Funny things kids say, and other stuff

Out of the mouths of the little kids in Carachimpampa:

Two of the kids in the class

The SIM director was speaking to the kids about the story with Moses and Pharaoh, and was using Lego pictures to illustrate. 7 pictures of Lego and ten minutes in, he says "And so God sent in all of the flies..." (picture of Lego and these yellow blotches)
A: Those aren't flies, they're Lego!

Teacher traces a kid in chalk on the pavement.
B: It's like a crime scene!

They really wanted to stick the stickers on their foreheads

Teacher: Okay, so who else wants to repeat the five points of the gospel?
C: (raises hand) Ahm...ahm...can I tell you a joke?

Teacher: Okay, does anyone else have any prayer requests?
D: My dog died two months ago and I miss him.
Teacher: Oh okay.
E: My dog died too!

Ms. Dudenhoffer's Grade 2 class

Teacher: Oh I see, when was this?
E: Ahm...a long time ago, I don't remember.





Not to mention the crazy faces they make. One little girl has this routine where she zips and unzips her mouth, but she does this dramatically with irrelevant popping sounds and sounds like she's gasping for air.

Basically, Carachipampa is going well. The kids are so cute, and it is such a struggle to keep a straight face during the day. Between one boy hopping around like a bunny, another boy making a face I can only describe to resemble the Pillsbury dough boy, the mouth zipping girl, and many others, it has certainly been a pleasure helping out in this school. The girl I've been working with only came for the first two days of the week, but we went through reading and math. Working with her has certainly taught me a lot about the balance of how much to push a student. Sometimes, I'm not sure if she is genuinely unable to do something, or just pretending in order to avoid work. On Monday, the first half of the morning went well, but during math, she decided that she was tired and felt like pretending she couldn't do the math problems.

After praying about it that night, I realized that the attitude that she had of knowing something is right but just not feeling like doing it is something I can certainly relate to. Do I not do this all the time with the Lord? But then I thought about Christ, and His unending patience towards us. "But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us: (Romans 5:8). As much as tutoring can be frustrating, it was certainly humbling to realize that I was even more guilty of frustrating another; God. How then could I think I had the right to do anything but have unending patience towards this girl? Tuesday, praise the Lord, went superbly. I decided to write down the plans we would have for the day, in order to help her be able to predict what would happen and sit through longer, and it went really well. Hopefully, she will be back next week and we can keep working on her reading and math (mainly reading).

Marilyn and Josue (Elijo la Vida)

Elijo la vida is still going well. On Monday, we went to Sumunpaya again to do some more pap tests and give people the results of their pap tests. There, Marilyn and I encountered a woman who had two cervixes! That's certainly not something I see everyday. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were spent in the office, just typing up Pap test results. Since the Bolivian mothers day is on Sunday, we wanted to make cards of the women in the Entre Amigas parenting group, so I spent a morning at Carachimpampa trying to figure out Photoshop. These are a couple of samples of what I cobbled together, we're putting a Spanish poem on it as well after.

Wednesday at Elijo la Vida, we had a short devotional time, and went through Psalm 127, which goes like this (English ESV translation):

Unless the Lord builds the house,

those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the Lord xwatches over the city,

the watchman stays awake in vain.

2 It is in vain that you rise up early

and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious ytoil;

for he gives to his zbeloved asleep.

3 Behold, bchildren are a heritage from the Lord,

cthe fruit of the womb a reward.

4 Like arrows in the hand of da warrior

are the children1 of one's youth.

5 Blessed is the man

who fills his quiver with them!

He shall not be put to shame

when he speaks with his enemies ein the gate.

What a great reminder that was for me. As much as I work with the girl at school, as much as I work at Elijo la Vida, as much time as I spend with the Lord, it is all in vain unless God is behind it. The power of God in this passage really struck me, and so I have been reminded to continually come back in humility before Christ, realizing that without Him, I truly would be nothing and still would be nothing.

In my spare time, I've actually been going out every night (I'm being a busy bee). Unfortunately, since I get up at 5:30 to do devotions, I only get to sleep for like 6-6.5 hours a night, which is quite similar to my student life. But on Monday, I went to a Bible study on doctrine, which was fascinating. We were learning about Satan, it was pretty intensive.

On Tuesday, one of my housemate's friends came to visit her from Argentina, so I went out for dinner with her, her friend, and another friend who is currently working in Cochabamba as well. They are all from Switzerland, so they spoke French, and of course, Spanish. It was a great dinner, we ate at a little Spanish restaurant (I had lasagna), and felt very cultural. I am used to switching back and forth from French and English, because I worked at a bilingual museum last year, and because I am the most comfortable in French and English, but that night, I was switching between French and Spanish. I'm really blessed to be able to speak French even here.

Wednesday night was my coworker from Elijo la Vida's friends birthday, so we went to the movie theater to watch the Avengers in Spanish. Unfortunately, the movie wouldn't actually start until 9:00, so I just went to eat with them and they left by myself. The movie theater here is really different from the ones in Ottawa, in that the downstairs seemed more like a food court than a movie theater. I think the walls in Ottawa are black, which creates a much different atmosphere, but both are nice. I need to try the cappuccinos at this one fast food place though, apparently they're amazing!

At the movie theatre

On Thursday, my SIM life group met up for a dinner and prayer, which was really nice. We ate quesadillas, had an amazing cheesecake and apple pie, a lovely fruit salad, nachos, and basically enough food to feed an army. I was really quite pleased. I also had the chance to meet a lot of other SIM missionaries, and hear more about what their ministries were like, which was really great. We spent the second part of the time in prayer, which was also refreshing. On Sunday is prayer day, where all of the SIM members meet up (once a month) to pray, although this time we're also eating. I'm very excited for that!

Overall, I've been having a great time still (I must not have entered the second phase of culture shock yet), learning lots, and taking quite a few less pictures than before. I'm still praying for my Spanish to improve though, hopefully I won't get lazy and stop trying. I love this language, and Cochabamba, and all of the ministries in general!

Prayer requests:
Travel to the Yuquis next week- Please pray for the hearts of the Yuquis, and for focus on our part and that we wouldn't forget about our purpose being there.
Quiet time- I've been getting increasingly busy, so I need to remember to commit time to sleep, so that I can be refreshed the next morning to spend time with Him.

Jocelyn