Leini, La Exploradora

What a whirlwind! I have had the amazing opportunity to explore so many parts of my beautiful home of the past almost eleven months. Just call me Leini la exploradora!! Not only did I get to trek these marvelous lands, but I also got to share my mission here and this country with some very important people in my life. 

Capítulo Uno: The Adventures of Leini and Boots

Boots is always right alongside of Dora on every crazy adventure she goes on. He’s always there to hold Dora’s hand and does flips through all the hoops she throws at him. As stated on Nick Jr’s website: “No one can make Dora laugh the way Boots can. He's the best friend you always wanted.”  I have been very blessed with my very own Boots, who doesn’t have nearly as creative of a name: Gannon. Late March, my Boots came to Bolivia! After being climbed on by so many other little monkeys, receiving massages, and getting little fingers shoved up his nose here at the Hogar, Gannon and I took off to Sucre, the beautiful capital of Bolivia. Gannon and I spent some very relaxing days chitchatting over coffee, walking the streets, touring the churches, and having midday tea. We made drank liquid chocolate, had green beer on St. Patty’s Day, ate apparently the best steak in Bolivia, went to a fabulous dinner and a show, spent an afternoon on a roof of a church, tried a Pisco Sour, saw a bunch of people in zebra suits, ATVed up the mountains on a super gross day, celebrated Mother Earth in Tarabuco, and danced the night away in a discoteca. I played my first game of chess too! We had a bit of a run-in with Swiper the Fox…Despite our chants of “Swiper, no swiping! Swiper no swiping!” the darned fox (disguised as an ATM machine) swiped my debit card for a night. but still, a great adventure with a great companion.

ALPACAS in Tarabuco

The girls lovin' on Gannon

Just two kids, living it up in Sucre!

Capítulo Dos: Can’t forget about Map and Backpack!

I’m going to be nice and corny and keep going with the Dora theme. Map is always ready to give Dora direction and help her get to where she is going throughout her adventure. He’s a funny, bouncing little thing and he doesn’t speak any Spanish, but who knows, maybe some library CDs could get him learned up on some words (That’s an inside joke, sorry). Then there’s backpack, who according to the Nick Jr website is a “real go-getter with a can-do spirit.” She’s always filled and ready to give Dora anything she may need to complete her journey—from chapstick and face lotion to peanut butter and cookies. She throws some Spanish in there every now and again too. My dad is my map, and Sharon the backpack. They came to join my journey in April!

Sharon, Dad, and I on the salt flats

Here at the Hogar, they had the chance to meet their goddaughter Lizeth, who they are sponsoring, which was too cool. They also had their first ride on a Montero moto (Dad’s feet nearly dragging on the ground), tried their first salteña, tried to dance the merengue, did some English tutoring, and assisted me with my laundry. We then took a 3-day trek through the salt flats in Uyuni seeing some capital B Beautiful landscapes and natural wonders. We even got stuck in the salt the first night leaving us on the flats to see an awesome sunset over the mountains. After roughing it for three days—and I mean roughing it—we made our way back to La Paz, where we did some shopping, attended the cholita (indigenous Bolivian woman dressed in their traditional garb)

My dad with the wrestling Cholitas!

fights—which was so outrageous, went to a traditional music show, and saw the ruins of Tiwanaku and learned all about Pachamama.

While Dad and Sharon were here, they were taking care of ME. Throughout this year, I have been the caregiver and the parental figure to these Bolivian girls—showing them affection, taking them to buy new shoes, helping them with their homework. I hadn’t realized how I missed having someone care for me and how important that can be. I have such an independent streak too that sometimes I just don’t let anyone take care of me. After experiencing this care and love for the first time in a while, I realized how blessed I am to have people to care for me and how much I really need that.

Capítulo Tres:

Shortly after returning for my excursion with my parents, I was off with a group from North Carolina that was installing a Living Waters for the World pure water system. I was brought along to help translate, but I gotta say--I was given so much more than I gave them! Oops! The group split into two: one installing a system in a hospital in San Juan de Yapacani  (a nearby Japanese colony); the other installing a system in Villa Amboro, a tiny village that you need to trek through the forest and cross a river to get to. I was assigned the hospital group and assisted in the education of the nurses.

I met so many great people being apart of this project:

The system Joe and the guys
installed! I can totally explain
how it works--English or Spanish!

--The NC group members themselves… Hillrie, Lee, Joe, and Ann—the four that I spent a good majority of the week with—took me right in. We shared so many laughs over so many delicious meals. I feel like I knew them for much longer than just a week—which tells a lot about the kind of people they were. And the rest of the group busting their butts in Villa Amboro: Skip, MaryAnn, Eva, and Marty. I was so blessed to have the chance to be a small part of their mission.

--The nurses that we were teaching the materials too. Faces and smiles I will never forget. We had a lot of fun learning about clean water.

--The workmen who worked alongside Joe to install the system: Edgar, Jorge, Tani, and the electrician. They had big hearts, and just got a kick out of the little white girl hanging around and making jokes with them.

--The group had also brought wheelchairs for a few of the hospital’s patients. I helped construct chairs for children with CP whose mothers had been carrying them around for 12 years. 12 YEARS. There was a woman from the community with three young children who was in a car accident and was unable to walk who could finally maneuver herself with the wheelchair the group provided her.  Her daughter—who has clearly grown up fast to become her mom’s right hand woman—had done her hair and gotten her all done up to come to our ceremony, and she looked beautiful.

 

Going with this group made much more of an impact that I imagined it would going into it. My role at the Hogar is very Hogar-intensive: I open up the on-site library and work on the computer to communicate with our Madrina sponsors via email—-all within the Hogar walls. Rarely do I leave for extended periods of time, making the majority of my interactions silly and playful with the girls. In some way, I kind of lost the idea of who I was outside of the Hogar. Scary stuff, I know. Going with the group, I had to opportunity to be outside of everything Hogar and just be Lainie. It was rejuvenating and comforting, and I credit it all to my new friends from North Carolina. So blessed to know them! What a wonderful, wonderful part of my mission.

Totally zen on retreat :)

Capítulo Cuatro:

I took a little bit of my break from my adventures, enjoying my time back home. Then the Bolivian SLMs and I took Samaipata by storm in July for our second retreat of the year! Samaipata is a small town in the department of Santa Cruz that is surrounded by natural wonders and crisp fresh air aka the perfect place to get some R&R and hang out with my SLM friends. We visited the ruins at El Fuerte, found an aviation “park,” and got pelted with the waters of the waterfalls--Awesome. What a great place to reflect on our year here surrounded by God’s handy work. I had forgotten how much I love nature and how uplifting it can be. As always, sharing meals and conversations with my fellow SLMs did not disappoint either.

Capítulo Cinco:

During the girls' school break, we all trekked to the Lomas de Arena, the unexplainable sand dunes located just outside of Santa Cruz. It was such a fantastic day of sun, sports, swimming, and lots and lots of SAND. There were too many unsuccessful jumping pictures, girls being carried into the water against their will, and an hour walk to and from--which I shared with Yordania riding piggyback after the long hot day in the sun, playing a game where one of us would make an animal noise and the other would name the animal. Too much fun. These little girls, I tell ya...They get me every time.

All of us at the Dunes!!

Capítulo Seis:

Me, Fabiola, and Gladis in the
back of the truck!

My last and possibly final expedition around Bolivia (eek!) was with the Madre to visit her home in Concepcíón. How did I get there? Six hours in the back of a pickup truck, of course! During this adventure, we visited the Jesuit Missions in San Xavier and Concepción; visited the Madre’s family’s home; went to her family’s house in the campo (out in the countryside), where we watched cows get branded, rode a horse, picked oranges from the trees, and hung out surrounded by banana trees; took a dip in el lago; and attended one of the coolest Sunday mass services I have been to. I’m not kidding--it gave me chills and made my heart swell. The mass was held in a tiny chapel with a stained glass window behind the altar where the morning sun came in. Four boys from the community played different instruments, with whom everyone sang along heartily. The children of the community were involved reading the scripture and made up the majority of the congregation. Everyone held hands during the Our Father singing a song before and after, and during the sign of peace, the peace just kept on giving! The priest came out into the congregation to shake the community’s hands, and everyone had smiles on their faces. It was such a beautiful community, and the Holy Spirit was among us.  God gives so much to those who have so little. SO COOL.

Judith :)

Capítulo Siete:

And here I am again, back at my humble home :) And so happy to be back! I’m convinced distance makes the heart grow fonder. Every time I was off on my adventures, I found myself thinking about the girls and being so excited to get back to them. The Hogar has really become my home, and each person here an integral part of my life here. My heart is so huge right now, and the Lord keeps assisting me to continually open it again and again to each hand that reaches out, each yell of my name, each cold shoulder, and each time I hear my favorite nickname: “mala”.  Being an exploradora is so exhilarating, but through it I discovered that I am such a little homebody. This is where I am supposed to be, right here in the thick of it--being woken up at 5 in the morning with music blasting through my window, constantly being asked when I am opening the library (seriously, I open it at the same time every day…), being on-call for literally anything that someone may need me to do. I’m not a novelty anymore… I’m just Leini and I’m here.