Halloween


PICTURES:
-Wendy and I
-The snake picture minus the snake. Lucas, Michael and Jonathan instead
-Rebecca and Heath on gate duty
-Maureen
-Lucas and I before the 8th grade dance (can you see his wig?)
-Analia, Ximena, Heath and I watching the dances
-7th grade girls

I'm sure I have mentioned before what a huge event Halloween is at our school. Dance competitions, costume prizes, dunk tanks, food, animals......

We had perfect weather this year. There wasn't an ounce of humidity in the air (Ok, so that isn't possible in Bolivia but there wasn't the normal amount for sure) a light breeze was keeping us cool and overall it was a pleasant night. Much to my 7th graders disappointment, the 8th graders won the middle school dance. It was fun to see the kids dancing and performing on stage. Some of them are real naturals, others simply try so hard it is a kick to watch.

The National Junior Honor Society, the club I sponsor, was suppose to have a big fundraiser. We arranged to have a boa constrictor from the zoo come to the event. We spent last Saturday paining a jungle scene and for 10b's ($1.50) you could have your picture taken with the boa. Sounds fun, right?? Well, the snake never made it to the party. We aren't sure why, could be the flaky zoo guy or could be one of my flaky students. I need to get to the bottom of it. We were all very disappointed that the snake didn't come. It would have been a hit for sure. Oh well, maybe next year.

Speaking of next year. I have no idea where I will be. Tracey and I are waiting to hear about available positions at my school. My director has said that if a position opens it will be Traceys for sure. We just need an opening. Hopefully we will find out in a few weeks.

Voting from Bolivia



Thanks to the help of my voting guru Brian Cavagnolo, I was proudly able to send in my absentee ballot this week. I suppose I was a little in the dark about the low voter turnout in the states. Being friends with Brian meant that almost everyone I knew was a registered, active voter. Boy was I living in a bubble. I was the only absentee voter at my school. How crazy is that. No worries though, I really gave everyone a good talking to about the importance of our vote. I think what drives me the most is that there was a time in our country when so many people didn't even have the right to such a thing as voting. So many people have fought for so long to bring about voting changes. It just seems irresponsible not to do it.

My message to all of you:

REGISTER!
VOTE!

Olimpiadas Especiales



I had the chance to take a group of students to the Special Olympics last week. We went as volunteers for the day and it didn't take long to realize what a truely special event it is! All of us were amazed by the excitement, happiness, encouragement and sense of community we felt.

We were not sure what our volunteer experience would be like. It was an overcast, rainy morning when we arrived at the stadium and there was garbage EVERYWHERE. There was a big soccer game a few nights before so the place was a mess. The first job we were assigned was the long jump pit. It didn't sound like too hard a job until we actually saw the pit. It looked like a small pond and our job was to get it ready for the jumpers. So we gathered some helpful garbage (2 liter coke bottles) and began getting the water out. It seemed an impossible job but an hour later, with the help of some buckets we found, the pit had been cleared and was ready for jumping (see the pictures). I was so impressed with the good attitude my students had. I admit, we thought that our job would be timing kids or something similar, not cleaning out a dirty long jump pit. But even that turned out to be a fun time together and we all talked about how we prefered pit cleaning to a day at school. I guess we all needed a break from school!

We decided that we are going to put together a team for the next special olympics. My students said they felt they could help better by coaching a team and spending the time to get to know a team of kids. That is the plan, I think it is a great one so I'll keep you all posted.

The pictures were taken throughout the day. At one point, one of the althletes asked Karla what place he came in. She told him last place. He asked his coach if this was true and his coach said "You didn't come in last silly, you came in fourth". There were only 4 runners but it didn't matter, the comment made the little guy beam with delight!

More News from Santa Cruz
I can't believe how fast this school year is going! We just finished our first quarter and so much has been going on. Tracey came last week for her October break. We had a week of relaxation and catching up. It was cool for her to come back here as she came last October as well, so the city was familiar to her.
We spent a night up in Samaipata, this tiny little town about 3 hours away. We layed around sancking and having a movie marathon.

In school news, the middle school has been having a cleaning supply drive to support a local orphanage. Our goal was to collect a years worth of supplies in one month. It was a really successful event. The highlight was taking a group of students to deliver the goods to the orphanage. It was a real shock for most of the students who ahd never seen such poverty in their own city. My students are pretty sheltered so it was good for them to get out.

This year I am the rep for National Junior Honor Society. We have adopted the local zoo as our community service project. The students will be translating all of the signs into English making it a more international zoo. I saw my first sloth that day. The central plaza use to be full of them but when they redid the plaza they put the sloths back into the jungle. One of my students put this one back in a tree. Cute little things. We all got a laugh out of the uncaged horse at the zoo. We thought they were being really humanitarian like and letting it roam. We were informed by the director that, no, they were not aiming to let more animals roam free but that the horse was jaguar food. They go through a horse a week. We all got a kick out of that.

We celebrated Santa Cruz day last month. Rebecca, Analia and I got into the spirit with some Santa Cruz iron on patches. Reminded me of my tshirt making days with Tracey.

I will never get sick of the produce here. It is all so juicey and fresh. And have you ever seen such big basil leaves? I was so shocked I had to include a picture.

This month marks a big decision to be made. Contracts have to be resigned for next year. In a few weeks I'll know what my future plans are. I will either be here for a while longer (with Tracey) or we may be heading to Asia. Either way will be a great adventure.