In the words of Bethany...

Greetings from the land of Bolivia, where the sun shines hot and bright this time of year and where friends and family are planning on going to the pool for Christmas fiestas! My team and I are excited to participate in the Christmas festivities here in Bolivia and experience the celebration of our Savior´s birth in a totally different culture! Last night we were just saying how it just doesn´t feel like Christmas, because it´s SO hot here!! I know for Alli this is not the first time, but for the rest of us, it is definitely an adjustment to realize that Christmas is only a week away, and it´s not anything close to what we´ve ever experienced in our lives!! For example, this past Wed. evening, we went to look at Christmas lights that were on display along Avenida Bush, and they had PALM TREES all highlighted in green and white lights everywhere, and they had buildings there that were just covered in red, green, and white lights! There were Spanish carols playing in the backround and Papa Noel (Santa Clause) was walking around and talking with all the children in the heat. I felt so bad for the poor man who had to work that job Wed. evening!!! So, Christmas is definitely viewed a lot differently here...kids are on their summer vacations, the pools are open, and although they do sing ¨Jingle Bells¨, the words have absolutely nothing to do with snow and a one-horse open sleigh!!!
As a team, we are doing well, although Rachel and I did have a bit of a stomach bug this past week, but we are both feeling a lot better here of late. Spanish classes continue to challenge us, and at times, it´s a very frustrating feeling...but we´ve all improved a lot on our Spanish, and I know we will continue to improve even more these next several weeks as we start to look at the ending of our classes and the beginning of SASS in January. I pray that you are all in good health and have a wonderful Christmas celebrating the joyous season of our Savior´s birth!!!
Some things to keep in prayer...
-Spanish classes in general...comprehension and usage of all the material we are cramming into our brains in such a short period of time! Pray that it would become second-nature to us and we would easily be able to communicate with the people that we come to know and love here in Bolivia
-Health for all of us as we continue to adjust to a different climate and food style-SASS program- As of now, we have basically no information about this time of our outreach, which will last for about 4 weeks. Please pray that we would be drawn closer together as a team during this time, and that we would have many opportunities to serve and share our faith with the people of Bolivia who need to know about our Savior´s love and grace!!!!

From Jess´s Perspective

Hello again from the land of many mosquitos, or at least on my end of things. This week has finally brought some cooler weather and much needed rain, so it has been fairly pleasant, or at least until the afternoon when the sun comes out and creates intense humidity, and more mosquitos. This week I finally had to break down and buy a mosquito net for my bed because Monday morning I counted 55 bites just on my arms, since my room doesn´t have a screen, and decided enough was enough, but other than that this week has gone really well and I think that as a team we are finally beginning to feel like we belong here. We are speaking spanish better and understanding more each day, and Wednesday we had our first team meeting to discuss how we are feeling since we unfortunately live very far apart and we had the chance to sit down and pray for each other which was very refreshing. After our meeting we went down to MCC for the weekly bible study and potluck and it finally began to feel like Christmas, even though it feels like July here, because the theme of the hymn sing ended up being Christmas carols! Tomorrow we are going with our tutors to our first movie at the Cine Center, where most of the movies are in english, but since we are going with our tutors, we will be watching one in spanish, which will definately be a challenge, but I´m sure next week we could tell you how the acting was :). Oh! and tomorrow I have the chance to go dress shopping since my host family is Catholic and New Years calls for a big celebration and that means a new dress, and I´m not talking any dress, I´m expected to wear a prom dress! Can you picture that in Times Square? I think not. To wrap this up, I´m just going to tell you a little about my host family, my mother is a stay at home mom while my father is a doctor for a program called world vision where he goes all over the world to provide aid to malnurished persons. I have a brother who is 17 but isn´t home much since it is summer vacation right now and it is mandatory to be in the military so he spends almost everyday training in the hot sun. I also have a 7 year old brother who is autistic and that can be a challenge sometimes but it is great to had that experience since I´ve with autistic children a little before. There are also two young women that live with us that are aids to Sebastion (my autistic brother). The reason there are two is because the one is finishing up and will be doing something with MCC I´ve been told and the other is taking over. But that is just a little about me and my host family. Blessings to you all and thank you for your prayers and support!

From Alli´s perspective...

Dear Everyone! Greetings on behalf of all of us in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! I trust that you are all doing well! I am sitting here in the sticky heat listening to the birds and breathing the scents of this amazing, dusty, spot on the planet known to humans as Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I checked the thermometer Wednesday when I was at the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) headquarters for a Bible Study. It said 80ºF and about 27ºC. That was at night arround 8:30PM or so! So I am sure you can imagine what it is in the daytime with the powerful sunlight and the humidity here! I am sure some of you have gotten the first snows of the season...one thing that I will sorely miss this year. The Christmas season has come to Santa Cruz despite the temperature. We are experiencing summertime as you move into winter! With the change of seasons will come a change for us as a team as well. Right before Christmas we will be finishing language studies. As I'm sure Rachel, Jess and Bethany would tell you, it has not always been easy. A few of you may be surprised that I struggle with Spanish grammar even though I was a missionary kid in Peru for 3 and 1/2 years. However, God has certainly blessed us with a wonderful teacher, Shirley who makes us work hard and learn the language! Tutors have also been a major help as we figure out the city, and learn the language. Our hope is to be proficient as a team with the language before we begin the SASS program in January. Another thing we have been able to do is conquer the micro (local bus) system. Thankfully for us, micros are not as intimmidating as they appear at first glance. I must admit that it was scary to ride on the micro for the first time by myself the other week. I know the others had similar experiences. Thankfully, no one got seriously lost. The city is organized in rings, so I have learned slowly what micros will take me to various places. We are also learning when it is approporiate to use the more expensive taxi service. Right now we are all in separate host families as we learn the language.
From what I hear the others are definitely are having great experiences with their host families as well. Since I can't speak for everyone's host families, I will tell you some things about mine. I live with George and Ligia Menacho M. They have two wonderful daughters Yvany, 19, and Adrianna, 12. I am really happy that I can communicate with them in Spanish! As they are curently on summer vacation we have been able to get to know each other better. Yvany just finnished her second year of medical school. It is really nice to have a 'doctor to be' in the house. They are all vibrant Christians, heavilly involved in the church, and have been a great inspiration to me. George and Ligia are like second parents for me and are constantly blessing others with their servant hearts and giftings. I also thank God that I had the opportunity to go with some of them to a women's church retreat/congress last weekend. (My teamates had other responsabilities including a lovely thanksgiving dinner.) My host mom is the president of the women's congress for a group of churches in Santa Cruz so I was invited to go along. The theme of the congress was "Reknew your first love". Through drama, choreography, speakers, and a medical clinic, the women of these churches were really touched by the spirit. It touched me because I was able to use my giftings including intercession.
As a team, we have been able to connect with the local church (as I shared before), and have gained friends as a result. Also, we have been in contact with MCC and the missionaries there. Wednesday night Bible Studies, have been great for us because it is in English and we can sing hymns w/ mainly Canadian Mennonite missionaries. Certainly another benifit is eating something other than chicken and rice...or chicken feet. I had that interesting experience Wednesday...I won't comment on it for the sake of your stomachs. :-) Jess was telling me about her cheese experience the other day...ah the joys of being missionaries. There are so many other things to share, but there is not enough space to write them in this e-mail. I guess they will have to wait for another time. But before I sign off, I want to share some prayer requests for us as a team.
1. Pray that our team realationships would stay strong even though we live in different families ( in my case I don't get to see them often as I am in a different Spanish class).
2. Pray that Rachel's stomach/intestinal bug gets better.
3. Please pray that Rachel would be able to have wisdom to lead us as a team.
4. Pray that we would gain more friendships and transition well.
5. Pray that we learn Spanish well, and that I remember what is stored away in the attic of my mind.
6. Please pray for the church here in Bolivia. They are praying for a revival in Santa Cruz.
7. Also, pray for the political situation here in Bolivia. We had to cancel Spanish class today because of a hunger strike. The people protesting the corruption of the government. May God bless you and keep you all! Blessings to each and every one of you.
In Christ, Allison (for the team)

A Life Full of Ironies

Life in Bolvia has been full of ironies lately. For instance, we arrived here last Wednesday after having to spend an entire night and day in Miami because our flight from Philadelphia was delayed. One would have thought we would have been immensely bored out of our minds waiting for our plane to leave on Tuesday night at 11 PM since we arrived in Miami at 2 in the morning on Tuesday. However, we actually had ourselves a little mini-vacation day relaxing in our hotel room until they kicked us out at noon, getting checked in at the airport and then leaving by taxi for a day at Bayside (apparently one of the must-sees in Miami). We enjoyed a hearty meal at Hard Rock Café at nearly 3 in the afternoon, and afterwards took a “romantic” (if you can call it that) walk near the shore of the ocean and visited the mall right along the coast. So, our day in Miami turned out to be a blessing and not a curse.
On Sunday we all went to church with our host families. My family goes to church a couple blocks away and my host parents’ son is the pastor there. Guess what the first verse we studied was? Our team’s theme verse, I Peter 3:15! Then, we sang a bunch of songs in Spanish and guess what one of the songs was? “Take me into the holy of holies” one of our favorite songs from training at HDC! Later that night we returned for the actual sermon part of the service and guess what was one of the verses that the pastor read? One of only 2 that my Spanish class at HDC was required to memorize in Spanish! Do you think all of these things are just coincidence? I refuse to believe so!
Another complete irony is the fact that last night we celebrated American Thanksgiving with a bunch of Canadians in Bolivia. Go figure. The meal and fellowship was great….and the time in the pool at Chuck and Cindy’s (our outreach coordinators) house after the meal was pretty decent too, especially since it was like 100 degrees Fahrenheit all day. Speaking of Fahrenheit that is one thing that really ticks me off….we Americans are the only people in the entire world that use it! It’s very inconvenient, just like it’s inconvenient that we have to throw our used toilet paper in a trash can here instead of the toilet, I mean it’s called toilet paper for a reason, right? Anyhow, it’s time for me to sign off for the week. The tolls for the internet café are slowly adding up. Until next time, ciao!
In Him,Rachel, for the team
P.S. Sorry there's no pictures yet...haven't quite figured it out or had time to look into it yet since we rely on internet cafes.

Life at HDC before chaos

Greetings to all of our devoted readers!
This is our second attempt at creating our first post. We are currently in Harrisburg, PA, where we have been training for the past 2 months and have now entered into a short time of training specific to our team. This includes interaction with the wonderful, amazing, totally rockin' returning Bolivia YES team. This time has been much appreciated in our preparation for outreach.
As we are beginner bloggers, we welcome any comments/insights/suggestions you may have to offer concerning our blog site. We will try to keep this site updated once a week.
Blessings to you all and thank you for your prayers and support during this time. We hope you enjoy our posts and pictures. We love you all! :)