Well, we didn´t exactly build the daycare, but we prepared the foundation on which the daycare will be built. That´s the most important part, right? Afterall, if you don´t have a strong foundation the structure will go “splat” (as the song says).

We literally started with nothing. We had to clear the field in order to begin. We began burning the grass as the girls started digging up trees and weeds.

After the grass was burned they continued to dig and clear away debris.

Amanda was determined to get rid of this small tree. She sat there for the longest time chopping at it with a machete.

Then it was time to start digging the trenches. This is where the cement will go so they can build the brick walls. Everything here is brick or cement.

Some of the girls sitting in one of their trenches.

I have to post this image of Margo standing be a termite mound. These things are everywhere. When we asked about them, people told us ants lived in them. But when we started breaking them open, they were filled with termites.

I finally have some images to post. These are from when we first arrived in Santa Cruz and we were at the home of Tito and Yolanda. These have been edited on an uncalibrated laptop, which has a brighter screen than normal. So I apologize if the color or brightness is off.

Remember that you can click on the images to view them larger.

We had cooks at the house who kept us well fed. Tito and Yolanda have some neighbor ladies (I believe it is a mother and daughters) that they hire to cook for groups that stay at their house.

It´s so dry and dusty here, so every day we all had dirty feet. Amanda, Rachel, Grael and Leah solved this problem by washing their feet in the laundry sink.

After church on Sunday, before we split up into our homes, we took the opportunity to take some pictures. Here is Rachel, Grael, Kirsten and Sara L hanging out.

Afetr Sara L and Grael left, some of the girls found out that there is a roof area that was accessible by stairs. They decided to do some posing for me. This roof is above the courtyard area between Tito and Yolanda´s house and the dorm area where we stayed.

Then they wanted to go back down to the courtyard and do some “jumping” pictures off a little ledge. This was the result. I was literally laughing out loud looking at these pictures.

More of the girls had to leave. Here is the “tunnel” the girls made for Kirsten, Alyssa and Margo. Notice their sad faces.

Sara M, Rachel, Amanda and Leah watch from behind the bars at the house as the girls pack up and ride off with Lidia. I just thought this first picture was funny. The second one was their sad faces, again, as the bid farewell to their friends.

More pictures to come soon . . .

Our typical day looks like this:

6:00-7:00
Get up and get dressed

7:00-8:00am
Walk to your bus stop (which is just somewhere along the road where the bus will pass by at some point), catch your bus, or get a ride to the daycare with your host parent

8:00-9:30am’ish
Wait around until everyone is at the daycare and breakfast is ready. Eat breakfast, which usually consists of (hot) tea with some sort of bread, or some sort of rice dish.

9:30am’ish
Walk to the building site (about a 5 minute, or so, walk) or stay at the daycare, depending on what your job that day is. Work all morning with breaks here and there, usually because we are not sure what we are suppose to do next, or we are having trouble communicating with the Bolivianos who are giving us instructions.

Noon’ish
Go back to the daycare for lunch. Lunch usually consists of some sort of soup, some sort of chicken or beef dish with rice, some sort of salad (sometimes salad means tomatoes, peppers and carrots cut up and served on a plate), and water to drink.

After lunch until 2:00
Siesta! Some take a nap for their siesta, some kick around the soccer ball, and others just hang out and chit chat or write in their journals.

2:00
Get back to work. Notice there is no “‘ish” here. Usually at 2:00 on the dot, the guys get back to work which means it’s time for us to get back to work.

4:00′ish-5:00′ish
At some point we finish working for the day. It may depend on the weather, if there is a good stopping point in the work, or if certain work needs to get done that day. At this point we go back to the daycare with an afternoon snack waiting for us. This normally consists of some sort of bread or maybe a plantain or yuca dish, along with (hot) tea.

5:00′ish-6:30′ish
Catch the bus home, or get a ride with a (host) family member.

At this point the schedule varies with each girl and her family. Most likely they get home, shower, eat dinner, hang out with the host family or go to an internet cafe, and then go to bed.

This schedule may vary from day to day, of course, and it is different on the weekends. But this gives you a little bit of an idea what we are doing on a daily basis.

What a great group of girls we have. We couldn’t have asked for a better group. Not that other groups couldn’t be as good, but we are certainly blessed with the group we have. Each one of the girls is really making an effort to make the best of this experience. They all work hard. They all try really hard to communicate with those around us who don’t speak any English, even when it’s not easy. They are all taking the crowded busses, crowded streets, smelly trash (that’s another story for another day), and sometimes difficult communication all in stride. All of them are able to laugh at themselves and have fun despite inconveniences and embarrassing moments. Each one of them wants to grow in her relationship with Christ, and really takes each experience as an opportunity to learn and grow in that relationship. None of them have really complained about anything. They might have a gripe here and there and some have gotten homesick, but they are quick to change their attitude and mindset and understand what a great experience and opportunity they have been given.

I really feel honored to be part of this group. Although I’m one of the leaders, I often find myself learning from the girls and being inspired by something they do or say. Sometimes they are a little goofy and say funny things (sometimes VERY funny things–we’ve got some really great quotes from certain girls), but when it comes to being serious and getting down to the business of why we are here, they are all quick to buckle down and do what needs to be done. And they can always provide some great entertainment–and not always on purpose.

Thanks, chicas, for being such an inspirtion and for giving of yourselves to serve God and the people of Santa Cruz.

Here is a picture of the girls that was taken after church on Sunday. I figured I would show you what they look like at their best before I show you images of them looking ragged and dirty. They all clean up well!

Front row: Leah, Alyssa, Rachel, Amanda
Back row: Sara L, Kirsten, Grael, Sara M, Kassidy, Margo

•For those of you who are not internet savvy, keep in mind that you can click on an image to view it larger.

The following was written by Grael (pronounced Grail) from Iowa and Sara L from Pennsylvania. Taken from our group journal :

Today we worked until 3:00 under the hot winter sun, and then ventured to La Feria, a huge market as crowded and chaotic as a Bolivian “street”. We searched for, and found, plenty of Bolivian foods and juices and treated ourselves to some good old American comforts . . . aka OREOS. As far as products for sale, we found everything from shirts and jeans to furniture and movies. Many of us bought 4 DVDs for only 10 Bs (7 Bs, or bolivianos = $1.00 US)! We just hope they are in English.

On a more personal note . . . FLOOD!! Well, ahh . . . so we (Sara and Grael) had some dirty clothes, right? Well this brought more problems than what you would think. Basically, they (host family) gave us some soap and showed us the washing sink. So Grael started scrubbing her very muddy pants while Sara took a shower in the next room. Mid-scrub, Edgar (19-year-old) walks up with his earphones in and gives a smirk. He just laughs and says, “Learn?” Grael looks at him and smiles with a quiet, “Si.” He pulls a cover off an object that he had been leaning against. Grael takes a glance and gasps. What do you know? It´s a washing machine!! Grael bangs on the bathroom door too excited to even talk to Edgar. So to make a really REALLY long story short . . . Sara finishes her shower as Edgar tries to tease Grael into washing her clothes in the sink. Finally, all becomes good and all the dirty clothes get into the machine and turned on. So Grael jumps into the freezing shower. As she is drying herself off she looks down at her feet to find water spilling over onto the floor and under the door. Grael freaks out, drops her clean clothes in the water, throws on some clothes, then runs into the room where you come in. Sara was just about to write something deep and meaningful. Well we told the grandma water was spilling out, then watch as Edgar uses a squidgy thingy to move the water into another drain. After more teasing, Edgar finishes and Sara and I take our clothes from the washer and shyly walk to the clothes line. By the way, their clothes line is located in a big court yard in the middle of all the many families houses. After several minutes of a little confusion and a lot of embarrassment, most of our clothes were hung. But not without Edgar walking by while hanging our underwear and Sara making the comment, “We have known each other a week and we are touching each others butt clothes! WOW– what an eventful evening!

Even thoughthere was a TON of embarrassment and feeling terrible for the water, we enjoyed this experience a lot. We feel closer tp our family and learned a little bit about washing clothes.

The following was written by Margo from Kansas. Another entry taken from our group journal :

Wow . . . has it only been 6 days? I feel like I´ve known you all for a month! I had a lot of fun today– mostly because I ate a lot (including dulce de leche), but also because I like digging holes. It just gives me some sort of weird satisfaction.

We started off the day having delicious bread & jelly, and then we began measuring and digging trenches for the foundation. A lot of us were very relieved when we found out we didn´t have to dig up the entire plot. Luckily it didn´t rain much, only sprinkles. We had a lot of fun playing random games, “A what?”, “Ho”, etc. And we also had a few laughs when Rachel tripped over the measuring wire , pulling out the poles they just stuck in.

The day went by pretty fast, and pretty soon we were eating our snack and heading home. Many of us went home in the back of Lucy and Ona´s truck, which was a lot of fun, but a bit freezing. Kirsten, Alyssa and I somehow managed to ride the bus the rest of the way home without getting lost.

So that basically sums up today, although if I tried to fit in everything that happenedI´d be writing for hours. One thing, though, that Alyssa forgot to mention was the beehive/termite mound. Daniel and the “dude” found a colony of bees in a termite mound, so a few girls came over to sample the honey. Surprisingly I thought it was delicious, although I wasn´t about to suck out the honey like the “dude” was. Okay, enough writing. BOLIVIA IS GREAT FUN!

The following was written by Alyssa from South Dakota. This is an entry taken from our group journal that we all share:

So, yesterday was our first day at the daycare. It was . . . interesting . . .

First we burned down the entire plot of land and panicked because we didn´t know when, where or HOW to stop it. Luckily, the dude that was there helping us knew what was going on, and I imagine he got quite the kick out of watching us American girls freak out. After the fire stopped we went through and destroyed giant termite mounds and ripped out small (and large) tree things. And then it started raining. A lot. Luckily, we were back at the daycare. When it finally stopped, we went back out to the building grounds and God decided it would be hysterical if there was just one more downpour. I have to admit, it was quite comical, all of us just running over to the wall for the minuscule amount of protection it offered. I guess it was a blessing because the sopping wet clothes and hair kept us nice and cool the rest of the afternoon! Hopefully the events of the first day is not a warning of what is to come. One day of stifling smoke and sopping shoes is plenty.

The following was written by Rachel and Kassidy from Indiana (who also happen to be sisters-in-law):

For the first four days of our Bolivian lives we were all orphans. It wasn´t until Sunday that we were claimed, one set of siblings at a time. The first to leave were Grael and Sara L. It was a sad process, like our group was being divided forever. In reality we would all work together the very next day. We all got claimed until there were only 2 left–the 2 youngest, ironically. As each sibling set was claimed, we took turns doing crazy things for send-off. We created a tunnel to send Kirsten, Alyssa and Margo off. Sad lonely faces for Grael and Sara L. Group hug for Sara M. Amanda tried to run after us when Rachel and I (Kassidy) were adopted. The youngest had to wait another hour before a family decided to claim them. Being in new places with complete strangers gives you the option to build walls or drop them. We´ve chosen to drop ours and the benefits are wonderful. Life in Bolivia is great!

On Monday we started our work at la Guarderia Samuelito (Samuelito Daycare). The daycare is currently at Iglesia Evangelica Menonita Esmirna (Esmirna Mennonite Church). This building is very cramped with only 3 small rooms and a kitchen. The daycare currently has 52 children but there are many more families in the neighborhood that would like to send their children there. In a response to this need, the Bolivian Mennonite Church bought a plot of land just a few blocks (about a 5 minute walk) from the current daycare location. It is on this property that a new daycare will be built that can serve twice the number of children that currently attend.

Our job that day was to begin clearing the area so digging can begin in order to build walls. We started by burning the grass, which made it easier to clear. The girls were getting a little nervous as the fire burned farther out, getting closer and closer to the fence and road. Several of them began getting anxious and worried about putting the fire out. It appeared as if the fire might get out of control. The man who was in charge of the work didn´t seem a bit worried. He was calm and collected, just waiting for the fire to burn the entire area. It all turned out fine. The fire stopped when it reached the dirt road, and the girls put it out at the edges where it might have spread to more grass.

After the fire finished burning, we began digging up and cutting down anything that was left. We went back to the daycare for lunch and had a delicious meal of noodles with chicken and salad (carrots, tomatoes and peppers). Soon after lunch the sky opened up and the rain poured down. After about an hour of waiting, the rain seemed to be gone so we headed back to work. About 30 minutes after returning to our work site, the sky opened up once again and and dumped rain on us for about 15 minutes. We survuved it okayand made it back to the daycare for a snack of bread and tea before the next round of rain hit.

I´ve taken lots of pictures but haven´t had time to look at them much yet. I hope to look at them soon and get a few ready to post here so you can see a little bit of our experience. Seeing pictures always seems to make it more real.

On Sunday morning we went to worship at Iglesia Evangelica Menonita Principe de Paz (Prince of Peace Mennonite Church). This is the church that I worked with and worshiped at during my past three trips to Santa Cruz. Over the years I have made some great friends there. As we arrived at the church and went inside, it felt like I was coming home to see family. It was great reuniting with all my friends whom I haven´t seen since 2004.

It was also great to see the completed church building. When I made my first trip to Bolivia in 2002, we broke through the cement and dug holes to build walls underneath the sanctuary. The sanctuary is a 2nd floor room that had an open area– open to the outside– and a few small rooms underneath (at ground level). We built those first walls of brick 6 years ago, and now it is a beautifully finished building with doors, windows, and tile floors. The sanctuary now has a beautiful tile floor instead of cement, as it used to have. I wasn´t able to take pictures on Sunday, but I plan to get back to the church to take some before we leave.

On Sunday afternoon we wend home with our host families. Most of the girls are with 1 or 2 others from our group. Only 1 girl is by herself, and she seems to be handling that just fine. All the girls seem to enjoy their host families. These families are treating us well. So those of you who have daughters with us, they are being well cared for.