Update who knows what number.

Hey hey, so its less than two weeks away from Christmas and there is still no snow. just joking. I´m not expecting any snow to fall anytime here. that would be abnormal and just not normal :-) These last few weeks have been ups and downs. The last weekend we SALTers went on our orientation trip to Moro Moro. We were going to go in September but because of all of the blockades and political stuff going on. So we went last weekend. We left on a thursday and got back on a sunday. The drive to Moro Moro is a 10 hour bus ride through the mountains. The scenery was amazing and drive was scary. The lanes are quite small and the drivers manage to get as close as possible to the edge without ever falling off and they drink up some booze as well. It makes it all the more of an adventure :-) We got to Moro Moro at about 1 a.m, then we went straight to bed to be awake for the next day. Man, Moro Moro was cold, the nights were nice and cold, and that was a nice change. The next day, Friday, we went for a long, long walk. We walked to the house of a MCC worker. His house is a 2 hour walk/hike through some hills. Moro Moro is in the foothills of the Andes Mountains. We stayed at his house for an hour or two and had some lunch and then did the 2 hour walk back to our rooms. That evening we spent playing cards, eating supper and sleeping great! :-)
the next day we went to a place called ´the turtle´. its about a one hour or so hike. the view from there was amazing and the turtle was pretty cool as well. we then went back after that pretty sore. and i got the best farmer tan. it was pretty sweet.
all in all, moro moro was a great weekend escape and it was just in time. It was a great time out there and a great escape from the heat.
this weekend I have the annual workeres retreat from Talita Cumi. So that will be a good time to hang out with all the other people that work at Talita Cumi.
Yeah, so today was a good day too. I talked to my mom and dad, and watched a movie and watched some episodes of grey´s anatomy. People here really like the show :-)
i´ll sign off now, and peace love and happiness
Toni

yuppy uppy ppy py y

hey hey, so i think that i have some more stuff that i can write about. at work, its the end of the school year for every one of the kids that are in the public school. The kids that were held back a few weeks are all done and are very happy to be out of the school for the summer!! the older kids who go to night school have a few more weeks left of school and then they head off to the tradesschool, its like a redriver college, that they can attend if they want to. yeah so yeah, with work that has been about the only thing that has been going on. now its just figuring out what i should do with the kids cause they are home all day long :) but it is going good so far.
so last sunday, i went to the center of town to take out some more money and it had all gone great, and i had gotten it ou and then my card got sucked back into the machine :) great! after a little bit of freaking out i just thought ok thats fine, i´ll pick it up during the week, and that is what i did. changing subjects quickly, sunday night, or i guess monday morning at the blessed time of 4 in the A.M, i was woken up by the sound of paws on the ground. then i woke up and it was all dark, BUT there was a shape on the chair by my window. i jump out of my skin almost and i hiss that shape and it turns out to be a street cat that got into my room through my window. the cat freaks out and run across the room and crashes into my dresser and then runs back to the window and tries to jump out, but i have a curtain so the thing couldn´t not get out. then i yell at it this time then it crashes into the other side of the room again, and this time when it lunges at the window it gets between the bars and gets out, sort of. it got tangled into the curtain. so i tried my best to help it get free. it was an interesting night.
then during the week, it was pretty normal, other than the cat incident. oh two the boys in the home were taken home to their biological mom, so that is bittersweet, it is great that they went home to their realy home, which is the hope for all of the kids that they can go home one day.
then the other day, which was friday, i went to a 15th birthday party, these parties are a HUGE deal, and i was invited! it was pretty sweet, and last minute i was asked to join the VIP´ers so to speak. at the beginning of the party before the birthday girl presents herself her girlfriends (damas) get taken out into the crowd by a boy (garcon) and i was asked last minute to escort on the girls, so i did, and then i also had to waltz with her. it was interesting. haha the first time that i have ever been that involved in a 15th birthday bash.
so that was pretty much all that happened this week. it was a good week
love and prayers
toni hiebert

Work and stuff and birthdays

oook, so its been a while since i last blogged....sorry. what has happened. lets see, oh for my birthday, it was really sweet. there was a sleep over at Hans and Elmas house (all of us salters/yamen were invited to stay there for supper and a movie and a sleep) it was really fun, and Elma made a cake for me and they sang to me and gave me some caramel for my birthday :) then the next day i hung out at mcc here and then in the evening the rest of the salters and i and daniel, edgar, alfredo, and mariela went out to the cine to watch a movie for my birthday. it was a great night, all was paid for as well!!! and then sunday was my host brothers birthday (oct 19) and we had a party for him that day. and then monday (oct 20) :) was my birthday, it was a great day.they made a special lunch at work for me and then my host family here threw a party for me. it was a hard day at the beginning ´cause birthdays are a family thing for me,and i really missed the family that day. But everyone made my birthday so much fun and memorable, i even got my face pushed into the cake. it all makes for a great birthday!!!
oh and then later on that week was my host-mom's birthday, it was a week filled with birthday parties!! so much fun!!

with work, it has been going along pretty good. some days are really good, some just good, and some are just downright bad. but you know, i enjoy it, work is not something that you will always enjoy. i hope to soon see working at talita cumi not just as a job, some days that is all i see it as, a job, that i want to get off of quickly and go home and relax, and then sometimes its also where i dont want to go home and just hang out with the kids all day. i guess once i´ve been there for more than just a month i´ll know it better :)
here at Talita Cumi we are going through some hard times, prayer would be greatly appreciated.
Man, school is about to end for the kids, which means, all day they are here at the home. its going to be NUTS for those three months that they have vacation. but that will also mean that I will get to know the kids better, cause i dont have to keep telling them to do homework. so that will be fun.

what else can i write. Things are pretty calm here now politically. There is a vote (if i heard the news right) on January 25. but for now there haven't been any major fights and stuff like that. and santa cruz has been pretty calm for the last few weeks.
oh something interesting. they dont celebrate halloween here, they have a day of dead or thats what i call it. its a day (nov 2) where everyone goes to the cemetery and remembers their lost loved ones. november 1st was the day to remember the young children that died and then the 2nd was the rest of the people. i went by some cemeteries and they were packed with people! they bring food and music, all the favorite stuff of the person that passed away. and then they party it up infront of their gravesite. they say here that when you do that, the persons spirit joins the party. its kinda interesting.

i think that is all i have to write about right now
peace out
toni hiebert

work, work work

hello, so i've gotten kind of lazy and completly forgot about the blogging thing :-) So what has it been, three weeks or so. Man time flys by here so it seems. So i've been on the job almost three weeks, or three weeks exactly. My thoughts:

I really like the people that I work with, they are awesome and have been really great with getting me adjusted to the place. I'm still adjusting, i mean having 0 kids to all of a sudden 11 its a lot hahah. but so far i really like it. The kids tend to test your patience, but thats expected eh? 

so yeah, the last few weeks have consisted of working, and working. i work from about 8 till about 5 :-) not a dead set time, and that is nice :-) oh last week we as volunteers from MCC all had a three day retreat which was amazing. we spent three days swimming, playing volleyball, soccer, and having a few sessions. It was nice to get out of the city a little bit and relax

man, sorry today i'm on a short attention span, i'll load some pictures up on facebook.

we got to travel!!!! ..... outside of santa cruz :)

so we all finally got to get out of the city of santa cruz finally. i´m not saying i dont like the city, i´m just saying its nice to be in the freshcountry air, no cars, no micros. just dirt roads and mountains and ahhhhhhhhhh. yeah so this last weekend we SALTers had the chance to get out and see Santiago de Chiquitos where on of the SALTers will be working this year. Santiago de Chiquitos is about 13 hours by train to the east, i think. dont quote me on that :) we left last friday at around noon. the time here is never exact so everything is "around". with our luck we were all, almost all of us, feeling sick when we stepped on the train. and the train was, i dont want to say terrible, thats harsh, but it was rough. that friday it was hot, muggy, and mix that with nausea and stomach problems, it was an interesting ride. and by the end, i think we were all a bit grumpy, at least i was. but oh man, we got some beautiful rain when we arrived at 1 am in the blessed am. it was heaven sent rain. thick cold drops that just feel good :) we then fell down on our beds and slept like babies, till the morning, had breakfast at 8 am, and then fell back asleep for a few more hours :) it was a great day :) then in the afternoon, we went on a hike on a mountain that was nearby. let me tell you a little bit about santiago de chiquitos. it is a beautiful small town with barely any cars, so its very fresh and there are mountains surrounding it. all the roads are red dirt roads, and at night, its pitch black. there are not many street lamps, so it is really dark, and when its clear, the stars are quite something. its is awesome!! ok
anyways, the mountain. we hiked up it. i would say it was a good several hour hike. we had to climb some rocks, and then some of us salters kept going up some rugged paths to the top. the view was amazing!!!! then, when we got down, we at supper and icecream and then relaxed. sunday was a day to relax, and we just walked around the town a bit and played cards in the evening. the monday, early in the morning we went for another hike to some water holes in the mountain. i think it might be some freshwater springs. it was really sweet, and we swam in the hole that supposedly has no bottom. it was freakin´ sweet. we all burned a bit, i especially burned quite well. i guess no sunscreen helps with that :) but yeah, at least i´m not soo white anymore :)
yeah than that evening we left to head back to santa cruz. another 13 hour train ride with virtually no sleep. but it comes with the experience :)
all in all it was great!! i really enjoyed seeing the country side.
now with the week almost done, and this coming monday with work starting and all. things are starting to set in that i´m really doing missions here in bolivia. its quite cool i would say :)
peace out and God bless
toni

Santa Cruz

ok, whats up?? ok so the last post i did was last wednesday. so lets see, what has all happened?? well the last weekend was pretty busy, saturday for lunch there was a big fundraiser lunch here at MCC. And man, let me tell you, the food was awesome!! So much food, and i think all of it went into stomachs :-)then in the evening i went to a youth church service at my church here. Every saturday evening at 8 pm, there is a youth service at my church. and then after the church service i headed out with my host family to a 15th birthday party,it was...interesting. They go quite late, i've been told,but we only stayed until 2 am. so we didn't stay until the end of the party. Then sunday was church in the morning and soccer playing in the afternoon :-) good times, good times.
and this week, monday was pretty much the same as most mondays,spanish classes, tutors and stuff like that. and then tuesday, wow, tuesday was amazing! wait for it....wait for it.... i got a CELLPHONE!! anyways, i'm pretty pumped about that. and then for the last few days its been a bit violent with the radical youth vandalising buildings and ransacking buildings. yeah tuesday evening, the 'autonomistas' (radical youth that are against evo morales)took over the entel cellphone company and ransacked the place and all of us who are with entel were without service for a bit. and then they started going after the transit stations (the buses, train stations, and airports). then on wednesday after the mcc potluck, i was on my way home and i took a micro that normally passes my house, and then it had to change its route completely because of all the blockades aaaaaaaaaaaaannnd i got lost for two hours :-) BUT the driver was very nice and put me on another micro and dropped me off as close as possible to my house and i got home all safe and sound. then last night things escalated a bit more. the youth are getting more violent and the fighting came close to some of the SALTers homes and some stayed here at MCC for the night. I got home in time and i had no trouble getting home, but the fighting was on both sides of my house. I live close to the Villa Primer de Mayo, where a lot of youth were at yesterday marching and setting off fireworks. and then on the street right by my house, there were youth running up the street and the market thats there every thursday quickly closed down as people were running away from the youth.
but no worries, we are all ok and we have gotten home and back safely. the micros are just a little harder to find but so far its alright.
this weekend we were going to go travel around a bit, but since all is blocked up we are stuck here, which is alright, we are all hanging out for lunch and the afternoon. oh and the airport is still running just no cars are allowed in, so the people that have to fly somewhere have to walk into the parking lot from a ways away with their luggage. its kinda funny, but not really at the same time.
but yeah, everything is alright, we are all fine, it always calms down a bit during the morning, for now, and yeah. its interesting to watch these events on tv and at the same time be living right in it.
so till next time. peace, love and happiness
toni hiebert

yup yup yup

well here i am again. i think that this post shall be a bit short but yeah. i have fifteen minutes to write something up quickly. yeah this week has been fun. better than the last week so thats always good :). last weekend i got to call some people, and it felt good to talk to people back home. lets see this week, i finally began some language studies, the teacher was busy last week so we only really started this week, and i´m starting to get a little better at that darn ol´grammar. yeah the other day, a bunch of us salters with our tutors went to the ´lomas de arena´ (sand dunes). it seriously lookes like an africa in the bolivia. it was really sweet, and guess what! i forgot my camera, so thats a bummer, but it was the closest i´ll probably ever get to the desert :).
today is another hot hot day, and i have started to thank God for the cold showers every day, they are HUGE blessing now, not su much a curse :-)
oh and last sunday i also went to Edgar´s soccer game (he´s me tutor). He is on a soccer team, and man was it a blast to watch it. it was quite the crazy fiesta, but man, i wish soccer would be like that in canada. now that would be something. :)
k i´m out of words, but yeah its good so far this week, :) Oh and tonight is an MCC potluck here at the MCC headquarters, so woohoo, good food always gets made haha
peace
Toni

Update #2

well, i guess its time for another entry. this month it will be more difficult to get on to a computer since i have no internet at my house and at mcc its difficult to get on sometimes, buts its all good :) so yeah, i´m just about to finish off the second week here in santa cruz, and also its been almost a week since i moved in with my host family.

a little about my host family:
I live with a widowed lady, Doña Marina, who lives at her house (DUH! :) ) with two of her two kids and two grandkids. She actually has five kids, three of them are married (one lives in Santa Cruz, close to her house, and the two other married ones live in spain). Its a simple house, no hot water, and so far that has been a blessing in disguise. During the shower, you curse the cold water, (not actually cursing, you know what i mean) but then once you get out of the shower, you just become thankful that you took the cold shower cause its so stinking hot out. Well today its not exactly warm outside, so today it might just be a curse and not a blessing. Jokes!!! :) Doña Marina´s house is a guess you call it a open concept house?? no clue, but anywho, every room , when you step out of the door, puts you outside. I might just draw out a floor plan and stick it on here, depends how bored i am :) It was a bit of shock for me at first, cause here, most people live very simply. but i got my room, so i have some alone time every once in a while and that is nice. and i really need this, i think i was living to comfortably at home, dont get me wrong, i really miss home but this is good, im liking it more and more each day. yeah.

this month, september and the last part of august, is filled with language training and tutor time (people from our churches who are our age that show us the city). so its really been fun and interesting. Being with people our age is definitely helping with the language a lot. My tutor is the drummer of youth praise and worship band of my church. His name is Edgar, he´s a fun guy. Yeah, this city gets easier to get around every day. This week with Edgar we figured out how to get to talita cumi, man they should have picked a childrens home that is a bit closer to the center, this home i´m working at is waaaaaaaaaaaayy out there, but its a small price to pay haha. yeah i begin working at talita cumi at the beginning of october i think.

yeah i´m kinda zoning in and out right now, sooooooooooooooo i shall stop for now. tune in next time
peace love and happines
Tons

First two weeks

Ooooook. Hello. So i started this blog last week and I think its fair to say that i should write something on here eh? but yeah, anyways, this whole SALT thing started a week ago, so i´ll start from there.
I left Steinbach at quarter to four in the blessed AM to head to the airport in Winnipeg and fly off to Chicago (the first stop). The wait was dumb, i mean, i disliked it, but then, Kathleen showed up and she was like, Toni? and i said yeah, and we said SALT, and it was good. No it was great to have a travel buddy the entire way to Akron, PA. Yeah, anyways, we left Winnipegat about 7 am, and then landed in Chicago a couple of hours later. Then we had a four hour layover at the airport, it was not bad, but it does get kinda boring just sitting and waiting. But then we were off again and arrived at Harrisburg airport and were off to akron!! ok, let me tell you, i enjoyed the orientation at akron a lot! i enjoyed getting to know everyone, going to most sessions :), and just hanging out with the other salters and ivep and yamen. This was the first year that IVEP and YAMEN! were with us, wait at least i think YAMEN! might have been there the last few years, but anywho, it was great. i was roomed with Edder from columbia, so the i got some spanish practice there, and he was great fun. What i also really enjoyed was that all of us had the same beliefs, there is nothing better than waking up in the morning and going to the daily devotionals and knowing, yes, we all believe in the same GOD and it feels great!! At orientation we played some wicked games of pingpong, soccer (us salters lost to the ivepers) and ultimate frisbee. it was kinda strange leaving akron and saying goodbye was not fun. I found it amazing how attached you got to people and the close bonds you can make in one week. All the fireside conversations, the praise and worship, man it was all good!
ok now that flight to bolivia was a bit more interesting, well sort of. we flew to miami no problem, and then the flight kept getting postponed, and that sucked! we arrived the airport at 2.15 pm and the plane was supposed to leave at 11.10, but nooooooooooooo, we ended up leaving at around 1.30ish from miami. it was great! :) so we got to santa cruz at about 10 am. and so far i really like santa cruz. when we got to the mcc compound, we had some brunch, soooooooooo good, you know what, guave jam (homemade of course) is the best !!! anyways after the we had a little two hour nap and then went for a walk to the central plaza and browsed the local artisans market. i think thats what its called. really cool stuff, just had no money so i didn´t buy anything but yeah, then we headed to a restaurant where we at some amazing icecream!! wow, i think ill use most of my money to buy icecream ;). yeah its about 6.20 now and we will eat supper in a few hours, so basically i´m dying hahaha not quite, but i´m HUGNRY :) but yeah i love this place! i get to move into my host familys house next sunday, so that will be cool
anyways, peace hope and love and happiness
peace
Toni