Weekend Trips...My favorite day in Bolivia!

So, I´m going to apologize ahead of time for this being so long. I think I have a lot to say because its been a week! So, first of all, I am beginning my project here. It is a proposal to Word Made Flesh in hopes of being of some use to them in their field. After talking with several people about ideas of what to do because the range of ideas is so huge, I have decided to possibly do market research with the tourists of La Paz. This is for a potential product that the girls could make. My ideas are some kind of pastry, cookie, basket, or knitted sweater. I am actually writing this to see if you, my wonderful readers (haha...I feel VERY strange saying that for some reason), have any great ideas. We must keep in mind that these girls don´t have many skills, so hopefully, we can find a product they can make easily and with a profit that tourists would like to buy. Let me know any ideas or recipes or anything to try out!!!

On to my fantastic weekend...and the pictures i just added...
The first one is of an amazing time on Good Friday. I was hanging out at my friend, Autumn´s house with her family. We watched "I am Legend," which was random, and then, they insisted we sing Kareoke! I was super nervous until I realized, "who cares if I can´t sing? And its so much more fun to not care." So, we belted it to some NSYNC "Bye bye bye" and Savage Garden "I knew I loved you." It was pretty incredible and an amazing time! We attempted Christina Aguilera´s "What a girl wants," then realized we never really knew the words except the chorus...but I had an amazing Good Friday with friends and new family!
I wasn´t looking forward to the weekend because a lot of people were traveling and I thought I´d be really bored. Sipriana (I realized I´ve spelt her name wrong the ENTIRE time!), Rebeca, and I went to the market to buy food for Saturday. While we´re there, we decide I will make pancakes for lunch the next day because they LOVE it when Gringos make pancakes. We´re talking on the way back, and I keep saying I´ll go get the things we can´t find in the morning, and they say "no!" It is soon after that we realize I had no clue that we were traveling the next day. Apparantly, they talked about it all day, and with our language barrier, I had no clue. It all came back to me when Juan was talking about throwing me in a river the next day that he was talking about our trip! So, the next morning, I wake up at 7 AM to make 40 pancakes for about 17 people. We leave at 9 to travel to Sipriana´s pueblo...where she lived as a child before she moved to the city of El Alto. Her sister, Juana, lives there with her 9 kids. They are incredible kids! Our bus ride was about 45 minutes to an hour and the views along the way were amazing. There were tiny little huts in the middle of fields all along the way with sheep and cows grazing the fields. We arrive to their little house. They have a duck (shown in one of the pictures with Nancy, Sara, and cousins, Kevin and Steven), 5 pigs, and 6 sheep! It was a dream! I really loved playing with the animals.
Shortly after I arrive, we begin lunch. It began as MY MOST FAVORITE lunch since I´ve been here. Pancakes with banana and apple cut up topped with chocolate sause! YUM! I finish my delicious (if I may say so) lunch, and am ready to go. But wait...this lunch turns sour. It ends as possibly my worst favorite...Then comes a blanket COVERED in chuños and potatoes. I´m weird and don´t really love potatoes, and if you remember, chuños are the things that taste like a sweat sock! So, if that isn´t enough, they pull out a bowl and put 4 fried sardines in front of me. I like fish...like when its battered well, fried, and you can´t tell its a fish...but its little eyes were looking at me. I kept thinking I´ll get out of it. But then, they kept saying, "hermana, come pescado" like 4 times...So, I honestly prayed at this moment for the Lord to pull me through this awkward time. I slowly pick one up and without ever looking at it, pull its head off and slowly eat it picking the teeny bones out of my mouth. And then I did it 3 more times. I could NOT believe I was doing it. I´ve always said if I was to go on Fear Factor, I´d dominate...except when they eat certain animals...I just hate it when they still look like the animal! :( So, after that I peaced out. They were saying we were going to work. Next thing I knwo I´m in a potato field with tool in hand whacking at the ground digging up potatoes! Juan was kind enough to document this occasion (also the pictures in the blog before!) I found some MASSIVE ones! These were for us to take home. They say they´ll last us a month. Then, we went up a huge mountain to a field of peas and beans and began to pick those for an hour or two. It was also amazing. The little boys were so sweet giving me flowers for my hair and asking me to speak English to them. The kept saying "Good morning...what is your name?" They were adorable! After this, we went to the top of the mountain where they is an INCREDIBLE view of the neighboring town!
After all the work was done, we had to end with a game of football. Excuse me, soccer...Americans are weird! jk! I began as goalie not thinking I could hold my own in a Latin American soccer craved culture, but soon enough, Sipriana came in and took my place insisting that I take the field. The call was flat, the field was a basketball court, and I was wearing jeans, but it was incredible! The whole family laughed and played together for probably an hour. I scored on Sipriana 4 times and she kept beating me and saying I need to find a new home! Honestly, this was by far my favorite day because I felt so at home here. Even though I´m pretty sure the kids thought I was a strange foriegner freak, I really felt a part of the family. i enjoyed traveling with them, getting to know Juan better through our travels together, and seeing the beautiful countryside of Bolivia.
On an awkward sidenote, as we were leaving, I asked where the bathroom was and got blank stares. They looked around and said "wherever!" This family doesn´t even have running water, yet they LOVE their life! To wash their hands, clothes, or bodies, they must walk about 8 minutes to a small river. This is the river Juan was talking about the day before! Sipriana said this is where she always washed kids as a child, and I got to understand a little more of where she comes from.
I wanted that day to never end! It ended spectacular also because Autumn was making spaghetti for her family and I got to join! This cancelled out my foul experience at lunch! Praise God for spaghetti and pancakes!

On Sunday, our church traveled to Tuni for an Easter retreat! It ended up only being our family and the pastor basically. We had seven representatives, but there were 14 churches represented! I actually understood a lot of the service (Thank you for those prayers!) That had a lot to do with Juan repeating to passages for me to find them on my own, and put together what he was probably saying. I was honestly somewhat dreading the trip for some reason, but it proved to be an amazing time. It was great to worship our Lord with so many people with different languages. There were many Aymara, Chetua, and of course, Spanish speaking people there! We were there for six hours, but it seemed like 2. At the end, every church had to come up and sing a song in front. The seven of us went...I was so awkward because I didn´t have or know the words, but it was fine. As soon as we finished, someone yelled..."sing a song in english!" That was comical. But so we left and waited for a while on what some would call a road in the middle of a field for a bus. Anyone who DID go by was full, but usually, there was no one. So, after about 25 minutes a truck somes by. Like a truck with wood on the sides. I jokingly said, "I want to go with him!" But I got my wish. We road the 40 minutes back standing up in the back of a truck! It was AMAZING, and so much fun. A woman got on and handed me her baby. I had no idea who´s it was even until about 20 minutes later when she wanted to get off and took it back! I honestly LOVED this experience, and am grateful that no buses came because I would´ve missed out on all the fun!

Anyway, I told you this would be long...Today is Sara´s birthday! I found a little barbie with clothes and a bracelet for her. All of them love it, and are arguing over who gets to wear the bracelet (that I bought for .26 in American money). I have just really loved it here, so thank you for all your prayers. Of course, I still love and miss home, but I am really beginning to feel at home. I know I´ll be sad to leave here in 75 days, but I´m grateful for the time I do have!