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
Bolivia
Friday, February 18, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
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
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
Friday, February 4, 2011
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
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
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
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.
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