Welcome Home, Parte Dos

Well I’m officially back from my whirlwind week of vacation travelling around Bolivia and Ecuador with my family! It was so good to be reunited again after six months, and I had a lot of fun showing my parents where I had been working for the past half year and all of the girls that I work with. Although they were only able to make it to the hogar for a couple of short days, they definitely made the most of it as they read Spanish books that they couldn’t really understand to the girls, danced with the girls and then each other after some prompting, utilized their drawing and coloring skills (limited as it may be for my dad :D), participated in a 2-hour stations of the cross around Montero, and even took mototaxis when we went to take our goddaughter out for salteñas! After six months of working in the hogar with only a few days off, I have to admit that I was definitely ready for a vacation, but just seeing my parents interact with the girls reminded me why I was here and that although the girls can be difficult at times, they are also really sweet and definitely worth it!

Those beautiful drawing skills being put to use :P

My parents with their goddaughter Mayra

We ran into the neighborhood sloth on our way to salteñas!  

                After leaving the hogar, we headed to La Paz and Copacabana, Bolivia. In case you’re curious, the Copacabana in Bolivia was actually the original Copacabana, where a shrine to the Virgin Mary was built. Travelers headed to Brazil stopped at Copacabana and prayed to Our Lady of Copacabana for a safe passage to Brazil, and when they arrived safely, they christened the beach with the same name as well. Copcabana, Bolivia is located on Lake Titicaca, one of the highest navigable lakes in the world, and close to Isla del Sol, a beautiful and isolated island with some Inca ruins. The town, the island, the cathedral were all beautiful, and we even did a second stations of the cross (with plenty of stops, we’d like to say mostly due to the 12,000 feet altitude!) up a mountain next to Copacabana before heading back to La Paz for an afternoon and then onto Ecuador the next morning!

On Isla del Sol

The view of Copacabana after finishing the Stations of the Cross

                Although Quito was beautiful, surrounded by 80% active volcanos and with probably about a dozen gorgeous churches in the few blocks of their historic center, what struck me most about the trip (aside from being together with my family again of course!) was the overwhelming hospitality that we received by everyone there, especially the friends of my sister’s host parents that owned the apartment which we stayed in. Because I spend the large majority of my time in the Hogar, I don’t get the chance to interact with too many Bolivians besides the girls, the madres, and the staff, but meeting my sister’s host family and staying in the apartment of their friends really continued to show me the extent of South American culture and hospitality that I had experienced in Peru during my mission trip last year and in Bolivia this year.  

Reunited at last!

                Throughout the whole trip, it was so nice to have good food, hot showers, (a little) time to relax, and even laundry machines in Ecuador! I was kind of worried at first that coming back to the hogar would be difficult, but it actually wasn’t. Yes I will miss my family and all of the conveniences mentioned above, but coming back and seeing how excited the girls were to see me (even though some of that excitement was because I could open the library and help them with their homework again), did make me feel like I was coming home. This is where I’m supposed to be right now, and although the vacation and seeing my family was wonderful, I’m glad to be back at the hogar too.

PS. I promised a description of carnival in my last blog post, so I’m just going to post a couple of pictures and say that carnival here is crazy! We had a party at the hogar on Saturday, where each dorm dressed up as a different theme (with the staff theme being wonder women (and men!). Then we went outside of the hogar on Monday of carnival and returned with anything from mud to paint to oil on ourselves (which is very difficult to get out of your hair!). It was a lot of fun!  

Our staff wonder women costumes!

The winning dorm in their Egyptian costumes

After going outside on Monday