Hola from La Paz! I`ve been here in LaPaz this week for visa stuff. Again, I thank God for working it out. Prior to coming here it was quite an ordeal. Last week, I was in Rurre for my visa extension (again), then to La Paz for the US visa. However, in the middle of this travelling, there was a huge “marcha” or rally from different parts of the region to the main city of LaPaz last Monday.  My appointment with the US Embsy was moved to another day…and thank God, it worked out.

While stuck in Rurre, I saw the news about the huge rally in La Paz, and it was kinda scary. However, thank God it all work out, and it was not bloody nor violence. The people of Bolivia are having issues with having a new constitution. So, I got here in LaPaz 3 days ago safe and sound, and had a wonderful long bus ride again thru the Death Road. This time, I enjoyed more the bus ride.

I realized I only have few weeks left here in Bolivia. Time flies so fast.  I started to reflect on my time here  and would try to share them with you the coming weeks.

I am appreciating more being here and learning about the culture and the people. I am enjoying more and more the beauty of this country. Bolivia is special and unique in different ways. I love the diversity of this nation. Much as I like warm weather and simple life in the jungle (Ixiamas), I also like the beuty of the landscape of the highlands (LaPaz and Altiplano), as well as the cool weather.

Anyway, back to Ixiamas,just to share with you some stuff I had with the kids before I left for travelling.

After few months of teaching English and Computer to the kids, it is still a challenge for some of the kids to grasp foreign stuff to them. I started teaching Internet to my class. Since our facility at the Internado does not have Internet connection, I have to take the kids to the town for the class.I take 2 kids at a time,
 The small town of Ixiamas in the middle of the jungle has only certain hours of electricity in a day, (actually the electricity is run by public generator) which conflicts with the time of the kids at school. Sometimes, I have to take kids at night, which is not a preferrable time because it is usually dark to walk. And before I left Ixiamas last week, we usually were having power off nights..Anyway, it still work out to have internet classes.

 It still amuses  me  that with most of the kids ( middle and high school),  are their first time to know about the amazing wonder of Internet. With limited Spanish I try to explain to them how Internet works and how useful it is and it would be for their studies.
Anyway, for some of the older kids they are using more the help of computer with their studies.
I try to encourage them how it would be useful in the future especially in getting jobs or to get to university. (I still try my best to simplify the usefulness of Internet to aid them with their daily studies as the school in Ixiamas do not have library).  For a lot of kids in the countryside, I heard they usually do not think about going to the university for education, maybe because of poverty.
With my role with the kids, for me it is not just about teaching them knowledge or skills, but I also try to encourage them to dream, to hope, to believe, and for them to know how God could be real in their lives. When I look at their environment, the poverty and the seemingly hopeless
life in the middle of the jungle, I could agree with them how on earth could there be hope in life.
But when I think and remember what God has done in my life, how he brought me from a very small and poor little town in a place in the Philippines where no one would know, I know God could do it also in their lives.

Thank you for your prayers for the Internado kids. Let us continue to pray for them for God`s purposes and plans for each of their lives.