December

December has been a month with many changes and I am learning to be more flexible with each day that comes. My new baby host brother was born on December 8th, and having a new baby in the house has been lots of fun. With this addition to the family there are now 9 of us living at my house, and there have been many visitors and relatives over to see the new baby. His name is Jatniel, and he is a very healthy baby who loves to eat. When he is not sleeping, he always wants to be held. I am learning more about helping with the baby, and I have not had that much experience with babies because when my little sister was born I was 3 1/2 years old and don't remember life with a new baby in the house.

December also brought summer vacation with the after school program. The second week of December was our last week with the students. Then we spent a week of just the teachers clearning and organizing materials in the Biblioteca. Now that there is a break, I still go into work at the orphanage but it is a much more relaxed schedule. I have been helping paint windows or hang lights or hang out with the kids. The after school program starts back up again the 17th of January, and I am sure that by then I will be ready to get back into a routine.

Christmas felt very different to me this year. In Goshen I am used to having snow and very cold weather for Christmas. I also realized all of the traditions that my family has for Christmas and all of the activities that my church back home does for Christmas, because I did not have those familiar traditions and activities this year. I enjoyed seeing how my host family celebrates Christmas in Bolivia. We gathered with all of the relatives on Christmas Eve for a Christmas supper that we ate around 10:30 at night and then at midnight everyone in Santa Cruz set of fireworks. We got home around 1:30 AM, and then Christmas Day we went out to the country to celebrate with my host mom´s side of the family. However that day was rainy, and our truck got stuck in the mud for 2 hours until another car pulled us out. I enjoyed all of the delicious Bolivian food that we ate both days, but with the over 90 degree weather and the fire works, it reminded me more of the 4th of July then Christmastime!

The day after Christmas brought a surprise from the government to all of Bolivia. The prices in gas doubled all over the country and the transportation organizations called a stop to public transportation for Monday. On Monday I did not got to work as there were no busses running. However Tuesday the busses were running again, but charging a higher price. Right now there is another call for a stop to all transportation tomorrow. There are also some places that have road blocks and protests right now. People are very upset as this drastic price increase will affect everything including the price of food. I had plans to travel with some of the other SALTers to visit Sucre, Potosi, and the Salar de Uyuni (these giant salt flats that are beautiful) and we were going to leave tomorrow. However with the unrest that it is going on, and the unstableness of all public transportation, we are postponing our trip and we will see how things look for traveling next week. We do not want to get into trouble or get stuck/stranded somewhere because of traveling while people are protesting. We will just need to wait and see what happens each day.