Talent Show

There wasn't enough room for the Host Families to attend Graduation ceremonies but they were invited to see the rehearsal of the Talent Show and they enjoyed that very much. The families with whom the students are place are people who have had years of experience welcoming students to Cochabamba and are happy to share their homes and culture with the language students. < class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

My house mother Mary Gamboa.

A Traditional Bolivian Dance performed by some students and their dance teacher.

Stephany accompanied by Sr. Rosario doing Ave Maria.

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Johanna & Chenoa learned to play the Zampona (Andean wooden pipes)

If this had been a school in the States Chenoa & Johanna would have been voted President & Vice President of our class. They were so dynamic & creative in their ideas for fun & interesting things to do and places to go. Chenoa is a Presbyterian Missionary from Pittsburgh PA and Johanna, with her husband Chris and their 3 little children are members of the Dutch Reformed Church in Canada. The family speek Dutch, English and now Spanish.

Panis Angelicus (Cesar Franck) O Lord Most Holy.

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Veronica, a Short Term M.M.here until December did a Bolivian cooking class (a la Julia Childs)

Ellen & Bill performed some down home fiddle music.

Ellen is finishing up her M.Div.degree and Bill and his wife Eileen have been Maryknoll Lay Missioners for 15 yrs. serving in Tanzania, East Timur and now Cochabamba.

Sr. Bernadette, Stephanie & Kathleen, accompanied by Sr. Rosalia perform Padre Nuestro, a very popular Bolivian hymn sung to the tune of Simon & Garfunkel's Sound of Silence.

A hilarious skit played by Jason, a student from the Bahamas on 3 teachers who were selected to compete with each other as to who could dump the 4 basket balls into a basket the fastest. The trick was that Jason's head was actually the 4th ball. As you can see from the teachers reactions to this surprise it sent them reeling in laughter.

We were all entertained by most of the female faculty performing a Traditional Bolivian dance.

After a delicious barbecue we were again entertained by a local band followed by much dancing.

One glorious day I didn't want to see come to an end.

Graduation Day

It's hard to believe that 5 months have passed since I arrived in Cochabamba to study Spanish at the Maryknoll Language Institute.
There vision statement is to be a leading Center for missionary formation, committed to the Reign of god, living intercultural relationships in and from Latin America for the world.

(faculty)


For more than 40 yrs. The Maryknoll Language Institute, located in Cochabamba Bolivia has assisted people with linguistic and cultural preparation for intercultural service.
Since 1965 more than 10,000 people have studied Spanish, as well as the Andean languages Aymara and Quecha here.
All language courses consist of 4 daily classes taught by 4 different Bolivian teachers 5 days a week.

(me & Kitty)

The schedule and teachers change every 2 weeks. This allows the student to experience a number of teaching styles and perspectives.

(Mario)


In addition to the language classes there are periodic conferences and workshops on theology, missiology and intercultural ministry.

(Tatiana)

The teams of teachers meet between classes.

The students come from all parts of the world. They are professional Catholic religious as well as human development, service professionals and other Christian missionaries.
The graduation service was put together by different committees made up of students and faculty. The amount of creativity and talent was very impressive. The whole day was so beautiful, inspiring and entertaining that I didn't want it to end. The liturgy committee chose a passage from Isaiah 6:8 to be read in 7 languages:Aymaran, Quechuan, Spanish, Korean,Vietnamese, Sign and English by faculty & students..

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,"Whom shall I send? And who will go for us and I said, "hear I am. Send me". Isiah 6:8

Following this, students in groups of 5 read their speeches in Spanish

After each group of students gave their speech they made their hand prints for a class poster

Yours truly gave her speech in Spanish with heart pounding.
I came to Bolivia to prepare for missión work and the best preparation I received was to experience being ministered to by my host family, Mary, Alfredo & Marcos Gamboa. The unfortunate experience of fracturing my wrist in February made me more vulnerable in every way. The difficulties with my heavy cast and afterwords Physical Therapy made each day an additional challenge and I have no doubt in my mind that without the loving care of my host family I would not have been able to persevere through these five months.

I now know more deeply than ever before how important and enabling simple kindness can be to someone’s life. Having experienced their loving kindness through those difficult months I know I will be better at my ministry because of it.

Also I can’t thank the professors, administrators, auxiliary staff enough for their excellent dedication to us students. They created a friendly and supportive atmosphere in which we could best learn to speak Spanish.

Finally my volunteer work with the boys and girls at Casa Nazareth and Marde de Dios helped me understand what the initial desire I had to come to Cochabamba was about. I have always loved children and enjoy being with them. I have 4 teenage granddaughters who I love very much. When I look at them I see the sun and the moon but when I look at these children who have been abandoned ,abused or orphaned I see the face of God.

A class trip to Mt. Tunari

We hired a bus to take to Mt. Tunari, a 2 hour ride from Cochabamba up very steep mountain passes on a very narrow mountain road. (Click on pics to enlarge view.)

I will miss many new friends made during this school term, which ends June 9th. 7 students including me will be staying on in Cochabamba for from 1 to 3 years. The couple in the front of the bus, Dominic & and his partner Ellen I will miss in particular. Dominic has been accepted at the Mayo Clinic medical school and Ellen is finishing up her M.Div.degree and is looking into the Chaplaincy Residency program at the Mayo Clinic.

After arriving half way up Mt. Tunari to a lagoon about 12000 ft. the younger and more fit in our group set off for the summit while we older students and the children made camp for 4 hr.s to await their return.

I took the pics of the llamas with my zoom leans. I didn't have the energy to hike up to them for a closer look. Any exertion in this high altitude was very difficult for me.

The following pics have been shared with me by the valiant ones who made it to the summit.

Mean while the views from the lagoon on this desolate Altiplano were beautiful in there own stark way. I don't know how the llamas existed on so little scrub.

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We all head back to Cochabamba, only 840 ft.above sea level.

Some views along the way back down the mountain.

The view as we approach Cochabamba.

We arrived back to our homes 10 hours later, tired and happy.









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