Come see what Kirsten is up to now!

Education blog and Pacific Learning Academy website (www.PacificLearningAcademy.com)

Kirsten's tutoring service has expanded and PLA is now an accredited high school. Specializing in 1-on-1 education (and small groups) at locations convenient to Eastside families (in-home tutoring as well as meeting at a local library). High School credit courses are also available to students wishing to take a class outside of their regular school, as well as to those wishing to take a full course load and graduate through PLA.

PLA offers Spanish, French, Japanese, Math (Algebra to Calculus), Science, English, writing, study skills and SAT/ACT prep and diagnostic tests, too!

See you there!

Photos of our trip to Bolivia

To see photos of our entire trip to Bolivia - head HERE to my me.com gallery!

We're Home!

It's been 7 days since we landed in Seattle. Mark met me at the airport, dressed in a suit and a placard that read "Rock Star Shuttle for O'Malley." He said it's because I was "big in Bolivia" (literally, of course). I'm not sure if it was jet lag or reverse culture shock, but I felt as I were moving in slow motion my first 3 days back. First of all, I have to cook my own meals and clean my own house, do my own laundry, and drive myself to my appointments. Then there's the "work for a living" surprise. How soon we forget, my little chickens, how much reality changes with a plane flight.

After a week to think and review photos, and also the great opportunity to attend Rotary 5030's district conference in Portland, I am ready to share my thoughts on the Bolivia trip. My main interest originally lay with Bolivia's systems of education, but thanks to the varied professions of my teammates I also learned a lot about health care and health education, environmental and community concerns re water/sewer/trash, the plight of orphanages (and the children in them), and the wonderful work of the many non-profit and Non-governmental organizations we visited. Rotary clubs and their members are working in all corners of Bolivia, making a huge difference in the lives of needy individuals as well as whole communities. I wasn't there long enough to know every detail, but I was certainly there long enough to feel inspired and motivated to learn (and do) more.

I'll be posting more photos now that I have a FAST internet connection and invite anyone interested in either Bolivia or Rotary's GSE program to contact me.

Santa Cruz catch up

We've been in Santa Cruz since Sunday (today is Thursday) and today we are visiting one of Bolivia's cash crops - Sugar cane.

Sugar cane needs manual labor, and so immigrants come here (from the Altiplano) for the harvest, then stay. Interesting web page about some of the repercussions: http://base.d-p-h.info/en/fiches/dph/fiche-dph-7798.html

Besides the humidity, the weather hasn't been too bad. We leave Saturday for the US, where I'll be updating my blog with the millions of photos I took!

Santa Cruz family

Here's my host family! Chi Chi Mendez is the host dad, his wife Marta (Kiki) and their daughter Andrea (standing). Noelia is a adopted member, more or less, and my constant companion when we're both in the house at the same time! She's 6 years old and is learning how to read. Great kid!

Potosí - How I´ve missed you!

I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Potosí. This is a great city full of old history, but thank god I've just spent my last few weeks on the Altiplano or I'm not sure I could have handled the altitute (4070 meters - you figure it out!). This is the place where, 15 years ago, I would go two feet and stop to catch my breath. This morning I walked 7 blocks carrying my laundry, and only dealt with minor heavy breathing, so I´ve improved!

We got in at 2:30 this morning after a very typical bus ride (leave at 7 pm, get crammed in so hard that your knees and/or shoulder blades are rubbing against the metal of the older-than-the-hills bus), up and snuggly with other passengers, and then hold on for dear life between cat naps. The bus stopped, but no bathrooms in the dusty and dark little town (that didn´t stop us, but it could have been a lot easier). We arrived at 2:30 a.m.

Anel, Ashley and I are in the same room at our home-stay house and the boys are at a hotel. If they´d had wifi I'd be jealous, but as it is I´m always up for meeting new people and learning how not to electrocute myself in their shower (always electric, with extraneous wires twisted around the shower head - yikes!).

After a visit at a local university and seeing their tiny, cramped, inadequate, techology-barren library, I began to appreciate the 6-floor University of Alaska library, or even my local library in Sammamish with their soaring spaces and free internet. You can even study there! After the University visit, I tried Mocochinchi for the first time. They dry a peach, then pour hot water over it in a glass. VERY good! Also tried Tucumanas (another variety of empanada), which then made lunch hard to finish (although the wine might have had something to do with it as well - the wine here is seriously INCREDIBLE!). You have to try everything, of course, and so far I haven´t found much I don´t like except the huge quanitites of carbs (rice, potato, pasta, french fries, and yukka.

Today we visit a hospital and orphanage - then give our presentation. Tomorrow we will visit El Cerro Rico, where miners work for themselves in deplorable conditions and have turned the hill into such a maze of mining tunnels that it´s amazing it still stands.

The Wilds of SW Bolivia (Salares)

After a long ride on a psychedelic bus to Uyuni, we traded in for a tour in a Toyota Land Cruiser and headed off into the Salt flats. Within a few hours we had a flat tire, which Juan - our game tour guide - fixed within minutes. We spent the night at a salt block hotel (see photo of Ashley and Anel trying it out).

Pink flamingos were everywhere, flying low across the salt flats on their way to their favorite lagunas.

We stopped at an island of cacti and had a fabulous lunch prepared by our accompanying cook, Magali.

Lagunas were beautiful.... as were the Rock formations

Vicuñas roam wild and were everywhere!

We almost froze the 2nd night....

But soon warmed up at the thermal springs.

Everyone was very tired our 3rd day as we raced back to Uyuni. Lots of llama everywhere!