My Take on Bolivia

Hello there !! Praise and thank our God for blessing us with this life changing experience. So far, this experience of being in Bolivia in a totally different environment and culture is one that is very enriching but yet challenging to me. For the first time in my life I really felt like a foreigner. Technically, I am a foreigner in the United States but I am able to speak English well enough to have a decent conversation with everyone that I meet in the US. Plus, I am familiar with the US culture, music and movies which is always good to know to start conversations or to participate in one. However, I do not know how to speak Spanish, I do not dance Latin American dances nor do I know any Spanish music or movies. This made it so difficult for me to communicate and to hold conversations with anyone. I was so dependent on our Spanish speaking missionaries to help me translate what the people were saying and this made me REALLY frustrated at myself.

That was the challenging part about this trip. However, this experience has been AMAZING thus far. The children at San Martin de Porres are beautiful. Being around them reminded me of why I love children. Their openness to receive a foreigner into their lives and their sincerity in love and care really touched me. Though they know that I do not speak their language and that it is hard for me to converse with them, they continue to talk to me and ask me questions about my life and my background. Even I struggle with this in my daily life; to accept others for who they are and love them unconditionally. But these children do it effortlessly.

I do not know if I am able to change their lives throughout this process. But I know that God has placed me here for a reason and that he has helped me every step of the way to be the face of Christ to these children. Infact, as I think about it, I feel like they have taught me more than I thought I could have taught them. They showed me that it is not words that matter but it is action that means the most. They brought life to that old English phrase for me and it is one lesson that I will never forget.