Happy (early) Thanksgiving

Christmas Shopping  ........................... Check
Celebrated Halloween  .......................  Check
Christmas decorations in the plaza...  Check
Thanksgiving........................                 Check
What´s next??  End of yr. celebration, Kinder graduation and CHRISTMAS!!!

We had the pleasure of meeting up with almost ALL the bolivian SLM´s in Yapacani, Bolivia to celebrate a wonderful EARLY THANKSGIVING !!!
    For us Coch girls, it was a 7 hour journey by night! Through the mountains and off to the jungles of Yapacani. We stayed at the missionary house there and got to have Thanksgiving dinner under the mango trees at the volunteer house!  It was amazing!. The weekend included...
   Salteñas in the morning and in the afternoon, motorcycle ride, walk through the market for Thanksgiving ingredients, Quinua juice, visit to San Juan, a Japanese town (I know right??) and the orphanage in Montero, and lots of food including green bean caserole and mashed potatoes (Ang and I made pasta and papaya con leche), Mango ice cream, apple pie, pumpkin roll, turkey shaped cookies, pineapple caserole, and banana pudding!!, a special blessing from father, Mass, lunch with the sisters, and the best part...
a jungle adventure!!!!
    It was like real Thanksgiving with family, chatting around the kitchen while baking and cooking and just hanging out, then during dessert we all said what we were thankful for. It is hard to express what we felt during this time. To spend time with ppl we love with the same servant heart and faith is special.
    Anyway, went to Sunday Mass together. At the end of Mass Father (who still has a strong italian accent when he speaks spanish tho he´s been here 22 years) told us to get in front of everyone and say where we are working and sing a song in English, Johanna sings at the church there and started ¨...Here I am Lord. Is it I Lord? I have heard you calling in the night, I will go Lord if you lead me, I will hold your people in my heart...¨ As we sang along, we could feel the strength of Christ´s call behind us and it totally reaffirmed why we are here, each called to our specific site and mission. Marcos explained the song to the people at Mass. Such a beautiful moment.

    NOW for the jungle adventure...
So we took a 1 hour bus ride, a 3 hour trek, and many falls to get to the most amazing part of the jungle, the cascada (waterfall). We even saw a monarch butterfly and snake!!! and many beautiful flowers along the way...

Ok rewind...
Step 1: Rent a micro and invite youth and a couple nuns to join us.
Step 2: pack bag of bug spray, salteñas, fruit, change of clothes, and sandals for the water, and can´t forget the boom box ....i know they just can´t leave their music.
Step 3: Swing on rope swing over low river and try to get down gracefully without falling (not as easy as it sounds, especially with Marcos and Nicholas ¨catching¨you
Step 4: Get moving, it´s a long trek. oh and keep your balance bc SURPRISE !! you will spending half your walk dodging the water and climbing over and under rocks that may or may not make you slip and hurt your back (or mess up ang´s cam and bruise your toe in my case). We did have quite a few falls, but it was so worth it, eventually we all got wet so it didnt´matter
Step 5: Enjoy the cool water falling from 100s of feet a.k.a. the waterfall and take a big gulP!
Yep, we drank it.
Step 6: eat lunch and keep it away from the swarming bees, oh and don´t get stung!
Step 7: Slide down the big rock down the river a bit multiple times
Step 8: Shimmy onto a log over the water, watch the fish, dangle your feet and talk to God.

This is God´s creation, His beauty, Thank you Lord for creating it and for bringing us all here to work hard and to do our work, keep us strong but know that we need our breaks too and this came at the perfect time! That night, 2 more left. We left Tues. morning, with mangoes we picked intact! We took 2 truffi´s to get back, since apparently there´s no morn. bus...I was a little worried bc the driver wasn´t exactly the safest, but we made good time and were able to be welcomed by the girls and do some homework with them before rosary and enjoy Purple API, my fave bolivian drink for dinner! Welcome home is right!