We said goodbye to interns Jen and Craig on Sunday night. All of the kids from the orphanage of our former team wanted to go with to the airport to say bye also. So we took all the kids, the houseparents and their kids and made a little outing out of it.

Me and Jen at the airport. I didn't get a picture with Craig.

Nate, Matt and all the kids.

The funniest thing was that Marcelino, the house father, ordered black coffee for the older children. I knew that the kids drink coffee at their house but had never seen it. Here is Jhonny...sipping his coffee.

Catching up...

Okay...I've got tons of pictures to share and I'll try to catch you all up on what we have been doing the last month or so. We are now working full time on our new team at the Center. It has been going really well so far and we already feel like we are really getting to know the kids and our teamates well. I don't have any pictures on this post from the Center but I will in the future. In the last few weeks we have been to La Paz with Jeff and Santa Cruz with the Spies so now we have been to the three largest cities in Bolivia. They are all drastically different from each other so it has been interesting to see that. We also have said good-bye to Jeff and the last two interns that we will be working with, Jen and Craig. We'll miss you guys!

Here are some photos of our last few weeks. First Santa Cruz...

This is the airport in Santa Cruz. Notice the thing in the background...it is where they brought out our bags by hand because there wasn't even a conveyer belt thing to put the luggage on. I just thought it was funny.

Kate and Daisy

Some people jamming in the main plaza in Santa Cruz.

This is also in the main plaza.

Lily is just so cute I had to put in a picture of her.

I'm smiling so big because of two reasons...I'm eating a good breakfast which is hard to find in Bolivia and it was starting to finally get warm out. The thing is that Santa Cruz is know for being the hot and humid city of Bolivia. It is supposed to be like a Miami vibe there but it was cold (relatively speaking) for three of the four days we were there. So on the last day it finally warmed up and it was wonderful.

Matt eating his breakfast.

Matt, Nate, Lily and I at the zoo.

Flamingos

A tree

Apparently all the animals at the zoo are used to getting
fed through the fence cause they all got real close.

I don't even know what this thing is.

This ostrich could've pecked me it was so close.

A little farther away.

A toucan

These next pictures are from La Paz...

This is in "Artisan Alley" where you can buy tourist type stuff. I had seen this street on "Amazing Race" and really wanted to find it cause it looked so bright and beautiful. Luckily, our hotel was only two blocks away. Just down the street is the Witches Market where you can buy special herbs and have your fortune read and also buy dead baby llamas to bury under your house to bless it. It all has to do with the ancient religion of worshiping Pachimama (mother earth). We have the same stuff at our market in Cochabamba.

The Coca Museum

Hanging out in the main plaza with Jeff before he left. Which is actually inaccurate because we ended up leaving back for Cochabamba before Jeff left La Paz.

There were tons of pigeons there.

This was a really cool street with pre-colonial buildings.

That's me in the white shirt. I just saw this huge slide and
I couldn't resist. It was definitely worth it.

A view of the city. If you can see there are houses built way up
onto those mountains in the background.

And these last pictures are from Cochabamba...

A tree in our yard fell. Now we use it as fire wood.

This is from a hike we took with our church. It was really
beautiful and we could see the whole city of Cochabamba.

This is everyone from church that went. It is really more people than
actually go to our church because it was a special event.

Busy, busy

Two reasons why I have been slacking on the blog:
1) We have started on our new team which is going very well and have been really busy.
2) Both of our computers have been broken for a while but now one of them is fixed...for now.

So I have a lot to post about and I will soon. On Tuesday Matt's brother Jeff is leaving Bolivia and we are going with with to La Paz tomorrow morning for the weekend. We have never been so it should be fun.

The following is an exerpt from our April newsletter explaining a change for us here in Bolivia...

We wrote our last newsletter feeling hopeful and excited about our new house parents in the Villa Israel home. Soon after writing that however, they informed us that they were too overwhelmed with the job and would be resigning. We were saddened to hear this news and it became clear that there had to be a drastic change in that house. We ultimately had to relocate all of the children to other orphanages that could care for them. We thought it was better for them to change homes than to go through another change of house parents when we couldn’t be sure if the change in house parents would be final. It was heartbreaking to see them leave but we knew it was better for them. That house has now closed while the search for new house parents continues. Fortunately, there was some space available at our other home so two of the boys, Franz and Elian, were able to move into the Frutillar home. We have seen a positive change in both of them since this happened. They are happier, talking more, and seem to be fitting right in. Viviana, who we have written to you about before, has really taken them in and shown a special interest in them. It has been very encouraging to see that home continue to run well and be a blessing to all of the kids there.

Having said all this, we find ourselves in a tough situation because currently in our ministry
there is only one house open and all of the interns we are working with will be gone by the end of
May.

Unfortunately, this means that there is not enough work with our team for us to be able to
justify the resources it takes for us to be here. We recognize your giving is sacrificial and we
want to be doing work that justifies that giving. Moreover, we want to be wholeheartedly serving and honoring God in the work we are doing. So with these points in mind we are leaving our team and joining a different International Teams team in Cochabamba. This decision was made with our IT regional director and with the support of our IT USA home office.

God’s timing is perfect and amazing. While we have been contemplating our significance and
usefulness on our team, David, our new team leader, has been praying for God to provide his
team with new members. The team we are joining has a constant need for more members and
we are excited to be a part of it. This team runs a drop-in center for kids in a poor neighborhood
of the city. The mission of El Centro de Amistad, Center of Friendship, is to let kids be kids,
teach them the Bible, show them good hygiene techniques, offer help with homework and provide them with some food. Matt will be working with teenage boys and Elsa will be teaching a class of 8-14 year old girls. We are looking forward to developing relationships with these kids and being examples to them of God’s love as many of them come from challenging family situations. Ournew team leaders are a Bolivian couple, David and Toti Quiroga, who we have known since we arrived in Bolivia and we look forward to getting to know them better. The other thing we will be focusing on is helping fellow IT team members, Nathan and Kate Spies, to start a foundation here in Bolivia that will aim to provide financial support to Bolivian Christians and missionaries who really need it.

So we are excited about this change within International Teams and look forward to serving at the Center and with Nate and Kate.

P.S. I can´t figure out why the format is all messed up...sorry.

I finally figured out how to get the pictures on again. Some good news to report...we finally have our one-year visas. We spent most of last year in strange visa situations so its good to finally be officially legal. We started the process a few days after getting back in January and made about 15 trips to immigration and other offices. It took about 2 months to get it all done. We had been hoping to get it done quicker though so that we could have gone to the IT Latin American conference in Quito, Ecuador but that didn't happen and we knew it was a long shot anyway. We are just glad to have them.

Here are some random pictures in the market. It is huge and most Cochabambinos go to La Cancha to get everything that they use on a daily basis.

The part that I dislike the most is all the raw meat in la cancha.
Here a woman is weighing and selling some meat.

A shoe stand

Lots of fruit here in Bolivia.

I know, I know

So I know it has now been over a month since I have posted anything, sorry. But now that I do actually want to post I am not able to upload photos and I can't figure out why. So I'll keep trying and hopefully I'll have something soon.