Can You Dig It?

Hello yet again from my beautiful Bolivian view! I can't believe another week has come and gone so quickly. The second Lake Forest team's trip seemed to pass by in the blink of an eye literally. This was a team of 21 wonderful folks with tremendous hearts for our 62 BLC boys.

The saying is, "Many hands make light work," but the work this week was still fierce! We were all breaking a sweat this week on our work projects- we dug a 16 inch trench to connect our BLC bakery to a water source. There were quite a few tool casualties this week-- we lost two pick axes, and severely bent another one. This team was quite determined, and they even went so far as to wake up early to finish up their projects! The other project was continuing to place a rock floor for underneath the boys' laundry. The LFC 2 team worked hard hard hard this week, and we were sad to see them go!

One of the highlights of the LFC 2 team for me was helping one of the women, Sandy, meet some of the boys who are still in need of a sponsor. She had narrowed it down to a few, but one morning we went downstairs because she wanted to meet one of the boys in particular. When I saw him, he was skating with one skate on his right foot, and when I hollered his name, he tried to turn and keep skating at the same time, and he so gracefully fell flat on the ground. When he came over to Sandy and I, Sandy began to tear up, knowing that this was the boy that she wanted to sponsor. She was so touched to meet him, and I so enjoyed helping the two of them connect. The best part about being a host is when a team member asks if you will help them translate while they tell one of the boys that they are sponsoring them. I get teared up myself every time, to see the boys just relax and feel deeply loved. You see it in their eyes for a split second right after the words come out of their mouth. It is a thing of beauty.

The boys sadly went back to school this week, but they are so HANDSOME in their little school uniforms. I am pretty sure we have the 62 most handsome boys in Bolivia here at the BLC =) They were glad to be back and get into their normal rhythm, although school was closed yesterday and today for some unknown fiesta going on in town. The team is just excited as the boys that they don't have school, because it means chaos around the BLC all day.

Today was an exciting day for me personally, as three wonderful familiar faces arrived in the Cochabamba airport. My boyfriend Ryan, as well as Michael and Alyssa Bruce, two friends and children of my colleague Mike. The airport scene was quite unique today, as another church was there to welcome a group of missionaries with lais, balloons, and a marching band!! We tried to pretend that we were the ones who ordered all of this for the team, but when they didn't follow us out to the parking lot, our plan was foiled =)

I am ready for an exciting week with Ryan, Michael, and Alyssa, but it's hard to believe that my time here is winding down! Time has gone too quickly this summer. Pray that I can squeeze every last drop out of this week!

Yall are great!