Bolivian Baby Shower

Rosa, the guesthouse maid is expecting her fourth child. It was really pretty unexpected..... at least for her. She was really surprised. Any way, I thought that it would be good if we honored her with a baby shower before she went on maternity leave. She was very pleased, especially since, as she shared with us, that no one had ever given her a baby shower. Baby showers here are pretty foreign. They just don't give things to other people, especially when each family struggles to take care of their own needs. I had invited about 22 people to the shower and hoped to get 8 to 10 people. To my surprise, about eighteen people came, mostly SAM missionaries. We had a lot of fun playing baby shower games and having some delicious eats together. In Bolivia only small gifts are given..... it is the Bolivian way, and no one puts their name on the packages so that no one is embarrassed by what was or was not given. In the picture below Rosa is opening her gifts. As you can see she seems very pleased.

Below the ladies had to hold a baby, hold a phone, carry a balloon under their blouse and then we strung up a clothes line and when we said "go" they had to quickly hold all these things and also hang clothes on the clothes line. The picture below shows the ladies before the game actually began. The winner was Angela Massey, the thin dark haired women on the end..... she did it all in record time. It was fun to watch.

School at Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center

This past year I have had the priviledge of teaching at the SAM operated Christian school known as Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center. In the fall semester I taught two First Aid classes and this Spring semester I taught Home Economics. The pictures of the girls below are the girls in my Home EC class. Their names in order are: Gabby, Arianna, Mariela and Ziza. The first three girls are Bolivian and Ziza is a missionary kid. It has been an interesting year teaching these girls about the fine are of home management. Hopefully they have learned things that they can use throughout their lifetime.

Below is the the name of the school, posted on the wall as you enter the gated entrance.

As you can probably guess, the school mascot is the "Eagles." The building below houses the library on the first floor and the chapel and computer lab on the second floor.

And, like most of Bolivia, animals roam free. This cow is a usual appearance right outside of the school entrance. The other day when we arrived there were pigs wallowing in the mud of the drive way.

For the past few years there has been a lot of construction going up around the school and this has affected their drainage system. The school has a lot of problems with standing water on the grounds, so much so that they have not been able to use their soccer field or much of their playground. This has been particularly bad when there was a dengue outbreak and with the standing water the mosquito population soared. Recently we have contracted a local firm to put in a new drainage system which we hope will fix the problem.

Here is a picture inside of the school gym. My home economics class is actually in an alcove of the gym and Dan and I often watch the kids in their gym classes as I wait for the class before Home Ec to finish up. During my Home Ec class Dan helps the special needs teacher with kids that need special attention.

With all the rain, this concrete basketball court has been the only place that many of the kids could go for recess.

This is a few from outside their lunch room, also known as the "Eagles Nest." On the right and also in the rear are class room, mostly used by the high school and junior high. The grade school kids classrooms are actually on the other side of the far class rooms.

Barrio Bolivar

One of the most recent South America Mission projects has been to build a child developmental center for children in Barrio Bolivar, an area almost completely inhabited by Ayore Indians. The Ayore people live in poverty and the children suffer from malnutrition and parasites. Hopefully the child development center will help by providing nutritious snacks for the kids, treating them for parasites and testing them for developmental delays so that the kids will not be handicapped by their environment. I have posted a few pictures of the kids from Barrio Boliviar.