a day in santa cruz

On Monday, April 18th, I went in to the city to pick up my LAST paperwork here! My carnet. It's like an identification card, there's no equivalent in Canada. I'll post a picture of it yet sometime! It was my FIRST time going to Santa all by  myself and getting a taxi by myself! I made a cultural blunder along the way, when I got into the taxi my first question was: do you know where this place is? He said, yes I know. And then he said very pointedly, buenos tardes. OOPS. Greetings first, ALWAYS. So not a major blunder, just a little bit rude.

Later on that day I met up with our MEM team, we went bowling and to Papa John's for pizza, as a goodbye to a couple that left this week. They were the pastor couple at our church in Villa Nueva, and now they're moving on to new things in Canada. Papa John's has a reputation in Santa Cruz as having the most American pizza, the closest to home. Pizza isn't a thing here. This was DELICIOUS. A wonderful time was had by all.

 this was my quick lunch take out. Can't remember what it's called. You can get it at the grocery store that's closest to the Pailon taxi stand in Santa Cruz. It's a very thick dense dough with chicken and sauce on the inside, and I think it's deepfried. deliciousness

 MEM team at Papa John's

the most north american thing I've seen in a while!

futbol and futsal photos (April 15-16th)

 my boys checking out the competition

 futsal stadium, where our elementary girls team played

 girls team! 1 win, 1 tie, 1 loss. 

 another picture of the girls futsal stadium

 boys team playing futbol, in the yellow

 back to the girls game.. look at the dog. It is a legitimate job at sports events for someone to stand at the gate and make sure that animals don't come in, or else this happens.

 boys futsal stadium

 this guy with the ball is in grade 4, and his ball handling skills are either first or second best on the team of grade 2-6 boys. Not to mention they're way better than mine. This kid is amazing.

Our team! Record: 1 win, 2 losses. My assistant coach is a teacher at the school here, he helped me GREATLY with registering the players and dealing with refs, because it was all in Spanish! Mind you, he only speaks Spanish, so it was hard for us too. By the 3rd game, when he wasn't there, I was able to do it all on my own, woohoo!

Overall, the boys were disappointed and frustrated with the first two games, but we went out with a win, and they were very happy at the end. As a coach, (and a new coach at that), I was frustrated I hadn't trained them better, but then I remembered they're age 7 to 12! And I don't speak their language. So I think we did alright! I'm very proud of them, and it was a very cool opportunity to get to know them outside of school and in a fun setting

atletismo photos (April 14th)

 the students in the red and white are the track and field team for elementary.

 Their events for elementary are different than what I'm used to, but here is a relay event, which are obviously the best kind.

 The stadium on one side

 a very popular food here, cunape. A sweet ish biscuit dough mixed with lots of cheese? People sell this everywhere, at intersections, events, etc.You hear them call cunaPE, cunaPE (coo - nya - PAY). These two were 4 bs (80 Canadian cents).

a view of half of the track area

a teenaged tarantula

this little guy came to visit a few weeks ago, this is right beside our back door. I thought he might be dead because he didn't move, even when I slammed the door and hit the wall right beside him. But I genuinely didn't know what to do, so I read a book beside him all afternoon instead. The next day, he was gone. Not dead after all.

20 degrees Celsius means...

It has been a 'chilly' week for people here in the Santa Cruz area! It's been in between 18 and 25 degrees Celsius since Monday, and windy. What this means...
- Bolivians are wearing parkas with FUR, many many layers, toques, scarves, etc. It looks like they're going out in a blizzard in Manitoba, with their only their eyes showing.
- people don't shower! Because they don't have hot water tanks here, and the water is freezing cold. So people stink a lot right now.
- some students don't come to school! Because somehow it's too cold and their house will be better? Really it won't be, but that's what they think.
- I have lots of energy! I didn't realize how much the hot temperatures were draining me, so now I feel so calm and energized.. it's really quite nice. Feels like a holiday in a way.
- aand I laugh a lot, because everyone looks ridiculous. They keep on asking me if my feet are cold (i'm wearing pants, a shirt and a cardigan, and flipflops, more than I have all year so far). And my feet are not cold at all.

Neeeew blog address, sorry!

Hi everyone, so sorry to change my blog! The other site (jessalynheppner.blog.com) has been very inconsistent with a lot of things, so I decided to move over here, hopefully it proves more reliable! Once I can access the old blog again, I will try to transfer those posts to here.

more than just surviving

Well after the hustle and bustle of the last few weeks and especially this last weekend, with track and soccer, and reports cards were due, plus other things as they come up… yesterday was the lowest day I’ve had here. Mentally and physically exhausted, running on 4 hours of sleep for a few nights in a row, feeling frustrated and cynical about classes, sports, languages, cultures, and life in general. Me trying to do it all = not much good. I will probably learn this lesson continually for the rest of my life!  I know it has to be God in me, or else it will nothing. And what purpose is there without God? Really, literally, there is none. I asked for prayer yesterday from my sisters, I spent a lot of time reading in Romans and also in (somewhat desperate) prayer. Life is more than just surviving.
Romans 7. Mostly talking about how the law is cancelled when death occurs, for example if your husband dies, the law of marriage would no longer be there. Same with the law of sin. Towards the end of the chapter, Paul says:

 It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

So today, I remember. I remember that I can’t do anything for myself, but JESUS CHRIST can and does. With my pride, my anger, my need to try to do it all on my own. Today, I remember, and I die to myself and sin, and I truly LIVE in Jesus. Today wasn’t perfect, by no means. But it wasn’t just surviving.

Thank you ALL for your continued prayers, I especially felt them today.

Please pray that I will see each of my students as loved and treasured children of God, and not as problems, or objects, or annoyances. Today I was able to see that, but it doesn’t always happen!

I am thankful for the grace and encouragement of my fellow teachers, mission team, and also the students!

atletismo & futbol

This blog has been hard to access lately, sorry!
My life in the last month has included using all my free periods, and even skipping out on my regular music classes, to coach track (atletismo) and futbol (soccer) for the elementary teams. It has been a lot of fun, very busy, and crazy. I’ve never coached this age before, and it’s very different. Now the time has come to see how we stack up against competition! Tomorrow is the track meet for the area, and Friday through Sunday is the futbol tournament for this area. Hopefully this is a fun opportunity (they do love these sports!) and also a practical lesson in sportsmanship and good attitudes! Most of them do not speak English, so I have been trying to get a grasp on soccer terms in Spanish as quickly as possible!
ball – pelota     header – cabeza     goalie – arquero     defence – defensa     halfback – medio campista
forward – delantero     heads or tails – cara o cruz
there’s more, can’t remember everything!
If you want to pray something as ordinary (and yet so full of learning potential) as track meets and soccer games:
- that I could demonstrate sportsmanship and a godly attitude to my teams
- that I will figure out how to make myself understood in a very Spanish world (both in my team, and at the tournament – scary!!)
- that we will have fun and be proud of our accomplishments