WE'RE IN BOLIVIA

   Hello!!  We are in Bolivia.... FINALLY :)  Teddy's first connection got delayed so that threw off all of his other connections so we ended up having to stay in Miami for one day.  Don't feel bad though, we got to stay in an embassy suites which is probably one of the NICEST hotels I have EVER stayed in :)  There was a complimentary breakfast and we just got to chill in the lobby that looked like a jungle all day!!  Once we got to Santa Cruz we had to wait about 10 hours for our flight to Cochabamba.  That was a funny experience... Joy and I went to Subway to order a Sub, and that was an interesting experience.  I ended up using the "point to what you want method" of telling the worker what I wanted on my sub, but then I realized I shouldn't eat any of the produce because the water isn't safe to drink, and ended up with a pickle and cheese sandwhich :)  The flight to Cochabamba was really short and uneventful.  We were greeted by a few hospital of hope volunteers and headed to the hospital in a vehicle very similar to our taxi called a Trufie.
    The house we are staying in is very nice, and literally a 3 minute walk from the hospital.  We went on a tour of the house, then the hospital, and then watched tangled with spanish subtitles before dinner.  After dinner we played a game very similar to charades and then headed to bed... I was tired!
   On Saturday went to a school and helped some of the doctors from the hospital give physicals to 15/16 yr old girls.  The doctor let me perform a few which was really cool!  I was amazed by how bad the girls teeth were... in one little girl's mouth one of her molars had such a bad cavity that you could see the gum beneath it! :/   In the afternooon we headed into the center square in Cochabamba to do a thing called child washing.  Here, parents can bring their babies to be washed and their children to have their hair washed.  I noticed the kid to parent ratio didn't seem right, and when I asked one of volunteers they said that they get a lot of kids who live on the street :/.  It was a really cool experience, and it was amazing how happy you could make a little girl by washing her hair, brushing it, and putting in a colorful ponytail.
   Today, we went to a spanish speaking church and they gave us a very warm welcome.  They provided us with a radio that had a women translating the service into english which was very helpful. :)  In the afternoon we went into la Concha, which is a open-air market, to buy groceries for the upcoming week.
   So far, my experience has been really good, and luckily I have not been bothered by the altitude!!  My team is getting along great, and all the other volunteers (there are 25 others) are really nice.  Sorry this is kind of short, some other people on my team need to use the computer!!

Hopefully I'll write again soon... tomorrow morning I'm going to the hospital for the first time to do rounds... wish me luck!

Con amor,
Emily