejoice and be glad. Psalm 118. (check out Mosaic’s song to catch my spirit here.)

You will fulfill your will for me Oh Lord, I will Praise you for your steadfast love!

It's our last day here.

Last day.

I am about to go to the house and I have never been so excited to try and help bathe 11 little boys. And put gel in their hair. And... ok I need to stop while I am ahead otherwise this blog will be oversentimental.

And although I am really sad, and not ready to go, and although I have to completely rely on God's strength because as Matt said last night with a smile "I am currently watching the train wreck that is you right now!" I am a bit tired and weary, today is the day to praise the Lord my God.

He has been so good to me!!!

And mis amigos here at Casa Bernabe have welcomed me into their family- they have been so good to us.

And now, I get to go worship with my kids and my friends one last time.

Would love prayers- especially ones of praise for God's goodness here.

Peace,

Lo