Sorry!

Sorry it took me a month to update. Wow. Well, we have taught four more workhops (La Pampa, Montero, La Merced and Pirai stakes). They've been really fun. The bus strike hurt us big time because a lot of people were not able to come to our workshops. But on the plus side, we were able to teach SOME people and that was definitely worth it. We also went to this cool place called El Mariposario. We stayed there a night and there were pools, good food, a massage lady, monkeys, pina coladas...I want to go back. It was so nice. Oh and kayaking! That was bomb!

We also went to a YSA convention which was fun but I'm not a big fan of camping so...but there was some dancing too (actually a lot of dancing) so I got to learn some. We're getting ready to go to Cochabamba next week (we fly out Tuesday morning) so we're really really excited! It'll be nice to get away from Santa Cruz for a bit I think. Hmmm what else. The Church is true!! These workshop manuals were definitely inspired, I'm so happy to be teaching others and I'm learning a lot about myself in the process too. I can't wait to go on a mission and teach the spiritual side of things, as now I'm teaching people the temporal stuff. 

Peace out!

My Computer Came Back To Life

Okay, so a week and a half ago, a lot of things happened:

First off, Ashley and I got REALLY sick. We think we had salmonella. From now on, we will be EXTRA careful before we eat anything in restaurants. This made our workshops hard. We didn't know HOW we were going to teach them. But since our manager gave us no other choice, we decided to pray and let the spirit give us a hand. And he did. We taught some great classes last week and graduated about 30 people. It was really really nice.

We finally started feeling better a few days ago so this week's workshop has been really good. We've only taught two classes this week and we'll teach the last two next week. Valentine's Day was fun cuz my companion got into Grad School AND we just watched fun movies. And then we taught workshops at Estaca La Pampa this week. 42 people our first day! When we taught again on Thursday, we had about 26, but that's okay. They're pretty awesome, I love them all! :)

It's been hard....it's dangerous to do stuff here alone, and our "friends" don't ask us to hang out so...yeah we've been imprisoned in our own home. BUT! Today we decided to plan things to do no matter what. We are not going to just wait for things to happen, we'll make them happen ourselves.

My computer's hard drive might give in at any minute, so I'm just praying it lasts me this trip :)

-Cristina

32 People!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So our workshop last week went well!! We graduated six people, which was about 50%+ of our total participants. I feel I got really attached to them and by the end of the workshop I was sad to see them go. BUT we're getting together with them this Saturday night for a dinner and we'll present the certificates then :) We're so excited, we really felt like we made a difference. We did get ice cream with our participant Yesenia at a place called Piccolo's which was near La Plaza Central. It was okay, not my fave, but still good. Saturday flew by as we literally did not do anything hahaha.

and Sunday! It was testimony meeting as well as fast Sunday, duh! Ashley and I got up to bear our testimonies and it was really neat. I'm not a fan of getting up and talking in front of people, but I felt like it'd be nice to express my thanks to the Lord for sending me here. It was a great Sacrament meeting. We got to meet the YSA in our branch, they seem really fun :)

Monday we met up with some sisters from this past workshop and they fed us VEGETARIAN food! We had Sopa de Frijoles and a Quinoa dish, so so good! One the women (the mother of the other one) wants to open up a vegetarian restaurant but she's waiting for her daughter to get back from Spain to start it. I'm excited to hear updates from her and she if her business becomes successful.

Last night we taught a workshop in Estaca Paraiso and we had 32 people come!! Man we felt a bit overwhelmed, but it was really fun!!! We felt like we were teaching them instead of just teaching the material. So good. We hope they all come back tonight!

Well that's all folks!

Cristina

Inglish Plis

I feel like my English is getting worse, not that it wasn't already hard to understand! hahaha just kidding, but seriously. Well our Workshop on Wednesday and Thursday (last night), went really well! We had a whopping 12 people show up AND they liked our claps and fun games we had prepared for them. As a side note, we have them make the workshop rules that they will abide by (i.e. be on time, no cell phones, etc.) followed by a consequence. Guess what happens when people show up late? They have to sing or dance. 5 people showed up late last night so that was really fun to see them get into their songs and belt out their amazing voices. We've been coming home pretty tired, but it's been really rewarding nonetheless.

I'm still a bit frustrated at the fact that things move really slow here and I'm kind of figuring out why. You see, people will delegate their responsibilities to others and call it a day. Or only person has the information you need and they happen to be out of town. Or people forget what you told them only a few hours prior.

Example A:

I needed to send a package and I wanted to send it via DHL so I called my manager and asked him what he knew about DHL. He said that he and the assistant manager would take me (and Ashley) to the DHL location  to send it and take us home afterwards but to meet them in the center at 2pm. I made this call at about 11am. SO, Ashley and I showed up at exactly 2pm, waited 20 minutes, called our manager only to find out that he forgot he was going to meet us  was now too far away from the center. He delegated the responsibility to a volunteer and asked him to take to DHL (which was a 30 minute walk) ONLY to find out that I needed to show my ID and I didn't have any because I didn't know you have to show IDs here to send stuff. I wasn't informed. We pretty much wasted 2 hours doing nothing. BUT the story didn't end there. I figured it'd be easier to send it via FedEx since the Employment Center works with FedEx and they would come pick it up on the same day. SO, we went to the center (because I had to talk with the immigrations guy anyway) and I brought my package to send. They told me to go talk to this random guy who had the phone number for FedEx to pick up the package. But he wasn't there. NO ONE knew where he was or when he'd be back. AND apparently, he was the ONLY ONE with the number. I asked if they could find it online, but apparently it wasn't online. I got on one the public computers and found the phone number within the first 3 minutes. I called FedEx and arranged for them to pick it up no problem. THREE MINUTES. I was not very happy yesterday. I wasted 2 hours in the center only to find out they could have just come to my apartment here. LESSON LEARNED for sure.

Things definitely work differently here. For better or for worse, Ashley and I had to learn that we should expect things to not work out the way we want them to, and if we do, we need to constantly follow up with people.

Oh well, we did our shopping yesterday and for the first time ever, we have FRUIT and VEGETABLES! We are excited, we washed them with a food disinfectant we got from the pharmacy and went right to work with those fruit and veggies. I had a banana today, I was HAPPY.

Today's our last workshop of the week! And later this afternoon we're meeting with one of our 1st workshop participants, Yesenia, so that should be really fun.


Later Gators! :)

Cristina

Round Two

February 2, 2011 - Santa Cruz, Bolivia - 12:50pm

Monday and Tuesday were good days. We didn't do much, but tried to start a schedule to work out and eat well. On Monday we actually went to Cotoca with the manager's two sons. Cotoca is in the outer skirts of Santa Cruz and it's one of the poorest areas in the city. The manager's son had served his mission in Santa Cruz so we went to one of his old areas. We first went to this place called Parque Fantasia. It was really fun. There was no one there. Only six dogs who kept following us and a horse randomly there. There were all these miniature versions of houses and such and even a mini-version of the statue of liberty. I really should post pictures up, I'll get on that, promise. There was also a zip-line! We hoped it was safe and got on it. So much fun!

Tuesday we went to the center, found out one of the employment specialists did not notice his stake of our workshops and now we are teaching a three-day workshop this week! Let's hope it goes well. We are pumped, excited, and nervous. There will be more people today and most of them will probably be older. So we'll have to explain things as simple as possible. Today, we finished preparing for the workshops and we'll go to the center later today for a bit. We're getting picked up for the workshops and getting picked up to go home afterwards. Wish us luck!

-Cristina

ps. We found our first gecko a few days back. He's cool.

Getting Pumped Up

1/31/2011 - Santa Cruz, Bolivia - 9:35am

So Tuesday and Wednesday was us trying to figure out how to send Ashley's video. Our internet is really slow and therefore it we spend 16+ hrs trying to send this file. But it didn't even send it because apparently I used up all of my credit for the internet in one day. It's funny 'cause they told us it was unlimited. Oh well, for the time being I'm using the office's Tigo Internet Card which IS unlimited! Whoo! We were finally able to send off the vide, we had to go to the office to send it. That was one less problem though. 

OH! I finally saw Tangled! In Spanish! hahaha it was a great movie, I'd definitely see it again, it was SO funny. 5 Thumbs UP!

Thursday, we went to the ZOO. It was awesome. Tigers, pumas, monkeys, llamas, toucans, turtles, monkeys, monkeys, and monkeys! It was a HOT day, but getting to see all these cool animals was a treat.

Friday, we went to Employment Seminar with all the Employment Specialists in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba, and Trinidad. It was long, but I feel like I learned a lot in terms of how effective we're being in getting people jobs. For lunch, we ate Sopa de Mani (1st course) and Beef with rice and chuño. Let's explain chuño a bit. It's freeze-dried potatoes that are then fermented. It was...not that bad, until they told me what it was. When you have the image of women stomping on these potatoes until they're juiced out, it kinda takes away your appetite. BUT the meal was really really good. Apparently Cochabamba has better food, and people like to eat there, a lot. I'll probably fast before our two-week trip to Cochabamba hahaha

Later at night, some kids from a dance school came and performed some folkloric dances, and that was pretty rad. It was an entire story with songs.

SATURDAY. Was walley day! Walley is like Volleyball. Except, you got walls you can hit and you can also kick the ball. Pretty Sweet, huh? My manager and his family are PROS. No lie, they've been playing for YEARS! We got divided up into groups and mine kept on winning. Until we got tired, then we'd lose. That was such a workout though. We went to the pool afterwards and got to witness our manager do the doggy paddle and bark like a dog. I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. NO LIE. And to end this awesome day, we went to Los Lomitos, and Argentinian place where they had some of the best meat I had tasted. We took leftovers home since we did NOT finish everything they served us. 

Finally, on Sunday, we went to our corresponding ward, Barrio Estacion. It's actually a branch, but people there were super nice. They have a couple elders there. One of them is from Cedar City, Utah, and the other is from Cuzco, Peru. So one of them is ridiculously tall and the other is short, a great pair indeed. :) Our manager's wife and son were there because it was a ward conference and the wife is in the Relief Society Stake Presidency. They offered to take us home which meant, free ride!!

We spent the rest of the Sunday home chilling til a friend came over to visit and then also left. I really should update more frequently so I'm not telling people about an entire week! hahaha

I learned something cool on Sunday, you either ADAPT to the ways of the Lord in your own way, or you can ADOPT the ways of the Lord into your own life. I'm choosing for ADOPTING.

Hasta Luego!

Cristina

Ups and Downs

The wedding was pretty awesome. Parties here don't start til 10-11pm and don't end til 5am. It's crazy! They even had a one course meal and everything. We had met the bride a few days prior and she and her mom insisted we went to the party. This is a photo of our table:

We ate and danced a ton, then we went home at 1am, though everyone else stayed til 5am....I can't imagine staying up so late, I'm getting OLD.

Well that was Friday, onto Saturday! We went to a place called Las Cuevas, which is about 3+ hours from the city. It was really fun riding in a "micro" with 30 other single adults.

Las Cuevas was GREEN beyond reason. I really felt like I was in the jungle. Sadly, we saw no monkeys, but I'm determined to see them at some point.There were some really cool waterfalls and lots of mosquitoes too. I got bit in one of my eyelids. No, I won't up pictures of it, that's just gross. But I got bit on my legs pretty nicely . I had really good time appreciating the wonders of Mother Nature. The bus ride was long too going back, but it was worth it. 

And then came Sunday. We were supposed to go to Warnes (a province outside the city) to go to the ward of one of our workshop participants. We were also to give a talk during the Sacrament and inform people of the TAE workshops we taught. We were up and running by 7am, despite not having slept too long. BUT, Reynaldo never came to pick us up!! So........we didn't go to church. hahah not because we were slackers, but because we didn't know where our own ward met, since we had just moved into the apartment earlier that week. We cleaned out the FRIDGE and then some. The apartment is starting to look more homey. And we watched Pride and Prejudice, the LONG version. I'd never seen it, but I like it better than the newer version. 

So Monday, we went to the Center to film Ashley's Interview so she could send it to the Grad Program she's applying to. That's how we spent the entire morning, but THEN we went to go eat Mexican Food!! It's called El Chile and the burritos we good, although they weren't authentic, but still. At a reasonable price too. I think I paid $5 for the entire meal. I felt more at home for sure. Well we came home because there was a guy who was supposed to come fix the dryer, but it turns out he couldn't so he's sending us someone else sometime this week or next week. Everything moves quite slow here, definitely not used to it yet. And last but not least, we went to a store called called Hypermaxi and bought a bunch of stuff for the apartment. AKA more WATER. 

Ah well this is what's happened until now. It hasn't been easy adjusting to a new country and a new culture. I can safely say I HATE CHANGE. But, I know the Lord has a reason for everything and there's a reason I'm here. I'm teaching workshops that can and will change people's lives. And I need to stop worrying so much about myself and start focusing on others. I feel like I've been way too selfish. Yesterday, Ashley and I read a chapter in the Book of Mormon for "Family Home Evening" and it was the story of Ammon and his cutting of the arms. Haha it's a great story, but I kind of feel like we are a bit like the sons of Mosiah. We each went our separate ways to teach the "workshops" to the "Latin Americans" and were told that we should be patient towards them and have faith that God is with us always. Times are hard, especially when you're far away from your family and close friends. But it's the Footprints in the Sand poem, there's another set of footprints right beside ours.

-Cristina