Culture Lesson In Living and Dying

While talking about the differences between the U.S. and Bolivia when it comes to funerals and the grieving process of the dead is an usual topic to discuss in a grammar class, it is quite relevant due to the passing of Tom’s mother as well as the upcoming Dìa de Los Muertos that is celebrated on November 2nd throughout Latin America and is a national holiday for Bolivia (I also do not have classes that day).

I was quite surprised when my teacher used to the word "falso" (fake or untrue) describe the funeral and grieving process in the United States. While I have never attended a funeral or had any immediate family member of mine pass away (Gracias a Dìos), I do believe that I have a firm grasp on what this process is to firmly see the differences between Bolivia and the United States in this topic - it is quite fascinating. Is it fake? Well you can decide that:

First, the simple language and spirit toward the dead here is different. In the States, it is better to say the dead has "passed away" or "left us." Here, no such phrase exists, merely "they died." Also in Bolivia, although sad and sometimes traumatic for those close to the dead, the deaths are celebrated. So much so that they have a special day reserved for going to the cemetery and bringing all of the favorite food of the person with them, knowing that on this day the dead is with them and celebrating with them. It is one huge party to celebrate with the living and the dead, all day long. Having a table in the house with all the dead person(s) favorite food for this day is also quite common, which the people here believe that the dead comes from the heavens to the windows to feast along with the family.

In the United States, there are two options after a person has died: cremation or burial. After cremation, the remains are either scattered in a location or are placed in the possession of someone in a fancy vase, container, etc. The burial consists of a coffin that is either half open or closed during the funeral, the funeral of which is anywhere from 4 to 9 days after the person has died, a process possible through preserving the body by "bombing" it with chemicals. If the coffin is half opened, the face is covered with makeup and the dead is generally wearing nicer clothes or their favorite clothes, in attempt to make the person appear as they did when they were living. At times, the coffin may consist of the person’s favorite items when they were alive such as a book, football, stuffed animal, etc. Correct me if I am wrong on this part, but depending on the ceremony, the coffin is either placed into the ground during the ceremony or after when everyone has left. Either way, all of the ground is placed over the coffin and the final burial is completed without anyone present.

In Bolivia, after a person has died, there are three options: immediate cremation, immediate underground burial, or placement of the coffin in what are called "niches" for five years and after five years, the coffin is taken out and the body is exhumed and cremated, with the ashes being placed in a container and the container permanently being planted in burial ground along with thousands of other small containers (this is the same after immediate cremation). A niche is an insert in a giant wall that is located within a burial ground. The niche is covered by a door, in which the body is placed in the wall. The only thing that I can compare this to, while morbid, is a giant filing cabinet in which bodies are placed in the wall, each with their own door, and a plaque is placed on the outside with the information about the person, date, etc. I believe I have seen these in the States, while rare, but I believe they are permanent - the bodies and plaque will not be removed after 5 years and a new body inserted in the "vault." Someone can feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Immediate cremation and immediate burial are only for the very wealthy here because both are very expensive - particularly the burial because land here is a precious commodity. In Bolivia, it is very hard to have that much money that quickly to pay for a burial or cremation, particularly for such a poor area in which nothing runs on credit. Thus, the third option, that of placing the body in a niche and exhuming the body 5 years later, is the most common for Bolivians. The niche is cheaper and it allows the family time to save up money to get afford cremating the body and also allow a resting place for the body. If, after five years, no one has the money to pay for a cremation, a fourth option is available - completely mortifying to think about: the body is placed in a bag and put on a boat, sent to an island in which it is dumped. Bolivia does not have a coast line nor does it have any islands around, so I have no clue where exactly the boat is or where it goes, but I really did not want to ask.

Regardless of the option, the body is kept in the person’s house for a day or so until the ceremony that precedes the cremation, burial, or placement in the niche. Because the "bombing" process in order to preserve the body that we have in the States is also expensive, any ceremony happens within two days of the person’s death, even if not every family member can make it. (When we were on our Santa Cruz trip, the father of our driver Carlos died but because he was far away from home, he was unable to make it back in time for the funeral because they had it the very next day.) For the ceremony, the body is placed in a coffin, even if it will be cremated, the coffin of which has small window on the top of it(no bigger than the size of your hand) so that those attending the ceremony can view the dead and say goodbye if they wish. As described earlier, this is drastically different than the half open casket of the U.S. The body within the casket does not have on any makeup, does not have items they possessed when they were alive, and the body is not wearing fancy clothes, simply the clothes they had on when they died. If the person died while in the hospital, the body usually still has its hospital gown on. According to my professor, this is just an acceptance of life and death, not to pretend that the body is something that it is not and that it still contains the spirit of the person by placing makeup or clothes on the body - why she calls the U.S. process "falso."

After the ceremony, everyone returns to their homes and some stay to grieve with the family for the evening. Here in Latin America, it is usual that for the passing of an older person, the closest relatives, particularly the women, will wear nothing but black for one year as part of the mourning process. After the one year, what I believe is a result of the year grieving process, it custom to celebrate the life of the dead, particularly on the Day of the Dead, or Dìa de los Muertos.

As a closing note to these insights, I do believe that the niche option is particularly traumatic (one that I will thankfully never have to go through) and it is just another horrible thing that people have to endure in their lives simply because they are poor. Juana, my host mom here in Bolivia, lost her 12 year old son 6 years ago through what I only know was an "accident." (I hope to find out what this accident was by the time I leave in December...it is just not something you can bring up any time). Often Juana speaks of her "hijo" while pointing to the heavens; I can tell that he was a real joy in her life and through stories, he was an amazing, loveable, and spirited, yet typical,12 year old. The death was extremely hard for her in which she battled years of depression. Last night when we were knitting together (something we do on occasion), I talked to her about what I had learned in class about the burial options. She told me that when her son died, they chose the niche option and because last year was the 5 year anniversary of the death, she had to revisit the experience of losing her son all over again by viewing her son’s body being exhumed from the niche and from the coffin. (WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS NOT FOR WEAK STOMACHS) She told me that when they took the body out, the bones were so small and fragile that when they picked up the body, the bones in the arms broke. She told me that it took her a long time to not think about this when she would think about her son and all the good that he brought to her and her family’s life. Now, the ashes of her son’s body are located in a burial ground which we will visit next Tuesday at 6:00am in the morning for Dìa de Los Muertos.

So call it what you will - "falso" or just different type of culture - all I know is that before Bolivia I would have never thought that such aspect of our lives would vary so much from culture to culture and that I would actually look forward to celebrating the life of the dead with my family next Thursday, experiencing such an important part of the Latin American culture and being a part of something that has such a profound impact on my host family’s every day life.

Check out the October 14th entry

I finally posted about my trip...but, since I started working on it (it is crazy long) on October 14th, it posted with the date of October 14th. Thus, you have to go down two blog entries in order to see it - it is not hard to miss, no worries, haha.

Hope everyone is well. I mention about Tom´s mother in the blog, again, please keep them in your prayers.

GIANT shout out to all my BELLES! Miss ya bunches :-) M

OH - PS - Check out Patrick´s blog anytime you can. I have linked it on the right hand side of my blog, just click on his name. Seriously...he is as great of a writer as he is a friend, his insights on our experiences are amazing. Too bad I cannot write as elequently as he does, but I guess that is what is going to make me a great lawyer someday, haha.

hola hola

The computers have been really slow lately, just wanted to let you all know that I am doing MUCH better these past few days or so, despite my last few posts. I am really enjoying life and cannot wait to tell you all about my crazy every day adventures here in Bolivia. Also, I have not been able to put up anything about my trip because of the damn computers...so, I am hoping this will post, to let you all know that everything is great.

Call me at home if you want to say hi. I know I keep saying this, but hopefully tomorrow the post about my trip will be up followed by a more specific post later in the week about my life here (which includes getting scammed by a really old lady after church to pay for her cab ride home...yeah, that´s right, she cannot walk well, but she sure is smart!).

In the meantime, check out my photos by click on the MY PHOTOS on the right hand side of the blog. I pretty much have all of them up, although they do not have captions. Also, I have added a whole bunch of quotes too, check them out by clicking on the THEY SAY IT BETTER link, also on the right hand side of my blog.

Love and miss ya all, thank you so much to all those who have sent loving emails and notes! They were very much appreciated! - M

Gracias A Dios para mi vida

For the past couple of days now, I have been working on a blog entry telling you all about my trip a little more than a week ago. Today I had planned to post it, but I am not quite in the mood to do so.

The reason is that today I am extremely sad. This life is not easy here. Even more so, today was the worst day that I have had at the institute here thus far, as I am moving from great comprehension in everyday usage of the spanish language to becoming advanced, finding more and more difficulty in maintaining what I have learned and at the same time progressing further into a native speaker. It may be hard for those who have not studied a second language to comprehend, but I am told by those that have that this is a completely normal process...particuarly in the 6th week of language school, which I am in at this moment. Oh joy.

At the same time, I find it very difficult to express my frustrations to my family here in Bolivia because I feel so very guilty for feeling frustrated, for thinking that this is a major problem in my life, when at the same time I hear stories of, and see here on a daily basis, the hard and difficult Bolivian life. So many people here are struggling, completely re-defining my defintion of the verb "to struggle." The health care is bad; my professor here told me about a doctor that continues to practice medicine depsite the fact that he has killed 3 young children before due to his negligence when using anesthesia...and there is not system for reprocussion for the families here. No money from the doctor, nothing. In the States, this means a nice big fat check for the family AND the doctor is not able to continue to practice medicine...particularly after the 3rd time of killing a child. One child went in to fix his broken finger and thirty minutes later, the family was told that their son died. He didn´t even need anesthesia to fix the finger, but he was given it anyway, and died from the doctor´s negligence when giving it to him. It is so expensive to go to the doctor here, combined with the distrust of the medical system, it is wonder why people are dying everyday because they either can´t aford to go or they are too afraid to go to the doctor. At the same time, there are protests here and bloqueos that block the passage of food and water throughout the country in order to make a point with the government. Some days it is a mystery as to whether we are going to have water or not. Even so, there are a lot of people here in Cochabamba that do not have water in their houses; I see them bathing everyday in the river that passes by my house as I walk to the institute for my classes. The water is not safe enough for me to drink, but for these people, it is used for the many purposes in their everyday life - drinking, bathing, washing animals, and washing their clothes. These are just a few examples of the many that I see and hear on an everyday basis.

Despite everything that these people experience here, and although they have accepted that this is the way their life is (which frustrates me - why won´t they work for change?), they have an amazing sense of optimism and hope in the future. My professora actually said to me today (of course in spanish), "it´s okay Michelle, this is the way life is for Bolivia, but I have hope and confidence that it will one day change." Do I have the same hope for these people? If I was in the same situation, would I say the same thing as my professora? Today was the first time that I actually questioned my strength to continue working and serving with these people for the 2 1/2 years.

So I am sorry for not posting photos of smiling faces, beautiful places, and a trip of a lifetime that I was only able to take because the program I am with and support system I have here in Bolivia is financially secure. I know I will in the future, but not today. Right now, I am just living in the moment and repeating the phrase that is constantly said by Bolivians "Gracias A Dios" or Thanks to God , particuarly for mi vida (my life) and the life of all those I love.

Thanks for your understanding and patience, reading my roller coster ride of emotions - M

So it was almost a month ago...all about my trip!

Hi everyone. Hope all is well. Everything is great here, just realized today that I only have 6 more weeks of classes left...craziness how time flies. I cannot imagine writing on this blog in two years about my experiences in Chile, but they way that things are going, that day will be here sooner than later.

Before I share about my trip, I want to let you know of some very disheartening news. The mother of my mom´s boyfriend (the boyfriend that I consider an un-official stepdad), passed away last night. Por suerte (luckily), my mom and Tom were able to arrive back from their vacation in time to be with her in her last few moments. She was an absolute delight and a wonderful person, true at heart. I know that this is going to be a tough loss for both my mom, my stepdad, and his family. Please keep them in your hearts and prayers at this time.

Alright...

I am super excited to FINALLY share with you about my 10 day trip that I took almost three weeks ago to Chiquitos, Santa Cruz, and Sammaipata, Bolivia. Below is the best account of my trip along with a few little stories and pictures along the way. There are plenty more pictures of my trip included in MY PHOTOS, so these are just a few highlights. Alright, happy reading...but beware - it´s a long one! (And PS: don´t feel bad if you cannot read it all today or you don´t read it at all, totally understandable, haha).

15 students, one director, and one tour guide flew for 45 min. to Santa Cruz, Bolivia on September, 30 at 7:50am. Once we arrived in Santa Cruz, we were greeted by our driver, Carlos, and our bus that took us to Chiquitos, Bolivia, about 4 hours away. Oh, and I cannot forget the fact that we were greeted by Subway Sandwiches too...who knew I would ever eat Subway in Bolivia?? Was definitely not the same, but still pretty good. Here is a picture of the bus that we took - let´s just say that when I saw this, I had no idea what to expect for trip ahead. Oh, here is also a picture of the peanut butter cookies that I had made for me and my buddies during the trip! They were sooo good, thanks Gma for the recipie!

Throughout our four hour journey we passed through some really small towns, including the famous Rio Grande river, which you can tell would be incredibly large if it were fully but it barely had water in it, smaller than the Missouri River. Also on this four hour journey, we passed through two refugee camps set up by the Bolivian government. I have now realized that this was my first of many glances at poverty in a third-world country. It allowed me to realize how lucky my family, friends, and I truly are. It was also the first time that I realized how odd it is to be a "tourist" in this country...all I wanted was for these people not to feel like they were in a zoo, something "new" for us to see because it does not exist on such a scale in our country.

Also along they way, we would stop to pay a toll of some sort to cross a bridge or go through a town (not like the US at all, ropes and people stopped traffic until they paid the toll or tax). When our bus stopped, young mothers and children (ages 5-12) would come up to the bus selling yelling out the items that they were selling, which was all kinds of things from oranges, popcorn, pork on a stick, and cold drinks. It was crazy hot all of the days, so needless to say some items were sold more than others. Well, I did not want to buy any of it, but I felt horrible that these young women and children were slaving away in about 95 degrees heat all to sell a bottle of coke for about 24 cents, popcorn for 12 cents, or the large pork stick for a mere dollar. So, I opened up the window and offered the children the leftover peanut butter cookies that I had. Boy, was this a shock to them, haha - I don´t think anyone had ever offered them anything from the buses, let along cookies. The joy and bright big eyes of the little kids was great as they took the cookies and gave it to their friends to have...some of them even went over to their moms to show them what they got. As we drove away, I saw them eating and smiling - it was definitely worth bringing those cookies along for the trip.

We arrived at San Javier, our first mission town, for lunch. The Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos have been located in the center of the Bolivian forest for more than 3 centuries. They are the only Jesuit missions in South America that have not been destroyed. Declared a Cultural Patrimony site by UNESCO and considered the main settlements of the Jesuits in the new world, they were built from 1691 to 1760. They Jesuits remained in the Chiquitania land for less than a centruy, creating societies of productivity and archectecture while converting nomad tribes into communites called "reductions" with the purpose of initiating the natives in artistic, civil, and religious activities. On October 13, 1767, the spanish king ordered the expulsion of the Jeusit missionaries from the new world in the lands of the Spanish and Portugese.

San Javier was the first of the mission towns founded in the territory of the Chiquitos by the Compañia de jesus in December 31, 1691 by priest Jose de Arché. Today the town has 15,000 inhabitants skilled in eaborate craft works. The church has a boroque style, bult between 1749 and 1752 by Priest Martin Schmid and restored between 1987 and 1993. Here is a picture of me infront of the church - how beautiful! We took a tour of the church as well as the museum where we observed instruments that are manufactured in the poor pueblo, such as harps, violins, and violas (I loved that part, hehe). The highlight of our tripo, however, was a short concert of Baroque music presented by the town´s renowned youth choir and orchestra. Absolutely incredible to see and hear...who knew that such beautiful music and church can come from such an impoverished area.

After leaving San Javier, we another one and half hours to the town of Concepción. On the way, Maria, our tour guide, decided that we should stop at a small town on the way to say hello - she knew that the small town of about 300 people (200 of them children) having a festival. So, we stopped, and planned to stay there for about 30 minutes. Well, the stop turned into 3 hours but THIS EXPERIENCE WAS BY FAR MY FAVORITE PART OF THE CHIQUITOS MISSION TRIP. As soon as we arrived, the local women were doing a festive dance and a group of men were native music with native instruments. I have included the picture here. The women came over and grabbed all of our hands and we danced with them in a circle, laughing the entire way. After, the pueblo included us in their festive games such as musical chairs (picture seen here) and sack races. I was included in a game too, ALL BY MYSELF! I was blindfolded along with another young woman from the pueblo. We were handed a spoon and a cup full of a honey like substance...our task was to take a spoon full of the stuff and try to put it in the opposite person´s mouth! Haha, it was quite hilarious for all as we failed miserably and got the stuff all over our shirts. The honey stuff was actually quite good, too. :-) This was the first time that I actually felt that I was in an episode of National Geographic. Here I am, tall, large, light skinned girl surrounded by 300 shorter and darker skin people who were all soooo welcoming and so happy to see and speak to me and my group, wanting to touch all of us to say hello. The skin difference of course does not concern me, but really was the first opportunity to recognize the beauty of differences of people all over the world. The children were just absolutely adorable and after we were leaving, I shed a few tears as children were chasing our bus, wishing us goodbye. Yeah, it may be a little cliché and it definitely seemed as if it were right out of a movie, but being there was everything I expected out of my time in South America and more. I bought a necklace made of what looks like pinto beans for a mere 60 cents from a young mother who was selling them to help feed her children. I hope to keep this necklace always as a reminder of this experience and what I learned while I was there.

For the next 4 days we visited 5more mission towns, that of Concepción, San Ignacio, San Miguel, San Rafael, and Santa Ana. Below is a bit of information about each mission town and my personal highlight of each trip (the print is smaller because it is long). Trust me, the pictures do not do these towns or the capillas justice - check out more on my online photo album.


Concepción: Founded on December 8, 1709 by Jesuit Preist Lucas Caballero, who settled here with the Menesia and the Bococa Natives of the Chiquitan origin. This population was almost extinguished because of the resistance of some aborignial groups but was finally consolidated in 1722. Today, Concepción has 20,700 inhabitants. The church is of baroque style that was restored in 1975 by the famous architect Hans Roth and opened again on August 125, 1983. This basilica opens its doors to offer the beauty of its construction in naves of three bodies, large columns carved entirely of wood, altars and paintings done by the locals. The church was bilty by Martin Schmid between 1753 and 1756 and was declared a national monument in 1950, along with its wooden bell tower.

San Ignacio: Was founded at the point of origin by the Paraguay River by Jesuit priests Miguel Arieljer and Diego Contreras. the mission was established with the help of the Chiquitanos, Guarayos, Zambusos, and other natives on July 31, 1748. San Ignacio now has 3800 inhabitants and the church has a Chiquitano style, presented in the altars, pulpit, and confessionals.
THE RIDE TO SAN IGNACIO is the most memorable of the whole experience. It was four hours from Concepcion to San Ignacio, which is a beltway to three other small towns, in which three of the hours were on a dirt road. The bus was not suited for this ride, quite uncomfortable and very hard to sleep, let alone hear enough to talk to your neighbor on the bus. Despite this, we were able to see small villages and pass through the forested region (little more rugged than the jungle) of the Mercado Kempf National Park. The National Park is so large that there are still unexplored parts, unknown animal inhabitants, and unidentified plant life living in the Park until this day.
The church was beautiful, I was even able to climb up to the pulpit and look out over the church. When I climbed down, an older lady, about 70ish years old, asked me for money, typical in these very small impoverished towns. I spoke to her for about five minutes in which we exchanged bits of our lives, during which she told me that she had a young son that she could not feed and just needs a little bit for today. At this point in Bolivia, I have given up on trying to guess whether or not these type of stories are the truth. I gave her 5 Bolivianos (about 60 cents to those in the US, but a big deal in these small towns) in which she was absolutely thrilled, she had tears in her eyes. She hugged me and told me God Bless, I kissed her on the cheek and said the same, and we both said goodbye. I love those type of encounters.

San Rafael: Was the second town founded by the Compañia de Jesus during colonial times by Jesuit priests Juan Bautista Zca and Francisco Hervas on October 24, 1696 with approx. 1000 indians and several Chiquitano tribes, today, it has 3500 inhabitants. The church was built between 1747 and 1749 by Prist Martin Schmid and a team of artisans recently restored the mission.
During our tour of San Rafael, I had to go to the restroom. The restroom was located in another building just outside the church, where a group of Austrian nuns live. So I go to the restroom and return to the church to find that the doors to get back into the church were locked. Although I knocked on the doors, no one heard me because of music that was playing inside the church, the source of the music I would find out later. Anyway, after knocking, I saw a little old nun, habit and all, walking across the courtyard toward the building. I ran up to the woman (I think she was kinda scared because I was about 3 feet taller and had about 150 pounds on her) and asked her in spanish how to get back into the church. She shook her head - she didn´t understand me. Another little old nun saw my predicament, came over, and spoke to me in broken spanish, telling me that the nun does not speak spanish...in which I replied in broken spanish that I do not either and just need to get into the church to rejoin my group. The little old nun took my hand (how cute!) and walked me over to the door, in which she gentlely turned the knob in the other direction...it was not locked afterall. Haha, for me. Anyway, when I joined the rest of group, thankful that no one saw me make a fool of myself, I saw that a young boy, about the age of 14, was playing the violin for my group. He was soooo good. Apparently, he takes lessons once a month from a woman that travels three hours from Santa Cruz to the small town to tutor him. After he was through, everyone gave him a little bit of money, I think he made out with about 50 Bolivianos which is HUGE. I hope that he continues his studies and gets to acheive his dream of playing in a professional orchestra one day in the United States. He is certaintly good enough to play in a University orchestra now - and he blushed when I told him that, haha.

San Miguel: Jesuit priests Fanscisco Hervas and Felipe Suwarez founded the mission of San Miguel on September 29, 1721 with help by the Chiquitano natives and part of the population of San Rafael. Today, the town has 10,000 inhabitants. The church was built in 1760 and restored by Hans Roth between 1980 and 1983.
Adjacent to San Miguel is a wood workshop and a school for the community, in which the locals create beautiful wooden artwork for both the church and to sell in order to feed the community. Here is a picture of me with a group of children at the school. They were playing outside during their recess and I was more than happy to join in their games and chat with them for a bit.







Santa Ana: Was one of the last Chiquitano missions founded in 1755, 12 years before the Jesuit expulsion. The church was not yet finished when the priests left, but the native population raised it using the materials already manufacutred under the control and supevision of a group of remaining priests. The result is a rual touch of reduced dimensions in comparison to the other churches.
Despite the fact that this was one of my favorite capillas due to its inculturation with the local culture that included carvings in the pews and gorgeous paintings that incorporated the local culture with the stations of the cross, in this capilla there was an absolutely beautiful organ from the 18th century that had been restored along with the chapel. Martìn, a young British priest from our group, sat down and played a few tunes for us on the organ - absolutely beautiful. After, an older man about in his late 40s or early 50s, sat down with a violin in the church to play some local music for us. Nothing like the young kid that we say just a day before, but it was amazing to see a man that had no type of formal education and who taught himself the violin, play in front of everyone, just for our enrichment. I would never have that courage, even with my years of experience playing the viola.

Alright, so after our time in Chiquitania and after returning with the group to Santa Cruz, Kerry, Kelly, Patrick, Natalie, Katie, and I decided that we would leave Sunday while the rest of the group returned to Cochabamba on Wednesday. What we would do was still up in the air, but it was nice to have the freedom to do what we pleased outside of a scheduled itinerary. After looking through some guidebooks, we decided that we would spend the rest of our days in Sammaipata, Bolivia known for its waterfalls and pre-Incan ruins.

We stayed in a beautiful hostel (shown here), owned by a Dutch man and his Bolivian wife for a mere 30 Bolivianos a person, or about less than 4 dollars. The hostel included breakfast consisting of bread and fruit, a wonderful change from my Cochabamba breakfast which is always two fried eggs and two small loafs of bread.

Sammaipata was absolutely beautiful. Here are pictures of me in front of El Fuerte, the pre-Incan ruins, and Las Cuevas, the waterfalls. Again, these pictures do not do the place justice and there are some beautiful photos in my online photo album. The first picture is of Patrick, Natalie, and me under a large waterfall at Las Cuevas.



During our free time, I was also able to take a few moments and walk around the gorgeous small town. I loved it and definitely want to return in the future. There are plenty of great and beautiful pictures within my online photo album.

Alright, that is it! I am not going to include a detailed account (surprising, I know) of how I lost my plane ticket and had to take a 12 hour bus ride back by myself to Cochamba instead of taking the 45 minute plane flight my friends from Santa Cruz. Why not write about it? Well, this is long enough, but really there is nothing much to tell - for lack of better words, it was horrible and I didn´t sleep for fear of my things being stolen...the best part the trip was being greeted by my host dad and host brother when I arrived at the bus station at 6:30am in the morning. All I can account it for at this point in my foreign travels is that it is completely normal for me...each day is a crazy adventure.

So, I am done, and f you read all of this, good for you and hope you enjoyed it, you definitely deserve some type of cookie, haha. If you didn´t read it but just scanned through to look the pictures, I don´t blame you - I would have done the same.

Hope everyone is well, love and miss ya bunches, please keep Tom and his family in your prayers.

Love - M

Estoy mejor, gracias

Hey everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I am feeling much better. I left the conference on Tuesday early and did not go to my classes on Wednesday because I was not feeling so hot. Today is better, although I am quite exausted catching up on my work. Tomorrow I am going to tell you all about my trip, honest. ;-) (By the way, that whole 5 part series thing is a stupid idea now that I think of it...not going to do that, tomorrow´s update about my trip should suffice, I hope to include lots of pictures for you to see!)

After tomorrow´s update, I plan on telling you some interesting things about my life that I have been meaning to put up on my blog, such as about my family, the food here, life here, etc. I also want to start telling you about simple insights that I have had living in a third-world country. Despite the exclamation points that I have a tendency to overuse in my sentences, sometimes life here is not as rosey as it may come across. For a more some stuff like this, look to Ryan and Natalie´s blog - they have elequently said some really ensightful things about life here.

I am just getting back in the swing of things, that´s all. Being sick really made me miss certain things from my life in the United States, such as being comforted by your mom when you are not feeling well or eating her food on a daily basis, or not living in the culture that discusses digestive or bathroom problems over dinner with other members of the family (it is both discusting and funny, but oh lord...seriously, do they have to do that??!). With current political events I have also realized that I SERIOUSLY miss having the ability to watch the news or read the paper and understand everything that is being said, remaining to be an informed person on world affairs. Thank goodness for the internet...it is my only hope these days to be connected to the political world and at this point it is not really all that I want it to be.

Alright, "ciao ciao" for now. I would really like to receive phone calls at my house if you can - "wink wink" Gma, Mom, BRails, Amy K, and Sue - haha.

Hope everyone is well, miss ya bunches - M

Ugh...

Hey all - so I said I was going to start posting about my vacation yesterday, but I am crazy sick...my stomach is killing me, and the same with everyone else who went on the Santa Cruz trip this past week. Looks like one of the restaurant´s food was not so safe for us to eat afterall...

I am going to a conference today about theology, politics, philosophy with the Institute. Really excited, wish I felt better. Needless to say, if I did not have this conference, I would not be going to classes today.

Hope everyone´s day is going better than mine, hope to update the blog tonight or maybe tomorrow depending on how I feel :-/

Ciao ciao - M

Back from vacation!!

Just wanted to let you all know that we just got back from our 10 day excursion through the beautiful country of Bolivia! We had a great time, but we are sure tired!

Check out the blog tomorrow for the 1st in a five part series letting you know all about my trip that included visits to 6 amazingly gorgeous and historic mission towns and chapels founded by the Jesuits in the 17th century, as well as hikes to see beautiful waterfalls close to the Amazon and ancient Incan ruins!

Hope everyone is well, miss you bunches. Until tomorrow - M

PS: If you have subscribed to my blog but are not receiving automatic email notifications that I have updated, please let me know. My service has been a little iffy with them and just want to make sure all who want to subscribe can, thanks!