Peanut soup and runny noses

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Hello again from the Children´s Mission!

We apologize for the lack of pictures ... the computer closest to us here is incredibly slow, and the other computer is nearly always occupied. We hope to get some pictures on tonight.

It´s a rare quiet time in the house today, with lots of kids either at school or the dentist. Earlier this morning we were busy occupying the little kids and helping the older ones with homework. Most of the older kids have school in the afternoon until 530, so they do their work in the mornings and everybody is at home for lunch.

Lunch is the biggest meal of the day here. Today it was chicken peanut soup, fried cabbage cakes, and a salad of carrots, green onions, and tomatoes -- all very delicious Bolivian foods. After lunch, the kids went off to school and dentist, and we found an empty computer. We are still trying to decide what to do and where to go with our remaining time in South America.

Tomorrow, there will be a holiday from school and we are all going to go to a farm that the Bolivian Children´s Mission is renting to have lunch (and some playtime, no doubt). Normally, the day begins around 7 when all the kids start to get up and get ready for the day. Then there is breakfast at about 8, which is usually juice and porridge with jam.

At this time one small batch of kids go off to their schools (some to a special one, some to an English one), and the others do homework or play in the garden. Sometimes we color or play with clay, where Mariel makes various animals on command, and both Ben and Mariel become human jungle gyms for the little kids.

Once the kids are all back together again in the late afternoon, it´s time for more playing, movie watching, etc. Many of the older ones have learned to crochet recently and they work on this a lot in the evenings. Bedtime starts at 8, and then all the people who work or volunteer here get to finally rest.

There are quite a few people, in addition to Ben and Mariel -- Peter and Delilah, the couple who run the place, two students who help cook, clean, and care for kids, a social worker, a psychologist, and a washing woman are here daily. Other random people seem to show up quite frequently also! Food is delivered, children are delivered, kids are crying, someone lost something... life is a little chaotic! Somehow, though, it is a laid-back atmosphere, and we are having a great time. In addition, Mariel´s Spanish is improving immensely.

That´s how life is looking in Cochabamba today, we hope everything is great back north and send our love!

Mariel and Ben

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Comments

[Sue]

mission website
I found the mission's website at http://www.vivabolivia.org/bcmission/index.html. It looks like a great place!