So, with moving the baby home and helping the team, things have been a bit chaotic down here. But, everything is beginning to wind down and return to normal. The three girls from Pedacito--Raeka, Lily, and Victoria--have moved in to Corazon del Pastor with the other girls. They are adjusting well, and are getting all tons of attention from the older girls! And, the all the boys have moved into the new house, and absolutely love it! The teams and the decorators did a wonderful job painting the bedrooms, classrooms, and bathrooms! Each of the bedrooms has a theme--one has airplanes and clouds, another has monkeys, birds, and elephants, and the other has a city theme. The yard is huge so there is plenty of room to run, jump, and play!
While moving, a group of us were discussing the two extremes--poverty and abundance. Because of the extreme poverty in Bolivia, throwing stuff away is unheard of. People take broken furniture to shops to get it repaired, children play with toys when they are broken and old, containers and wrappers are saved for future use. At both homes, the tias are extremely reluctant to throw anything away. Things are always salvageable and can be put to use again--an attitude rooted in poverty. The other extreme, wealth and plentifulness was seen during the move with a team who came down to specifically paint the new house. Paola, who was in charge of buying everything needed to fix up the house, bought some new buckets. These colorful, plastic buckets cost $2.50 USD/17.25 Bolivianos. This may not seem like a lot, but majority of Bolivians cannot afford just one of these buckets (Many Bolivians make under $1 USD/6.9 Bolivianos per day). Paola and Kimber explained to the team that these buckets were not to be used for paint or anything that could stain them. However, majority of the buckets were used to mix paint ad never washed out. Once we found them a week later, the paint had dried and ruined the buckets. Coming from a culture of excess and abundance, the team most likely thought that the buckets are cheap and more can be purchased. Being a small, non-profit, buying more buckets because the others were not taken care of is not part of the budget. It is definitely interesting to see the two extremes in play down here--the Bolivians who are afraid to toss anything due to poverty and the North Americans that use and abuse things because more can always be purchased.
Yesterday, I worked at the boys home (So weird to say because Pedacito used to be the baby home, but now it only houses boys) and one of the little girls who attends daycare with us, but is not a resident, was in the bathroom washing her hands with me. And, I asked her how mom was, and she responded with "Bien." Then, she went on to say, "Mi papa esta en cielo" (My dad is in heaven/the sky). I wasn't sure if I heard correctly, so I asked one of the other tias if that is what she said. The tia explained to me that this little 2 year-olds dad had died a while back. This broke my heart that a 2 year-old could say that her dad was in heaven. My dad was such an important part of my life, and I wish that all children, but especially girls, could have a wonderful, positive, supportive, constant male figures in their lives.
In other news, in a week and a half I will be traveling to Sucre and Potosi with Kait, a fellow volunteer who will be returning to Canada shortly after our adventure. I will miss her and am so glad I got to know her. It is so hard being down here because you make friends, and then sooner or later they leave. There are always sad, tearful goodbyes--this is just part of life here, but something I will never get used to. Because we are all missing family and friends from home and are experiencing similar frustrations and occurrences while living in a foreign country, bonding with those down here is quite easy, and getting used to seeing these people everyday is not uncommon.
But, life continues and sooner or later I will have to say my tearful, sad goodbyes to those I will leave behind here in Bolivia. But, until that day, I will continue to enjoy my work, enjoy life as a Cochabambina, and enjoy my friends I have met here.
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