After taking cipro for two days and not feeling better, I realized my irrational fear of doctors here was probably doing more harm than good so I sucked it up and went to the local clinic- Clinica San Antonio.  I keep trying to find some kind of ‘personal’ doctor here where you could make an appointment and they would keep a file on you but I haven’t found anything like that yet.  Although there are some fancier clinics here (mostly foreign- Japanese or Italian), I thought I’d go the Joe-schmoe (or Josef-schmosef) route and see what kind of service you could get for 30 bs (about $4.50).  (I’m not that sick.)

When I arrived they wrote my name down and took my blood pressure, temperature and weight and then said “ahorita” and asked me to sit down.  I could write a whole post about ahorita but basically it means we’ll get to it as soon as we can, which in this case meant an hour.  So I sat and read some and watched the waiting room fill up with adults and babies all waiting but few actually being taken into offices.  The waiting room was an assortment of non-matching chairs in a tiled room with open doors on every side and people constantly walking though.  There was a small television in one corner showing a ridiculously bad TV show from the 70′s? 80′s?  I considered the plastic versus cloth seats in terms of sanitary-ness and comfort.  I went with cloth but tried not to touch it.  Through one of the doors off of the waiting room I could see patients in a row in beds.  Behind a half-glass wall three nurses were scurrying about doing intake and possibly lab work.

There appeared to only be one doctor doing “consultas” and finally he came out and called my name.  (They have a LOT of difficulty with Kent because the K sound isn’t really used in Bolivia, the only thing that makes sense to them is Quent or Kenis.  Also they look at you funny when you say you only have one last name.  In this culture that means you don’t have a father)  Anyway so I go in, show him my test results, he asks my symptoms and I tell him about the cipro.  He barely spends two seconds looking at the test results starts scribbling some stuff and asks me lay on the table.  I lay down and he feels my stomach for pain and talks in very fast spanish to me about dietary restrictions and asks if my stomach has gotten bigger.  I wasn’t sure it he was referring to bloating, because I have been very bloated lately.  While I was considering my answer he squirts some gel on my stomach and before I know it I’m having an ultrasound!  Apparently that was his way to ask if I was pregnant and since I didn’t answer convincingly he gave me a preg-test.   And possibly looked at my stomach too?  At that point I was so shocked and still trying to understand him rattling on in spanish I couldn’t put together a “what are you doing?” question in my head.  I got about 50% of it- eat light meals and no soda.  And I’m not pregnant.

So then he writes three prescriptions for me, never actually tells me what’s wrong with me (or actually the results of the ultrasound which I inferred), or what the drugs were for.  He ends with, you should feel better soon while he gets up from his desk and we walk out.

It was all a whirlwind but as I walked out I considered he never once questioned my medical background, family medical history, other medicine I was currently taking, or ALLERGIES.  And since he didn’t explain to me what the drugs were or what they were used for, how could he know that I wasn’t allergic to them?  I, obviously, after buying the drugs as prescribed (~$20) went home and googled and wikipedia-d it all to make sure it looked reasonable.   It appears from the lab results and the meds he gave me that I have an intestional yeast infection and a bacterial infection but since no culture was done I’m being treated with a broad spectrum antibiotic.

So I have antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and an anti-fungal to take for 5 days and then we’ll see.  Reflecting back on it, for under $5 I got examined (albeit briefly), a prescription and an ultrasound- good luck getting that in the US- remember that’s BEFORE health insurance.   I can’t say the healthcare is bad here from my experience but maybe a bit hurried and non-thorough?  Maybe they have the same issue we have at the Guarderia, too many people too little time.

Friday Update:  I’m starting to feel better but now the other person I work with at the Guarderia has an infection in her toe that’s making her feverish.  Seriously we’re like the walking dead over there.  30 kids is too many for one person, in any culture.

Ok, you were warned.

After a week of the spurts I broke down and got a poop test and started some cipro, I wrote a song-spoof to commemorate my second use of cipro in 30 days time.

Cipro my permanent accessory

Cipro a Bolivian necessity

Cipro an alternative to diar reh-ea

Oh cipro, how you do improve my health

I love you more than I did the month before

I ate all that poison food

Forget the tomatoes, screw the lettuce and the fruit

A nidazol and flagyl for you, a cipro n sprite for me

Cipro you conquer the bugs like my body never will, when someone else is cooking all my food

I love you more than I did the month before

I changed diarrhea diapers

Oh cipro, would you please forgive me?   Because I cannot stop myself; I work with children

I thought that cipro was just for those who had no hygiene

I thought that eating just to get sick was a waste of precious food

but now I know that there’s a cost to every tasty looking meal

Salad is a fine line between self control and self abuse

(guitar solo)

I love you more that I did the month before

I ate all that poison food

Would you please ignore, the smell coming from the toilet

and that we’re out of paper again

Oh cipro, would you please forgive me? Because I cannot stop myself; I like vegetables.

Stomach, would you please forgive me?  would you please forgive me…..

“Alcohol” – Barenaked Ladies, for those of you not familiar with the tune.  (Note the original lyrics should be taken tongue-in-cheek)

This has been a frustrating week for me as I felt like I was watching an out-of-control runaway train, constantly braced for disaster.  There are more children here than we can handle.  There aren’t enough schools and so the schools that are here are jam-packed.  Our class sizes at the Kinder are 32-37 students per one professor (and we turned another 50 some away).  At the grade school next door first grade starts with 45 students per classroom and that continues up to 12th grade.  And even with that, students only go to school for half a day (about 4 hours), there’s a morning, afternoon and evening shift.   I heard at another Kinder in town they have 5 classrooms with 40 students each.  I have read multiple stories of places like Egypt, Afghanistan where class sizes top 100 per classroom.  Even with very strict discipline this makes for an incredibly difficult (and draining) teaching environment.  You go from no child left behind, to practically every child left behind as it’s impossible to give any personalized attention to anyone.  And if they have a learning disability, well then just forget it.  They’ll get ridiculed and punched by the other students for being stupid but the teacher doesn’t even have time to police that.

And then there are the Guarderias/Preschools.  After opening on Monday, the city government sent out a statement Tuesday that they weren’t paying the workers or paying for food until March.  However all the other schools started on Tuesday so there are no older siblings around to watch younger ones for the month of February.  So the Sisters said they would pay 3 workers and pay for food in February and I guess because they have no other option, 39 parents still brought their kids on Wednesday.  This left one worker cooking, one worker with 12 babies 6 months- 24 months and one worker with 27 kids aged 2-7, and me bouncing around helping out wherever I could.

Here are the results of this type of situation (all of this just happened yesterday):

- We lost two kids from the Guarderia- they ran out the door into the market.  One was found at his mom’s stall, the other was still missing at 5pm.

- At the Kinder a motorcycle fell over on a 6 year old.  (he was okay, maybe broken finger)

- I had to literally grab a girl from the Hogar and yank her back from in front of a moving car.  There are 12 kids from the Hogar at the Kinder and they keep forgetting to come pick them up.

I’m not looking to place the blame specifically on any one group for this.  But I’m frustrated because if education is the root out of poverty, as I have always believed it is, we’re not making any progress here.

We had an explosive start to the school year today!  The day started with Tom working on  class prep and me washing laundry.  Then I headed over to the Guarderia at 8:30am to help for the second day in the baby room (6 months to walking basically).  Today we had 8!  We only have 5 cribs, a bed and one full-time worker so that’s pretty overwhelming for us.  There was never a time when a baby wasn’t screaming.  We just rotated through giving bottles, rocking babies to sleep and changing diapers -many of which contained explosive diarrhea, which meant a bath and clothes change too.  And, 24 hrs after changing my first diarrhea diaper yesterday I too have that pleasure.  At 12:00 Tom showed up ready to eat lunch but I stayed with the babies until 12:30 as I was trying to get the diarrhea-baths under control (what can I say, I feel their pain).  Tom had a frustrating morning and so he took our food back and ate lunch.  Turns out, he found out the day classes start that he’s teaching 2 sections of his class!  Which means 2 more hours a day he can’t be writing course material so he was understandably perturbed.  Depending upon enrollment sections may be merged however, the bigger point is just that that is so Bolivia to not bother to tell him that there were two sections scheduled…TIB.

After lunch Tom got ready to teach his first section and I headed over to the chaos that is the first day at a 250-student Kindergarten!  Oh buddy.  I started by rushing around helping the teachers with last minute preparations when the group of girls from the Hogar flagged me down.  Three older girls had brought over the 10 children attending Kinder from the Hogar this year and asked me to stay with the girls because they needed to run an errand.  I agreed, not really thinking it through but they seemed in a hurry to leave.   Now I was in charge of 9 girls, 1 boy and I didn’t even know all of their names.  I herded them around with all the other parents with their scanty 1 or 2 children- humph!  But when the teachers started calling names to sort the children into classrooms things went south.  They were calling names last-name first and I didn’t know any of the girl’s last names and they were not forth-coming with providing them, particularly the 4 year olds.   So as I was attempting to listen to the names and remember in my head 10 different new names to listen for, 2 girls wander off (and then there were 8).  A lady comes and tells me that one of the girls went to the bathroom.  I find Saray (4) hiding behind a flowerpot and she’s had an explosive diarrhea event all over her dress!   Well I have no choice but to leave the flock to care for the one, so I tell the other 7 to stay together and take Saray and Sandra D. with me to the Guarderia next door.  There I shower-off Saray and Madre Inez rummages around and finds some new clothes  for her to wear.   With clean clothes we go back over (names still being called) hoping to find the group of 7 still intact.  They are, plus the other wanderer so I have 10 again when two go to the bathroom, and I have 8.   I recognize a few names and so I take one girl at a time up to try to match her with her teacher, leaving the others.  It was a losing battle though.  We ended up calling in the Prof. from the Hogar who has a list of the girls’ last names (and is furious about the other girls not staying, as is Madre Clara and I’m kind of caught in the middle).   We finally did get them all sorted out, the girls who left got yelled at and everything ended okay.

I got home in time to eat grilled cheese with Tom before he headed off to teach his second section.  We have cheddar cheese right now which is very exciting and we managed to find some sliced bread also!  It’s the little things….   We’re both home now and happy to have lived this day but also happy to put it behind us.

So after our disaster vacation attempt after Christmas and the ensuing two weeks of sickness, I needed a renewal of spirit before work started back up in February (we’re both healthy again btw- thanks for all the prayers).  So, one of the Hogar volunteers, Andrea, and I flew to Sucre for a long weekend to hang out with Susan who was taking Spanish classes there. (Susan’s a volunteer in Okinawa and teaches English classes and catechism)  Sucre was just what we needed!  It is so clean and beautiful and the climate is so much drier and cooler.  We even got to go out into the Andes for a day of hiking.  AND our hostel had HOT natural-gas-heated showers!  Very rejuvenating. Unfortunately Tom had to stay behind in Montero and work but he also enjoyed a relaxing weekend and got to stock up on some alone-time.

Here are some photo highlights of the trip:

This sign is on the way to the airport in Santa Cruz, it says “Caution, wild animal crossing.”  The picture is of an ostrich which we don’t have in Bolivia (wild at least) but we do have rheas which I have seen on multiple occasions walking around the airport.

Lovin’ the Andes!  This ridge is called the Cordilleras de los Frailes because it’s where the Jesuits hid in the 1700′s when the Spanish King decided he wanted to put them all in jail or force them to leave Spanish lands.  The line across the mountains is a huge pipeline that brings in ALL of Sucre’s potable water from Potosi, a city 4000 feet higher.   The Andes are extremely dry in this region.

Hiking one of the remaining segments of the Inca Trail with Andrea (left) and Susan (right).  This portion of the trail has been restored and is still used because parts of the mountains are considered sacred.  People erect these piles of rocks that they believe contain spirits- and sometimes human skulls.   Along the trail there are many spirit-rock piles.  The Incans constructed these foot paths for trade and communication between Macchu Pichu, Tiwanaku and the outer reaches of their empire.

Ancient volcanic crater of Maragua.   Now the village of Maragua lies in the middle of the crater where they grow wheat, potatoes, and quinoa.  Lots of beautiful colors of volcanic rock!  And look at the soil, it’s almost magenta!

The Devils Mouth.  This is a cave in one of the cliffs surrounding the crater of Maragua.  It is never visited by the local people because they believe it’s bad luck or evil;  the story is told that a man went in the cave once and never came out.   If you look above my head to the right and left you can see the teeth of the mouth- eerily realistic!  Also the steps leading down to the cave are made of stone but no ones who put them there.  The earliest record of people arriving at the crater claims that the steps were already there.

Beautiful city park in Sucre built by the Spanish.  I believe some of the larger trees still there were even planted by the Spanish.  All the trees here are painted white to keep out termites, ants, etc.

Church built by one of the early missionary groups in Bolivia, I’m sorry I don’t know which order.  Very ornate however, supposedly it used to contain real gold but all the gold has since been removed and replaced with paint.

Soon to come: more pictures of Tom and Laura actually working!  Not as pretty but more realistic of our day to day.

So for those of you watching International news you’ll have seen by now that not a week after the surprise ending of the fuel subsidy, Evo Morales re-instated it.  Turns out that his main base of lower-income indigenous supporters didn’t appreciate the price hike in commodities and transportation and there was wide-spread rioting and transportation strikes on the 30th and 31st.   This has just been baffling from the beginning and the apparent ‘surprise’ that the administration had from the negative reaction is even more so.   It just comes off as embarrassing, I think, that they could have had so little economic sense.  All I can think is that there must have been more things going on behind closed doors that we don’t understand.   And now we just have to hope that all the prices that did go up, come back down.

In other news, Tom and I had both been sick ever since an ill-fated Anniversary trip after Christmas.   We got our first parasite tests done this week and preliminary results look like Tom may have a bacterial infection like E. coli and I possibly picked up some Giardia.  This is good news because both are easily treatable.  With poop-tests it’s often hard to get a positive finding even though you’re really sick because the parasites don’t always show up, especially Giardia.  So, hopefully in a few days we’ll be back to normal.  I mention this not to gross anyone out but because it’s just a daily reality here.  There are commonly girls over at the Hogar getting treated for roundworms, giardia, ringworm (a fungus), skin infections, etc.  Just the other day we talked to Andrea and she said, oh yeah three of the toddlers showed up with bloody diarrhea today.  And, one of the volunteers over there is also on treatment for roundworms right now.  When the environment’s not clean, domestic animals roam freely and the food is not clean, people get sick.   And so in Bolivia people just get sick more and kids especially get sick more.  Tom, I and the other volunteers attempt to keep very good hygiene; we boil our water, always use antibacterial soap and we’re very careful about what we eat but even still we pick things up.  It’s not a good thing but it’s a recognized part of life here.  The Bolivian doctor I saw even joked with me about the ‘cleanliness’ of food in Bolivia and told me to never eat uncooked vegetables in a restaurant.  (I caved and had a plateful of fresh fruit during our anniversary trip to Semaipata, prob how I picked up my parasites.)  And you might say, well the U.S. has salmonella outbreaks in its eggs and E. coli on its organic spinach and what was that recent one from sprouts in Illinois?  So yeah, these problems are universal but in the U.S. threats are identified, recalls are made, production systems are (hopefully) shut down or cleaned up.  In Bolivia you just learn that restaurant is clean, that other one is not, or don’t buy meat after 8am in the morning or don’t eat the vegetables.   It’s more of a “live and learn” than a “public health risk alert” kind of approach.  BUT almost all of our food is hormone-free, antibiotic-free, pesticide-free and locally grown.  These are the trade-offs.  So enjoy your raw carrot sticks and lettuce salads- you’re lucky to have them!

Just when you start getting comfortable and thinking, you know this place is alright,  I could live here, you get reminded:  This is Bolivia.

To all family and friends, please do not send us any packages in the mail until further notice.  We do really appreciate receiving mail but lately we have not been receiving it.  The Hogar receives lots of Christmas presents for the girls via mail during the Holidays and since the beginning of December EVERY package has arrived opened and generally missing at least one item.   For example one box contained 50 donated toothbrushes and arrived with ~25.  Among the other things stolen have been baby clothes, earrings, watches and possibly things we don’t even know about.  I’m hoping this is just a temporary problem because they know nicer things come through around Christmas but we don’t know for sure.  Between the other volunteers and us there are probably 10 packages that should have arrived and are unaccounted for.   Yes this is very frustrating and when confronted, the post office in Montero swears the problem is in Santa Cruz.   When you think to yourself, how can this go unpunished or unnoticed?  They are stealing toothbrushes from orphans.  You just take a deep breath and remember, this is Bolivia.

If you follow world news you may have heard about the recent gas price hike in Bolivia.  We received the following message from the Embassy on Monday:   On Sunday, December 26, and without prior notice, the Bolivian government announced an increase in the price of gasoline and diesel fuel by 73% nationwide, effective immediately.  The news of the price hike prompted a widespread negative reaction across many sectors of society given its expected multiplier effect on prices throughout the economy.

They announced on Sunday the day after Christmas that gas prices were practically going to double.  As you can imagine this led to wide spread panic, hoarding of gasoline and other commodities.  Now people are just bracing for the upcoming increase in everything from flour and sugar to clothing and electronics.  And though Morales has given reasons, saying that the price subsidy needed to end because it was unfairly helping the rich as well as the poor and that people were smuggling gas out of Bolivia because of its low prices, in reality, the poor and those on the edge of poverty will feel this blow most strongly.   Why the extreme change and odd timing?  A price hike at a time when many people are mid-travels and so now don’t know how much it will cost them to get home?  Tom and I had gone to a nearby city for a few days off but decided we couldn’t afford to do the tourist activities we wanted to do because we were worried there would be price-gouging for the taxi ride home.   Granted their surprise tactic did prevent many of the roadblocks that probably would have happened to protest the increase but could there have been another way to do it?  What about 5% increases over a few years time?  Apparently the military dispersed the roadblocks attempted on Tuesday and so Tom and I got home alright.  We’ll see what the ripple effects of this are in the coming months.   For now, the only answer to our questions of “why?” is: TIB, This is Bolivia.

What a day.  Christmas started here on the 24th with a flurry of last-minute preparations for Christmas mass.  Then we had a “Buena Noche” dinner at 5pm of lamb, potatoes, rice and beet soup, yum!  After dinner Tom and I had our Christmas, we opened presents and listened to familiar Christmas carols.  Then at 8:30pm we took a shower to cool off and improve our smell (it was a hot one!) and got ready for Christmas Eve mass.  Mass started at 9:30 (despite the fact that we’d been told multiple times 9pm) with a Nativity Play by the older church youth group and then continued normally,  except that we gave multiple rounds of applauses to Baby Jesus (El Nino Jesus).  After mass we went with all the Sisters to the Hogar (orphanage/home for girls) and had a Buena Noche party with the girls, which consisted of a pig (choncho) dinner at 11:45pm, a LOT of fireworks at midnight (which apparently happens all over Latin America)  and lots of traditional Bolivian dancing.  The tradition is to dance in front of the Nativity Scene starting with a bow as a way to “adore” the Nino Jesus.   The dancing continued until 1:30am when Tom and I could barely stand anymore and decided to retire.

This morning started early at 6:30am with some fruitcake for breakfast (Incredibly popular here, we still don’t like it though) and I went to help prepare hot chocolate for the Centro Sagrado Corazon’s (Sister’s Sacred Heart youth center which is attached to the convent) Christmas party.  At 7:45am I grabbed a few last props and I headed to the church to unlock it and start dressing my actors for our Nativity Play; but fate was not on our side this morning.  At 7:30am it started drizzling.  At 8am it let up and I made it to the church generally dry and a few of my actors were there waiting for me.  At 8:30am the torrential downpour started.  Tom had gone to the Hogar to share Christmas breakfast with the girls since the other volunteers were making pancakes.   Once the rain started however the roads flooded quickly as we have no storm drains or drainage ditches, so he was stuck.   Luckily, just then the milk man showed up in his truck to deliver milk to the Hogar.   He was nice enough to drive Tom to the church and wouldn’t accept any money for it.  There’s some Christmas spirit!

Meanwhile at the church, any of my actors that hadn’t arrived by 8:30am were now stranded in their homes or on the way (en camino) due to the rain.  All of the kids in our group live in the neighborhoods surrounding the church and few if any of their families have cars so they generally travel by foot.  Little by little drenched people trickled in.  At 9:50 the priest finally arrived (for 9am mass) and I had all of my actors except Angel Gabriel!  As we were about to dress my co-director Roxanna as Angel Gabriel, Katherine showed up!  We hurriedly dressed her as mass started and shooed all our angels out to listen to mass.  Those who had arrived at 8am were now pretty antsy and wanted to know when they were going to get to wear their wings!   We performed the Nativity Play (teatro) during the homily and amazingly it went very well despite a last-minute Magi recruitment and the set getting drenched by a leak in the roof.  Even our Baby Jesus, who was played by the 2 month old nephew of one of our Inn keepers, behaved well despite it being “cold” (80 degrees) in the church.  Another highlight was that two high school students dressed up as a burro and Mary actually rode it to Bethlehem!  Unfortunately our audience ended up being only about 20 people who lived close enough to brave the rain, the Sisters and some Hogar girls.  I think they enjoyed it though .   Below is a video of the Nativity play, note especially the abundant Christmas lights, even on the altar!

Get the video in HD, also on Youtube

After mass the rain finally gave us a break and we headed with all the children to the Centro Sagrado Corazon for the Christmas party.  We had hot chocolate, fried dough, cookies and candy and the kids put on dances to “adore” the Nino Jesus.  We also gave presents out to all the actors in the Nativity Play and all the kids that had taken part in the Novena Navidena, which consists of prayer, singing, and activities for children during the nine days before Christmas to help prepare them to welcome the Nino Jesus into their hearts and homes.  That wrapped up around 12:30pm and we both collapsed back in our house for about 30 minutes.

At 1pm we headed over to the Hogar to celebrate Christmas with everyone there.  We had lunch with the girls which was surprisingly tasty- rice and chicken salad with lots of veggies in it.  Then we played around with them for awhile until 3pm when it was time for Santa (Papa Noel) to come!  Tom dressed up in the Santa Claus costume they had and we rounded up all the girls to receive their presents from Papa Noel (presents bought with money donated by people from the US who sponsor each girl as “God-parents”).  “Papa Noel” gave out presents until 4:30pm or so and only made two babies cry .  This is a good time to mention though that the only reason the Hogar does this is because of the influence of 20 years of having US volunteers there and the donated money.  Most people here don’t receive presents for Christmas, or maybe young children will receive one toy.  Christmas is more focused on giving presents to Jesus and adoring him.  Also, a lot of families just don’t have the money for extravagances.  The most common Christmas presents we saw in stores were baskets of food containing flour, sugar, toilet paper, etc., fruitcakes and bottles of really cheap, sweet sparkling cider.   Christmas is celebrated with a nice dinner, dancing, and fireworks instead of presents.  I asked one of the girls who was playing an Inn Keeper in our play about her family’s Christmas presents and she muttered something about, well my dad worked but he hasn’t gotten paid yet, we’re just having a dinner.

Jessica, Aide, and a third girl (we haven’t learned all the names yet, the Hogar has 112 girls) with Santa Tom.

Now it’s Christmas evening, we’re relaxing back at our house and the fireworks continue!

So, as you all have seen from our pictures and movies, overall things are pretty well-developed here.  We have running water, electricity, a solid roof over our heads and Bolivia is quickly entering the computer age.  But sometimes I wonder…

One day when I was working in the Kinder, the teacher handed me 35 sheets of paper and asked me to stamp the numbers 1-20 on each one.  However the only stamps we had were individual numbers 0-9 and so I had to take each individual number and stamp the ink pad and stamp the paper over and over and over.   And I thought to myself, you know I think someone has come up with a faster way to do this type of thing, Gutenberg?  I seem to recall he had a good idea for this.  Not to mention photocopiers.

Then, on Tuesday while we were doing our end of year cleaning at the Guarderia, Madre Inez asks me to fix any loose chairs we have and to re-attach the back of our cabinet.   She brings some short nails and some long nails, gives us instructions, and leaves.   So I say to Carmen, well what am I supposed to nail with, where’s the hammer?  So she calls back to Madre Inez, “You didn’t bring us anything to nail with” to which Madre Inez replies, “Yeah, just find a rock or something.”  So we found a rock and a piece of wood and we nailed those nails.  But I couldn’t help but think to myself, “wait, what century are we in again?”

Before anyone jumps up and puts a hammer in the mail for us (that would be heavy!), they have tools here; it’s just that Madre Inez didn’t want to go and look for a hammer for us.  And I guess the part that (culture) shocked me was that she felt it was an adequate equivalent to tell us to find a rock.

A few weeks back we had a Guarderia Exposition in Montero’s Central Plaza where each Guarderia sets up a table with crafts, food and presents a dance.  So, it fell to Carmen and me to teach our kids a traditional Bolivian dance.  This is not one of my strongest talents but I rose to the occasion and now can put Bolivian dance teacher on my CV, ok maybe not really but we did alright.  Here’s a picture of us herding our troops as they perform for the mayor.

Here’s a picture where you can see more faces, the boys from front to back are Albaro, Saul and Limbert, three of my favorites from this year.  Albaro’s mom is the woman in the picture above shaking her finger at him.  He’s a good kid but she keeps a close eye on him.  Limbert’s a real sweet heart but he comes off as stupid because his parents only speak Quechua at home so he doesn’t really know Spanish.   That’s a story for another post though.

Also, at the Guarderia we had our end of the year party which included the Kinder-aged kids putting on a Living Nativity Play for everyone.  Since this is the main classroom I’ve been helping with I ended up having a large role in the organizing of this.  Luckily one of the other workers volunteered to write the script so I spent most of my time drilling the lines with the kids (hoping they didn’t pick up my pronunciation) and teaching them Christmas carols.  Madre Inez said they needed to sing two Christmas carols at the end so with the help of the other educadoras, I quickly picked up two spanish Christmas carols and helped teach them to the kids.  I even choreographed a dance to one of them.  We also had to fit the kids for their costumes (safety pins) and build the set.  It was a lot of work for a very short production but I hope the kids at least enjoyed it.

You’ll notice how authentic the baby Jesus looks.  That’s because it was a real 2-week-old baby.  One of the workers in the baby room was very pregnant when I got here and just gave birth Nov. 27th.  For this reason, I helped out in the baby room for a week to give an extra hand.  They didn’t need me any longer than that because she and the baby were back at work Dec. 7th.   That’s just 10 days after she gave birth!  The baby seems pretty healthy but it makes me really nervous having it around so many other children and I can’t believe that the mom was able to just go right back to working 11 hour days.   I joked to Tom that I think we had a more authentic Jesus than most movies have.