Navilandia

Merry Christmas to everyone! Its been a great month. I really enjoyed advent. For the first time in a long time I did not have to study for a test, a final exam, or finish a final project during December. I am very grateful for not having my head in my college text books during one of the most important seasons in our Catholic faith. Instead I experienced advent in a different way this year with the help of Navilandia.

I love the two girls hand in hand patiently waiting a turn
on this human powered carousel

Navilandia is a Christmas camp that started on Dec 8th and lasted until Dec 24th. Each day sponsored and non sponsored kids from all around yapacani participated in this summer Christmas vacation camp. Since there were over 1000 sponsored and non sponsored children who participated in the camp, it was held at several locations in yapacani. The central site was here at Maria Auxiliadora church hosting about 500 kids. This where I helped. The days started with dancing to chrishtmas songs, a short talk/prayer from either Father Arturo, Sister Geraldina, or one of the other sub-directors. Afterwards kids broke up into smaller groups of about 100-200 kids for activities with their group leaders. I was asked to lead a smaller group of about 20 adolescent boys.

These are the boys that were in my group.  The elderly woman to the left was not in my group.

I asked myself how would Don Bosco use this time with the boys if he was here? Keeping Saint John Bosco in my mind helped me in making decisions through out Navilandia. In our group we learned about the different ways God can speak to us each day. Through the Bible, people, nature, in our hearts, dreams (as was the case in Don Bosco's life), through media,... When I told the boys that God can speak to us through movies,they were like "Que?" Yes its not impossible for God to do that. You like action movies, I like action movies and God knows this. So He will meet us there and teach us for our own betterment/sanctity. We watched / discussed the new movies "Maleficent" and "Hercules" in the Don Bosco movie theater. I do not watch a movie seeking to find a message from God, surprisingly His messages just appear in the plot...Other days we learned about Mary's role in the life of Christ and in our lives. We learned how to appreciate the gift that God gave us over 2000 years ago, His incarnate love Jesus. We also learned how God gave us the lives of the saints to teach us how to love and serve Him. Some of these lessons were augmented with making crafts that could help these young boys develop the necessary virtues to be faithful sons of God. It was nice to see how helpful they were to one another during the projects.

Some fruits of the Holy Spirit in this picture: "Charity", "Kindness", and (for the little boy whose eyes are on that mango) "Self Control" 

On Dec 24th, thanks to generous donors in Canada, the kids in our camp received Christmas presents. Many kids in Yapacani did not receive presents because their families can not afford gifts. As we were cleaning up after the long day, Sister Geraldina said to me " you know it really is something how a few items of food and a toy can make the kids so excited and happy." You really do not need a lot to be happy. I have received this lesson over and over again and it continues to work in me. It helps me to let go of things I am so attached too. Not just physical and material things, but interior imperfections/attachments about myself. I was glad to see the teenage boys not afraid to give me a hug at the end of camp. I didn't even ask for hugs, they just started giving me hugs and asked if I was going to be there next year. I like to think that something was satisfied and planted deep in their hearts during our time together.

Girls with their barbie dolls. Thank you to the generous sponsors in Canada.

Christmas Eve and Christmas day schedule:

Dec 24th 8:00am-2:30pm preparing with all the helpers at Maria Auxilliadora for 2:30pm

Dec 24th 2:30pm-5:00pm Giving presents out to hundreds of kids (a chocolate chip muffin, stale cheese doodles, a bag of cookies, a juice bag and one toy= one very happy child)

Dec 24th 7:15-7:30pm(1st dinner) frozen pizza with connor and one of the aspirants at Chicken Hong Kong

Dec 24th 7:30pm-9:00pm (Christmas music and dances to attract people to church)

Dec 24th 9:00pm-11:00pm Christmas eve mass

Dec 25th 12:00am-2:00am tradition for the town to shoot fireworks at midnight all around the city. This was followed by a late night dinner (our 2nd dinner) with the family of a secretary from the parish.

Dec 25th 2:00am-7:00am sleep

Dec 25th 7:00am-11:00am visiting a family to wish them a merry Christmas

Dec 25th 11:00am-12:30pm Christmas day mass at Maria Auxiliadora

Dec 25th 12:30pm-2:00pm lunch at the elderly home

Dec 25th 2:00pm-5:00pm took a nice nap (felt like one of santa's elves from all the activities this past month)

Dec 25th 6pm-8pm prayer, dinner, community time with the priests and aspirants in san carlos.

Dec 25th 8pm-930pm Went to Santa Fe with the aspirants to wait and catch a bus for an aspirant who was going back to Beni (36 hour one way trip for my friend)

Dec 25th 10pm I really did have a wonderful Christmas day. At the end of Christmas day ,there was a gift left for me, not under a Christmas tree, but next to my bedroom door. It was an unwrapped, brand new toilet bowl cleaner! I wasn't expecting to receive anything for Christmas! It made me laugh.

Casa Don Bosco

This month is the end of the school here in Bolivia. The kids are getting ready for exams at the elementary level and university level. This also means that the kids at the boarding school (Casa Don Bosco) that I like to visit will also be going back to their homes too.

When I first heard that there was a boarding school located outside of the city with about 50 teenage kids, I was excited to visit them. Its located in "el campo" (a more rural area). On my first day there, a volunteer from Bolivia, showed me around the grounds. Usually in the morning the kids go to a nearby school in a bus just for them while ascending up the mountains and they come back to the boarding school around lunch time. In the afternoon the kids hang around, they have time set out for recreational time, hw time, and a time to learn new skills that most other kids do not learn to do in the city.

A girl from the rural boarding school sharing her experiences with kids visiting from the city

Saint John Bosco was known for creating an atmosphere of education for the kids, for their betterment. In addition to learning about !God!, the kids he taught learned trades so that they can contribute to society (and to keep out of trouble). At the Boarding school here in Yapacani, the kids raise all different types of fruits, vegetables, and chickens. They learn to raise, kill, and clean their chickens. After taking a small bus from the boarding school to the city, the kid sell the chickens in the market in the city. (They walk around shouting "pollo!.. pollo!.. pollllllooooo! catorce por un kilo ..pollo!) The money they earn goes back to support their boarding school and recreational activities.

Did you know that placing the chickens in boiling makes it easier to pull off the feathers?

Pulling feathers off and cleaning out the guts makes a great social activity

we took a small bus to the market with 3 baskets of smelly chickens, but freshly killed and "cleaned" on that day

I really like the how they live like a family. Its like they are 50 brothers and sisters. The bolivian volunteer that is temporarily living there told me that she has learned so much from the kids and has conquered her fears. Ive learned so much about their culture from them. Ive learned about their local foods here, especially the fruit: achachairu, ocoro, pacay (these everyday fruit names you see in the supermarkets in the USA. :) Im usually picked up from the church in yapacani on a motorcycle, one of the kids comes and gets me and likes to teach me "how to ride." I also learn a little about Quechua from some of them that can speak the traditional language but I tell them I just cant learn that right now, spanish is already enough haha. por faaavorrrr

The teenage boys climb barefoot up the pacay trees to get the biggest and sweetest ones 

We are getting ready to break open the pacay fruit. It looks
like a giant string bean but these bean shaped
pods contain inside a sweet delicious treat.

So this month, I am thankful for the opportunity to be in the lives of the kids at the boarding school. I am thankful for their friendship. I am thankful for the opportunities that I am given to show them how to live like Saints and how to love others. I am thankful for the many other experiences that I hold in my heart and can only ponder over.

Also, I wish you all in the USA a Happy Thanksgiving with your families. We have Christmas camp in December "Navilandia." In January we have another Christmas camp "Villa Feliz." Kids do not have school December-January in Bolivia so the Christmas camps are everyday during the week, obviously Christmas is "celebrated" much differently in the USA so Im really excited to experience these festivities. Please pray for us all down here during those times. I will be praying for all of you in the USA in this Joyful time of year.
 

65 days of love, 129 days of happiness, and 171 days of luck

Well so this is my 2nd month in Yapacani. This is the last month of mission that I will be here without a fellow sidekick. My site partner Connor comes at the end of November and I am excited. I actually got to meet him for a couple of days when we went down to the city of santa cruz to start the process of getting his 1 year visa. The 1 year visa process here for Americans is simply frustrating, long, and stressful. He is still in the process of getting it, so please keep him in your prayers that everything goes smoothly. Pray por favor.

I find company with the Salesian aspirants who I hang out with when I go to the seminary and when they come to Yapacani. They have been great to me and I know that they truly enjoy my company. I'm older than all of them so I kind of feel like their big brother sometimes, especially when I'm teaching them English, they look up to me that I came to their country to discern my vocation and serve. I tell them how proud I am of them for taking the much bolder step by entering formation at the seminary. I told them that if they continue to learn english through out formation, they will be ready to give homilies in the USA in English when they come to visit me haha.

I'm still trying to find the balance of spending time in San Carlos and also being present at my mission site in Yapacani. I'm still learning how to efficiently make the most of my time here and not to spread myself to thin. Last week, I just found out that there is an amazing boarding school with about 60 kids in a nearby rural community. The director there would like it for me to visit there when I can. I'm all for it and have made trips there already.

This month was particularly busy in the Canadian Sponsorship Program called Chalice. Chalice is in over 10 countries. There are over 900 kids and over 30 elderly that are sponsored here in Yapacani, Bolivia. Great job Canada! The people in Canada do not speak spanish so my job here is to be the translator, English is my most useful gift that I can offer to this program right now. I can be translating anything from letters between sponsor children and their sponsors, budgets, powerpoint presentations, letters between the offices, and emails. All the translating helps my spanish. The documents that I look most forward to translating are the child introductory letters. In order for a child to be sponsored and receive benefits, their living situation first has to be assessed on our end with a "family visit" to where they are living. After they are approved that they indeed qualify for the program, the child or parent needs to write a child introductory letter to the sponsors in Canada and hope and pray they get selected to be sponsored. I feel I have a big responsibility to translate correctly the child's plea letter to get a sponsor. I wish I could articulate it better but I am glad to be a part of the bridge of help between the people of Canada and Bolivia. The letters I translate can be really eye opening of the physical and spiritual poverty here. I think last month I translated at least five letters for teenage mothers who left school to take care of their new born babies with the teenage father of the baby cowardly checked out and gone. Those letters are not fake in order to receive money. I've seen the young mothers with their infants and they are for real. The young teenage girls are stripped of their childhood too soon and forced to grow up. God prevails and shows His loving and generous heart to both the mother and child who are dearly loved by Him. I received a stirred feeling once when one of the secretaries pointed out that one of the teenage mothers named the baby's middle name after the sponsor's first name whom she was writing a letter for, to explain to him her current situation. I believe God places that desire in the hearts of some people to generously support others. Its great to witness the impact the sponsors make on the hearts of the Bolivians here who are appreciative, the Bolivians encounter generous love from strangers thousands of miles away whom they will never meet.

photo taken from google images

Sometimes I go on family visits with one of the Secretaries who has a moto we ride. He does an assessment of what the family lacks or has and decides if one of the children in the family is eligible to be sponsored. My friend/coworker was telling me that If at least one child gets sponsored in the family, it helps the family out a lot. I can see how thankful the kids and their families are for the support they receive when they write their christmas cards to their sponsors. Yes thats right, they are writing christmas cards now and they will be sent out at the end of this month. I think I translated over 600 Christmas cards from spanish to english lol. I have had a little help from a wonderful english teacher at the university in santa cruz. When I first came to yapacani I could only translate 5-10 cards a day, last week I averaged 50-60 cards. It can be very tedious but what gives me Joy is knowing that it will probably make some old lady's day in December when she receives a Christmas card that she can read from her spanish speaking sponsor child in Bolivia... It might even make her week.

Sin mas decirte, Me despido de un abrazo y un beso. Que Dios y La Virgen les bendigan Bolivia y Canada.

ATTE

Adam

(5 example Christmas cards below with real names changed)

Dear Sponsor: Natalie French,

In this card I write to you to wish you 65 days of love, 129 days of happiness, and 171 days of luck. When you close your eyes, say a wish and it could become reality and I'm wishing you a Merry Chirstmas and a prosperous new year 2015. Well, without more to tell you I say goodbye with a big hug asking God to take care of me.

Best regards,

Mauricio

To Rachael Brennen,

Hello Dear sponsor,I greet you I'm your friend Osnar andres vallero and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year from myself and my total family.

Best regards,

Osnar andres vallero

To George Ohoulihan,

Hello: First a huge greeting to your dear family that is so perfect . So long I have dreamed of having a sponsor like you, I'm thankful for this. In this Christmas, may you receive a thousand congratulations and may everything pass by wonderful and marvellously with prayers I extend my goodbye with happiness. Ciao "bay bay"

Best regards,

Mariela

Dear Sponsor Henry Stevens,

I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous new year and that it may pass by well with your friends and family. I want to thank you for the help that you provide to me and my family. I want to say I am the best student out of my class and I want to say that I am twelve year old. I say good bye with a big hug and many kisses and may God bless you and your family.

Junin

Dear Fred Pickerton

First I send you and your family and friends cordial greetings and a big hug. I congratulate you with this new year that is coming and that it passes by well and may Christmas with God and your family be good as well and always have prosperity in all your moments of your life. Thank you for the help that you give me with the benefits, that is the bread of each day for my family. I thank you very much for your support. I say goodbye with a big hug and may God bless you each day in each moment.

Best Regards,

Renee

Keep me as the apple of your eye

So my last post was the week before I left Okinawa. The transition from Okinawa to Yapacani had not been as spiritually or emotionally as rough as I thought it was going to be and I'll tell you why. I had a terrific last week in okinawa before I left, encountering alot of love and generosity from my closest bolivian friends. Their goodbyes to me really showed me that my life with them for the past 4 months really touched their hearts. As for the kids, well I will share one quick story that took place on my last day of my 5th grade english class. I asked the class why they thought I was here in their town for the past 4 months. They already knew the answer to my question because I told them why I was here during my first month there. Hands went up when I asked the question, and before I could pick someone ,one kid shouted in spanish, "you are here to teach Englishhh!", to which I replied in the same interrupting manner, "Nooo!", the class all laughed. I asked the question again while thinking that less hands were going to go up now since that was not a bad answer after all. "Why am I here in Bolivia?", surprisingly the same hands went up and I picked a random student and he said, "Because you want to share your faith with us!" to which I passionately exclaimed in english as if I had won the lottery, "YES! YES! YESSSS!!!!" The class laughed again. I know that the other kids who were raising their hands also were going to have the same answer. I was so glad he remembered. It was a nice reminder that even though my spanish was not great, the Holy Spirit was able to use the voice that I had to make a fruitful impression on some of their minds and hearts. The kids know how important my relationship to God is to me. I pray that when they are my age, they will have trustful relationships with God and really know, (the "conocer" relational type of knowing in spanish), that life is truly fulfilling with God.



A note from a little girl in my 5th grade english class. She expressed her gratitude for the one time I read a bible story with her after sunday mass, starting class with different prayers, and "for the faith I gave her and her classmates"...Not to me be the glory, but to God be the glory.

At this point I have been living for 3 weeks in Yapacani and I have been forming relationships quite easily. I have been welcomed and greeted by; the religious communities, the Bolivian staff of the canadian sponsorship program,and even the cockroaches that live in my shower drain.

I dont know how to explain this without confusing you but I am a volunteer in the San Carlos Mission. Yapacani is a city that is one mission area of the San Carlos Mission. The "headquarters of the mission" or really where the salesian priests live, is in a beautiful small town called San Carlos. That is where the seminary is too. I sleep there two times a week in order to get community time with the priests and seminarians. And to also hang out with the kids there in that town. I teach english to the 4 seminarians on mondays at 8:30am because they want to learn english, afterwards we all walk across the hexagon stone pattern street to receive free guitar lessons. When Im not in San Carlos, I am living at my mission site which is in the city of yapacani. Now for yapacani, well each thing that I do in yapacani deserves a blog post of its own so I will save the day in the life of Adam for later.

Church and seminary in San Carlos

I love living here in yapacani, everything is very unfamiliar to me and I don't have a passed volunteer here to transition me in. Its an adventure. In Genesis, when God placed Adam on this Earth, everything was new and unprecedented to Adam. He didn't learn the ropes from other past people, because there was no one before him to show him the way! He learned from God how to get around. His Heavenly Father watched out for him. He kept Adam, his beloved son, as the apple of His eye. Right now I can see God fathering me through Fr. Arturo, showing me the good places where I can eat and the streets I should stay away from. The Blessed Virgin is mothering me through the women secretaries I work with. The secretaries were the first to show me what my role would be in yapacani to the kids that I will be serving. It was a woman at the wedding of Cana, that showed the New Adam, what his first work would be. I love relating scripture to my life if you haven't been able to see this by now. God reminds me that I am being attentively watched and guided from the advantage point of Heaven, we all are. Encountering Heaven's Love through my old friends and now from my new friends gives me the assurance that I really am the apple of God's eye. If I can truly make the effort to believe in that Love each day,then I will be make it so much easier for the kids to believe in that Love too.

 

City of Yapacani

 



New Soil

    So as the title suggests I will be moving to a new mission site in Bolivia this Saturday, September 6th. Why? Because there will be no volunteers here in okinawa in the next year. It is a complicated situation with differing opinions but it was a decision made months ago by the new provincial of Bolivia. As my director back in the states said, it is a big hit to the SLM program because we have had volunteers here for about 20 years. However we can still help Okinawa through our prayers. Let us pray for the community of Okinawa and for the return of volunteers here in the future.

    The small city that I will be moving to is called Yapacani. It is about 2 hours away from where I am currently in Okinawa. Next week I will be having to say goodbye to the students and friends I made here. For the readers who think all locations in Bolivia are all the same, they are not. Okinawa is as different to yapacani as the farms of Pennsylvania are to the bustling streets of NYC. Although the new setting is going to be quite different from the location I am in now, I know that I will thrive well in Yapacani. Its a good reminder that the new mission frontier are the cities now a days and there is clearly a need for a good example in these settings. Yapacani was on my top 5 list for mission sites when I was first discerning. How blessed am I to be able to receive this mission site experience as well? There is an Italian missionary priest in Yapacani who has been asking my director back in the states for years for a volunteer or two in Yapacani. I met the Salesian priest, Padre Arturo, about 4 weeks ago in yapacani when I was visiting. He is simply "Don Bosco" and I'm happy to serve in a place where there has been a longing for volunteers. I will not be alone for too long. I will be serving there in the next year with a new volunteer, Connor. Connor is currently in the USA but will be arriving to yapacani in November. He will be studying spanish in Cochabamba for two months before arriving to Yapacani. What will we be doing in Yapacani? I will talk more about it next month, but the common theme for every salesian site around the world revolves around serving the kids in one shape or form. Some ways are more direct than others but all are important and can be carried out with great love. Just as Don Bosco wanted, each site has a playground, school, church, and a home. (haha in Yapacani the salesians also have a soup kitchen and a radio station that broadcasts over a couple cities, Padre Arturo invited me to introduce myself over the air when I visited :P) I will continue to be loving and kind to the kids, as Don Bosco was, while pointing them to Christ. Loving the kids equally and correcting them with kindness.

   My time in Okinawa was time well spent. I certainly learned valuable lessons here that I will bring over to yapacani. Some include the following: loving not just kids equally but adults too, being considerate to others, keeping and following through with my words, putting the mission first, reacting positively and not spreading negativity, ...and depending on God more ;) . I look back at my mission statement time to time and I realize if I just simply followed it daily, I would not have had as many bumps in the roads as I had. This would be my "6 month advice" to any of the new SLM's who are reading my blog, Live Out Your Mission Statement Each Day!!!

    I'm certainly going to miss the kids whom I have got to know. I only hope that they do not remember me as simply as "teacher adam" but for who I was with God and my passion for Him. To God be the Glory. I always look forward to the next beginning. I really do! There are people that will only know of God's love from me. The same goes for you too! There are people that will only know of God's love from YOU. One day God will call us all home and hopefully you will see the people that you built relationships there. This is what gives me motivation to keep on spreading the Faith and being God's vessel! Feliz Viaje Okinawa!

Salt of the Earth

The first Salt hostel we stayed at.
We were packing the jeep to leave.

         Well so I’m back from my vacation/retreat. It was wonderful to take a break from volunteering and to explore the beauty of Bolivia. I really didn’t think there were too many activities to do or sights to see in Bolivia but there are! One thing I enjoyed was a three day get away to the salt flats of Bolivia. The salt flats are in Salar de Uyuni. There were some odd rock formations, roaring geisers, pinkish lakes, and beautiful mountains. There was a lot of salt there. I mean we even ate in a restaurant and slept in a hotel made from salt. A lot of things are made from salt there: salt chairs, salt tables, salt walls, salt beds, salt people…ok no salt people but you get the point about there being a lot of salt.

7 am in the morning on our way to the geisers, Saul pulled over
to help someone. Saul is wearing the blue jacket. 

          We were blessed with a very kind tour guide. His name was Saul. Saul made us feel like home(usa). During our three day tour he drove us in his jeep around the different places in Salar de Uyuni. Whether he was talking about the different types of flamingos on scene or history of the culture there, he would speak very slowly for us so that we would understand. He even played English music like Red Hot Chili peppers in our car rides to make us feel like we were back in the USA. He would also prepare and cook our food for us at the different stops. We had a propane tank on top of the jeep for cooking and gasoline containers for the jeep. One thing that stood out about his character was his helpfulness and compassion for others. Salar de Uyuni is really big and you do not want to get lost or stranded there. Whenever Saul saw a stopped vehicle along the way having car problems, he would pull over and get out to help. Whether it was helping to change tires, inflating tires, offering his tools, using his jeep to take tires off of rims, he was always there to help. I asked why he helped so much and his answer was because nothing really bad ever happens to him.

          It is good to meet people like Saul. I have had my fair share of tour guides and there is no one like him. He is not being paid to pull over to help others, that does not come with his job description. He is one person that makes the world richer in flavor with his good works. This is the way we were designed to be, to help one another. I remember Jesus saying “You are the salt of the Earth” 5 Matthew 13-16. If we have gifts and skills in some areas we should use them and make the world richer. Jesus expresses his discontent and sadness when people do not use their gifts by his ongoing words “But if salt has lost its strength, how can it be made salty again? It has become useless. It can only be thrown away and people will trample on it.” So if we were made to be the salt of the earth, let’s flavor the world with our good works and love!  

 Three fun facts about Salt:

Salt removes red wine stains.
Salt was used as a currency in Ethiopia.
The amazing Salar de Uyuni (the world’s largest salt flat at 4,000 square miles) in Bolivia becomes mirror like when a thin layer of water lies on top. This reflectivity makes it a very useful tool in calibration scientific equipment from outer space. ) listverse.com

 

Loving With A Heart Like His

         Today is the first day of winter. Its kind of weird to say that it is winter here because I'm wearing a t-shirt right now. A really clean t shirt ;) It get a little chilly here at night but we still sleep with the windows open. Winter break starts in a couple of days so I wont have to teach classes for a couple weeks! Woot! yep I know that teachers around the world have to be excited for winter break too! So anyways this is my time to travel anywhere in Bolivia my heart desires. My friends and I in okinawa are securing our travel plans right now for a retreat with the other Salesian volunteers in Bolivia. The Salesian order in the USA give us some spending money so that we can all meet up for a retreat once year so we are all pretty excited right now. Before the last week of classes start and I leave for vacation, I just want to make a short post about someone I have come to appreciate more.

We packed our bags and loaded the car!.....ok not really i took this pic a month ago when I was walking to the bank, this is quite ridiculous

         So today I was hand washing my clothes because I'm not going to have time next week. I need them to hang dry for a couple days so they will be ready to be taken into the house before vacation. While I was washing, I was thinking about how normally we pay this one incredible woman to hand wash our clothes for us each week. Her name is Doña Paulina. (You add the word Doña or Don before someones name out of respect, kind of like Mrs. or Mr.). She comes to our house every Monday to hand wash our clothes and she really does wash them pretty well. She makes money for her family from us and from the sisters when she works at the school. Her husband can no longer work because of an injury. God Bless her! She only charges us 1B for each article of clothing. 1B is about 15 cents. I think she deserves more because we give her the dirtiest and smelliest of clothes and she makes them all clean again. I usually try to wear the same white shirts over each day but after a few days the white shirts are covered in dirt from little kid hand prints and mud that is kicked up from soccer games. After Dona Paulina gets hold of the clothes, they become brand new again and I would never be able to scrub it as clean. She even washes our clothes in the rain. Two weeks ago she was at our house scrubbing all our clothes for 4 hours, in the rain, and she only made a couple dollars that day. My friends and I felt like jerks. She is such a hard worker and we know she loves us. Later that week she invited us to her B-day party at her house that she was having with her family. It started at 8pm and we did not get there until 9:30pm because we were coming from another birthday party that we had eaten at. When we finally go to her house, we saw outside that there was a table set for about 10-15 people. Dona Paulina and her family had waited for us latecomers to come to her house before they started eating dinner. They didn't want to eat without us. Once again my friends and I kind of felt like jerks for unknowingly making them wait for us while we were eating at another bday party. Before they brought out the food and wine, they placed 3 bottles of soda on the table and I could not help to think "well there goes her 4 hours worth of pay for hand washing our clothes in the rain". It was really nice to see how much her family loves her. Her family gave her a few words of encouragement and at the end of dinner everyone gave her a hug and a kiss. Then we took turns dancing with her.



left to right: Manny, Dona Paulina, Steph, Julie, me



They might not have washing machines here but every family has a nice set of speakers

           When I first got here I did not know to much about Doña Paulina. I just knew her as the person who washes our clothes every week. I didn't know her as a faithful catholic, a loving grandmother, or as a selfless wife. After getting to know her and her family, she makes me want to get to know more of the hard workers here. She makes me want to pay attention to the hard workers of society that do the tedious services for us each day. That janitor in our school who we pass by everyday who we know by face but not by name. That landscaper who makes our homes or office buildings look more beautiful than we could ever make look even as half as nice. They are all people and deserve to be loved and appreciated. We could take a little bit more time out of our day to spark a conversation with  them or even depending on the situation even generously offering them a raise. We should let those people know we are thankful for them and for the time that they save us to do the things we don't feel like doing. This is the month in our church we try to focus more on the Sacred Heart of Jesus..... Sacred Heart of Jesus touch our hearts with yours and help us to love others in the way that you love them. Lord help us to see them the way that you see them.

A Glorious New Morning

        So I made it here to Okinawa, Bolivia!!. The travel day from Cochabamba to Okinawa went well the day after Easter. I finally made it to my mission site and it is pretty great here. On a map, Okinawa is labeled as a small rural town 2 hours outside the city of Santa Cruz. The town is named after Okinawa, Japan. The Japanese came to Bolivia after WWII, so the people here are of Japanese and Bolivian descent. There is only one paved road that runs through this town and the paved road ends about 300 yards from the entrance of the school that I teach. The town has one gas station, one Japanese hospital (conveniently located right next to the volunteer house), one church, two schools, and small little shops that line the paved main road. Its pretty noticeable that the Japanese are making out a little bit more better than the native Bolivians. Many of the shops or small businesses are owned by the Japanese. My house is actually owned by the Japanese. I would say that most Japanese live in the more comfortable brick and cement made houses while most Bolivians live in the homes put together by mud and sticks with tin roofs. This passed month I have been helping teach English at the Japanese school one day a week. I mostly teach English at the Bolivian school which is known as San Francisco Xavier school. Although the Japanese children at the Japanese school may be a little bit more educated than their Bolivian friends across the street at San Francisco Xavier school, no school is winning the race in my heart.

We have one paved road that runs through our town. The closest town is 45 minutes away by automobile.

         I absolutely love the kids and the adults I met here so far. They are the reason why I came down here. The community sees me as a Teacher so I'm called "Teacher" a lot. That is a common word in English that I hear from the students when I'm walking down the dirt roads. The adults too, who I don't teach, will also call me "Teacher." When the kids ask what my name is, I say to them "Adam" and when they say it back, it sounds like "Aaron" with an accent over the "o." Ha! I don't really mind the mispronunciation of my name since they are unknowingly reminding me of the name of my God son. Sometimes the kids forget my name and will call me "Teacher Marcos" who was a past volunteer here or they will call me "Teacher Manny" who is my current site partner.

Some of the students of San Francis Xavier School in Okinawa.

        I have 3 site partners who I volunteer with here. They are Stephanie, Julie, and Manny. We are all 24 years old with a common goal to bring Jesus Christ to the young and old. Together we teach English at both schools and we also teach catholic education to the children at San Francisco Xavier School. We also teach the kids about God at very small and poor communities outside of Okinawa. Three times a week we take the camp truck and drive to the small communities to teach the kids and to play with them. The roads are really muddy here when it rains and it is sometimes a challenge to get to the smaller communities. Some days we don't go to the communities if it rains the night before because it is possible for our 4 wheel drive truck to get stuck in the mud. The smaller communities outside of Okinawa sometimes only have 10 kids that go to school. So 4 volunteers to 10 children is no problem for us. However some communities we travel to have more children. Just the other day we went to a community that had over 100 children. Nothing is impossible for God and he can use his 4 meager instruments here to convey his message to as many souls as he wants!

         At the end of the day my site partners and I pray together, no matter how late our day ends. We pray for about a half an hour or more. When I got here my site partners were praying the 12 year prayers of St. Bridget. One who prays the prayers everyday for 12 years will receive 5 super mind blowing graces at the end of 12 years that makes praying them worth it. If you are not familiar with the graces received at the end, I would look them up online. We pray the divine mercy chaplet a couple times a week. We also do a "Salesian Good night" every Sunday night which I will talk more about it in a later blog, you'll have to check back ;)... May was the Month of Mary so together we added another fruit to our prayer life. We had been doing a special devotion to Mary. I brought copies of the book called "33 days to Morning Glory" that we were reading together during prayer which acts as type of retreat. The retreat leads up to a consecration to Jesus through Mary after the 33rd day, called the Glorious New Morning. Today is the Glorious New Morning which happens to fall on the Feast Day of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Why were doing this Marian Consecration? Well because we want to become closer to Jesus and what better Saint who followed God's will perfectly is there to bring us closer to Jesus Crucified than Mary!?! Her Immaculate Heart had such great Love for Jesus and as our personal heavenly Mother, she always wants to direct us to her Son. She was at the cross, She knows how real , how deep is His longing for you and the poor. Do we know? Do we feel as she? Her role is to bring us face to face with Jesus as John and Magdalen.(Day 16 excerpt) She became our spiritual Mother at the foot of the cross. She was there for her Son at the cross and she will be there when we have our crosses to make them lighter and sweeter for us. She can make our path to Sanctity easier. St. John Bosco said, "Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, my sons and daughters, will be your safeguard. If you are devoted to Her, She will not only shower you with blessings on earth, but through Her intercession, She will also secure Heaven for you." I look forward to the graces that will come under her guidance as I continue my mission here in Okinawa. Mary, as we enter into June, lead us to our Lord's most Sacred Heart so that we can generously Love like your Son.

St. John Bosco: "The fullness of love in all the mothers of this earth could never equal the love Mary has for each one of us."

Our Truck parked next to the Sister's house. we take it out to go to the communities when the roads are not flooded.

The day after the Feast day of Mary Help of Christians~May 24th, We SLM's celebrated our 24th birthdays.

 Side note: If you read down this far, treat your self to a good meal. I just wanted to squeeze it in here that I went to the hospital this morning because I haven't been feeling good this past week. I wallked over to the hospital with a sample and I found out I have amoebas again but I know I'll get better soon. What a wonderful gift on my Glorious New Morning to know what was making me feel sick! I just wanted to let you know family and friends. Peace be with you and thanks for staying in touch with me!.

Reflection Before Another New Beginning

      Wow I have been in Bolivia for 2 months and I cannot believe how fast the time has passed. So far its been a roller coaster ride and I have not even begun mission yet. Gratefully, most of my time has been thrilling spent on top of the peaks. Tomorrow I will be leaving Cochabamba and spending the entire day traveling to my mission site located in Okinawa, Bolivia. Before I leave, I would like to share some of my experiences that I had here in this beautiful city.

      So let us get the nitty gritty stuff out of the way. One of my major obstacles I foresaw before coming to Bolivia was the challenge of becoming accustomed to the food. First and foremost, I ate all the same food that my Bolivian host family ate and listened to the advice about avoiding eating food from the venders on the street. However despite my effort in taking precautions, I still received Giardia, Amoebas, and a bacterial infection within a 2 week time period….and the stomachs of my Bolivian family were absolutely fine, go figure. Not being perfect with Spanish, the back to back hospital and clinic visits were kind of scary but now with great joy and relief, I can announce that my stomach is doing much better.

      Thursday happened to be the last day of language school because normally no one works on Good Friday here in this city where more than 80% of the people are Catholics. Two weeks ago I came to the realization that I was not going to be fluent in Spanish by the end of the eight week immersion program. On my last day of school my teacher Chichi told me that when I go to my mission site that I need to be patient with “the Spanish and the people.” I have let her words sink into me. When I think about it I have learned more Spanish here than I ever had in high school back in the USA. Looking back at my time here, I was able to carry out the following actions in SPANISH and ALONE. I made transactions with the bank tellers, took taxis and gave directions, went grocery shopping, filled out paper work and letters in Spanish, made phone calls, made multiple hospital and clinic visits, and even made confessions in Spanish. All of these experiences here (even the parasite experiences) have given me the confidence and hope that I need for my mission. As long as I continue to be patient with the culture and continually reflect on my progress, I will be just fine here in Bolivia.  

       I would not know all the Spanish I learned if it was not for my teachers Chichi and Fernando. I talked about Chichi significantly in my last blog, so I will just focus on Fernando here. Fernando is the friendliest teacher I have ever had. On Holy Thursday he told me that I’m not just his student but his friend. It is so easy to see Jesus in him. John 15:15 popped into my head when Fernando told me I was his friend. (Jesus said, “I no longer call you slaves…I have called you friends.”) Fernando has shown I’m not just some student he has to teach from 10:30am-12:00 every day. When I was sick, he knew I wanted to see the Cristo statue that overlooks Cochabamba on top of a small mountain. I was too weak to make the hike, so he paid for a taxi and took me to the top. He even let me have shotgun in the cab!. He has been my own personal guide showing me around Cochabamba and helping me with logistical things involving health insurance and passport stuff which I don’t want to talk about ehhh. On Holy Thursday he invited me to go church hopping with him and his wife. Cochabamba has over 100 beautiful churches. After visiting and praying in about 9 churches I told him I was little tired and he said in Spanish, “aww don’t worry we will only visit 6 more”. Ha, only 6 more!! It was so worth it though and very impactful on me. I told him I couldn’t believe how alive and faithful the city is during Holy week.  Fernando even invited me to spend Easter with him and his family which I took him up on his offer.  He showed me around the outskirts of Cochabamba where there are some poor villages and we walked around them on Easter day. We also visited 3 more beautiful churches in the outskirts. I hope that I can be as great of a teacher to the kids I’m going to teach in Okinawa as Fernando was to me.  God certainly put a wonderful example in my life of what it is to be a Holy catholic man and considerate teacher.

 

 

So I’m in the process of packing my bags for my travel day tomorrow. I’m taking a 10 hour bus ride to my new home. I fell in love with my future mission site, Okinawa, more than a year ago when I first started thinking about volunteering. I cannot wait to meet my site partners and the community there. I have been waiting so long to see everyone and I cannot believe my arrival day is the day after the joyful resurrection of the Lord. God’s timing is certainly profound and impeccable. I certainly experienced a terrific week long going away “party” here in Cochabamba. I now look forward to the unknown things God has planned to show me in this upcoming year in the rural town of OkInAwA.

City of Eternal Spring

I’ve been here in Bolivia for 2 weeks now and I cannot believe how fast the time has gone by. I figured I should probably let everyone know how I’m doing. My travel day for the most part went well, so thank you for all that prayed. Despite a 24 hour flight delay, and almost passing out at the high altitude airport in La Paz, I made it to my final and more comfortably lower destination in Cochabamba. And guess what? My two checked bags safely made it with me and the contents I packed were in there too. J Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia in a valley and is known as the "City of Eternal Spring" and "The Garden City" due to its spring-like temperatures year round. I’m learning Spanish in this city with a school I found online back in the states. I managed to avoid taking any Spanish courses In College, so I figured I should learn here. The name of the school is “Volunteer Bolivia”. I’m really satisfied with the school and the 8 week immersion program it offers. The school provides a home stay program so that I have a place to stay while taking classes here.

Classes consist of 2 sessions a day and I have class 5 days a week.  I have 2 teachers that I love and they teach me in the mornings. I get one on one instruction and I prefer this individual learning setting. The names of my teachers are Chi Chi and Fernando. They are both former teachers from the well-known Maryknoll language institute in Cochabamba which is no longer running. I honestly love the way Chi Chi teaches me. She is very energetic, has a passion for teaching, and is funny. If she notices I do not understand something, she will try all ways to explain the concept to me even if it means standing up on a chair and talking in a different tone of voice. One day she told me I was a special student of hers because I was Catholic. She showed me a special Marian necklace that she had around her neck and she told me she wants to help my mission by teaching me Spanish. Fernando is my other teacher and he is very approachable. Before class starts, he sits next to me on the bench outside and asks me how I’m adjusting to everything. I’m in the process of applying for a one year visa and he goes out of his way to help me. I am very blessed to have two wonderful teachers who care about the beginning of my new experience in their country.

After classes are over I return home to the family I’m living with. I live with Vicki the mama and her husband Rodolfo and their twins Rocio & Mauricio (19) and a daughter who is a teacher Paola (30). Paola is gifted and speaks 5 languages including English. Sometimes if something is very important for me to know, we will converse in English. The family is very hospitable and I feel like a son/brother. I like exploring Cochabamba and neighboring towns with them. My time well spent has been taking short car rides and simply talking with them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no fluent speaker but after 2 weeks, with patience from my family, I can hold a conversation. They have been really impressed by how quickly my Spanish has improved and I can tell they are excited for me. They told me that after my ~1 year long mission in Okinawa, that I will have to return to them here in Cochabamba to say goodbye to them before I head back to the states. Ahh!! I don’t even want to think about saying goodbye to them!!  

 I think I’m still in the honeymoon phase here and I hope it doesn’t go away anytime soon. However I don’t want to fool you, not everything has been a picnic. I have had my frustrations….mostly involving the rate at which I’m adjusting to the culture. I have had a couple days of “traveler’s-you-know-what” making many trips to the bathroom. I’m better now; Chi Chi said the color of my face looks normal again. I play a lot of charades and feel like a little kid sometimes. There are times when I feel one way but only can explain it in an incorrect way due to my limited vocabulary. I have trouble thinking in Spanish. Last week I told Mama Vicki and Paola that I have my days when my Spanish Is good and I have my days when my Spanish is bad. Their response was “Adam, you have only been here one week! Give yourself a break!” Ha! I have asked God to help me become more patient with my rate of adjustment here and to give me a new mind set. God is making me new for my mission. Its perfect timing as we are in the beginning of Lent, the season of renewal, the spring time of the church. I’m going to continue to enjoy the newness of each day here in the city of Cochabamba, the “City of Eternal Spring.”