The long time no blogging

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After over two months of blog-silence its difficult to know where to start, although the process of writing a blog is great for making oneself think what have we been doing with ourselves?? Well, its that time of year when there are no holidays... which makes James rather sad and me too... since we don't have the opportunity to venture out into the unknown with our trusty Landcruiser Legend. But we have been up to a few things and these are a few of the highlights since the last blog.

We went to the brothels! Two times a week staff from Word Made Flesh visit the brothels and chat to the women - getting to know them and inviting them to the House of Hope for lunch. We were going to go on James' birthday but decided it wasn't really a birthday-type activity... nope, definitely not. We went along with Andy and Andrea Baker, the guys in charge of Word Made Flesh Bolivia and walked down the main street of one of the red light districts in El Alto - where there are approximately 15 brothels and about 500 women who are in prostitution.

By day this street looks empty and barren with a few shops selling bricks and car parts and hardly any pedestrians - but at night its a different world. What looks like a plain door by day, at night becomes a colourfully lit leading into a dimly-lit, covered-courtyard type room/hallway, which is surrounded by rooms. Walking into the brothel felt like walking into a beehive, shopping mall or even an aquarium. First thing I found was that I was speechless... seeing the women in this environment made me lost for words. Its such a depressing place to work, not to even mention the work they do. For me it made it all the more urgent and necessary to find an alternative, somewhere else where these women can work - and not just anywhere but a place where they can be appreciated for who they are and develop confidence and be part of a different community.

We celebrated James' birthday which was nearly two months ago now. It was a great day although James is getting very old. His students surprised him with presents and a cake and he was amazed by the effort they made on his birthday. Although it has been a long semester, James has been enjoying school and enjoying getting to know his students better. He's started playing rugby with them which has been a good excuse for him to beat up his students (since they're just learning a new sport) and one weekend we had about 10 boys over for soccer, playstation and hamburgers.

One Saturday we drove into the mountains and went sledding on a glacier. Its amazing to be surrounded by such a grand mountain range and to be able to access the mountains in less than 2 hours. We had a lot of fun with inner tubes and sliding down on our bums. Then a weekend later we went to the jungle with the teachers and enjoyed easy-breathing at low altitude, a big pool and a great guest speaker.

And tomorrow the transportation workers are striking so school is cancelled... woohooo! James is very happy.

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Photos

Huayna Potosi
This is part of the mountain range surrounding La Paz

Getting a cholita to do the impossible
Getting everyone up over the wall at the Word Made Flesh staff's team building day

Trying to get into position
A team building activity was that we all had to get into a particular order... without touching the ground.

The spectators
These two girls were watching their mums climb over the wall at the team building day.

James playing soccer
James is now playing soccer with the shoeshiners in El Alto on a 'field' of dirt and rocks... not too good for slide tackles.