Orientation

Well hey there everyonee.
We finally got an hour and a half break during the day today, so I thought it was finally time to come on and create a blog.
This will probably be the most frequent way I communicate with home next year -
they really want us to shy away from using computers and connecting with home ALL the time -
they put big emphasis on going through the full experience of not using a support group for problems and stuff at home, but pushing yourself to find one in your country.
so.
i'll be sending letters and facebook messages to people occasionally - i'm not quite sure how that'll work out. I guess i'll just play it by ear.
Anyways WHERE I'm going with this ramble is that i'll probbablyy post a blog, once every week and a half, 2 weeks. so. yes.
oh. but. send me messages and letters though sometimes please! every time I get a facebook message, i'll respond. I just, don't know how often or whatever i'll be able to. Already i'm even feeling here how great it is to get little messages from home though. It super helps to deal with some of the lonliness that meeting tons of new people and missing everyone brings.
anyways. orientation.
its been wild. but super good. Our complex here is like, one big 10000 villages store. its AMAZING. everything is either fairtrade or local too, like food, etc, so its super rad. The food is awesome, and the rooms are so cool - huge big wooden sliding doors, and beds, yah. just awesome.
ALSO. i don't know if anyone checked out my facebook status. but.
out of 5 drinks in the vending machine, one of them was diet doctor pepper (my favourite drink in life). AS IF. oh, and for 50 cents. i'm taking like, 14 in my carry on. and i'm not kidding.
hokay. so.
Theres like 50 of us here going on SALT (people from north america going to other parts of the world)
and 100 people here on either IVEP of YAMEN (which are people coming from other parts of the world and either going to North America, or back into other parts of the world).
so its wild here. its awesome meeting 100 people from south america, africa, asia, middle east and europe.
so many cool differences, perspectives, and like even differences in worship. our morning worship is super cool. yesterday we learned a few african songs and we were trying to dance and it was super awesome.
anyways. i cant type for much longer. this is getting long anyways. but our days are super busy - so many workshops, on just, thigns we'll be experiencing etc. my brain like, permanently hurts. i'm so glad we had this orientation though - theres so many things we've discussed that i've been like "wow. i would have made that mistake, and super offended my host family/culture."
yesterday we had an awesome game of soccer with all the north americans who wanted to play vs africa, asia, and south america.
needless to say we got owned. but we kind of held our own? it was so much fun. a girl broke her elbow though, and that sucks. at least they didnt cast it - shes going to a remote village in indonesea, and getting the cast off couulldd have posed some problems lol.
theres 7 of us going to bolivia. 3 from canada, 3 from the states, and 1 girl from mozambique.
therse going to be 4 of us in the city that i'm staying in. Everyone is super nice - in my city i have a Toni from steinbach, Heidi from BC, and (pronounced) Sta-bi-Lay, from Mozambique. All are awesome, and I'm super looking forward to our year in Santa Cruz.
Anyways. I'm off. I'll message again once I've been in Bolivia for about a week or so.
We have a week at the MCC (mennonite central committee, the group i'm going with) center in Santa Cruz (the city i'm staying in) and then I move in wth my host fmaily and have 6 weeks of intense language training and travelling the country before I start my placement in the children's home Guardaria Moises.
Anyways. I have to go get dressed up. All of the IVEP'ers are leaving today for their placements in Canada and the US so we're having a big service and stuff with everyone dressed up in traditional gear.
maybe i'll just wear some of the canadian stickers i brought? that probably wouldnt go over well.
my canadian towel it is.
anyways. I miss home already, this week has pushed me a ton, and they've done a good job this week semi scaring the crap out of us - BUT, at the same time i'm super excited. I miss everyone already from home though, send me a message when you get the chance, even if its small. its nice right now to get some news from home. Also, keep me in your prayers, I could definitely a few these next couple weeks.
OH. travelling saturday. we leave here i'm pretty sure at either 2 or 4 in the morning, go to miami, have a 9 hour layover, 8 hour flight to bolivia, we get there sunday morning and have to pull a full day. :. allriigghhhtt.
ok. i really need to go now. i hope everyones last bit of summer is going well!
stay fit and have fun. love you all a ton.
kathleen.