Reggaetón and dancing nuns

Rightho, so I've let you know that I've arrived safe and sound (the journey, incidentally, though long was largely uneventful and I slept most of the way) and I've introduced you to some of the people at the Hogar.

Now I can finally start telling you about some of the many things that have been going on these past couple of weeks!

Last night, for instance, we had a fiesta! The 21st September here is el Día de Estudiante (Student's Day), as well as el Día de Amor and also the first day of Spring. So, as you can see, a party was indeed in order.

(By the way, it is weird to be celebrating the start of Spring in September. Plus, it's not comforting to know that Summer is approaching and it's just going to keep getting hotter and hotter and hotter...)

Anyway, despite obviously knowing that the 21st September is a big day, the Madres, volunteers and the Profes (teachers) only got together for the first time to start planning it on Wednesday (two days before). We had to basically plan for a whole evening's entertainment for the girls, inc. games, regional dances, prizes, etc.

Cue desperate last-minute preparations. We spent hours learning the 4 regional 'danzas' – each a different traditional dance of a different part of the Santa Cruz region. Fortunately for me, who is not a natural-born dancer by any means, the dances here mostly involve shuffling around and standing in the same place tapping your foot (due, I guess, to the oppressive heat..!).

Anyway, it all came together on the night. We (the volunteers and Profes) dressed up in traditional costume (we men were dressed as 'campesinos': white shirts, white trousers with the legs rolled up, and a sombrero) and the kids loved it. In between dances, the Madres organised the games for the kids while we got changed for the next dance. We also put on a military exercise march, a mock 'pasarela' (cat-walk) and then us 5 volunteers gave a surprise dance rendition of N*SYNC's 'ByeBye'. Justin Timberlake eat your heart out...

Afterwards, we got the BBQ going, the DJ put on some tunes and the party really kicked off. All the girls were dancing away and having a great time (reggaetón seems to be particularly popular with the teenage girls here – it sounds to me like a strange form of modern R&B and rap...). At one point I stopped, looked around, and realised that I was dancing on a basketball pitch with some fifty Bolivian girls, a couple of 20something Americans, and a few nuns. Very surreal, I can tell you. Credit to the Madres, though, they danced all night long with the girls, habits et al. I think Sarah summed it up nicely: “Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that one day I would dance reggaetón with a nun!”

Photos to be posted as soon as possible, of course.

I hope all is well in Merry Old England. Plenty more stories still to come. Feel free to email me, or post any comments on this blog!