One week!

 I've been here one week! 

We got to do whatever we wanted this past weekend. It's was nice to just relax, though we did walk around a lot. It's a great way to become familiar with the city! Public transportation is how we get around here in Cochabamba, besides walking. "Trufis" go all around the city. They are like a taxi, but they go shorter distances and are cheaper. One trufi ride is like 2 cents in American money. We went to a movie in Spanish with one of the other interns. The movie was all in Spanish, so I didn't understand much, but it was still a good to experience a movie in the theater in Bolivia!

We also discovered Full House on the Bolivian TV channel! That was probably one of the highlights so far. It was all in Spanish, but luckily we had seen that episode enough in English and so we understood it between already seeing it and picking up some of the Spanish. :)

Monday I went to a national park kind of place with the 4 other interns. It was a little over an hour away and we had to take two taxis. It was an adventure! We explored for a couple hours. The place was really beautiful. The downside to this adventure, was that I very much over-dressed. It was hot out and we skipped lunch. Then in the taxi on the way back I rode backwards. I also drank very little water. All these things added up to a very sick Valor. I was so nauseous in the taxi. Ahh, it was the worst. I felt better after being home for a bit. Then we went out again for coffee with Joana, who organizes the ministry. It was great to get more information about what we'll actually be doing. She's such a beautiful lady. The time with her was such a blessing!
I felt sick again later that night. My stomach hurt but I was very very cold. I was shaking in my bed for almost an hour. It's usually pretty cold at night since it's winter here, but I had been sleeping fine and Betsy was warm in her bed. I figured it was normal to be shaking that long. Finally I called Joana and explained it to her, who then talked to my host grandma and explained it to her. I just wasn't sure how to explain that I was unnaturally cold! Nazmi then gave me more blankets and I warmed up finally. I think I had a fever. The next day I slept most of the morning. I'm better now! Praise God!

So The Center was closed on Thursday and Friday and we have Mondays off, so my first official day with the kids was yesterday. It was fun to finally meet the kids. I'm usually pretty good with names, but when they are in Spanish and the kids say them so fast, I don't always catch them! Basically the kids come to get help with their homework, since they usually have a lot to do. I'm working with the 4th graders. There are about 10 of them and the teacher is Bolivian and speaks only Spanish. I felt pretty useless yesterday. I couldn't figure out what the kids were working on. Then once I thought I figured it out, I didn't know how to explain it in Spanish! The kids were yelling "Profe!, profe!, profe!" every minute, I'm sure. Though I figured observing for the first day was okay. Today was much better with the kids. They were working on vocabulary words and using dictionaries, which helped me learn more Spanish as well! Today was great. It was nice to actually communicate with them as well. Praise the Lord! He is faithful.

Prayer requests...
- PRAISE God the healer, that I'm feeling much better
- for good health
- that I can catch onto the language more
- that I learn to love others on God's terms