New and improved

This is a photo of our dinning room/living room. We bought 2 tables and painted them as well as had a huge picture of redondo beach printed to decorate. I made a paper lantern to cover the ugly light and we are now hoping it doesn't catch on fire. It's definitely more colorful and like a home now. We love it!

We filled a bus

We had such a huge group help out in Paílon a few weeks ago and we did not know how we all were going to get to the territory. It's about a half an hour scarry car ride there. Eric, the brother in charge of the group, was sitting looking intensely at all the taxis until to his surprise a bus pulls up next to him.  The bus driver asks how many there are and where we needed to go. We were 17 in total. Just the amount of seats on the bus. The driver said he would take us and the smile that came across Eric's face was priceless. He told me after that he was praying to find a way we could keep the group together. That was just about the best start to long service day you could ask for. 

After the service day Kyria and I invited the whole group over to our house to relax before heading back to their respective homes. We made cookies for everyone but this group of boys ate them all without realizing there was more people coming. They were even grabbing multiple cookies and stashing them away for later. For all you Aussies reading this, they were Anzac biscuits, and they absolutely love them over here in Bolivia. Within 5 minutes of arriving the boys planted themselves on the floor of our living room and started to play jenga while the girls were playing music in the corner. This was just about the perfect end to a fantastic service day. 

Get your gowns and tuxedos!

2 weeks ago we went to a formal graduation party. "Formal!" We laughed to ourselves because all we have is what we brought over in backpacks and nothing we would consider to be formal attire. We did the best we could. Some girls came dressed as they would for a meeting and others came in glittering gold gowns or floor length purple fluffy dresses. 

The party was held on a "cancha polifuncional" ( aka- basket ball court of sorts) every neighborhood has one. The party started at 9 pm and lasted till 2 am. Dinner was served at 11! I am surprised we were even able to take the pictures we did because there was hardly a moment we were not dancing to salsa, bachata, merengue or a waltz. When the typical Bolivian dances came on then the    " watch the giant white girl try to dance" show started and everyone had a good laugh.  The Bolivian dances are difficult!

Here is the dance floor. 

It has been accomplished.

Here is a picture of Kyria and Kyria(cita)...

That's right, our work here ( or Kyrias work here) is done. Taylors bible study, Vanessa, named her baby after Kyria!!     ( because Kyria is awesome and always makes Vanessa laugh). If we (or Kyria) accomplish nothing else while we are here, we can still go home content. 

Baby Kyrias mom is now in chapter 5 of the good news/ buenas noticias brochure. She is a great student and she is already reading the bible story book to kyriacita everyday. We hope she comes to the meeting this Sunday. 

3 kids and a bird

Meet Brando. His family including his mom(mum for the Aussies)and 3 sisters are all studying and make up about a third of the assistance at the Paílon Sunday meeting. ( it's only a group) Brando is only 11 and already works with his dad. Driving motorcycles around and hacking up huge meat carcasses for his family's butcher shop. It's hard to pull him away from working to sit and study but usually chocolate chip cookies get him seated pretty quickly. 

This is Kyria and Gabriella. Gabriella is the adorable daughter of one of my studies who lives way out in the boonies or woop woop of Paílon. Little Gabriella is usually causing a ruckus and never lets her mom pay attention but Kyria enticed her with showing her pictures on her iPad and they quickly became friends. They actually became such good of friends during that study that little Gabycita was kind enough to pee on Kyrias lap... She must have been really relaxed:) I laughed all the way home! Kyria says, " anything for the truth."

The picture you are about to see is of Greta. The infamous Greta. I am going to just put it out there that she is the most ill-behaved child I have ever seen. She also has fear of me(Taylor). Let me explain. The family got a baby parrot and Greta decided to take scissors and give it a bald patch as well as cut it's wings to an unhealthy degree. I was so mad and she said she was going to do it again so I may or may not have told her that I would shave her head if I saw her even touch the bird again. No further harm has been done to the bird but the poor piglets are now getting the brunt of her attention. 

Kyria has the privilege of studying with her. Greta is the sister of hard working Brando( first picture). Last week just when Kyria thought she was making some progress, Greta gets up in the middle of the study and squats and pees on the floor just outside the dinning room where they were studying... She will take some time but we won't give up. 

This daring parrot (like the one Greta took scissors to) Was hanging upside down right above me trying to talk to me throughought an entire study. If he wasn't doing that he was higher up dropping leaves on me trying to get be to grab him. Once he was in my hands he was fine. But yes... Once again Taylor has bird problems. What's new?!