May 27, 2016

     Hola! Today was a very fun day without any dangers (thankfully). I started off the day with the normal routine of waking up and grabbing breakfast with the girls. I then went back to my room where I planned out my day. I would first help out at the Santa Maria house (the building for girls 2-5) and then I would go to the market to buy an outlet converter because mine broke the previous night. I proceeded to go into the Santa Maria house which reminded me of a preschool. It had toys in little carts by the walls and colorful tables lining the center of tennis court sized room. There were also murals of Disney characters on the walls (the painting were very impressive). When I walked in Carina, and Elena were teaching them a dance for a fiesta tomorrow. I don’t know what the party is for but I am not going to argue with another party! Anyways, I quickly learned the dance and now I am going to be on of the leaders in their little show! After tirelessly trying to teach these girls for over two hours we put them to bed for a nap (imagine trying to herd cats).

        I decided to ask my German friends if they would like to go with me to the market to get my charger converter and Carina agreed to go. She brought along one of her friends who is also an assistant here, Chiki (female 22). Off we went to the market. It took us all of 5 minutes to find what I needed and I got it for 5 boliviars (or about 75 cents). Nice. I was then invited to go to the supermarket with them to buy food for a little dinner they were having in the evening (I was then invited to the dinner). So off we went to the supermarket via motorcycle taxi. When we arrived I was surprised of the similarities with their supermarket compared to the supermarkets of the US. There were different sections for different types of food/drinks and the atmosphere felt the same. The clean white tiles and bright lights brought back found memories of shopping with my mom in Giant Eagle. Anyways, they bought our food and I got myself a much needed American snack. Oreos… I was so happy to get a huge sleeve for only about $1.50. We went back to the Hogar and I took a nap to pass the time before the girl’s second practice. [By the way, I tested my new charger converter and noticed it didn’t work. I then angrily tried to plug my charger into the wall without using an adapter and it happened to work. The wall outlets here can support both type 1 and type 2 outlets. I’m dumb.]

        After I slept for a little I assisted the little dancers again. I think they know about 50% of the dance. While taking a little snack break I was informed that I was going to have to learn another dance with the adults for tomorrow’s fiesta! Oh great… After we finished they second practice I had the dinner with Carina, Elena, and Chiki and it was very good (Pasta and a spicy sauce mmmm). The dinner conversation included questions about each other such as; What type of music music do you listen to? What is your favorite food? Can you show me what the Chicken Dance is? All-in-all it was a great dinner.

 At 7:00, 7 other assistants of the Hogar (including Carina, Elena, and Chiki) and I began practice the dance. The dance is a typical Bolivian dance that they take great pride in. I think I did really well! They kept laughing and smiling at me while giving me two thumbs up. I will take that as a good sign. The dance included a lot of stomping and hunching over while swinging my arms. Some of the little girls watching even said I am a very good dancer (first time that was ever said to me about dancing)! We will be getting outfits for the dance tomorrow morning after mass. Guess what time the mass is? I bet none of you guessed 5:00 am. That is right, 5:00 am. I will be getting up at 4:30 tomorrow morning to get ready. Yay. To make things better, it is a Friday night and I can hear LOUD music all throughout the city as I write this in my bed. No sleep for me tonight! If I have time tomorrow I will update the blog. Hasta luego.

 I got to have lunch with the girls. It consisted of rice and chicken.

 This is Veronica. She is one of my favorite girls because she is always smiling. Unfortunately for her, most of her teeth have cavities because of the lack of proper hygene.

 This is the guard dog that ran after me. As you can see he is very scarey!

 This is where the girls of Santa Maria sleep. The walls of the room were painted like an ocean floor.

 This was our little dinner setup for the night.

From left to right: Elena, Chiki, Carina, and me!