Two Months in Bolivia

Buenos Tardes!

It is hard to believe that we have hit the two month mark of being in Bolivia. At times it has flown by and at times it has not. I think this is pretty typical for being away from home and dealing with that adjustment.

The past two weeks in the classroom have gone pretty well. I must say I feel very accomplished having a quarter of teaching under my belt. Teaching at Carachipampa has definitely been a good first teaching experience. The staff has been so supportive of me as I have spent these first two months learning the ropes of teaching at a new place and getting into a routine. I am excited to see what the second quarter brings. I am excited to continue to help my kids succeed and work to their best potential. I am excited to further relationships with the other teachers in the school and with students in different grades.

These past few weeks I have also been working in the first grade classroom, while their teacher is in the States. This has made for long days, but I have really enjoyed working with the children and getting to know them. I have a cute little story about one of my first graders. The theme for our camp a few weeks ago was the Fruits of the Spirit ( Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control). This idea was talked about a lot during the week of camp, so the students are familiar with this. The other day I told one of my students that he was not being kind and I told him that he needed to be kind to his friends. He responded by telling me that he did not eat that kind of fruit. I had to stop myself from laughing in response. I went on to tell him that we need to be nice to our friends and we had a little chat. I thought that it was funny that he remembered what we talked about, but did not want to apply it.

This past weekend we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving at our house. There are several people from Canada here, so we celebrated in honor of them. The day of our dinner was hectic to say the least. We arrived home from church to find that our water was not working. We looked into our "well" and there was plenty of water in there, but nothing was working. We went to go ask our landlord about the problem and we soon found out that he was not home. His wife was though and she told us that something had happened with the electricity that went with the water. So at this point we were one hour away from having 30 people over and we had no water. We proceeded to use a bucket and the dog leash( yes.. this is all we had) to get water from the well. We filled up several containers full of water and we were ready to make the most of it. Soon people started to arrive and we quickly informed them of the situation. As people were showing up, a man came to look at the water situation. We were all very skeptical that he knew what he was doing, but after about 45 minutes of him looking around, turning the electricity on and off, WE HAD WATER!! Let's just say it was a huge answer to prayer and we were very happy campers.

I am doing pretty well overall. There were times last week when I was sick when I felt pretty homesick but God really used friends to encourage me and help me through that time. Some friends sent me verses that really spoke to me, one of these was a couple verses from Psalm 62

⁵ Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;
my hope comes from him.

⁶ He alone is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

⁷ My salvation and my honor depend on God;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

⁸ Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.

This was a great reminder that I can find rest in God during the times that I feel homesick and alone. He is my rock that I can lean on and trust in at all times. I have turned to this several times these past few weeks and it has been a great reminder and a great blessing( Thank you Shelley).

Hope you are all doing well!

Adios! - Rachel