It's been a while! So much has been happening here - so many new experiences being accumulated! I don't know where to start...

I think I have officially transitioned into life here. Sure I think about life back home often but my head and heart are here in Bolivia. I've been becoming closer and closer to the beneficiaries here which makes everything worthwhile. My Spanish is improving every day and I am now taking classes once a week to help further my education in a more structured way. I think I would be officially fluent by now if I wasn't living with all of the volunteers - because we tend to speak in our native tongue when together and not Spanish so much. Who can blame us though?? There's something to be said for commonality when everything around you is so different than you.

Anyways, on to some more interesting stuff. A little update on the kids I wrote about a few weeks ago... Pedro has since run away from Casa de Paso - choosing to live elsewhere (on the street perhaps). It's sad but true. In fact we had 4 kids run away within 2 weeks of that blog update. But it's so matter-of-fact here, no one really dwells on it. I think the attitude taken here is that it's a privilege to live in the house and if they want to run away then that's there own fault. We just have to move on to the task at hand - which is to focus on the kids who continue to live there. Juan Carlos (John Charlie) is doing very very well in the house. He's working with me in Talleres full-time, helping the kids with whatever they need help with. To be honest he is a much better help than I am because he knows exactly what the kids want when they ask him!... Me on the other hand - not so much (It's still me who keeps the peace and makes sure the kids are where they're supposed to be though). He has such a kind and soft heart and I want to see him make the best of himself. As for Eric, his aunt came and took him away "improperly" from the house without doing any paperwork. He had shared with me in the past that he came to the house because of his drinking problem... I can only hope and pray that he doesn't fall back into that  same sort of life.

The other boys are doing well though and today we actually participated in a foundation wide "carrera" (which means race). I 'bout died - and the race was only about 2 kilometers! It's really hard to breathe here... especially when you're going uphill! We did have one boy who won for his division in Casa de Paso. I definitely came in last though for my division and to be honest, I'm ok with that. I'm just glad I survived! Later today I will play in the volleyball championship for Casa de Paso... last week we got spanked but hopefully we will represent a little better today. So needless to say, we are kept very busy here with lots of things to do - and that has a little bit to do with my late blog postings!

If there is anything specific that any of you would like to know about or would like me to write about, please leave a comment! It will make it a lot easier for me to blog if I have a subject! It's often very difficult to pick and choose what I want to write about because there's a lot that happens in a weeks time and things to write about often slip my mind. Thanks for reading!