I finally have some photos of the orphanage I work in. I'm going to run you through a typical day there for me. I was reluctant to bring out my camera, as I was expecting most of the girls to duck and cover at the sight of a camera lens pointing at them. But quite the opposite happened, and I ended up being completely mobbed with young girls wanting to take a photo (now I know how Justin Timberlake feels). They were pretty excited to handle the camera be in front of it, I eventually had to put it away when fighting started so we could get back to our game of ‘Tijeritas’ (kind of like ‘duck duck goose’). So here is a bunch of photos of the little ladies:
This is what the place looks like on the outside, it is known as “Logar Penny” around here.
I go into their study area and help with homework… as much as I can at least. Today someone asked for help with Chemistry, but I’m afraid they’re seven years too late for that (and even then I wouldn’t have been much assistance… sorry Mr. Sparks). The picture is blurry because I couldn’t get a clear shot with all the girls jumping in front of the camera; you can see a bunch of hands poking up from the bottom.
After homework time, which is very strictly run by the director of the place, the girls line up for their afternoon snack. They get a piece of bread with some jam and an orange. I haven't stayed for dinner so I'm not sure what the menu is then.
They come back inside for their favorite time of the day: telenovela time! The girls love everything on Nickelodeon too, I sat and watched Aladdin 2 with them yesterday, and then a teenage telenovela after during which all the girls sighed over all the boys in the show... 'sighed' isn't the right word, 'screamed' is more accurate. They are at that boy crazy age I guess!
And here are photos of the girls themselves during play time. Oh, and me :)
I have tons more photos of the little ladies, they all loved being in front of that camera!
I should probably mention that I joined the Bolivian police force. Well no, but I did try on the uniform. My cousin Adrian stopped by after work and let me try on the uniform. We took photos, of course.
I look pretty tough right?
Last weekend my Abuela and I went to Cochabamba. It is one of the biggest cities in Bolivia, and also where Bolivians come to vacation. But unfortunately, I forgot to bring the photos of the trip with me to the internet café… so that will have to wait til next time. But I can tell you about the adventure we had as we were leaving the house to catch the bus there.
My Abuela is good at a lot of things – haggling for one. In fact every time I go somewhere with her she always tries to bargain, and she usually gets her way. If she doesn’t, she waves her hand at the salesman and says something under her breath, at which point I apologize to the person in broken Spanish. My Abuela is also good at getting me to eat much more than I really want to. If she sees my empty plate, she asks “Mas? Quieres mas? Estas flackito!” If my plate is not empty, she pleads “un poco mas, solo un poco por favor!” I often sneak my leftovers to my cousin Adrian… I dunno how such a skinny guy can consume so much.
Anyway, one thing my Abuela is not so good with is keys… they seem to go missing a lot when she handles them. It doesn’t help that every door in the house has a different set of keys to open them. As we walked out the door with our luggage that day, it suddenly occurred to my Abuela that she forgot the keys to the door we just exited from… and all the other doors had been barricaded from the inside. Luckily our neighbors offered to help, by pushing their 6 year old son through a small kitchen window with bars on it. I didn’t think he’d fit, but with some “help” i.e. shoving, he made it through and landed on top of the stove. He let us in and then the search began. My Abuela has a drawer dedicated to keys, many of which she doesn’t even know what they belong to, but the drawer’s existence didn’t surprise me since she’s kept every free toy that I ever got from a box of cereal or a Kinder Egg since I was just a wee boy. Anyway, after a box full of keys we finally found them. We locked up, again, and were about to take off when my Abuela realized she had misplaced the keys we had just used. Another search ensued and they were discovered in one of her many bags. We were finally ready to leave and as I followed her out the front gate I found the keys sitting on the ground in the middle of the alley way … at this point I took the keys and put them into my pocket for safe keeping… which I almost lost once we got off the bus and they fell out of my pocket into my seat. Runs in the family I guess. I love my abuela!
I'll try to get to the internet again soon to bring another update! Nos vemos!
