Whoops.  I basically haven't blogged in a month.  My b.

I blame getting the flu and med school apps.  But now that those are both more or less out of the way (still waiting on a recommender... -_-), I can begin blogging some more.

Now there is obviously way too much to even begin to talk about, but I suppose talk about I must.

Misc. Updates

• My host family got another volunteer on May 29th, and it's been great to have another volunteer and another person to talk with at mealtimes.  Makes everything slightly less awkward.  She's a nursing student in Wisconsin, 24, and interestingly, comes from a Mormon family (she's no longer LDS though), and has a sister who lives in China and now speaks fluent Mandarin.  I do enjoy having a companion to go places with and to share a taxi back home when we're coming back from a dinner or outing with the other volunteers.

• Going to a conference/talk thing by Josh McDowell on Tuesday on sexuality... kinda amusing... just the fact that Bolivia in so many ways is just like a culmination or reminder of so many different things in my life.  I remember my sister giving me a day-by-day youth devotional by Josh McDowell back when I was like in middle school.  The first one I ever got and more or less completed, I think.

• Got to share the Gospel and talk about my faith with Alice, the volunteer who is mostly with me at Maria Cristina, the orphanage for people with special needs.  She's pretty open-minded she said, which is certainly true.  Hopefully I can have a few more conversations about faith with her before she leaves.

• I called my dad today (for the first time since I've been here... so 5 weeks.  oops!  But we've communicated through e-mails) for Father's Day and spoke in Mandarin for what has been ages.  I speak a little sometimes at Ciudadela, the other orphanage, since the kids want to hear some, but that isn't much of course.  When I couldn't think of the words in Chinese, though, all I could think about was Spanish... haha.  Which I suppose is a good sign that I'm practicing my Spanish quite a bit after all.

Ciudadela (the orphanage for children without special needs that I work at)

• Although I initially kind of resented being at Ciudadela, since I came expecting to work with people with disabilities, I am growing to quite enjoy it.  It's awesome to be able to speak with the kids and learn about them and their passions.  Even though some of the kids can be kind of insulting (a couple have told me, "No sabes hablar bien (You don't know how to speak well)" which naturally made me sad), they mostly all seem to really enjoy my presence there, and I can barely walk around the orphanage without hearing "TÍO DAVID!!!" and kids running up to me.  That is nice.  =)

• The place has its own challenges though... like tutoring kids in math and physics... in Spanish. Sometimes I have to help the younger kids with their Spanish homework (make words out of these syllables, or make sentences out of these words sort of exercises) and I basically just run and go get a dictionary.  lol.

• On Friday, I happened to be looking through one of the 17-year old girl's, Marisol's, notebooks, one where she seems to draw random things and write other things.  I reached one point where the word "Fracasos (Failures)" was written, and as I was reading other things out loud in the notebook, continued to read these out loud.  Of course, Marisol got embarrassed and told me to read it silently, and I quickly understood why as I reached the part where she wrote, "A 14 años, me enteró que mi papá se murió (At 14 years old, I was told that my dad died)." Underneath that was "A 2 años, mi mamá se murió (At two years old, my mom died)" and above that was a line about how she had to repeat a grade.  It usually doesn't really strike me that almost all the kids I'm working with don't have parents... but this was one of the times that it did.

• The other time was when another one of the older girls, Esperanza (I think she's 15), last week was saying that she felt sad the day before, and I asked why.  She hesitated a bit, but I continued asking, and she said because she was thinking about how her parents had abandoned her.  =(  I tried to say something like, oh, it wasn't abandonment, they just wanted you to have a better life sort of thing (Marisol was there and helped complete my sentence with "una mejor vida"... made me think that this is probably the sort of thing they hear quite often).  But of course, that's not much comfort. She later said her parents had passed away now), and that God loves them... but still.  It's hard to provide comfort in a situation like that.  I guess you can really only just be with them and give them your love.

• One other time was when Marisol was baking a cake for her teacher's birthday the next day.  She invited three of her friends from school over, and I chatted with them.  Esperanza was there as well (haha, can you tell that Esperanza and Marisol are my two favorites at Ciudadela?  They're so sweet and kind to me.)  I guess just the fact that these kids had parents and Esperanza and Marisol didn't anymore just kinda struck me.  All the kids are usually so cheery and happy whenever I see them (I guess because they're usually happy to see me.  haha, that sounds awfully prideful) that I tend to feel like they're all at boarding school or something.

• Interestingly, a few of the girls I was talking to (ranging from like 10, 12, and 17) all said they didn't want to be adopted.  After all, those parents wouldn't be one's real parents.  I could understand the 17 year-old's feelings, but I thought it was interesting that while one might always think that kids would want to be in a home, that isn't always the case.

Ahh, I still need to talk about the political situation here.  I guess I'll get there.  Ahh, and the chance to interact with cleferos.  Well, more... at some point, haha.  I also have an Envelope due tomorrow for the midpoint of my experience, so I'll be blogging for sure at least then.