A Trip to Santa Cruz

One of the memorable days this month was going to see the Rector major Fr. Angel Fernandez in Santa Cruz. Fr. Angel Fernandez is the 10^th successor of St. John Bosco. At our dining room table in San Carlos, we have a bulletin board where you can always find a picture of him at a Salesian school somewhere around the world. He is either at a school in India, at a festival in Africa, or elsewhere. So I was pretty excited to know that he was doing a South America tour. He winded up making a stop in Bolivia for a few days. One of the cities that he visited was Santa Cruz, only two and half hours from where we live in Yapacani. Two sisters from Yapacani organized a bus for a group of women to go to Santa Cruz so Connor and I tagged along. We went to the Colegio Don Bosco in Santa Cruz. This high school is huge, like colossal. The gym was packed with kids who wanted to see him. There were a lot of dances during the assembly for the Rector Major.

 

After the assembly, Fr. Angel celebrated mass in the church connected to the school. The message he kept stressing in the assembly and in his Homily was that we need to be witnesses of Christ at all times. It was a wonderful message, we can wear the clothes and rosary beads around our necks on the outside, but we truly need to be Christians on the inside. Later on during mass I received Holy Communion from St. John Bosco´s Successor… That last sentence sounds so cool btw. I was thinking so many Salesian priests and brothers I know would have appreciated that time with the Fr. Angel more than me. Therefore I felt so grateful and thankful to God for giving me the gift to meet such a Holy and righteous Man of God, especially to be in the presence of the one who has taken the place of St. John Bosco.

At the end of the assembly, Fr. Angel was taking pictures with groups of kids. Connor and I waited for the very end to get a picture with him.

 

Ok this picture was taken from Google images when Pope Francis and Fr. Angel were in Rome. But I think it’s kind of cool to have shaken someone’s hand who shook the hand of Pope Francis. No?

 

On our bus ride back that night we stopped at a supermarket. Connor and I were so excited; we didn’t think the day could get any better. Side note: we do not encounter supermarkets too often. There was an American food section and we bought imported Tositos chips, salsa, cheese sauce from the state of “Tejas”, and guacamole. I even got to hold a bag of Fritos in my hands but I didn’t have enough money to buy them, it was either the Tositos or the corn chips. Before we knew it Sister Dolores came in to the supermarket attempting to pull us by the ears because everyone was waiting for us on the bus.

On our way back to Yapacani, passing Montero, we encountered a blockade of cars in Puerto Chuello at around 10pm. Teachers at a nearby university were responsible for putting up the blockade. Apparently they don’t like the new administrator at the school so the teachers decided to block off the one main road between the two cities of Montero and Cochabamba in order to get attention. (Bolivia needs more highways).(Bolivia also needs bulldozers) The Bolivian women on our bus wanted to wait out the blockade on our bus, but the two sisters invited anybody who wanted to go back to Montero with them and sleep at a salesian kindergarten.(connections). Close to midnight, Connor and I decided to go back to Montero with the two sisters. So after 1 motorcycle ride, and 2 taxis later, we arrived at the school. The school had mattresses and so we just slept in the kindergarten classroom. The next morning the two sisters woke us up and told us that the blockade was open for a small window of time and so that we should leave now. Also the kindergarteners wanted their class back. Long story short we cruised back to Yapacani no problem and Connor and I had our nachos that next day.

Often that is what my life is like; a wall is just put in front of my camino when things are going well. Things can be going smoothly; I’m feeling grateful and then all of a sudden Bam! An outside force causes my plans to change. Gratefulness quickly turns into impatience. However over time the thought that knocks on my mind has been well things could always be worse. Probably a more virtuous state of mind would be to remain in a state of gratitude. I still need to pray for more grace to get to that point.

 

 

St. Joseph pray for us

Once a year the sponsors in Canada receive an update report from their sponsored children here in Yapacani, Bolivia. This report includes an interview with their child, a letter from their child, a drawing from their child, and a photo of their child. We asked the kids to come to our offices during the first and second weeks of March to write their letters and so that we could interview them. There are kids in the sponsorship program that live way outside the vicinity of the city, the focal point of our sponsorship program. One day we had about 30 students come from a pueblo called Los Pozos which is located more than 1 hour outside of the Yapacani.

 

I enjoyed carrying out the interviews with the children from Los Pozos and the other pueblos. We had a list of questions that we needed to ask them. I kind of felt like a psychiatrist asking them questions. How do you feel? How is your outlook on life? How is your general well being?..the typical and overused response was.. “bien no mas” which basically means “just good, nothing more.” I have to admit sometimes it did get tedious asking the same questions over and over but my Spanish was like rapid fire especially with the questions noted above. Some days I would have a line of 8 kids waiting for the interview and only a half an hour to spare before “siesta” so I had to ask the questions quickly. So quickly that the questions and the “good” responses sounded like it had a rhythm or musical tone to it.  I would get the “good,” “good,” “good,” pattern of responses and eventually laughter would burst out from the kids waiting in line because every answer was “good” from some kids.

 I think that I learned in this month the type of questions to ask to kids in order to see what they hide in their hearts. I was able to see pain and hurt inside some of their hearts. Everyone has something inside that needs to be healed. It is good for me to know their hearts so that I can try to better communicate God’s caring love to them. Listening to the children, I realized how important the relationship between parents and children are here in Bolivia. Many of the problems the kids have can be avoided by the “good” example of their parents.

 We celebrated the feast day of Saint Joseph this month in Yapacani. Padre Arturo told me that Saint Joseph was chosen to be the patron Saint of Yapacani. As we know in the Gospels, Saint Joseph was the foster father of Jesus and he was a righteous man. One of his titles in litanies is the “Mainstay of the family.” I thought to myself during some of the interviews, if only your parents looked up to Saint Joseph for how to be a good parent and spouse. Saint Joseph loved his family selflessly and patiently. Parents need to teach kids the values like good judgment, patience, fairness, and persistence. All values that Jesus most probably learned from Saint Joseph while growing up under his guidance in the workshop. The same values that helped Jesus in his later ministry when Saint Joseph was not there.  For me, I have realized how important it is to maintain my Christian values and to not let the culture change them. I try to give the message to the teenagers that our natural inclinations (like getting drunk, pre-marital sex, doing drugs, stealing) are not always the most choice worthy decisions, the same message Jesus gives, the same message our Church gives. I’m still trying to figure out how to wave the cross in front of them and giving them the message that they need to curb their desires without discouraging them. Many teenagers have the mindset that living out a Christian life is boring and a life without fun. It is actually the opposite, it is full of Love, fun, and adventure. When you give God the reins to direct you, your life will fully flower into tons of wonderful memories that you can look back on.

 Two farmers from Canada recently visited one of our farms at the Saint Joseph trade school to figure out why the 23 cows here were not producing the daily quota of milk for the local milk company and why the herd is not growing. My site partner and I had our mouths full with translating back and forth between the Canadians and Bolivians on the farm. I can tell you Connor and I learned a lot about the life cycle of cows that day haha. At the end of the day we had a beer with the Canadians back at the rectory and we started talking about Christian values and the cultural values of Bolivia. A good point that one of the farmers shared with us that evening is that many people share the common view that the Ten Commandments are a set of rules to hinder people from doing what they want and to make them feel uncomfortable. However in reality the Ten Commandments are really a recipe for Joy. I think if I can just get the teenagers to pause for a second and look at the Christian Life in that kind of light more often, they would see how joyful, comforting, healing, and exhilarating Life with Christ really can be! The reality that I hope that they can pass on to their kids one day.

 

 

Water balloon toss at a catholic youth conference in San Juan

 

 

you will see my back

Its unbelievable to think that 1.0109 years ago I arrived in Bolivia to take my first breath of South American air. A recent nightmare the other day made me realize that wow I really am on the downwind leg of my journey here..Ahhh!….but I am really grateful to God for his goodness for keeping me here for over a year now. At least I can say my heart has made deep roots here(even if my stomach is still struggling to plant itself in). I really wanted to use this month to take a personal retreat somewhere to reflect on the past year and to remember God’s passage through my life here. Unfortunately it’s the beginning of the school year right now, sooo I’ll have to wait to have my extended personal time with God.

 I came across the bible passage Exodus 33 recently in the Bible when God and Moses were talking together. Moses was asking to see God’s face. God responded with well not right now but  “you will see my back.” So often that’s how I see the presence of the Lord in my life. Tracing back his footsteps at the end of the day, recalling the entire day where He was in all the good times. I wish that I had time to make a 10 things learned kind of post for this reflection. Instead I’ll share 10 memories that come to the top of my mind that I really enjoyed experiencing as a Salesian Lay Missioner this past year in Bolivia.

1.       I currently live at a boarding school in the country tues-fri. At night, when I’m closing door # 4, all the boys in that room ask me to lead a personal prayer before going to sleep. Their request is music to my ears at the end of a long day. It makes me smile that they prefer meee to be the one to lead a Spanish conversation with God.

 

2.        Mondays are my off days and I like to spend those days at the seminary in San Carlos. Monday nights the Salesian community has mass in their chapel, followed by a dinner, and then a rosary. There something about praying the rosary together and walking pass the statues of Jesus and Mary that helps me enter into the mysteries better. The Holy Family becomes so much more alive when I pray with others. It reminds me of how Jesus is more present and nearer when 2 or more are gathered.

 

3.       Before Bolivia I envisioned myself playing the guitar in the country for the kids and at masses. Well was I wrong! Turned out God had other plans in which for me to invest my time. I still like to sing in public lol even if I’m not that good. I like to take a church missal out into the plaza at night on weekends and sit on a bench. The kids love to play in the plaza at night and approach me. Eventually they ask me, can I see what you have in your hands? and before you know it we are singing church songs together! and we all know we are not even in church!.. And there is no guitar in sight!

 

4.       Sometimes a good morning can turn into a bad afternoon. “The problems” can pile up throughout the day. I get to the point where I think that people slighting me or when I feel sick is the worse cross to carry. Occasionally, Father Arturo likes to make a hospital visit and I like to go along with him for the following reason. The humbling experience there after seeing the sick and injured has such a transformative change on my attitude. I realize my problems and crosses are so little compared to the sick in the hospital. I need this reminder “con frecuencia.”

 

5.       I like to take walks to different catholic schools in yapacani to talk to kids during recreation time.  One time at a school I was visiting, a group of teenage kids came up to me and asked me to talk in English, so I was like alright I can do that. I was thinking… what should I say to them when it hit me ahhh I’ll pray the Hail Mary!. so I began praying the Hail Mary in English. After I finished they thought it was so beautiful. They wanted me to teach them the prayer in English during their recreation time. So I told them I would print copies of that prayer in English to pass out the next day. And so I did and we prayed it together word by word the next day. I now bring a prayer booklet to that school each time I visit… (As I was writing this blog, a girl from that school found me in the office and asked me to repeat the words from the Cristo Conmigo prayer that I prayed with them the other day!)

 

 

6.       When I was studying Spanish in Cochabamba, I got to experience Holy week there. The week following up to Easter was so fun and motivating. Holy week made the entire city come alive. I remember in that week I liked praying the stations of the cross in my neighborhood with the parish community. I really liked visiting and praying in 18 decorated churches on the night of Holy Thursday. Mains streets were shut down and blocked off for Good Friday processions. My Spanish teacher invited me to spend Easter with him and his family and we visited pueblos outside of the city where Easter was being celebrated with festivals.

 

7.       One thing I really liked doing at my old mission site (Okinawa, Bolivia) was going to novenas for relatives that passed away of the students. Novenas in this sense are when family and friends go to the home of the deceased and pray there for 9 nights.  My first night In Okinawa (after I brought my luggage into the volunteer house) my site partners invited me to a Novena of one of the students they knew at school. We each hopped on a moto bike taxi and rode off onto the muddy roads in the dark to the family home where I was hugged by kids I didn’t know. It was the first time I was on moto in Bolivia and my first night on mission so that particular experience has stayed in my mind. We returned each night for the rest of the Novena. I got to see how this beautiful Novena tradition can be a really great tool for God to heal the Bolivians who have lost a loved one.

 

8.       One of my favorite things to do is translate personal letters between sponsor children and their sponsors in Canada. I receive the gift and privilege to be a bridge between hearts. I feel the hand of Jesus on my shoulder showing me the struggles inside of hearts so that I can communicate His love better to the kids. Only once a year sponsors receive a photo of their sponsored children. While here I am in person receiving the honor to play with their kids, joke with them, listen to their problems, give hugs, give encouragement, and go to mass with their sponsored children.

 

 

9.       One Sunday Padre Arturo was celebrating mass at a school run by Salesian sisters. At the end of mass during the announcements, one of the sisters announced it was Padre’s  birthday. Out of the blue came running a little 6 year old girl from the congregation. She ran up to Padre while Padre hands were up in the air about to give the final blessing. The little girl tugged at his vestments to get his attention and when Padre bent down the little girl gave a kiss on his left and right cheek. A uniform awww was heard in the crowd. I tell you Padre has so many spiritual children that love him.  

 

10.   At the end of a long day in Yapacani, Connor and I would take a shared taxi (trufi) back to San Carlos where we live. We walk up the hill on the street toward the church.  When we reach the top of the hill we can see the sun setting over the mountains past the city. It’s so beautiful when there are clouds on top of the mountains because its becomes more difficult to see where the mountain peaks end and the bottom of the clouds begin. This makes the sunset so much more beautiful. It’s hard to put God’s beauty into words so you can visualize it. I take that heavenly masterpiece that last only a few moments as God’s way of thanking me for my daily effort.  

 

Well I have to stop the list at 10 haha I can keep going! Good thing I keep a journal to keep track of everything. I know that new memories and experiences are waiting to be created. I hope to use the experiences and wisdom that I received in the past year to make more of an impact on Bolivian hearts in the following months. I’m really looking forward to making bolder attempts to centralize the kids on the love of Jesus.

Villa Feliz!

Happy New Year! I am very excited for 2015. This is the bicentennial year of the founder of the Salesians. St. John Bosco was born in Italy on August 16^th 1815. Our church celebrates his feast day on Jan 31^st each year, the day he entered the kingdom of God in Heaven.

The kids start school in February. We had a 2 week back to school camp for the kids at our church Maria Auxiliadora. The camp was called “Villa Feliz.” The theme of Villa Feliz this year was on the life of Don Bosco. I had a group that consisted of 11 year old boys and girls. In a meeting with some of my teenage helpers, we planned on presenting the histories and lessons of St. John Bosco through skits, games, and magic tricks. One of the days involved me trying to impersonate John Bosco by dressing up in priestly vestments, sorry I have no picture of that to show you.  

In the second week of camp we had a boys and girls soccer competition with the other groups in the camp. We split the girls into one team and the boys into another. Before the girls had their first game and the boys had their first game, we prayed like little saints that no one would get hurt and that God would help us to do our best.

So determined to be successful, the girls and boys of my group both happened to win in their respective “leagues”. Their rewards from me were encouraging words, some hugs, coca cola, and cookies.

In preparing for this camp I thought it would be good for me to restudy the biography of St. John Bosco. His life as a young boy serves as a good model for the kids to emulate especially when it comes to working hard in school and helping the family at home. St. John Bosco completed 3 years of high school in 1 scholastic school year and 1 summer.¹ He made an effort to balance his school work with his farm work at home. St. John Bosco was a husky little boy because of all the farm work he did to help support his mother and the rest of his family (he was fatherless after the age of two). One teacher, on finding the husky farm lad in his class, almost dwarfing the smaller town boys, remarked, “ What are you, a giant moron or a genius?” John’s ready answer was “Somewhere in between,.. just a pupil who is determined to study hard and learn.”¹ When Saint John Bosco became a priest, he taught the kids that the road to sanctity was easy.  Simply do your horizontal duties in school and in society but also live out your vertical duties to God, offering your life to Jesus wherever you are. I think for most of us God does not want us to be a Blessed Mother Teresa and open orphanages around the world or to be a doctor of the church like Saint Thomas Aquinas. The canonized saints are important witnesses to our faith, who show and teach us a great deal of living out our vocations awakened by our desires. For most of us our roads to heaven are much quieter, humbler, and littler than the roads of the canonized saints. Jesus simply wants us to be the fullest we can be with Him. Fully as in giving him Lordship over all our desires and areas of our life, generously offering our lives to Him where we live… Wow that sounds crazy!, God is asking for way too much! How can you expect an eleven year old bolivian kid to give such a commitment to Christ? ..Its ok though, the point is to trust in God to make up for what you lack. Sincerely try and try and try to live a holy life and be confident that God’s infinite mercy will fill in the gaps to make you a Saint. Trying is what matters to God, being “determined” like John Bosco.

As this month comes to end and we draw nearer to the feast day of St. John Bosco, I tip my hat to Don Bosco in thanks. I’m very thankful for his life and his inspiring example of tirelessly serving God here on earth. I mean if it was not for him, I would not be here in Bolivia right now. So thank you St. John Bosco, I’m very happy to be a part of the Salesian family here in Bolivia.

A picture after praying a Rosary with our new Rosary beads. Thank you Mrs. Elaine Dudash from Greenbrook, N.J for the Rosary Beads!

 

For more information on Don Bosco, you can click on the patrons saints tab in my blog. http://www.donboscowest.org/saints/donbosco¹ also provides a nice easy read of the Don Bosco. Much of that information was placed in this blog. In putting together the topics to teach the kids that I discussed in this blog, I often turned back to the books My Life with the Saints by Fr. James Martin and Consoling the Heart of Jesus by Fr. Michael Gaitley. These are additional good reads about how God wants us to be and act before Him.

 

Here is a video made by my site partner of the Christmas camp in December that was posted as a commerical on T.V in our small city https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZbb4VJ6en0&feature=youtu.be

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