Alana's Wish List
Here are some random things I miss and could use from the USA:
Latina Magazine
Can Opener
Peeler
Bath and Body Works Lotion
Soap dish- thanks mom!
Wow, I know it has been a long time since I wrote on my blog, which makes it even harder to decide where to begin. Things had been going slowly for the first few months and then all of a sudden I had to go to IST (4 moth re-connect with my group) in Cochabamba for 2 weeks. It was really great seeing all my friends again and hearing about how they are doing in their sites. Everyone had to make a 10 min. presentation with their work partners about their sites. Then we had our PDW (Project Design Workshop) where we learned the early steps for how to start up a project in our community. We will also have another PDW somewhere down the line again in Cochabamba. After IST I went for 1 day to La Paz to go to a friend’s wedding. The wedding was the nicest out of the 4 that I have been to so far. I went to 3 last time I was here but this one obviously had more money invested in it. Moving along, I then came back to Tarija for 2 weeks and then I took my first vacation. I went to La Paz for Christmas and New Years. I spent Christmas with Willy’s family and New Years with a stomach ache (all better now though). So I didn’t have the greatest New Years but at least I got to see some fireworks. It was just nice to have the chance to get out of my site for a bit especially since nothing is really going on there right now due to school vacation. The most exciting thing I have to look forward to is what they call a campeonato (aka sports tournament) that is coming up this weekend and I think lasts a week until next weekend but the big game days are this and next Sunday. I went to my town meeting which by the way is usually 3 hours long and that night happened to be 5 hours because they were planning for the tournament. Anyway at the meeting I somehow got asked to help sell food tickets so that is what I will be doing on Sunday. I think this is what the last volunteer did when she was there so I though that was funny they wanted me to do the same thing but at the same time at least I felt included in the community planning of a big event. After 5 hours in the meeting room they still hadn’t finished planning but called it quits for the night. In other news I will be trying to paint a mural of Bolivia for my school. With or without the kids is still to be determined since they might be really crazy and make a mess. I am thinking of having them paint the background and then I will do the actual map part and they can fill in areas if they want. The school already has a map painted of the world from the last volunteer so my work partner wants me to do the other wall with a map of Bolivia. Ok, so I guess the next blog update will be after the tournament and I hope to have some more pictures from my site. Sorry it took so long to update but I was out of town and outta the loop for about a month there. Later!
Wow, I know it has been a long time since I wrote on my blog, which makes it even harder to decide where to begin. Things had been going slowly for the first few months and then all of a sudden I had to go to IST (4 moth re-connect with my group) in Cochabamba for 2 weeks. It was really great seeing all my friends again and hearing about how they are doing in their sites. Everyone had to make a 10 min. presentation with their work partners about their sites. Then we had our PDW (Project Design Workshop) where we learned the early steps for how to start up a project in our community. We will also have another PDW somewhere down the line again in Cochabamba. After IST I went for 1 day to La Paz to go to a friend’s wedding. The wedding was the nicest out of the 4 that I have been to so far. I went to 3 last time I was here but this one obviously had more money invested in it. Moving along, I then came back to Tarija for 2 weeks and then I took my first vacation. I went to La Paz for Christmas and New Years. I spent Christmas with Willy’s family and New Years with a stomach ache (all better now though). So I didn’t have the greatest New Years but at least I got to see some fireworks. It was just nice to have the chance to get out of my site for a bit especially since nothing is really going on there right now due to school vacation. The most exciting thing I have to look forward to is what they call a campeonato (aka sports tournament) that is coming up this weekend and I think lasts a week until next weekend but the big game days are this and next Sunday. I went to my town meeting which by the way is usually 3 hours long and that night happened to be 5 hours because they were planning for the tournament. Anyway at the meeting I somehow got asked to help sell food tickets so that is what I will be doing on Sunday. I think this is what the last volunteer did when she was there so I though that was funny they wanted me to do the same thing but at the same time at least I felt included in the community planning of a big event. After 5 hours in the meeting room they still hadn’t finished planning but called it quits for the night. In other news I will be trying to paint a mural of Bolivia for my school. With or without the kids is still to be determined since they might be really crazy and make a mess. I am thinking of having them paint the background and then I will do the actual map part and they can fill in areas if they want. The school already has a map painted of the world from the last volunteer so my work partner wants me to do the other wall with a map of Bolivia. Ok, so I guess the next blog update will be after the tournament and I hope to have some more pictures from my site. Sorry it took so long to update but I was out of town and outta the loop for about a month there. Later! 
