WOW.....

Hola mis amigos de los Estados Unidos! See, my Spanish just keeps getting better and better! It has been amazing 5 days in Bolivia, words can not express what an experience this has been. I feel SO blessed to have been able to come on this trip. I believe that I have grown both spiritually and mentally. Coming to this country and getting to know its people have given me a deep appreciation not only of a new culture, but my own as well.

Yesterday was the main purpose of our trip – taking the books to Biblioteca Th´uruchapitas. We had a little fiesta with the HPC group from Appalachian as well as some of the school children and all the volunteers for the library. I wish I could make my kids back in the States understand how fortunate they are – seeing where the Bolivian children live and learn has made me realize what a blessed nation the US is. The children here do not take education and books for granted. When the kids came through the door at the library yesterday, their faces lit up SO brightly when they saw those tables piled high with the books we had brought, they were so excited.

And if I thought yesterday was humbling, today was even more amazing. We visited 2 schools in Cochabamba – at the first were some of the children from the library the day before. We were there for recess, and we went out into their courtyard to watch & photograph the kids playing. Instantly, we were celebrities. The children kept coming up wanting us to sign our names in their notebooks, at first I thought it was going to be just a few, but I know at one point I had to be surrounded by a good 40 or 50 children. They all wanted to say hi, touch us, hug us, ask our names. There was one little boy who had waited forever for me to sign his book, but Gaby had already called me to come back into the classroom at least 4 times. So, I told him I had to go, and he looked so sad but said ok – so I blew him a kiss and his face LIT UP and he grinned SO big I thought my heart was going to melt.

Then when we went to the second school, I met a boy with Downs Syndrome in either 2nd or 3rd grade I think. He was so sweet, his name was Jose, and when I told him my name he kept saying “Nicki, Nicki” over & over, a grinning, and holding my hand. I loved him – I love all these children, they are so beautiful, each one seems more precious than the last. I wish everyone I know and love at home could have been with me to witness all this, I want so badly to share it and I know that I´m not doing this experience justice.

Finally, on a lighter note…you all know my bathroom issues, from my last post. Well, the next day we went back to Tarata and visited a convent in another part of the town – where the water worked. BUT in my bathroom was the most GARGANTUAN spider I have ever seen in my life! BUT, those of you who know what an arachnophobe I am would have been so proud of me!! I managed not to have an arachnoleptic fit, and handled the whole situation quite calmly if I do say so myself.

AND I have to tell you about Dr. Rob. Yes, Dr. Robert Sanders the Program Director of Library Science at Appalachian University. Well, Dr. Rob is the man in charge of all the money – meal money, cab fare, bottled-teeth-brushing-water money – you get the idea. SO, one night we all started callin him our Sugar Daddy, but out of respect for our surroundings, we felt that “Papa Sucre” would be more appropriate. At the library party, we kept wondering why all the native Bolivians were looking at us so strangely when we said it. Then we found out we had been calling him “Sweet Potato” the entire time. We´re not so good at Spanish as we think we are apparently…..Now it has developed into “Papasito” just so ya´ll back in North Carolina know!

Oh yeah, crossing the street is still a terrifying experience, but so is taking a taxi.

Talk to you more later!

Nicki