Monkeys and a paddleboat...

I’m on top of the world, hey!

Okay, so I had to quote from one of my favorite songs, because today and tomorrow we are in Copacabana, Bolivia. Two interesting things about Copacabana: first, it’s the original Copacabana that all others are named after. Second, it’s on the shore of Lake Titikaka (or Titicaca, depending on who you ask), the highest lake in the world. The surface of the lake is at 12, 500 feet. Our hotel room is a ways up the hill, and on the 4^th floor, so figure another hundred feet or so above that. Needless to say, the stairs up to our room are gasp-inducing, even when we were in La Paz for a couple of days first! Our hotel there is at (only!) about 11,000 feet.

We will post many more pictures and some videos tomorrow night from La Paz, because our Internet connection here is kind of wiggy.

There will also be many from our trip last Sunday night to Senda Verde, the animal refuge near Coroico. We stayed overnight so we could see the two Andean spectacled bears, who have the largest enclosure in the world (for their species in captivity) at over 3000 square meters – that’s more than a square mile of rainforest where they can roam and nest and just be as natural as possible. They are an endangered species, and have no protections in Bolivia. Both were rescued from black market situations where they were horrifically abused, but are now recovered and in excellent health.

They also have parrots, macaws, monkeys of several different species, tortoises, and many other animals there, and it was a wonderful experience. Delaney was very inspired by the volunteer work that is done there by young people from all over the world, and is planning to return after high school to volunteer herself. To see many photos from this week, including Senda Verde and Copacabana, visit our Google Plus page – just go to this address:

http://tinyurl.com/pcbt5wx

Jeff will do a separate post sometime this week with photos and words about the progress on the library project. He and Delaney will be madly working to finish as much as possible before we go…

Love to all, and see you soon!

Susan

The week's events

Hola amigos!

     As I’m sure you can imagine, we are crazy busy with end-of-the-semester activities, preparing to return home, and trying to squeeze a few more of the sights before we leave in a few weeks. This week, the interns from Siena College fully participated in English classes. They are certainly a welcome addition, I only wish they had come sooner! George and Joanna have truly been a blessing this week, and I’m sure they will continue to be over the next two weeks as classes wind down.

     Last Saturday the Siena students went on a hike to the Puerta de Viento (Wind Gateway), a high mountaintop about an hour’s hike from here from which much of this end of the valley can be seen. Several UAC students went along, as did Jeff and Delaney. Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment:

     Speaking of pictures, here is a link to a new album of pictures, including the poinsettia tree (yes, they are really trees!) in front of our building in full bloom, two different street celebrations in La Paz, snow in the pass and shots along the road to/from La Paz, views from the staff retreat a couple of weeks ago, more photos from the Siena hike, and pictures from the student research fair:

https://plus.google.com/photos/110653989940195940305/albums/6019679122574008273

     Friday afternoon Jeff and I went to the students’ project fair. Every student at the UAC must complete a scientific research project for 10% of all their class grades. Today they presented their posters and results, giving verbal presentations and answer questions in a format somewhat similar to a high school science fair at home. We found the Agronomy section the most interesting, what with live animals, growing plants, and a wide variety of very well-displayed and well-researched projects. We also visited the Education and Nursing displays. The projects ranged from extremely simplistic – a study of administrators’ knowledge of the mission statement of the UAC and its meaning – to extremely complex – a study of the effects of using three different types of liquid organic fertilizer in potato production. We had a great time mingling and asking questions, and visiting with the many students we have come to know and love.

     Sunday afternoon we will head to the local wildlife refuge, famous for its monkeys and its rare Andean spectacled bear, to spend the night in a cabin and see all there is to see. We promise many photos!

     The library project is currently awaiting paint, which we heard Thursday may not happen until after we leave. So, Jeff is busy doing all the prep work so that everything is ready to hang or install as soon as the painting is done, and Ruben has very detailed plans of how it should all go. We have been promised pictures of the finished product sometime later this summer.

     Jeff has also been hard at work finishing designs for a couple of other projects he has proposed, so that they can be done when the labor and funds are available later. One is his satellite dish fountain, which Padre Emilio is very excited about!

We pray all of you are happy and healthy, and we will see you very soon!

Love,

Susan

Karaoke, the Library and Interns from the US

Greetings to all!

     Well, our chronic Internet problems have just been getting worse and worse. We apologize once again for not getting anything up last week. Hopefully we have the problem solved now and we will be in touch until we leave.

     First, a report on two continuing items: Karaoke practices are ongoing, and the variety of song choices is trully astonishing! They range from simple teen pop music to classic rock to adult easy listening. We can’t wait to hear how they all come out! Since we have no way to adjust the sound properties of our system, it has been a challenge finding a room to use where the echo is minimal enough to keep from feeding back into the microphone, but we are now using a room with carpet on the floor, which is much better. Last time, we not only had 10 students come and practice, but there were at least 4 others who came just to listen and enjoy the music. So much fun!

     The library remodel is coming along. THANK YOU to St. Andrew’s for donating the rest of the money needed to finish the project before we leave. Ruben is thrilled! This week will see many changes, and we will take plenty of pictures for you all to see next week.

      Second, our big news this week is the group of student interns from Siena College in Albany, NY, arrived! Two of them, George and Joanna, will be interning with the elementary school in the village in the mornings in their advanced English class, and in the afternoons/evenings they will be working with my two classes. I am very excited to meet with them and work out exactly how they will fit into our last few weeks of class. You can read more about the Siena students (and some of mine!) on their blog: http://sienaglobalserviceinternship.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/where-will-you-be-serving/ (The entries by my students were for a class project on learning to introduce and describe themselves.) They also read this blog for information about the Siena students. I am very much looking forward to having Joanna and George in the English program!

     I will close this week with a proverb in Spanish that hangs on the wall in our apartment. It’s great food for thought!

Vigila tus pensamientos, se convierten en palabras. Vigila tus palabras, se convierten en acciones. Vigila tus acciones, se convierten en hábitos. Vigila tus hábitos, se convierten en carácter. Vigila tu carácter, se convierte en tu destino.

Watch your thoughts, they will become words. Watch your words, they will become actions. Watch your actions, they will become habits. Watch your habits, they will become your character. Watch your character, it will become your destiny.

Abrazos a todos!

Susan

Hello all, and welcome to this week’s post!!!

This week has seen some interesting sights. Susan’s English 1 classes are starting to rehearse their karaoke songs for their finals, which is always entertaining. I have been awakened early in the morning by a flock of green parrots. Last night, around midnight, the dogs were all set off barking by a monkey’s call. He would call; let the dogs get all riled up, then when they would all settle down, he would call again. I tell you, it is like living in a jungle here! J

Projects are proceeding. The library garden is waiting for a fountain now. We are looking to see if the Diocese of Coroico might have something that we can use. The library project overall is moving forward. Paint is being requested, chair rails have been removed and holes patched. Tables are being shortened to match the rest of the furniture heights. It is all very exciting. Since putting in the garden, I was very happy to see that students have started watering the plants, giving them ownership. It is a nice thing to see happen.

Delaney is finishing up her school work. She has been having a hard time due to the Internet being out so often, or so slow that she can’t actually do anything. Luckily she has some GREAT teachers that are sending her stuff to accomplish off-line.

With less than 6 weeks left of our time here, it is amazing how fast this year has gone by, how many blessings we have witnessed, and how many people have touched our hearts. The students always remind you that you have touched their lives, which is a great pick-me-up when I am tired or hurting. They create in you a desire to help them achieve what they want in life. The students are starting to see a trend in my special projects. I created the hanging gardens/safety buffer, (which unfortunately has to be repaired). I created the library garden, which has seen an increase of students sitting in the comfy chairs reading around the quiet space. And the first project that I proposed is a fountain utilizing the satellite dishes that are no longer in use for the different levels. I am afraid that I will have to leave a detailed description for someone else to make it with. In short, I have become the garden architect! Hopefully, I can use some of these skills and ideas to make our space at home nicer in turn!

I want to take this time to wish every mother out there a very Happy Mother's Day. We should celebrate our mothers everyday, but, alas, we must have some time to fish! So Happy Mother's Day from well South of the border!

I will end for now, although I understand Delaney is also making a post, so make sure and read that. Know that each and every one of you is in our thoughts and prayers. Yes, even you. (You know who you are!) Take some time to slow down, listen, and be what God is calling you to be.

La paz,

Jeff

Earth Day and other news

Greetings to everyone!

We apologize for taking the week off last week - the Internet was very spotty, and it would have been nearly impossible to post the pictures below...

I'd like to start by telling you about my English students' Earth Day project. We did an idea I found online called a Council of All Beings, where each person chooses a plant, animal, or other part of the natural environment, creates a mask or costume to represent their character, and represents their character in a round-table discussion. Since these are beginning English students, rather than a round-table, I had them create a statement in English answering these three questions: who are you? Why are you important? How do humans make you feel? That last question takes a lot of imagination in some cases, and I was hoping it would inspire students to think "outside the box." I was not disappointed! Each person had to present their statement in both languages in costume. Some chose to do it in front of the whole upper campus at the weekly flag-raising ceremony on Earth Day for an extra 10 points. Here is a photo of a few students and me (yes, I thought it would be good for my Spanish, so I did it too!) making our presentations that morning:

L to R: Evelin (tomato), Ismael (bird), me (wolf), Valeria (Mother Earth)

And here is a montage of some of the others making their presentations in class:

I will try to get a copy of the group Forest and post it next week - my camera battery was dead!! There were four students - two trees, a parrot, and a flower. They each presented their own statement, then each had an extra sentence about how they fit into the forest. It was very cool! Above you can see a star, a bee, a tree, water, a sunflower, another flower, and a bird, plus a close-up of my wolf mask. Standout presentations talked about pollination, photosynthesis, and hydrography. One of the boys was a bunny rabbit, complete with a sock tail! His was meant to be funny, and it was! Bunnies are important because they bring chocolate eggs on Easter and they are soft and cuddly to pet. :) LOL

This week my students had the chance to introduce themselves via the blog page of a group of students coming from Siena College in New York state on May 22. It was a great chance for them to practice their main skill sets so far - personal information and descriptions of people and places. A few students really stand out when they have a chance to write. You can see the 6 bios of the US students, then my students' posts are below: Siena Global Service Internship

Jeff is continuing work on the library project - he finished the garden this week. We'll get you a picture next time, once the plants have settled in. The wood for the trophy display area is in process, and the holes are all spackled so we can re-hang the chair rail at the right height for the tables, so things are progressing. Thank you very much to the St. Andrew's Episcopal Church youth group for their generous donation to start this project. Padre Emilio has committed some UAC funds to the project as well, but as you all know, the loss of USAID funding means that finances are pretty tight here, so if anyone else out there would like to send some money for a very worthy cause - encouraging reading and literacy! - it would certainly be greatly appreciated. We are working to turn an echoing, cheerless room of plain tables and chairs into a welcoming and inviting place where students and staff are encouraged to read for pleasure, as well as for schoolwork. There is not a tradition of recreational reading in this culture, and encouraging it as a way to a literate, knowledgeable public is something many agencies and organizations are trying to do at every level. While adult literacy is far greater than it was 10 years ago, it is still an uphill battle. I see that some of my students can barely express themselves writing in their native language, and many have difficulty reading for information and thinking critically. These skills are all related to a culture that reads regularly, so welcoming libraries are IMPORTANT. Thanks so much for your help. :)

That's all for this week - God bless you all!

Peace,
Susan

Happy Easter!

ALLELUIA, HE IS RISEN!

   (Okay, I know it’s only Saturday, but I also know most of you will actually be reading this on Sunday, so just go with it!)

This week Jeff started work on the first stage of the upper campus library remodeling project: the indoor garden. He rounded off the outside corner of the room with a low retaining wall. Next, he went rock hunting for the facing. We have spent a few hours today (Saturday) putting together the jigsaw puzzle of stones and cement across the front of the wall, and Sunday afternoon we will do the top of the wall. Here is a picture of the corner before the wall:

The wall itself is supported by bricks and cement:

And here is the stone facing in progress:

           

This got us to thinking about the jigsaw puzzle of life, if you will, about how we each have a place in the world and in church. Just as the lives of your family and co-workers would be vastly different without you, a church is a puzzle made up of all the jigsaw pieces inside, and each one makes church a bit different from the others. Each person, young, middle, or old, married or single, man or woman, working, student or retired; no matter how we label ourselves, we all have an important place in church. Without all the pieces, the puzzle is incomplete. If we take the image one step further and imagine a three-dimensional puzzle (such as our retaining wall!), then a missing piece may cause the whole puzzle to fall, or fail. In our wall, there are large stones, small stones, even tiny chips of rock. The entire whole makes a wall, but separately, they are just rocks. Some of them are quite insignificant rocks. Their importance comes from their participation in community, in something greater than themselves, and something that serves others (in the case of some of the rocks, they support the entire structure!) Seems like a great way of describing the mission of church, both internally among ourselves and externally to the world. Our challenge as people of God, and as church, is to find where our piece fits in the puzzle. Whether this is through a formal discernment process, such as the one Jeff is entering, or an informal personal journey, such as the one that led us here to Bolivia, or something in between, is up to you and your circumstances.

It is my hope for you that this week has offered you an opportunity to reflect upon your place in the puzzle, whatever your puzzle is. Share that journey with those around you if you can – after all, they are parts of your puzzle and you are part of theirs…

Happy Easter to all~

Susan

PS – For those of you who wonder why I did not use the word ‘the’ in front of ‘church’ in my post, I wanted to distinguish between the church building and the people who are “church”. Hopefully this explanation helps!

Holy Week - Semana Santa

Wow, what a relief to be back to our temporary home of the UAC-CP! It was refreshing to go back to our normal routine, and to be back around the students again. Many students and friends have asked us if we were in danger, to which we replied that “no, we just stayed in La Paz, and kept our nose safely out of other’s business.” We are still hearing stories of people that walked through the blockades, and lost possessions, or were beaten. This is one chapter that I am VERY glad to close on our year-long adventure!

Speaking of chapters of our adventure, I have decided to go into discernment towards ordination. When we return home, I will begin the process to figure out where my calling is leading me to. I have been trying to ignore what keeps getting in MY way, by ignoring what is obvious in GOD’s way. This decision has come during the perfect time of year. Holy Week is here, and I personally have much to pray about and be thankful for. As the Passion of this week unfolds, think about what you are being called to do. Most of us won’t be called to carry a cross, to be beaten, ridiculed, and crucified. Most of us won’t even be persecuted for believing in God. What ARE you being called to do? Listen to that still small voice. Let that voice lead you to the paths that you may not have considered. Volunteer, visit a sick friend, teach someone English, run a library (I think you see where I am going with thisJ!) Let that voice take you places where you are needed. It may not be a comfortable place for you, but everyone is needed somewhere. So, this week, listen to that voice. Follow where it points your heart. Remember, that we are God’s hands and feet on this Earth. We are also the voice for those that don’t have one.

Oh, and Cookie says, “Meow!” (Or at least that is what I think he said, as his Spanish is very sloppy, but not as bad as his English!)

La paz y bendiciones to all,

Jeff