Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!! I have so much to be thankful for : )

Last Thanksgiving, I was with my wonderful Grandparents and great new friends on La Ganove where we celebrated over turkey and missionary stories.

Well I may be starting a new tradition because this is my second Thanksgiving on the mission field. Although this year, I'm contributing a little more. The Casa de Amor Volunteers are all pulling together to make an awesome dinner, USA style!

On Monday, I went shopping with Theresa, Maite's mother. The first time I baked something here (Peach Mousse and Cinnamon Rolls) I took the easy way out and went to one of the actual grocery stores around town. Big mistake. When I arrived home, Theresa assured me that it was MUCH cheaper in La Concha. I haven't written my post about La Concha, but don't worry, it's coming. ANYWAY, Theresa was kind enough to accompany me to La Concha on Monday to help me buy a myriad of things for our Thanksgiving feast. Considering there are some serious language barriers between Theresa and I, we had a lovely afternoon and I was able to get everything on my list!

I was able to buy:

A Ton of Carrots: 5 bs ($0.72)
A Ton of Potatoes: 10bs ($1.43)
Manteca (Shortening) 9bs ($1.29)
Manzanilla (apples) 10 bs ($1.43)
Duraznos (Peaches) 10bs ($1.43)
22 Cups of Harina (flour) 15bs ($2.14)
Mantequilla (Butter) 8.50bs ($1.21)

For a grand total of $9.65. Not bad considering I'm supplying the Mashed Potatoes, Carrots, dinner rolls, and 2 pies (apple and peach) for a Thanksgiving Dinner for 8 people!

This afternoon, (after Spanish school and a quick trip to the store for last minute supplies) Pauline and I cooked, baked and sampled our little hearts out. She turned out to be quite a little pastry chef, as you'll be able to see from the pictures of our lovely pies!

We had LOTS of fun, and after 3.5 hours and only one pan of slightly burnt rolls, we're able to relax!

Baking Bread. What a little home-maker I am.

My Rolls....pre-burnt.

Prepping the fruit.

I've never actually made a Peach Pie

But thanks to Pauline, at least it looks pretty! 

Hope you have a great day!

-Kaley

Movie Night...

So, a veces (sometimes) after a long day, (or long night) with the kids, it's awesome to kick back and relax with some chocolate, candy and Princess Diaries : ) (allthough, I suppose it doesn't HAVE to be that particular film...)

Here are a few pictures from one such night last week!

Here are our provisions for the evening : )


The chosen entertainment for the evening.


Chocolate with toys inside = Awesome


The chicken game inside of one of the eggs....?


And kicking back!


Good Times : )

Laundry Day!

Hello Everyone;

So with our water troubles here at my house, when we have water, it's basically Christmas!
Well last Sunday....was Christmas!

The day started early so that we could get a few loads of laundry in before church and we continued throughout the day until every piece of clothing in the house was clean! (And when you have 4 women living in one house...there can be a lot of clothing!!!)

I just had to put up a picture of the clothes. They looked so pretty, clean and drying in the open air!

Hooray for clean clothes!!!!

-Kaley

Having fun....

What do 3 gringas, 1 camera, the back of a pick-up truck and about 10 minutes equal? An awesome photo opportunity? Tons of fun? Some really horrible photos? All of the above?

...Yes









I'm loving meeting all these wonderful young women! I'm definitely going home with a whole lot more Facebook friends then I started out with!!!

-Kaley

Kaley VS the Hair Dye

As a Gringa (What's a gringa?) living in Boliva, I tend to stand out. I have always been a shy person, and don't always enjoy the extra attention. SOOOOO one fine day, myself and new friend Amber, (of the day at the Cristo fame) decided to make an effort to blend in a bit.

The day began with a trip to La Cancha, (giant market...I'll explain later) where for only 30bs, or $4.28 for all you Americans, I bought a box of hair dye that promised to turn my locks a lovely nut brown!

Now, I have ALWAYS, wanted to find out what I'd look like brunette, but due too some comments regarding my complexion, and how sallow I tend to be, I've always been a little worried. So rather then throwing caution to the wind, I choose a lovely light nut brown : )

PICTURES

Our 'before' picture...(I might mention, my hair looks a little darker then it actually was...)












Alas, as you will see in the below 'after' picture, my hair did not turn out very different at all....maybe slightly darker....that's what I get for being conservative with my color choice! And now, I believe my hair has pretty much returned to it's original color completely. But it was fun none the less, and Amber's turned out quite a bit darker, and looks very nice (but she doesn't have the sallow thing to worry about!!!!)



So good day, even though my hair is pretty much back to blonde at this point, and my ultra-white arms, legs and face still gave me away as a gringa even when my hair was slightly darker!

Thanks for reading!
Kaley

Meet Pauline!

Good morning! I hope you're having a lovely Saturday! Today I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce you to a new friend of mine!

Around the same time I was first talking to Jennifer (director of Casa de Amor) She mentioned to me that she was also talking to a girl from Holland about coming for 6 months.

Well, she's here! Pauline arrived 2 weeks ago (3ish weeks after me) and she ended up living here with the same host family. I'm so grateful to have a companion to travel to and from the Homes with and someone to chat with!

I'm also learning some Dutch, so by the end of my time here I'll speak so many languages!!!

To see some pictures, and to attempt reading her Dutch posts, visit her blog by clicking here!

A picture of us attempting to study Spanish...not a super successful study session!


-Kaley

• Please pray that Pauline and I will continue to learn Spanish quickly!
• Please pray for Pauline as she has to figure out some crazy VISA stuff this week, pray that things go smoothly and easily!
• Please pray for a dear set of siblings who as of this week are officially adopted! Please pray that they settle into their new family quickly and without to much trouble.
• Please pray for the Mitchell family who arrived in Bolivia this past Wednesday. They are planning to open a sort-of foster home for children in order to offer a more one on one family type home experience. Please pray as they start Spanish school and begin adjusting to life in Cochabamba.
• Water! Here at my house, we have some definite water troubles (well in Cochabamba in general, but especially here!) Please just pray that we have water when we need it! Even if we don't have it all the time...just when it's really necessary!

THANKS FOR PRAYING!!!!!!!!!!!

A Day at the Pool!

Saturdays are always a great day to get the House 2 kids out of the house and on the town. This past Saturday was spent doing just that!

The day started as many of my days seem to, waking up with no idea what my day would look like, but sure enough, I got a call from Elena, (Resident "Tia"/pretty much in charge of House 2/awesome) who said that she was planning to take the kids to a "pool" at a friends house and would Pauline* and I like to join in the fun/help wrangle the 11 kids (minus AM, who was in the hospital with Pneumonia, doing much better now!)

So we quickly got ready and headed over to House 2 where we loaded towels, lunch, lemonade, 11 kids, and Elena's new puppy into the truck and off we went!

It was a great time! Even though most of the kids can't actually swim, and the water was over my head, and was appx. -233degrees (celcius). Hehe. Swimming was followed by a delicious picnic lunch. Mmm, mangoes in the sun, delicious!

Once we were all full, warm and happy, we played some great water games which mostly consisted of throwing water at children. And they loved it!

PICTURES!!!

Checking out the pool, most of these boys are thinking..."Am I brave enough to get in there?????"


Thankfully Pauline is a lot taller then me, and could 'ferry' kids across the pool : )


Lunch!


Hehe, I love this picture, "How much pasta can 'A' fit in his mouth?????"


"Papa Fritta, Papa Fritta!" Basically a game of hot potato, but the hot potato was a freezing cold cup of water!


What could be more fun then dumping it over your head you may ask????


Having it thrown at you of course!!!!


So much fun!
The rest of the day was spent visiting AM in the hospital, stumbling upon a parade and going to a farewell dinner for new friends from Spanish School. If I'm lucky, I can make that into 3 seperate posts!!! ha.

Thanks for Reading!
Kaley

Prayer Requests/Updates

• Spanish. Now that I've been here for a month, I can see a vast improvement in my Spanish skills. I comprehend So Much more then I could have hoped for, thanks for praying! I still need a lot of work (and prayer) because my speaking skills are coming slowly and the sooner I can communicate the easier my time will be with the kids! Thanks for praying, and please don't stop!!!
• Next week, Elena is heading home for a month for a (well-deserved) break and visit and with family and friends. Please pray that things will go smoothly during her absence! (and that she has a safe and wonderful trip!)
  
• Praise God that I'm no longer ill! I've been able to shake the various diseases, bugs and viruses that have been hanging on, thanks God! It's so nice to feel good!!!!!!!!
  

A Day on the Town!

A few weeks ago, on a fine Saturday morning, myself and 3 other lovely Casa de Amor volunteers set out for an adventure in the park. (With children of course....it wasn't just us going to play at the park) We loaded 11 little darlings into the truck and away we went!



There were many interesting things to look at....like fish.



And even bigger fish....



Wow! Best expression ever!



And of course, the park had more then fish, there were also these awesome swings!







The whole group!



And we had to send them home with stomachs full of something healthy and delicious. So we opted for pizza!



Then home again home again!


It was a great day and I’m sure there will be lots more just like it!

Welcome!

Welcome!

So due to the difficult process of uploading pictures to my wordpress account, I have moved to Blogspot!

Also, due to my failure at transferring my old posts here, please visit the below link for a look at my first month in Bolivia!

www.kaleyrachelle.wordpress.com

But thanks for making it over here, and hopefully there will be many posts here in the future!!!

Kaley