The week that flew by

It's very hard to believe that I've only been here one week! We've been very busy, and it feels very good to be back in Bolivia.

Let me try to summarize this in a way that will hold your attention.
I've gotten to see a lot of old friends, kiddos that have grown up a lot, and experience a bunch of new things too. That's the short version.

And THIS is the long version:
I went to the center (which is a lot more structured and seems to be meeting the needs of the kids even better as they build up their team and experience), the kids at the orphanage are doing well. We celebrated Viviana's ninth birthday yesterday, and visitor Sam F. taught piano lessons to the older 4 on Saturday; the Timmers are in charge of Babywashing now. I combed an braided a lot of heads of long tangled hair on Saturday. :)

There are currently two interns here; Annie and Sam. They both came from England, but Sam grew up in Spain; This week there is a group of Brazilians staying at the hacienda, I will spend the afternoon with some bolivian children and an Irish missionary, and have dinner with an Australian family. Talk about multi-cultural!! I love it!
On Monday (our "day off"), we went up the mountain to a place called Parque Tunari. The missionary that drove us up there had heard that there was a lake somewhere and we were determined to find it. We drove through the winding roads, turned around a few times and after a little over two hours we found it!! It was deserted, we saw only a couple of shepherds and a fisherman the whole day. It was beautiful! We took a picnic lunch, because we were higher than the tree line, after searching in vain for enough wood to build a fire, we decided to go back down to the woods. We built a big fire and cooked some pork ribs which were delicious. The day was amazing and a really good time to get away from the bustle and get lost (almost literally) in God's creation.
The missionary family I've been staying with has had loads of Bolivian friends over all weekend. It was really neat to talk with them. We played volleyball for five hours on Sunday night, We had a campfire and Bible study on one night, and on Sunday afternoon they made coffee and brought traditional bolivian appetizers. Delicious!

I've been staying all over the place here in Cochabamba. I've been here seven nights and stayed at three different places. Everyone is so kind, and I've had lots of good meals and I've only had to cook like once!

My big project has been organizing the ministry room. This is where all donations are dropped, and let me just say that God's people have been very generous! I've already spent hours in there, and probably have a few more.

We've had a lot of fun with "Flat Stan", this is a project of my little brother (Tim) for school. He gave me a little paper doll called Flat Stanley and my job is to take pictures of him all around Bolivia so Tim can experience South America via Flat Stanley. We've had a blast with this, and will probably have a rather large album of Flat Stan pictures. WE had to get him Laminated the other day due to the "harsh conditions", though maybe it was just due to him being handled so much!

Annie and I attended the missionary women's bible study on Tuesday morning. They were finishing up a study by Beth Moore and it was so good. I learned a lot, and I think I will try to do the rest of it when I return to the States.

Coming up this week:
Visit with Samuel and his brothers (who are at a different home now)
Spelling Bee (for missionary's daughter)
Feed kids at the nutrition center
A trip to Chapare (Jungle) ...potentially
Graduation celebration (for missionary's other daughter)
Annie leaves! :(

Thanks for all your prayers!!