some readers have asked for an explanation of the following word....

shmeh:

1. signifies uncertainty or uneasiness
ex:
person 1: "let's go into that haunted house"
person 2: "...shmeh"

2. it follows that...
ex:
"we could go play baseball but it's raining... so.... shmeh"

3. used to break an awkard silence

4. more or less, i guess so. (''shmyah'' could be used also for this one)
ex:
person 1: ''did you have a good day?''
person 2: ''um... shmeh"

5. lack of something to say

ex: I didn't know how to start an entry, so I wrote ''shmeh'' where the first paragraph should have been.

hope that explains things.

so anyways..

shmeh...

our trip to Canada went smoothly. We had an extra night in Santa Cruz because our flight was delayed. I used it to go out with Julio, Luis-Alberto and his friends to a Pirate/Techno themed bar until 10, which was when we had to be back at our hotel. After Chinese food.. Me, Devon, Alex and Romeo watched the newest Die Hard and Final Destination until we had to leave for the airport.

Because you're supposed to be 3 hours early for international flights. We decided not to sleep. We got to the airport at 3 in the morning and left Santa Cruz at 6 a.m.

In Lima, we spent our time exploring the town square and mall. We also loafed around the beech for a couple of hours. Me, Romeo and Mark swam in the Pacific Ocean the whole time, letting ourselves get sucked into the undertow to get washed up on the beach. lots of fun. From there, we flew to Toronto (I slept most of the way) and then to Montreal.

We stayed overnight in a camp in Iles Perrault and left the next morning at 2 p.m.

On the way to Perth, we treated ourselves to a coffe at Tim Hortons. Lots of people missed it. Having 9 Bolivians in assembly line service is hectic.

Our host families greated us at one of the local churches. There were a few snacks to go around, but we didn't stay long.

I'm staying in town with Liliane and her children Victoria and David. They're both in their mid-twentys.

I got a swimming membership at the local pool on my first day. I'm trying to get back into swimming shape by going 4 times a week. After 5 lane swims, I feel great.

For the next two months, I'm going to be working at the Salvation Army clothing store and Soup Kitchen. I'll also be chopping wood at a camp outside town.

I'm able to walk everywhere from my house, including group sessions, the pool, grocery store.. etc.

During our first couple of days, we had a couple of cultural presenations from a Cree woman, went to Ska show and decorated a giant Christmas tree. More to Come! There's going to be a polar dip fundraiser for the new year so that'll be fun.

It's been staying above zero for this entire week. I'm still walking around in jeans and a hoodie. I missed the cold.

that's it for now. still no snow. hope you guys are doing great. let me know what you're up to..

i have a new post all typed... but it's not uploading from word... working on it

After a short stop in Lima, we arrived in Toronto, Montreal and then Perth without incident. I got a membership at the local pool to get back into swimming shape. We have a meeting tomorrow morning where we'll figure out our volunteer work placements and activities. Me and Julio are staying with a family of three. Liliane and her children: Victoria and David. We have two Lhasa Apso dogs named Maverik and Jackson.

More news coming tomorrow.

I spent all yesterday at Julio´s cousins´ place. We spent all afternoon preparing a BBQ on the roof. The terrace has a pretty awesome view of Santa Cruz. I hadn´t eaten since the previous day at lunch so I almost died helping make all the salads and cutting up the chicken. The coals were ready at 4 in the afternoon and the food was ready at 4:45. I don´t think I´ve ever eaten more chicken in one day.

Unfortunately our plane has been delayed from today at 5p.m to tomorrow at 5 a.m. It´s a twelve hour delay, but we´re still planning to be in Montreal on Saturday. I have a feeling that we´re going to be late because voyages this far and long have the tendency to have at least one delayed flight. We´ll see.

Also. (This is a correction for a few posts back). It was actually my Dad, Yew Lee, and not my Mom who stayed up late uploading my favorite music to my ipod, packaged it, and shipped it to Bolivia for my enjoyment. So thanks go to him.

Shmeh.

Last night was hectic. We had to throw together a thank-you party for the community. All at the last minute. The workers told us that they were going to set up the blockade at 3 a.m. so we had to get out sometime that night. Most of us were scurrying around town getting fingerfoods and decorations for the social club near the town plaza. I was helping by setting up chairs and bringing in the speakers for the speech readings.
That was another thing. We were supposed to be giving two speaches: one on behalf of Canada World Youth and one on behalf of FUNDEHUS, our counterpart volunteer program. Both needed to be in Spanish. Unfortunately, two other volunteers insisted on writing it in English and then translating it for that night and would be handed to me later on. It was literally thrust into my hand two and half minutes before I had to go up to speak. That two and half minutes was a mad panic for me, skimming through the text and asking my Bolivian friend, Gabriella, the pronuncation of some words. I ended up going up and speaking to everyone in Spanish, to completely sure as to the content of my speech. People seemed to enjoy it and everyone understood.
We were organized.
After a small slideshow of our work in Camiri and our group. People stayed to chat and eat the appertizers we had set out. But soon after we were dashing towards our homes to pack our things to be ready for the bus at 10:30. Me and Julio speed-walked to all of his relatives houses to give quick good-byes and I ran to the German´s house to do the same later on. Before I left, Julio´s family gave a bunch of small gifts.
Definitely rushed.
All the families and the Germans gathered around our bus to say goodbye. The Germans requested that we sing the national anthem. Jonas gave me a fresh lime to remember him by. Alex had just got back from Sucre that morning. We were looing forward to spending more time with him before we left but we were forced to say hello and goodbye at the same time.
The bus left at 11:30 and we arrived in Santa Cruz around 4:30-5 in the morning. I spent the trip watching Max Payne with my ipod as a constant soundtrack. I´m guessing it was better that way. I roomed with the Canadian guys in Santa Cruz. Alex, Devon and Romeo. We stayed up til 9 watching ¨what´s with Beaver´´ or something like that and got an hours sleep. Today, we were told that we could go visit our counterpart´s families and that´s what i´m doing now. Me and Julio just had lunch with his family and here I am at the cafe.
In terms of what i´ve been doing for the past few weeks.
Besides working at the orphanage 4 days a week...
I had my education day with Esmerelda and Claudio. The focus of my presentation was on the camparison between rural and urban education in Bolivia. Since a great deal of Bolivia´s is spread out over massive rural areas (Bolivia has one of the lowest density populations in the world... 7people/km sqared i think), it´s difficult for the people living there to establish a learning environment, especially with the lack of teachers, money and bilingualism (Guarany (sic) is a native language prominent in rural areas). I compared drop-out rates between the rural and urban and also talked a bit about a few program intitiatives in Bolivia that address these problems.
For Halloween, we went to the Nembotiyah bar with our faces painted. The bar was hosting a massive party because Monday was the ´´dia de los muertos... the day of the dead´´.. so all the students from Santa Cruz were taking advantage of the day of to come down to visit family in Camiri. The town was packed that day. I ended up painting my face completely.. eyes, ears, neck and all. I went for the zombie look. All white.. with sickly blue under my eyes and blood gushing from my throat. Nothing too over the top.
The Nembotiyah was packed. You could hardly walk. Some of Julio´s cousin´s were there, our entire group and the Germans too. After two hours, my face-paint was getting extremely annoying ( I was tired of drinking beer through a straw) so I spent 20 minutes scraping it off. As soon as the bar started getting packed, the owners Marcello and Alan opened up the back door and revealed a decorated patio with spider-webs, candels and massive speakers. It ended up being a huge danse floor. We met up with some friends from Santa Cruz and listened to loud music all night.
We had a week and a half of 40 degree weather... I ALMOST DIED. I over-heat too much. Not too pleasant for sleeping either. I ended up going to the beach with Julio and his brothers to sit in the water for 4 hours. The river was the warmest fresh water i´ve ever felt.
We had a big BBQ at Grecia´s house just for fun.
There was an end of school party this past Saturday as well. There was a big party outside in the pouring rain.
Ya so that´s what Ivé been up to.
Tomorrow at 5p.m. we take a plane to Lima... The whole next day we stay in Peru and that night we take the 9-10 hour flight to Toronto. I´m not sure if or for how long we´re staying there.. but we go from there to Montreal by plane for Saturday. ´We´re at the camp for one day and then we take a bus to Perth, Ontario to settle down. The entire voyage from Santa Cruz will be with the Santa Cruz and Montero exchanges. It´ll be sweet to reconnect with them.
My fingers hurt. I´ll try to update again soon. I have a long trip ahead of me so I don´t know when the next time i´ll be able to get to an internet cafe will be.
Love you guys.Peace.
Connor