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This past July, I celebrated my anniversary with Bolivia. In July of 2012 I came to Bolivia for the first time, and in July of 2014 I moved to Bolivia with exactly 99.5 lbs of luggage and a backpack that probably weighed almost as much.

 As time has passed, the novelty of life here has faded. The things I once considered foreign have become [mostly] normal. I used to be afraid of getting burned when I lit a match, and now I light a match to start the stove several times a day. I used to cringe when greeting people with a cheek to cheek air kiss, and now I only cringe when the other person is especially sweaty or has prickly facial hair.

Over the last four years, Bolivia has become my second home. There are things about this country that are really beautiful, and there are also things that I am still waiting for the Lord to make beautiful.

I would love to share my second home with all of you, (please come and visit... we have a room for you!) both the beautiful things, and the not so beautiful things. But because that isn't very probable, I thought I'd share pictures from a typical week in Bolivia.

On Saturdays before Happy Hour starts, the kids start arriving up to two hours early to play soccer. The Happy Hour building and land is such a blessing, and our prayer is for it to be a local church in the near future!

While the kids are playing in the park, I get to talk to the women who come with their children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, neighbors, etc...

This little boy is a monkey in and out of class. Last week he climbed onto a stack of tables, opened the window and jumped outside during prayer. I really should pray with my eyes open.

Worship time with the kids before going to their classes.

Each song has a visual aid for the lyrics (Forget projectors!) The kids love to be in charge of displaying the lyrics, so it is extremely ineffective, but they enjoy it. 

Singing "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back". We pray that this would be more than a song, but something real.

After worship, we have three different classes. Franco teaches the 10 years and older class.

I have the six and under class. We are learning about the miracles of Jesus this month.

As we have tried to become more involved in our community, we have been intentional about doing everything as close to home as possible so we can meet our neighbors. As I was getting my hair trimmed across the street (risky), we ran into a guy we had met a couple of times before. He informed us that he was going to get his dentures made, and proceeded to show us the dentures in his pocket. He then insisted that Franco take a picture of this sign with a phone number so that we can refer all of our friends that need dentures. (And I just thought getting my hair cut here was risky.) We actually do know a lot of people that need dentures, but I haven't found a polite way to suggest that just yet. 

During the week, we visit the families that come to Happy Hour. Sometimes our visits are quick, and sometimes we get to stay and share a story from the Bible and pray with the families. Many of the families come from a very close knit farming community. It is easy for us to see the families freshly bathed and in their best clothes at Happy Hour and forget the hard situations they are coming from.

The family that lives here comes every week to Happy Hour. There are six siblings, and the oldest girl (11 years) bathes all of her siblings and washes their clothes so that they can come.

They raise turkeys to sell, and everytime we visit I get excited about Thanksgiving!

Speaking of food, the grill we got from the jail for our 1st anniversary continues to be well loved. A couple time a month we have families from Happy Hour or church over for a delicious barbecue.

Bolivia has SO MANY holidays. Almost every week we are celebrating something. This was September 14th, Cochabamba's anniversary. We went with Franco's brother and sister-in-law to a park outside the city and enjoyed fresh air!

This couple became Christians a little over a year ago, and decided to get married! They have been sweet friends to us, and Franco was honored to get to be the master of ceremonies for their wedding. 

Remember when I told everyone that I was going to Bolivia to be a librarian?? Well four years later, I actually am! Three days a week I am helping with the library at Carachipampa Christian School. I love getting to recommend good books, and I especially enjoy spending time with the kids I have taught over the last few years.  

Checking out books to my first grade class of 2014! They are almost 5th graders now (because of the calendar change from American to Bolivian system) I don't know how much I taught them, but they are reading big books now, so that's a good sign!