Tuesday, June 17

Yesterday we said goodbye to "our" children and the other people in the orphanage. It was a great day; all the kids were in a very good mood, they ate their lunch quickly and they didn't fight. We had bought funny plastic sunglasses for them, based on an idea of another volunteer who brought paper sunglasses last week and which was very funny. The plastic ones they could not eat, but they still weren't kid-proof and most of them were broken by the end of the day. But nevertheless the kids loved them and we had a lot of fun. We also brought balloons, but totally forgot about them because the kids were dancing and playing so much. So now Jeroen is using the balloons to practice making animals and other funny shapes out of them so we can work as clowns when we come back from our trip ;-)

Most kids didn't understand we are not coming back, a few asked why we were not moving our house next to theirs so we don't have to leave. All the fixed workers and the nuns didn't like us leaving, they thought we were very good workers and we even got a present from the nuns (chocolates and many blessings from God ;-). So even though we were sad to leave the kids, that gave us a good feeling.

Last Friday we missed the amazing soccer game Holland-France, because there was a special happening at the orphanage. It was the day of San Antonio, a special religious day for the nuns. All the kids got dressed in new clothes and with the new shoes we had bought them. Then we went to a nearby church for a special mass, including the baptizing of two orphans. The kids looked really cute and it was nice to join in the experience, even though we hardly understood what was being said.

We were positively surprised and very happy with the huge amount of donations we received, in total 500 Euro from 10 families! Thanks very much for that! Three afternoons we spent shopping for the kids. And besides 30 pairs of shoes, we bought a lot of other things: wooden puzzles (which they can't eat or tear apart), toy cars and dolls, diapers, milk and babyfood. 350 Euro went to help them buy new mattresses for the beds. Have a look at the pictures to see the kids playing with some of their new toys.

Besides working in the orphanage we also did some other nice things in and around Sucre. During one weekend there was a big parade of traditional dances that lasted from the afternoon to late at night. The dancing groups had beautiful costumes and we had good seats to enjoy the parade. Last weekend we went to a group of 7 waterfalls close to the city with some other students of the language school. We had to climb the rocks which was quite hard sometimes. On our way back we took the easy route: jump into the water. It was a nice experience but the water was freezingly cold!

The 5 weeks in Sucre went by quickly and we met a lot of great people. We also learned a lot of Spanish during the 2 weeks of classes we both took. It was nice to stay in one place for a longer time, but we're also looking forward to traveling again and see the world famous salt flats of Uyuni. After that we plan to go to the northern part of Chile.