To be perfectly honest things have been kind of slow for me the past few days. This week I do not have to go to class. I have a few assignments that I have to turn in online but don´t physically go to the classroom. I think they did this so we would have more time to travel but nobody really has money left to travel so we´re all sticking around Cordoba and the sierras. Sunday afternoon I headed up to the mountains to my host mom´s cabin and spent the night, did some homework, took some nice walks, and enjoyed the silence of nature and being out of the city. I never realized just how noisy it is here until I got off the bus in the mountains and realized how quiet it really was!

I have begun heading out tuesday nights to the street of Cordoba to spend time with the men that live on the street. A Catholic group called Manos Abiertos (Open Hands) has many different missions and one is giving out food and a listening ear to the homeless. I have meet so many interesting people and and made many new friends among the people that I go out with. I hope to visit the children´s home soon too. I have really taken an interest in looking at all the social issues here and what people are doing to help things improve. My experience with Un Techo and now with Manos Abiertos and in the preschool that I visit I am getting a better sense of how corupt and in trouble this country is. I know every country has it´s problems but I am seeing this one´s firts hand. One thing that is breaking my heart is seeing the education system here. The teachers go on strike almost two days everyweek…it is no wonder their illiteracy rate is so high. I hear story after story of kids that drop out of school to work or because they are pregnent and kids in high school that cannot read. the gocernement is not helping in anyway. It is hard for an education major like me to see that.

Other than that I have been going to lots of Bible studies and activities with my house church group. They are a great group of friends and I am growing so much with them in faith. It has been a great joy getting to know all of them. They have all been taking tests recently and therefore have been studying instead of hanging out and so I have been missing them a lot. Tests are over now so hopefully we can do some fun things this weekend. I have officaially finished my class in the university so now I just have my three classes ´for foreign students´ as I call them. I have less than two months and I have a feeling it is going to fly by. I do know that I will be ready to go back to Colorado for the cooler temeratures. Last night and midnight it was still 80 degrees. I don´t know if I can be this hot for two more months!

I hope this update finds you all well and that you are enjoying the cool weather! Hope to hear from you soon!