Baby Shower (that's Spanish for Baby Shower)

Some things are so different here, like using graph paper as notebook paper, always taking turns in a counter-clockwise direction, buying fresh strawberries, flan, or large lizards from people walking through the lanes while you wait at the stoplight. And then some things are exactly the same, like Baby Showers. So much the same, that they haven't even bothered to translate the name.

Whoever brought the title and tradition down from the North also transported the games. Whether with toilet paper or ribbon, it is of course necessary that everyone at the party guesstimate the mother-to-be's waist size. One slight difference being in the States I've never seen anyone nicely fold the toilet paper squares for later use.

This week we threw a shower for our pastor and his wife, Paul and Kristin Hoffman, who are about to meet their fifth little one while simultaneously on the verge of opening an orphanage for sick babies, which I'm sure to be sharing much more about in the near future... It's so nice to be involved in the close inner community of a church after a year of being only a casual attender of so many. Already, I'm at home enough to invite others into our little fellowship.

Orfa (pictured with me here) is one of my new co-workers who lives in the far South of Bolivia, but is commuting up to work in the Santa Cruz office. She enjoyed the church service when she was in town one Sunday, so I invited her to the baby shower, and now I think she'll be joining me for wallyball this afternoon with the group. Orfa lives near the guaraní community that we're starting to work in called the Chaco, with some of the poorest of the poor in Bolivia. You might remember this post where I shared photos of the little "houses" made of sticks. Now, as I sip my hot chocolate under the covers in my house trying to stay warm in what may be our coldest winter/week in ten years, they huddle together in their insulation-less homes in flip-flops and t-shirts because that's all they have. For this reason, Orfa and another co-worker Feli are collecting warm clothes and shoes and blankets to take down on their trip next week, to spread a little warmth and a little love, in Christ's name. I love God's economic system of sharing.