Meet Doña Paulina!

     I would like to take the time to introduce everyone to a family who means a lot to me.  Meet Doña Paulina!  She is one of the sweetest women I know and recently I was able to get to know her better.  Her family have been long time friends to the SLMs here in Okinawa.  Her and her daughter Yina were some of the first people I met when I arrived to Okinawa.  Her husband is sick and can't work, so the SLMs have helped her out for years by paying her to wash some laundry once a week.  She usually comes on Monday morning, so I usually wake up to tutor one of our pre-kindergartners in English and then return home to keep her company as she is finishing up the laundry.  It was during one of these conversations that I learned she used to make hammocks, so I asked her if she would have time to make one for me before I head home.  She said yes, and when I asked if I could come over to help her, she eagerly agreed!

     I started going over to her house a few afternoons a week when I don't have class.  I learned that her grandma was the one who first knew how to make hammocks and she passed it down to Doña Paulina's mom, who passed it down to her.  She then told me that none of her daughters like to do things like weave, knit, or crochet so she had no one to pass her knowledge onto.  After hearing this, I felt incredibly special that this woman would invite me to her house and teach me a trade that has been passed down through her family.  She gave me an incredible gift, one that isn't wrapped but that I can carry with me in my heart the rest of my life.  Throughout the hammock-making process I have shared stories, laughter, knowledge, meals, fruit, and soda with this family, and I am blessed to have been given to opportunity to get to know this family better.  I hope everyone enjoys the pictures.

The beginning, weaving the
string together.

Almost done.  Doña Paulina is tying the tassels on the
other side.

     

Working on the ends of the hammock.

Twisting the string together
to make a
strong rope for the ends.

The finished hammock.  Perfect for one person. 

Celebrating A Year!

At a birthday dinner for Doña Paulina.

     It's hard to believe but a year ago today I stepped off of the plane and saw, for the first time, what would become my home.  My journey in Bolivia has been an incredible one, full of laughter, friends, playing, birthday parties, dancing, celebrations, smiles, hugs, and unconditional love.  There also have been a lot of challenges, however sitting where I am today would I do it all over again?  The answer is simple.  Absolutely!  I never expected Okinawa to become my home, complete with mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and brothers.  The community of Okinawa has gone above and beyond to make us feel like we are family.  Like we are home.

     Our mission as SLMs is one of presence.  Being present can take a few different forms for us here in Okinawa.  Yes, it means teaching our classes and playing with the kids at recess, but it also means being present in the community outside of school.  St. Don Bosco was first and foremost a friend to the youth.  I learned most recently how much that friendship can mean.  Sometimes all someone needs is a friend, sharing their time, their recipes, and giving much needed encouragement.  I know that when I leave in a few months, a part of my heart will always be here in Okinawa with the people I have come to love over the year.

El Festival de la Buena Cosecha

     August 15th, 16th, and 17th was a weekend of celebration here in Okinawa.  What were we celebrating?  60 years since the founding of Okinawa!  When I first told people I was heading to Okinawa Bolivia, the usual response was "you mean Japan right?".  Well everyone would be correct that Okinawa is an island in Japan, but it also is a Japanese colony located in the department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia.  In 1954 the Bolivian government gave a land incentive to the people of Japan.  This caused a migration of the Japanese into Santa Cruz, Bolivia where they began to farm.  The area that they lived in they named Okinawa, which consists of 3 colonies.  We live in Okinawa Numero Uno.  When driving outside of Okinawa to any of the communities we visit or to the other two colonies, one sees nothing but farmland with various crops, the majority being wheat, soy, sugarcane, and corn.  The views on these roads are absolutely breath-taking!  When looking at old and current pictures, it is incredible to see how far Okinawa has come over the last 60 years.  The majority of the farms are owned by the Japanese, but the Bolivians usually work on the farm.
     Every year the Bolivians and Japanese come together to celebrate the founding of Okinawa.  You can play carnival games, families set up food huts, there's always music for dancing, pretty much the formula for having a good time.  Friday was spent watching the parade, eating in the plaza, playing with the kids, and watching the Miss Okinawa pageant.  One of our friends, and a senior at our school, competed in the pageant.  Saturday was again spent in the plaza.  We ate at the hut of one of our friends, played foozeball with the kids, and gathered around the bleachers for the next event.  In the afternoon, everyone gathered around the bleachers outside of the Japanese school to watch the dancing.  We watched both traditional Japanese and Bolivian dances.  Some of the dancers were professionals, and others were our kids from the high school.  Following the performance was a night of dancing in the plaza.  The last day of the festival consisted of a moto race on the outskirts of town.  After the race we went to Confirmation classes and then it was back to the plaza for one final night of dancing with our friends.  This last night in the plaza I was dancing with someone who started telling me about the SLMs he had for teachers.  He went on to tell me that he's studying computer engineering and is discerning to become a priest!  It was an incredible weekend filled with culture, play, friends, and memories!  Enjoy some of my pictures of the festival below!

We started with a parade in the plaza.

Tables set up for the Miss Okinawa pageant.

All of the Miss Okinawa candidates.  The girl in the pink is
one of our friends, Yina. 

We started the dances with a Japanese dance.

Followed by traditional Bolivian Dances.  This is the Caporales.

La Diablada.

La Cueca.

La Cueca

Our high school, San Francisco Xavier, danced in the festival too.

We ended the night with karate.

There were many games to play in the plaza, including
riding carts around.  I picked up a passenger!

We ended with my favorite Japanese dance.
They dance with those HUGE drums!

The festival ended with a moto race.

The Day of Friendship

Before I get to the bulk of the post, I would like to say sorry it has taken so long to write, but it has been crazy here the last few weeks! I'll make up for it in the next 2 weeks I promise!

     In July, by the grace of God, I was able to go home for my nephew/godchild's baptism.  This meant the world to me since I missed the baby shower, birth, and the first 3 months of his life.  It was an incredible time to be home with family and to start to make memories with my nephew.

     After my 2 weeks at home it was time to begin the long flight back to Bolivia.  As my site partners and I were headed back from the airport to Okinawa, my heart was excited to be heading back.  I couldn't wait to get back to my beloved Okinawa!  Unfortunately, we arrived at about midnight, so I wasn't able to see any of the friends or family I have here.

     The next day was a school day, and conveniently, they were celebrating the Day of Friendship.  Much like in the USA for Valentines Day, the kids here give out friendship cards on this day.  I ended up helping one of my 4th graders carry their snack back to the classroom before recess.  I arrived at the door and a few of my students saw me and shouted "Teacher Julia!" and came running to give me a hug.  I soon was ambushed by 30 4th graders all wanting to give me a hug and share their friendship day cards.  They told me things like "How could you leave us for 2 whole weeks?!",  "I missed you so much!" and "When will we have English with you?".  This last one I find funny, because whereas these kids like me coming to their class, they rarely want to actually LEARN what I want to teach them, haha.

     After school, we had our usual catechist meeting for First Communion and Confirmation.  We decided that each person would buy one gift for someone else to celebrate, and everyone brought a snack to share.  Upon walking into the meeting, I was applauded, told how much I was missed, and received many welcome-back hugs.

     So why am I sharing all of this?  Well, sometimes as a missioner, especially as one of presence, it is easy to get burned out.  Sometimes you wonder if you are being an effective missioner.  This experience of coming back after being home showed me that I am being effective.  I am being a presence in the community.  I have given so much of my love to the community of Okinawa, and I know that it is returned.  It gave me more energy to keep pushing through, to keep loving, and to keep being a presence.  Sometimes the best witness to faith is not with words (though I do teach a fair amount of catechism), but is by merely presence.

New Opportunities

     Missionary life offers many different opportunities.  Last night I was able to help and experience a different organization here in Bolivia.  I want to take the time here to share my experience, as well and share this WONDERFUL organization with everyone.
     Salesian Missions has been sending lay missioners to Okinawa, Bolivia for nearly 20 years now.  One missioners experience completely changed her life and instilled a passion for continuing the education at the university level for kids from the campo, like Okinawa.  I can say from experience that it is easy to fall in love with the beauty of Bolivia and its people.  However, you easily become aware of the poverty in Bolivia.  To give you an idea:

• Bolivia is the poorest country in South America.
• Over 4,000 youth of Bolivia live on the street.
• Over 10,000 children live in orphanages.
• In rural areas, like Okinawa, only 14% of Bolivians finish high school and 3% attend university.

     Why am I sharing these statistics with you?  Well, not only does it give everyone a look into my life living in one of these rural areas, but they also gave Kathleen Curran an idea.  She is the founder of "Keep the Faith in Bolivia," an organization whose mission is to lift the youth out of poverty and to empower them through higher education to go out and empower the world.  They assist the youth in 2 ways: (1) by supplying kids from K-12 with school supplies and assisting with tuition and (2) by providing full scholarships, (including housing, food and tuition) to kids at the university or technical school level.  Currently they are supporting 200 students grades K-12, and 5 kids at the university level.  To date, they have helped 40 youth through university to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, biochemists, and more!  The students also regularly engage in service projects, including making basic hygiene kits for children on the street.  Sounds awesome right!?

Adam and I with the kids after our presentation.

    So how did I get involved?  Kathleen, being a former SLM from Okinawa, enlisted our help to present a few of our favorite technologies to the kids, which can help enhance their projects.  We put together a presentation over Google Docs, Pinterest, and When2Meet.  We were warmly welcomed by the girls and it was easy to talk over pizza for dinner.  One of the best parts was seeing was the smiles on their faces as they shared what they were studying and their dreams, knowing that Kathleen and her organization are helping make those dreams come true.

     One of my highlights, other than getting to know the kids, was talking with them at dinner about other things.  I had heard about the SLM program through a friend at MSU who was a missioner in Okinawa. and one of the girls at dinner talked about how she was from Okinawa.  She then went on to share that she went to the school that we teach at, and that she remembers her English teacher, who was my friend!  For me, in this moment, our mission here was brought to full circle seeing how we all can and do make an impact on these kids lives.

If you would like to learn more about this organization, visit http://keepthefaithinbolivia.org.

Celebrate!

     I would like to take a moment to share some of the culture of Bolivia with everyone: Celebrate!  The people in Bolivia love to celebrate and they go big, and why not?  Every single person is celebrated throughout the year.  They celebrate the worker, children, students, teachers, families, mothers, fathers, firefighters, etc.  What a way to make everyone feel special, loved, and important!  These festivities usually involve a big celebration at the schools, in the streets, or in the plaza.

     More importantly, something to be taken away from the "celebrate" mentality, is to celebrate life!  How beautiful is that?!  Every day you wake up is another day to celebrate being alive!  The students at our school spend days making decorations, preparing dances and skits for these festivities.  So much time is spent preparing for these events and so much joy is taken from them.

     Most of my students and their families do not own a TV, a car, they don't have many toys.  A lot of them don't have a concrete floor or walls made of bricks, and yet they are rich in joy and love.  It's always amazing to see how freely they give their love to us, and how much love they put into their celebrations.  Below I have pictures from a few of the celebrations I have witnessed in the last few months.  Enjoy and remember to CELEBRATE!  

It doesn't matter how old or young you are, birthday's are
always a big celebration with family and friends.

We celebrated the founding of our school, San Francisco
Xavier, 50 years ago with the Provincial of the FMA's.

The Elementary students enjoyed a day off of
classes to celebrate "Día del Niño" (Day
of the Child) with field games.

The Feast of Mary Help of Christians.

This is the senior class.  Every class prepared a song for Mary
Help of Christians on her feast day.

Our secondary students prepared dances
to celebrate Mother's Day.

The senior class performed a dance to music
from Grease for Mother's Day.

The elementary students prepared dances for
their mothers as well.  This Kinder class
dressed as clowns!

The mothers also had games to play throughout the celebration.

Easter in Communities

     Part of our mission here in Okinawa is traveling to surrounding communities.  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings are saved to travel to 12 different communities each month.  We arrive at the school in each community in the morning and divide the kids up into 2-3 groups (depending on the size) based on age.  In these groups we teach the kids catechism based on a theme.  Afterwards, since we are Salesian Missioners, we play games with the kids.  I thought I would share what we are teaching the kids right now.

     This month, since we are celebrating Easter, we have a fun activity for the kids.  First we pray followed by singing a song about how we all have a friend who loves us, and His name is Jesus.  Then I read a kids version of Jesus' death, starting with Palm Sunday.  Lastly, I show the kids that I have 5 different colored plastic eggs and I tell them that there is something inside.  The kids get really excited, especially when I ask who wants to open the egg and show what's inside to the rest of the class.  One by one we open the eggs and talk about why that object is inside.

The first egg contains a palm branch, which represents when Jesus rode into Jerusalem and the people celebrated His arrival by waving palm branches.

The second egg contains bread, which represents the Last Supper Jesus had with his 12 disciples.  Jesus gave us Himself in the bread and the wine at the Last Supper, and we participate every Sunday when we go to mass.

The third egg contains nails, which represents when Jesus was nailed to the cross.  He died for us because he wanted to save us from our sins and He wants to be with us in Heaven.

The fourth egg contains rocks, which represents the rock they used to close the tomb after Jesus died.

The fifth egg is empty, which represents the vacant tomb.  I ask the kids why the tomb is vacant, and explain that it's because Jesus lives!  He rose from the dead and he lives not only in Heaven, but in every one of our hearts.

After the catechism is done, we tell the kids that for Easter in the United States kids look for plastic Easter eggs that have a treat in them and that the Easter Bunny made a visit to their school and dropped eggs outside that they have to look for.  It was so much fun being able to share one of our traditions with the kids and watching them having so much fun looking for the eggs!  Happy Easter everyone!

The kids looking for the eggs.

These kids were excited to show off their eggs!