Trust Without Borders: El Dia de la Maestra

I have a little time to blog today because it happens to be "Dia de los maestros" in Bolivia, which is the national day to celebrate teachers!! What a fun day it is for us teachers in Bolivia. :) Many kids bring their teachers flowers or other small gifts before the holiday. All the schools are pretty much closed on this day, so we as well have the day off as no kids will be coming to El Centro for classes. We also took yesterday off for the holiday and everyone who works at The Center went out to supper last night. I think we should have a holiday like this in the States! It is always a fun time getting together with all the other teachers and getting to know them further.

It has been a crazy last couple of days here in Cochabamba. We are starting to feel very settled and were excited to begin our work at El Centro this week (although it was only a 2-day work week for us at The Center). I want to update you on all the great things that have been happening here this week! I have finally been in Bolivia for a full week, and that week sure has gone fast!

First off, a few of the things that have made me smile this week.. :)

Waking up Tuesday morning to mi hermana, Joana, frying me an egg. The food here has probably been the hardest thing to get used to...so one of my favorite foods (that she remembered I liked from a previous conversation) was a very pleasant surprise! Since that day, I have had eggs two other days for breakfast as well. :)
Playing Scrabble last night with mi hermano, Isaac... Leah and I had a fun time playing Scrabble in both English and Spanish (just to make it fair for everyone ;) ). We always have fun teaching Isaac new English words and answering any questions about English he has. He is SO eager to learn... even if it is just words so that he can do better on his English videogames. :)
Having good ole MASHED POTATOES for lunch today... homemade and all. YUM!
Last night like I said, we went out to eat with the other team members. We ate at a sort of food court--there seems to be a lot of places to eat like that around here. I had a hamburger and french fries. (Let me just note, I realized how blessed we are with Iowa beef. Can't say it was the best burger I've ever eaten.;) ) And at this food court there was COLDSTONE ice cream....we had seen this place a couple days previously and were like WHAT?! Coldstone ice cream in Bolivia?! That's our first place to go when we get homesick..! Well, when we got there we found out it wasn't quite actual Coldstone Creamery...just had the same name. haha. But they did have some dandy ice cream, and I was definitely very satisfied after being able to eat a dish of rich chocolate ice cream! Delicious! We will definitely be returning there.
Conversations with my sweet family here-- they are so great! I especially enjoyed sitting with mama Toty on the way home from supper last night on the microbus. (It was our first trip taking the bus and it was an experience for sure!) She is just so sweet, and I love having conversation with her. I think she worries about me as much as my own mother does--so don't worry Mom, there is someone else here doing it for you! ;) Every time we are out alone and return home, she says she is so thankful we returned home and that she had worried about us. :)
All the kids running around at the center calling me "Profe Breanna"... fun to be called "profe" for once! :) The kids are so sweet and were excited to meet their new teachers!

It has been a week of a lot of firsts. I'm excited to say we are getting used to getting around here, though. Right away Tuesday Joana took me to the bank to get US cash to pay for my housing and everything here. After getting my cash she said, "Ok. So can you get yourself home now? I will meet you at home because I have to run to the store." Uhhhh.... sure?! So there I was finding my way back to the house on a trufi for the first time with $500 cash in my pocket and all alone! But I did it! I felt very proud of myself after that achievement. :) The transportation here is just crazy. But we are slowly getting used to it, and getting quite good at it, too! So far, so good..we haven't gotten lost yet! Just to get to El Centro we have to catch three different trufis (taxis), get on the correct number/color, and get off at the right place!

Tuesday we went to El Centro for the first time for our first actual day with the kiddos! It was wonderful! Tuesday and Wednesday we spent preparing snack for the kiddos and then helping out in Joana's Creatividad class (arts/crafts class) that the kids get to do after all of their other work is done. This week I helped Joana prepare the activities for the class. It was a lot of fun interacting with the kids and being able to get to know them a little bit. I am slowly picking up on some of the names of the kiddos, but we'll see how many I actually remember after this long weekend! The past couple mornings we have spent at El Centro as well, just cleaning things good for church and all the kiddos.

Our teammate Rebekah arrived Tuesday night. It has been great getting to know her and having another pair of hands! She is a preschool teacher from Kansas three years out of college. Wednesday morning Joana took the three of us downtown, we walked around, and ran some errands. One of the funnier stories of this week is that during that time she took us to the Plaza Principal, which Leah and I had adventured to on Monday by ourselves. Well, turns out we actually never made it to the Plaza Principal on Monday. When the trufi dropped us off, he had said "the Plaza is up there" and pointed.. Turns out we didn't walk quite far enough and never even made it to the Plaza! We had found a good shopping location and we just assumed we were at the Plaza Principal! So when Joana said, "of course this is the Plaza Principal, where you came Monday...", Leah and I looked at each other and then at Joana and were like "Uhhh we've never seen this before." Joana was a little scared for a bit!.. Like, "Where did that trufi driver take you?! Where were you all alone on Monday?!" haha Well, we kept walking a little further and showed Joana where we actually had been on Monday. We all thought it was pretty funny that we didn't even go to the place she sent us to. When she had given us directions, she never told us what to expect or what it was like when we got there, so we had no idea what to look for!

A few prayer requests:

Continued safety: for us on the roads and when we are taking trufis/microbuses, when we are crossing super busy streets to catch trufis, etc.
Health: both me and Leah have had a little bout of being sick this week-- probably mostly from things we had eaten. So pray that we would have good health.
For relationships to blossom at El Centro... with the other teachers and with the children especially.
That I would continue to do well here and not miss home! I have been doing well but now that I've been gone a full week I expect to start missing home and the many things and people that come with it more. Having a couple days off is a blessing, but they can also get long which makes missing home more possible!

Thanks so much for your prayers and support thus far!! I love it here in Cochabamba and am so blessed to be in this place at this time. It is a beautiful place with beautiful people! Feel free to email me (breanna.mars@nwciowa.edu) or message me as I love hearing from friends and family back home. :)

Adios y vaya con Dios,

Breanna