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!
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| Those beautiful drawing skills being put to use :P |
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| My parents with their goddaughter Mayra |
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| 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!
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| On Isla del Sol |
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| Our staff wonder women costumes! |
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| The winning dorm in their Egyptian costumes |
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| After going outside on Monday |
