CAKE!

Before I begin to talk about the cake you see here...let me just describe my environment right now:

I am sitting in my bedroom here at my house with a bowl full of boiling flowers near me and a moist towel around my head. The flowers are manzanilla and Lilian (host mom) is convinced that they will help cure my nasal congestion. Next, I am to drink a flower mixture of manzanilla and canela (cinnamon) to ensure the clearing of nasal passages.

Across the hallway, 2 of the granddaughters are having a sleepover (they are 7) and are getting a kick out of listening to me try to pronounce words that I don't know how to say...like "Sierna" (The word for Little Mermaid). Meanwhile, they can be overheard having conversations in French, German, English and Spanish....okay, I am having enough trouble with one language here! Anyway, Cecelia and Natalia are really cute and very smart and reminding me how much fun sleepovers used to be when I was little...they are on the right hand side of the photo above.

Today was Lilian's birthday! I had mentioned to Teddy earlier in the week that I like to bake and so I offered/was asked to bake the birthday cake for the big get together today. This all seemed like a great idea until I realized that this would require obtaining a recipe or two, translating it into Spanish, going to the store to buy ingredients and then navigating my way around someone else's kitchen. Needless to say, this was a good independence-maker! One thing I hadn't thought of was the altitude difference (I am nearly 2 miles above sea level) and am very grateful that Lilian caught me just before I poured the cake in the pan and asked if I had adjusted the recipe. (For inquiring minds, the "high altitude adjustment" for pretty much all cake recipes is: Add 3 extra Tablespoons of Flour and 2 extra teaspoons of Baking powder!)

Pulling from various things I had seen in the kitchen and noticed in the sweet treats here, the resulting cake was this:
Chocolate-Lemon Layer Cake with a Dulce de Leche and Almond filling topped off with Vanilla cream frosting. It was liberating adding ingredients that I found around the kitchen, but I was a little nervous about the overall taste. It turned out not that bad. Of course, I didn't have my plethora of icing doodads to help with the decorating!

At the birthday party I learned some interesting tidbits about Bolivian parties:
1) Bolivians have a traditional cake that is eaten at birthdays (although not at this one today) that is long and skinny in shape and filled with dulce de leche (I got that part right!) and they call it Gypsy Arm or Brazo de Gitano. No one seemed to know why this is the nickname!
2) When smiling for a picture here you do not say "Cheeeeese." Instead you say "Whisssssskey."
3) After blowing out your candle(s) everyone begins to clap and the clapping speeds up until someone pushes your face in the cake.
4) You should have a drink in your hands at all times ready to respond to the ever so often heard cry of "Salud!" at which point everyone drinks to the good health of the birthday person.

Happy Birthday Lilian!

Veinte de Octubre

This morning I went with Fr. Ken and Dennis (a Maryknoll Lay Missioner) to mass in one of the rural cepillas (chapels) on the far southern end of town where the Quechua are busy buying land, community organizing and claiming their way of life in a little village called Veinte de Octubre. The mass itself was at a little chapel called Nueva Vera Cruz and the small gathering of people there reminded me very much of Oglala's Our Lady of The Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation where I used to go to mass . One thing that stood out to me was the Our Father song Nuestro Padre. This was sung (in Spanish) to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence." I am told this is a popular Latin American tune to set the Our Father to!

Ken is living with a Quechua family to learn the language and plans on moving into a home of his own in the up and coming community of Veinte de Octubre. The community is a gathering of Quechua people (with a few exceptions like Ken) who are coming together to buy their own pieces of property for the first time and begin lives as people and families with their own community leaders, community organizing and of course, Quechua cultural values. This is a photo of what the new homes look like right now. (Many people have not yet moved in as they are trying to get electricity hookups up and running.):


The houses are simple structures of brick and I think mud, and the people are very proud and happy with their new homes which have an outdoor latrine and often times a fence of some sort.Veinte de Octubre is situated pretty high up the mountain and without running, the people must venture down to the bottom to wash clothes, some bathe, and bring water back up the mount. Community organizing efforts initiated by the Veinte de Octubre community saw to it that a foot bridge was built to connect the community to the outside road leading into Cochabamba. (There is no vehicular bridge across the river which meant the the taxi driver who brought Ken, Dennis and I to Veinte de Octubre backed up for a running start and then gunned the little 4 door sedan we were riding in into the water...water came about 3/4 of the way up the car and poured in the driver's side window....I thought we were in for, but somehow we drove out of it...albeit a little wet.)
These women are friends of Ken's that he has grown to know well from living in their community. They teased him terribly about his poor Quechua skills although they spoke Spanish too, which makes me wonder what teasing they must have had for my pronunciation!

This is the one room school house that was being used for elementary school children. It is situated a little lower on the mountain and many children walk 30-40min. (downhill) to school and then return home (yes, very steeply uphill) in the afternoon. A new school is in the process of being built by a Spanish Jesuit (forget his name) which will be a more spacious and sound structure. Once the facilities are complete and teachers are lined up, the state will fund the school.

The Quechua community are a happy community living very simply but with much pride and much laughter. The community organizing efforts are strong and have proven to be effective with the recent foot bridge addition as well as the promise of electricity hookups being available soon down the road.

Time to Talk Politics

I've been learning about the political and social struggles of the country from the news, conversations with my family and a recent talk at the Institute by Rev. Michael J. Gillgannon on political reform and globalization.

(Side note: It has been fascinating to learn about indigenous life here in Bolivia and how politically and economically the country has chosen/needed to respond to the rights of indigenous people. All of this I am comparing to the U.S.'s relocation and continued "buying off" of Native Americans who have very little voice in American poilitcs today...maybe more on that later!)

Indigenous people in Bolivia are the majority. I leaned this week that Bolivia is more than 60% indigenous, 30% mixed blood, and 10% white. That being said, there are two big indigenous groupings: the Quechua and the Aymaran. Each has it's own language, meaning that even as my Spanish is getting better, there are still many, many people that I still can't verbally communicate with as Spanish is definitely not known and spoken by all.

In 2002, the two Native groups formed separate political parties uniting their peoples around issues of agriculture, land and natural resources. All of a sudden, the country that for years and years had pushed 60% of it's population to the margins was hearing loud and clear the needs and wants of the campesinos (farmers), the cocao growers, the native medicine practitioners, etc. What this led to was the close election of 2002 between Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozado (A UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO GRAD) and the Aymaran-Quechua meztizo (mix) Evo Morales. Social conflicts worsened between 2002 and 2005 with violence spiraling out of control. It is sadly remembered throughout Bolivia that the acute acute economic crisis during this time period (affecting both urban workers and the farming/indigenous population) led to massive protests and riots and ultimately genocide on behalf of President Sanchez. (He is known to have ordered the ambushing and murder of 59 Altiplano people protesting the government in 2003). Later that year, because of his poor political (AKA unethical) actions, Sanchez was forced to resign and flee the country (he went to the US where he was given political sanctuary...yes, George W. is helping a Latin American ex-president who murdered dozens of people in his country live happily ever after.)

After the failed neo-liberal policies of the Sanchez/Mesa ticket (Carlos Mesa was Sanchez's VP who tried to pick up the pieces after Sanchez fled) the country was ready for a change. (Change We Can Believe In and Yes We Can type enthusiasm.) This led to the election of the first INDIGENOUS president in Bolivia's history in 2005: Evo Morals of the MAS "Movemiento a Socialismo" party and social welfare programs for the poor which were promised in the campaign are beginning to take root today. All of this is not happening quickly or quietly though. Morales may have the majority vote behind him, but the high income landowners and the middle-upper classes strongly oppose the socialist laws now being seen in the government. First and foremost, land acts are being past to limit the amount of land a single person can own, and redistributing boundaries to help out campesinos and the poor. You can imagine the protests that are happening now as a result of all of this.

From what I understand, the 8 districts/regions of Bolivia (each led by a governor of sorts or "prefect" as they call them) is trying to claim autonomy from the federal government, thereby not having to obey the strict land acts that are being put into place by Morales and the MAS. Morales is saying that this is illegal, but the districts are ignoring him and holding their own elections anyway. On August 10th each region will hold it's own election for autonomy and the people will choose to go along with their Prefect (AKA hold onto their land) or with Morales (AKA accept the socialist reform). My question is, what happens if Evo Morales loses and ends up essentially ousted from his position since districts are voting to ignore him and do as they please. The short of it all is that the government here is pretty out of whack and apparently on the brink of political secession. This is a lot to take in and I am reeeeallly curious as to what will happen on August 10th.

I leave with this thought continuing to come back in my head time and time again: Bolivia is 60% indigenous and has an indigenous president... Aymaran and Quechua cultures are strong and visible throughout the country. Meanwhile back in the States, the U.S. census Bureau reports that only 1.4% of the US population is indigenous and the culture continues to forcefully be kept hidden in the boundaries of reservations and within the treaties of the past. Does this seem fair to you?

The Dogs of Cochabamba

AMOEBAS

Somehow I ingested an amoeba or two which explains why my intestinal issues have been so horrendous! I will explain no further, since the content would be gross...but the little lab up the street confirmed this to be true this morning. Ugh. There is a Maryknoll Doctor living here in Cochabamba, but he is on vacation in the States with his family....ugh. Tomorrow Sr. Cathy will take me to the clinic for some medicine. I think my amoebas are making my learning more difficult this week...one of my teachers told me (in limited English) that they are making me stupid! Haha...seriously, if I was going to get amoebas couldn´t I at least find some intelligent ones?!?!

AMOEBAS

Sunday: A Dios Le Pido (To God I Ask)

I went to mass this morning at Santa Ana (Saint Ann) with my host mom Lilian. The church was pretty large and modern looking on the outside, but felt more personable and historically quaint on the inside with a really beautiful altar...flowers, an ornate monstrance and very detailed woven banners and altar cloths. The lyrics to all the music were projected onto a screen for all to sing from...felt a little like sing-a-long Disney, but I am not complaining since I otherwise had no way of verbally participating in Spanish mass! They must start the altar servers really young here...I think one of the boys on the altar this morning was six or so! (He was quite the character....literally springing across the altar to fetch the microphone/Sacramentry for the priest at one moment and then twirling the cross around his neck in the next.) The mass ended with adoration of the Eucharist....adoration happens much more frequently here than in the States it seems.

Later this afternoon I went with Connie and Olivia (other language school students) to one of Amanecer's orphanages. I was prepared to witness poverty: overcrowding, outdated facilities, etc. but I was really blown away by the enormity of need that I saw. (Mind you, this is only one of MANY orphanages here in Cochabamba.) The building that we were in housed newborns through the age of 5. Kids were divided into rooms by age with approximately 40 of each age group in a room. That is, there were 40 infants in one room, 40 one-year olds in another, 40 two-year olds, etc. The ratio of staff was 2-to-40...unbelievably problematic. The women working were certainly working hard and as efficiently as possible, although a small army would be needed to adequately care for the number of children at the orphanage. I stayed with the 2 year olds who wanted to be held constantly....they all wanted individual attention (impossible) and stopped crying the moment you picked them up (and screamed the second that you put them down.) Imagine how much screaming there was since 2 people (4 counting me and Olivia) could only really hold 2 kids at a time. Efficiency seemed to be the key word of the day...how to quickly and effectively get 40 kids fed, washed, "pottied," and "medicined" all that before even considering personalized attention, playing, reading, etc. The kids ate this mush-like gray food for dinner (it had rice, fruit, vegetables, etc. all mixed into it) with bread...they all wolfed it down in minutes and then yelled "MAS!" I feel very speechless about my visit there today and images of tiny arms reaching out to me will be in my head as I fall asleep tonight.

I have become rather good friends with the 3 year old grandson of Teddy and Lilian. Mateo (Matthew) comes over to the house every day and often times spends the night. He has taken a liking to me and my room and when he is here he is pretty much on my bed or sitting at my feet. He is obsessed with "Patito Feo" (The Ugly Duckling) and likes to call me this when I put on my glasses at night. (Apparently in the version of the story that he has read the Ugly Duckling wears glasses!) Haha! So my first Spanish nickname is Patito Feo! By the way Rose, Mateo saw a photo of you in my photo album and calls you Patito Feo also...:)

One of my teachers wants me to bring in the lyrics to some Spanish music that I like so that we can study the vocab, the grammar, etc. So I leave you with the lyrics to A Dios Le Pido by Juanes that I am translating: (I LOVE this song but never really knew all the words...Rach H.: the first time I heard this song it was while we were watching ALIAS on the Rez.!)

A Dios le pido
I ask from God

Que mis ojos se despierten
My eyes wake up
con la luz de tu mirada
With the light of your glance
yo a Dios le pido
I ask from God
que mi madre no se muera
That my mother not die
y que mi padre me recuerde
And my father to remember me
a Dios le pido
I ask from God

Que te quedes a mi lado
To stay beside me
y que más nunca te me vayas mi vida
And never leave me, my life
a Dios le pido
I ask from God
que mi alma no descanse
My soul does not have rest
cuando de amarte se trate mi cielo
When loving you it has to do with my sky/heaven
a Dios le pido
I ask from God

Por los días que me quedan
For the days that I have left
y las noches que aun no llegan
And the nights that still haven’t come
yo a Dios le pido
I ask from God
por los hijos de mis hijos
For the kids of my kids
y los hijos de tus hijos
And the kids of your kids
a Dios le pido
I ask from God

Que mi pueblo no derrame tanta sangre
My village not to spill so much blood
y se levante mi gente
And to wake up my people
a Dios le pido
I ask from God
que mi alma no descanse
My soul not to have a rest
cuando de amarte se trate mi cielo
When loving you it has to do with my sky/heaven
a Dios le pido
I ask from God

Un segundo mas de vida para darte
One more second of life to give you
y mi corazón entero entregarte
And my entire heart to give you
un segundo mas de vida para darte
One more second of life to give you
y a tu lado para siempre yo quedarme
And beside you to stay for ever
un segundo mas de vida
One more second of life
yo a Dios le pido
I ask from God

Que si me muero sea de amor
That if I die to be from love
y si me enamoro sea de vos
And if I fall in love to be with you
y que de tu voz sea este corazón
And from your voice to be this heart
todos los días a Dios le pido
All the days I ask from God
que si me muero sea de amor
That if I die to be from love
y si me enamoro sea de vos
And if I fall in love to be with you
y que de tu voz sea este corazón
y que de tu voz sea este corazón
todos los días a Dios le pido
All the days I ask from God
a Dios le pido
I ask from God

Born In the USA

I just walked into the kitchen here to find my host father listening to and dancing about to Springsteen: "Born In the USA" Haha! Teddy was also cooking pasta for dinner...he says Italian is his favorite food and has a bunch of cookbooks to help him make pasta dishes. Olive oil is very expensive here and usually only used in restaurants so Teddy's pasta dish tonight was a special treat!

Today was the first day of the Aymaran New Year. That being said, the students at the Institute were invited to attend a traditional Aymaran New Year welcoming ceremony this morning at 6 am. The purpose of the ceremony is to welcome the sun on the first morning of the new year and offer special sacrifices (AKA llama) up to God. The Aymaran people acknowledge the closeness of this holiday to the Feast of St. John (San Juan Bautista)...and many indigenous Bolivians celebrate both the New Year and Feast of St. John separately yet with the same spirit of praise and thanksgiving running through both. Historically, the Aymaran people were forced to label their New Year festivities as "a celebration for St. John" to avoid punishment for their worship that some (the government) viewed as paganism. Since the early 1990s Aymaran's have freely and openly embraced both celebrations and popularity among governmental officials has helped to strengthen appreciation for the celebration. (For the past few years, the President Evo Morales has welcomed the sun on this first morning of the new year with the Aymaran people in La Paz.)

My new friend Olivia and I thought we would try and make this early celebration here in Cochabamba...easier said than done! Olivia lives about 5 minutes down the street from me and it being pitch black it wouldn't have been safe to walk to either one's home, so I decided that I would call a cab (By "I" I really mean my host dad, since he was the one that got on the phone with the cab company at 5:30am!) and then pick up Olivia and together we would head South to the New Year ceremony. To make a long story short...My taxi driver got LOST (yes, even though he looked at the address that I had and said that he could find the place) and Olivia couldn't figure out how to get out of her house (many, many locks on the inside of her house family's door!) Needless to say neither one of us made it to the ceremony!

Later on in the morning, we took a tour of downtown Cochabamba with some other students (led by Sr. Cathy and Fr. Ray). We saw the big cathedral downtown and a little about the life of the city itself. There were many clefas (glue sniffers) around....a sad sight as well as traditionally dressed poor beggars lining the streets...the beauty of the architecture and the scenery was humbled by the surrounding poverty. We took a trip up the Concordia mountain to see The Cristo de la Concordio (Christ the Peace) sculpture, which is believed to be the largest statue of Christ in the world. It surpasses the more famous statue in Brazil by just a few centimeters. Both the Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) statue in Rio de Janeiro and this in Bolivia are 33m (108 ft.) tall, because Christ died when he was 33 years old. Cochabambinos say the extra height is appropriate, since Christ actually lived "33 years and a bit." Haha...very clever, Cochabamba.

We ate lunch outside at a restaurant/retreat center that had the nicest dogs! (Oh and the food was good too...but these dogs were really the true delight I thought...2 huge German Shepards and one little black and white pup!)

Tonight I studied some more from my Spanish book and enjoyed Teddy's pasta dish with Lilian and Teddy and their daughter Chile's family. I am starting to feel more comfortable with the language and more at home in my neighborhood!

My brain still hurts constantly from translating in my head and always trying to figure out what is going on around me. I am finding that I can talk with the little kids better than I can with adults. I think it is because the adults give me too much credit and start having sophisticated conversations about literature or politics or pop culture....vocabulary that I do not have. HOWEVER, I can talk with anyone under 8 about toys, cartoons, kids books, etc....no problem!

I´M HERE!

I finally arrived on Tuesday morning into La Paz airport at 6:00am. Sr. Joan Mury, MM met me there (thank goodness!) to help me make the tight connection that I had. The airport was really unorganized and there were lots of things to do like get a visa, go through customs, find my bags, get my ticket for the next flight, pay the ¨airport tax¨and go through security again...it would have taken me hours to do this all without Joan´s help...instead, I got through in about 60 min.

Arriving into Cochabamba was beautiful. We flew over the Andes and the scenery almost reminded me of the movie Heidi. :) I got into Cochabamba at 8:30am where my host family and Dan Moriarty (the Maryknoll volunteer coordinator) were waiting for me. Lilian is my host mom and works at a school downtown and Teddy is my host dad and builds stuff out of iron in a little shop up the street from our house. Lilian and Teddy have 3 kids that are grown and married with kids, and they all come over often. There are 7 grandkids among them all, ranging from 4 mos. to 12 yrs. Their daughter, Andrea and her husband Javier have 2 cocker spaniels too! They are the same color as Sadie (my dog at home) but waaaay skinnier.

My first few impressions of Cochabamba are: 1) I never thought I would be living somewhere where as many or more stray dogs roam the streets as the REZ! They are everywhere too! They aren´t really violent or anything until nighttime when they run around in packs. One little white one seems to find me every time I leave the house and walk me up the street. I heard someone call him Panchueto or something...but I call him Patrick. 2) Everyone is really patient with my lack of the language and I think I will be acquiring it at a pretty rapid pace. When I am at the Institute there are other students from the States who speak English, but other than that it is pretty much all Spanish all the time. I get up at 8am take a shower, eat breakfast with Lilian, come into school, study, have class from 11:30 to 4:00pm and then have a meeting or two with the other students about culture, safety, religion, etc. I head home around 6 or so and then Teddy and I eat dinner around 7 or 8. I study until 11 and then go to bed! 3) The weather is much warmer than I had expected, although everyone says that will change. Right now it is in the 60s and it is the beginning of the wintertime. I am told that July is much colder, so we shall see. 4) There is such a different feeling toward indigenous people here in Bolivia than back in the US. There are no reservations or anything like that and the two separate indigenous groups (Quechua and Aymara) are widely accepted, appreciated and embraced both in the cities and in the campo (country). Both Quechua and Aymara speak their own languages separate from Spanish, so that throws a different spin on things too. I am looking forward to learning more about the Native culture here as time goes on.

I have 4 classes a day for 50 min. each with 4 different teachers. They are all really organized, patient and prepared...you can tell they have been doing this for a while. Yesterday I talked for about 4 hours (50 min. with each) about who i am, where I am from, why I am here...my life story. I am really good at saying all that in Spanish now! They sized me up and assigned me my books...they gave me an intermediate level book and work book which I feel is a bit beyond my lvel right now, but I´ll try!

A few additional items of intertest before I need to go:
1) There are 5 students from Creighton here (undergraduates who are premed)
2) There are 2 other people from Upstate NY...a girl from SYracuse and a guy from Utica who is a Franciscan friar...they are both really young...maybe 21 or so?
3) There are about 30 students total in the Institute for the summer....undergraduates, priests on sabbatical, Jesuits, graduate students and a few Maryknoll Lay Mission families who will be here for 3 years in total.
4) Galletas and gallinas do NOT mean the same thing...I wanted a cookie (galleta) and I asked for a rooster (gallina) Haha...oops!
5)There is lots of artwork up around the Institute by John Guiliani...the famous Native artist who also was very embraced on the Rez.
6) The book you suggested Beth...The Celestine Prophecy is spot on! I am seriously living the Insight that the book talks about...more on that some other time.

Ok, need to run to class...more later! I am safe, happy and can´t wait to share more! Much Love,Megan

Day 3
I woke up this morning in MIAMI and decided that I needed to take advantage of the 15 hours before my flight leaves for La Paz.

This is a picture of me deciding what I should do for the day! Since my lodging and meals were paid for for the day (thank you American Airlines) I decided that I could splurge on a cheap beach outfit from the gift shop downstairs. Completing this outfit are the hot pink flowered sandals in my feet with big pink flowers on them...I think I look like a tourist, don't you?

So I went to the beach this afternoon feeling all cool and Miami-like in my brightly colored outfit. When I got there I felt like I was in an advertisement for Sandals Beach Resort. All the chairs were really fancy, covered in white cloths and had large white umbrellas by them. They were lining the edge of the water and filled with people except for ONE lonely chair. The chair had no one's stuff gathered near it, so I decided to sit down. Soon tall, tanned men wearing white linen came by all the chairs asking those of us sitting in them if we would like anything else.

People were ordering food, drinking Coronas and having their towels changed by these worker people. I realized that I might be out of my league here and sitting someplace that I was not supposed to sit, but I decided that I would stay put until someone corrected my error. For the next hour and a half I watched kids play in the sand, couples parasailing, listened to the ocean, looked for seashells and began reading my book The Celestine Prophecy. After an hour and a half or so one of the worker men came to fix my umbrella and to let me know that a storm was on its way. I turned around and sized up the situation, deciding to abandon my chair before it started to pour.

The next thing was how to escape the white-linened men who were collecting money from the other beach chair residents. Since I honestly had no idea that the beach chairs were a financed luxury I decided that I needed to play dumb and simply stroll away while everyone else was packing because of the storm. (Although I have to admit I did my best to begin strolling when all the linen-adorned men were not paying attention.) I walked away from the string of fancy beach chairs with confidence and all-knowingness....even though I was terrified that someone was going to approach me and slap me with a hundred dollar beach chair fee or something. No one did though and I even found a really cool shell on my walk away from the beach!

Next stop...a coffee shop: Starbucks. Hear of it? To take refuge from the storm and charge my batteries. Tonight before my flight leaves I will meet up with a friend of Rosie's from Creighton. Leah is a lawyer in Miami and I'm sure knows a thing or two about the night life here. Then it is onto the airport and off to LA PAZ! FINALMENTE!!!!

Day 1
My travels started out on Saturday with a sudden thunderstorm at LaGuardia Airport. Because of the weather ALL flights were suddenly canceled leading to lots of airport chaos among passengers and baggage. I gathered my belongings and headed back to Sharon's apartment for the night.

My enthusiastic and patient friends met me and the M60 bus back in front of Teachers College with welcome signs--complete with cheering and hugs. I then learned how to make an international call to Bolivia as I needed to call Dan-the-volunteer-coordinator and let him know of my delay. FYI: To dial up Cochabamba Bolivia, you need to dial 011 + 591+ 4+ the seven digit number.

After some delicious brownies, a good movie and another round of hide-the-duck (Sharon stop trying to pretend that you don't like that game) I fell asleep for one more night in the city.

Day 2
This doesn't look like Bolivia! I woke up in NYC and spent my extra day here walking around Central Park...thank you, Beth (the stroll was lovely). I repacked my bags and per the recommendation of a friend tried to lighten the load in my checked bag. I managed to get rid of one book and a box of markers, lowering the weight by .5 pounds--(I tried to lessen it I just really couldn't!)

The family mass across the street at Corpus Christi was sparsely attended (summer months) but the message at the end of the Gospel was robust!-- Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. (Mt: 9:36) I am keeping this in the back of my mind as I prepare for my trip South.

My airport woes of yesterday seemed to be just the tip of the iceberg. Tonight's flight into Miami was first delayed an hour, then two hours, then 3 hrs. 15 min.! (Mechanical troubles) Needless to say, I missed my connection in Miami to La Paz meaning that I will again not wake up in Bolivia. (Gee!)

A very patient and kind American Airlines agent (Ruby was her name) helped me out by getting a new flight out of Miami to La Paz for tomorrow night as well as vouchers galore--hotel & food for my long layover in Miami. As I watched Ruby interact with angry passengers I noticed her stopping every few minutes to turn around and exclaim under her breath: "Oh Lord, help me Jesus." These were some UPSET customers and Ruby managed to smile and do what she could to help without dishing back the anger and nasty tone of voice that was being thrown at her. When she could do no more for someone's situation Ruby said: "I'll pray for you." And I think she meant it, I think that was Ruby's way of giving away what she has received in her life--just a hunch.

I got into Miami around 1 am and found my way to the Comfort Inn via Pedro's airport shuttle. Since my flight does not leave until 11pm tomorrow it seems as though I might have a bit of time on my hands to explore Miami. We'll see what comes to mind in the morning. As of right now (3am), some final thoughts...

It sounds scary to think of giving at all costs no matter what the cost--giving of money, resources, (hotel vouchers?), love, prayer, time--as we give this stuff away how can we not help but think "what am I going to get back from all of this?" But that seems to be just it....the cyclicality (yes I made that word up) of the phrase: receive & give, receive & give, etc. I think of how many blessings I have received in my life: starting with my family, my good health, my education at Boston College and now Teachers College, my many friends who are constantly challenge me and stretch me, and then there's the life changing experiences I encountered at Red Cloud. With so much on the receiving end I feel like I really need to work hard to "give it back!" Learning the Spanish language and accompanying the people of Cochabamba for a summer will allow me to share the blessings of my life with a new culture, a new group of people--yet all under the same faith. (Rose, reminds me of our song: "We are many parts....we are all one body....and the gifts we have....we are given to share....may the spirit of love....make us ONE indeed..." That's just the thing as we give and receive we all work toward the same ONE goal...PEACE with each other, PEACE for each other and PEACE to our God.

I don't think everyone felt at PEACE with Ruby's response to their travel dilemmas, but people aren't always going to understand or approve with how we see it best to "give back." (For the record, I graciously accept Ruby's gift of food and lodging, and most importantly, the prayer.)