Feliz Navidad de Bolivia.

Our wonderful host family and the Christmas Eve dinner that Esperanza prepared for us. The turkey is stuffed with bacon, beef, and chicken and there is also a roasted chicken. There was yucca and cheese croquettes, salad, rice, etc... What a feast!

On Christmas Eve day, we spent the day at the girls' home and this spunky gal wanted to do Becky's hair. Becky kept saying that it hurt and the "hairdresser" kept saying "tienes que aguantar" which translates into "deal with it".... basically.

The little girls prepared a dance where they dressed as cats.

The youngest from both the girls and the boys home prepared a skit reenacting the Christmas story.

The kids!

(For the children's privacy, we won't be posting their real names on this blog or in any e-mails. If you're looking for sponsorship ideas or if you're curious about the organization in general, you can click on the website below:
www.ninosconvalor.org


One of the young boys has a national sponsor and she organized a visit from her company to bring all 34 kids Christmas gifts. They all got new towels, socks, a set of clothes, and some goodies. The kids are sitting on the steps of the boys home which is called Pedacitos del Cielo (Little Pieces of Heaven).

Watching a movie.

This child loves Tio Marco (i.e. Mark). When Becky (Tia Rebecca) kicked him the soccer ball, he quickly replied that Mark does it better. Cheeky, huh?

The little boys all have their own water bottles which they faithfully carry around when they go on their outings. Even the 2 year-olds know they have to hang on to their water bottle.

So far it's been fun to get to know each of their 34 names and after only a week, they have all made us feel very welcome. It's been great for the two of us to be able to work together and to work with kids as both of us have had much more experience working with adults and/or teenagers.

Our house is a very very very fine house....... but no cats (name that song)

Our youngest roommate Laura and her uncle Gustavo putting together the Christmas tree.

Stage 2 of putting together the tree. Here is Laura again. They ended by putting a manger scene at the bottom of the tree. Baby Jesus doesn't get placed until midnight on Christmas Eve.

View outside our bedroom window.

View outside our bedroom window. Cochabamba sits in a valley but we're still at a fairly high altitude.....somewhere around 9,000 feet I think.

Our house for the next two months. Isn't it beautiful? Bito the English bulldog guards the backyard.

We made it to Cochabamba! More pictures to come soon......

We´ll post some pictures soon but for now we just wanted to let y´all know that we arrived safe and sound in Cochabamba. Our luggage arrived too. This is the first time I (this is Becky writing) have checked bags since Air Pacific lost all my favorite personal belongings back in 2002 so at all of our four stops, I expected to have to say goodbye to our stuff. Ha. We missed our connection from Santiago, Chile to La Paz, Bolivia so Iberia put us up at the Hilton for two nights. Pretty sweet! During our unexpected layover in Santiago, we took a bicycle tour with Peter Murphy´s (some of you may know him from Gordon College) company La Bicicleta Verde (www.labicicletaverde.com). It was a great introduction to a city that we hope to get more acquainted with after our time in Cochabamba.
We arrived in Bolivia on the 16th and had a 7 hour layover in La Paz. The man in front of us in line at the airport was covered in ice and when we looked outside, there was hail pouring out of the sky. The airport in La Paz is the highest airport in the world and we did feel a little light-headed walking around and up the stairs. We arrived in Cochabamba just after midnight and stayed at one of the guest houses of Sustainable Bolivia (this is the organization taking care of our housing, transportation, etc...). Yesterday we met our host family and we are now unpacked and ready to spend about 7 weeks here in the same place. After staying in places for one night at a time for the last few months, it is really great to unpack and have a closet and a dresser again. Our host family is so friendly and have made us feel right at home. Esperanza is the lady of the house and she has two daughters, one son, a nephew, and a granddaughter who are all living here with her. The house is more than big enough for all of us and we have our own room and we share a bathroom with one of the daughters. Laura, the granddaughter´s favorite TV show is Curious George which makes me think we´re going to get along just fine.
Okay, more to come soon. It´s hard to believe Christmas is next week. We love you and are thinking of you.

Next stop: Cochabamba, Bolivia

So we are leaving Spain today after being here for almost 7 weeks. Our flight stops in Santiago, Chile and then Iquique then La Paz and then finally Cochabamba. Hopefully our baggage makes it through all those stops. Yikes! Thanks for your comments, prayers, and text messages. We continue to use 917 300 9120 to receive texts and phone calls (if and when we have wi fi and our ipod touch is charged) so please stay in touch. More pics and posts to follow shortly.

Segovia: December 12th

This aqueduct is 2000 years old and was built by the Romans. In the 1970s, it was still a functioning aqueduct but they decided to stop the water flow because of the way the water was wearing on the rocks. Imagine that 2000 years later, it was still working! It´s about .8 kilometers long.

Mark and José. José and Becky have been writing letters for the last 10 years. Becky met José when she visited Segovia in 2001. José was a wonderful tour guide and a gracious host. He drove us around the city for a few hours showing us all the sights. What you see in this picture is the Alcazar which is a castle or palace. This was the castle that Walt Disney copied when creating the cartoon drawings for the Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Granada: December 11th

The entrance to the Alhambra. The mixture of Christianity and Islam was so fascinating to see.

Mark really loved Granada. We visited a tetería and had some great tea, walked around the beautiful city, and enjoyed the Alhambra and Generalife. Next time we´re in Spain, we´ll have to spend more time in Granada.

Ronda: December 10th

Ronda was a town that Becky had visited back in 2001 when she was visiting Berry College friends who were studying in Seville. 10 years later, here we are. Hard to believe it has been 10 years. Ronda is about a 2 hour bus ride south of Seville towards Málaga.

This bridge is called The New Bridge and was constructed in the mid 18th century. Kind of looks like something out of Lords of the Rings, doesn´t it?

More from Seville......

This is the school Becky attended back in 2000. It´s doubled in size but still has a lot of the same teachers like all the Josés, Grillo, Sánchez, and Delgado. Remember them Kerisa, Rachel, Bryce, Will, and Angeli?

Still wearing our Camino clothes yes but we´re in the Courtyard at the Cathedral of Seville, where Christopher Columbus is buried.

Hyesook and Becky eating churros con chocolate en la Plaza de Encarnación in Seville. Hyesook also finished the Camino on December 2nd and we convinced her to visit Seville too. We spent a few evenings having some tapas with her and now she´s on her way to see Cádiz and Barcelona.

Estamos en Sevilla!

We´re in Seville for two holidays. The first is December 6th, the Day of the Constitution when Spain changed from a dictatorship to a democracy. December 8th is the Celebration of the Immaculate Conception so there will be lots of religious celebrations throughout the city. This photo is taken in the Maria Luisa park and it probably has something to do with the Day of the Constitution since today is the 6th.


Mark in the Museo de Bellas Artes.


Feliz Navidad... outside of the Cathedral.... someone told us it´s the third largest in the world after the Vatican and the one in London.

Mark in the Plaza de España.

Becky and the Torre del Oro. She used to live right down the street from this back in 2000.

Mark relaxing by the Guadalquivir River.

Trip to Muxia and Final Farewell to Camino Amigos!

Alfred, Mark, Maryka, Brend, Colonel, Pierre, Kathrin, and Becky... our last minutes with Camino friends in the square in front of the Cathedral.


Kathrin, Alfred, Bilal, Becky, and Brend.

Hello Pulpo! All these restaurants had their raw meat on display in glass windows.

Becky and Mark in Muxia. Some pilgrims walk to Finisterre and then to Muxia or vice versa but we took the bus instead and spent the time there with Eamonn. This is the scene at the end of the movie The Way.

Eamonn and Mark in Muxia.

Day 33: Arca do Pino to Santiago de Campostela (December 2)

We made it!  We walked in the dark and the rain for a few hours to make sure we made it in time for the 12:00 mass.  Lorna kept us company and the three of us used our headlamps and headed into the woods and highways that led us the last 20 kilometers.  When we arrived at the cathedral, Eamonn went downstairs and when we saw him again, he was dressed in a purple robe as he helped the Spanish priest celebrate mass.  We didn't take photos as some moments are just worth experiencing.  The priests put the incense in a giant golden container and they swung it back and forth in the cathedral.  It's called the botafumeiro and it only happens on special occasions.  It's hard to describe but picture a huge incense burner being swung around a giant cathedral over the heads of the congregation. 
The priest welcomed the pilgrims, some of them by their name and/or country of origin and read the Gospel about Christ restoring sight to the blind.  We saw some friends that had gone on ahead of us like Atillio and Kathrin.  We hope to run into Brend and Harold and some of the others that will be arriving in the next few days.  Some have gone on to walk to Finisterre and/or Muxia which are towns on the coast but Mark and I will take a few days of rest before flying to Seville on December 5th. 
We are blessed to stay with some friends of friends who live here in Santiago and plan to eventually open an albergue and pilgrim welcome center of their own.  It's a great way to debrief and be with an American family.  They have a Christmas tree!

Eamonn, Becky and Lorna in front of the Cathedral.

Hooray!  We made it.

Attilio, Kathrin, Eamonn, Becky, Mark, and Lorna

Day 32: One more day to go!!!!! Arzúa to Arca do Pino (December 1)

Becky and Eamonn under some grapevines.

We´re not sure what kind of trees these are but they´re everywhere! Anybody know?