Choco Loco!

Buenos Dias de Trinidad, Bolivia! As of today we have been here for one week and the time has flown by. We are preparing for camp today (El Campamento en Chaco) and are a little nervous for whats in store for the next week. Camp consists of a rigorous daily schedule of exercise, devotions, guest speakers, skits, songs, and dance, all out towards the jungle of Trinidad. Students from 8th grade to 12th grade will be attending camp and we have all been split into four groups: green, yellow, blue, and red. Each group has 6 leaders and about 35ids in each group, totaling around 140 students. Each of us have been made leaders, some are paired up with other teachers to help them with their spanish speaking. I have not been paired up with any other teachers because they are confident in my spanish skills.... we'll see how that goes. It's amazing how fast you can get a headache when you've got ten kids all speaking spanish to you at the same time fighting for your attention. It's a little overwhelming at times but we are very thankful for their patience and willingness to teach us new words. We are leaving for camp today in an hour and will not be back until Friday, so parents, don't expect any communication because we will have no phone or internet in the jungle. : ) We're excited to see how creative the kids will get with their skits and songs for the week. This week's theme for camp is God's Faithfulness. He sure has been faithful to us during our time here so far!

Lately, we have been taking more tours around the city of Trinidad and realizing the poverty level outside of La Palmera. The polarization between the rich and the poor is surprising and sad. There are several mansions that would sell for well over 1 million dollars in the US that are directly next to a house made of stick and tarp. Dogs roam the streets, horses eat from the trash, cats and chickens cohabitate in the front yards and raw sewage runs down the city streets. Everyone rides motorcycles instead of cars and there are no stops signs. People drive relatively slow and can fit 4 to 5 people on a moto. Taxi's are in the form of motorcylces and the signal for a taxi drivers is a baseball cap. If a man is not wearing a baseball cap on the moto, he is not a taxi. (Yes dad, that means I have ridden on the back of a motorcycle in Bolivia!) The richer folk have cars and yesterday we were invited to go swimming with two women from our church so we crammed 10 people into a Hydunai hatchback! Three of those ten people were kids so that helped a little but it is still very different than the US. Wearing seat belts isn't a law, wearing helmets while on a moto isn't a law, and the political system is so corrupt here that even if you got pulled over for driving too fast we could pay off the policeman and they'd let you free.

On Saturday we went to the river and ate delicious fish at a nice cabana. We ordered 3 different kinds of fish so we could all try them all. The first was fried with bones, the second was fished made into balls with no bones and fried, and the third was bonesless fish pieces in a rich red sauce: pescado frito, chicharon, boduo. We atethe fish with rice, yucca (a type of potato and coca-cola). We drink a lot of Coca-Cola because it's safer than drinking the water. Natives in Trinidad swear that the Coca-Cola made here is the best you'll ever taste. They claim it's because it is made with the water from Trinidad that gives it a special taste.... we say it's because of the actual coca from the coca leaves. We still aren't sure if either of those are true but we do know that it always gets us "bended" (aka crazy on sugar and caffeine). We are known as Chocos Locos because we are loud. energetic and fun!

Well, wish us luck and a blessed time at Chaco this week! We love you and miss you all!

Hugs and kisses from the Bolivia crew!

Chao,

Carli (but the Bolivians know me as Ana)