Bed, Bugs, & Beyond

It’s been a little over two weeks since school started, and contrary to what I thought, things haven’t settled down at all.  Although I’m stressed about my responsibilities, sleep-deprived, and sick again, (this time it’s a stomach bug) I can’t help but be excited.  Southern is sending a group for a short-term mission trip to Familia Feliz this Friday! After reading the list of people coming on the trip, I was slightly disappointed to see that I only knew one.  I had hoped to see some friends, but it will be fun to meet some new people, and receive my second care package of the year! (We don’t have a mailing address and, therefore, only receive things when they are sent in person).  The one person I do know from the list happens to be a relative of mine and also my physics professor from Southern, Dr. Hansen. We had a pretty good teacher-student relationship, but I always enjoy the chance to get to know my professors outside of class as well.  We are already...

I’m so tired of the Patriots.  Here in Bolivia, NO ONE was rooting for them to win, but they still did. Then again, no one wanted the Rams to win either. Here, “Superbowl”, just means you can make even more rice and still only have to wash one dish.  Terrible joke... I don’t blame you if you don’t get it. The point is, as far as the locals are concerned, the Superbowl doesn’t exist. We were lucky enough to get the evening off to go into town, and even luckier to find a place which was showing it… in Spanish and with lame commercials.  We only got to watch the first half, but it was a good year to miss the ending as: 1. The Patriots won, again. 2. I heard it called the most boring Superbowl in recent memory. And 3. The halftime show was ridiculed across every social media platform in existence. Still, it was fun to get away with some of the other SM’s to enjoy an American tradition. Although we’ve been hard at work preparing campus for the kids to arrive, we’ve h...

It feels like it’s been months since I wrote my last blog.  We’ve been especially busy here at Familia Feliz the past two weeks in preparation for the kids to arrive.  By the time this is posted, they will have been here since Wednesday of the previous week. If you read my last post, (or even just the first paragraph) you won’t be surprised to find that I am writing this about a week in advance.   Throughout all of our preparations, we have received several more kids from parents who won’t be able to make it to registration. At its peak, the house was accommodating nine boys.  Almost all of the volunteers who were travelling or doing visa paperwork have finally returned, along with a few new volunteers. A few other returning and new volunteers will be coming later this month.  With almost everyone back, we’ve started having volunteer meetings to go over all of the revised responsibilities and schedule that the director has planned. Nothing against our old...