We have spent this week at the Center making kites with the kids out of tissue paper and thread (and other stuff but I'm not going to list all the materials). Apparently everyone here knows how to make these because all of our Bolivian teammates said to us "You've never made these before?!?". So now we know. We spent the first few days making them and then flew them yesterday. Here are some pics...

Making them

Then we walked up the hill a few blocks from the Center to fly them.
Here is Brenda from my class flying hers.

Matt and Josie, one of his many adorers at the Center. ALL of the little girls love him. The other day one of the boys came up to me and said in Spanish, "Elsa, my sister loves your husband". This seems to happen wherever we go.

Me and Karen, another one of the girls in my class.

Abril, also in my class.

Lupe, also in my class. I was trying to take close-up pictures of a bunch of
the kids because the lighting from the sun was so beautiful.

Brandon busy at work

A bunch of the kites

Some of the girls hanging out on top of the soccer goal

Then they had my camera and took some pictures like this without me even
realizing it. I have no idea what I was doing that I was in this position.

P.S. I did get my tooth taken out with no problems except that it was a little tougher than my dentist thought it would be. But whenever you can something like that done for less than $10, it's fine with me even though it definitely hurt.
Don't worry Mom and Dad, it was legit.

Well, it was my (Elsa's) birthday this past Friday and it was a wonderful day. My friend Kate surprised me in the morning with a trip to a spa which was tons of fun. Later on, Matt and I went to dinner at one of favorite places and then we stayed at a hotel for the night.

A low part of the day was when I went to the dentist and found out I have to have a tooth pulled. I'm going to be doing that tomorrow, hopefully. I went yesterday to have it done and I wasn't able to. While I was waiting at the dentist I could hear the sound of the drill and also someone close-by must've been watching "Psycho" because I could hear the ree-ree-ree. Those might be the two worst sounds...especially when put together. But besides that it was a great day.

Here we are at dinner.

The buzzing lights at the hotel. They were literally buzzing.

This is the view from the terrace at the top of the hotel.
It was cool to get a different view of our city.

From the terrace in daylight. On the hill in the background is the Cristo.

Cristo closer-up

Can you see all that smog? It's smoggy here. We are in a valley so it all gathers together.

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.