Update



My Boys

Wednesday might have been my favorite day so far here at Familia Feliz. I knew as soon as I stepped out of my house this morning at the break of dawn, that it would be a good day because I saw clouds. Clouds are a beautiful, beautiful thing because they block the intensive rays and heat of the sun.

Other than waking up to a new type of sky as there has been not a single cloud since I’ve been here, but I woke up to a new person, Joel.  Joel is the usual parent of the household. However, his sister recently died and he was visiting home for a few weeks in Brazil. Geraldo, My bunkmate for the first few days here was simply filling in for Joel while he was gone. Joel is only 22 but looks much older. He is extremely nice and is helping me with my Spanish which is in desperate need of help. The kids respect him and look up to him. However, it is quite obvious that he rules them with an iron fist. They don’t even try to get away with anything. Which is extremely nice in many ways, but my favorite is that our room is a “red zone”. The kids do not DARE go in or even open the door. This provides a great escape if I need one and also helps assure me that my things are safe. Even if they didn’t fear my room, I trust these kids so much. They are so respectful and kind not only to me, but to each other.

Early this morning, a bunch of us helped water the orange and watermelon groves again. Then Eric, me, and 2 of my boys went to the Chaco (a huge area of jungle that they burned down a ways away from the orphanage that they will use to plant rice) where we buzz sawed some trees and stacked the wood over a massive expanse. Following that, we went directly to the cocina (kitchen) where Eric and I were about to learn how to make bread. This by the way is a job that has been vacant for quite some time because of how much EVERYONE hates that job. But of course we welcomed the challenge. Eric and I got all the ingredients with the help of the cook (Carmen), and a few of her family members, and began mixing. Let me tell you, making bread by hand with no machines, and no oven is HARD. We were pounding away, kneading this bread for about 30 minutes. And lucky me, Eric had to leave to go take care of his kids for a bit. But it turned out to be ok. Just before my arms detached from my body, Carmen said we were done kneading. We then had to form the bread which I am apparently awful at. I tried and tried, but to no avail. So I ended up just letting Carmen’s family roll the bread while I put it on the pans.
The only fun thing about this process was the Diaz family (Carmen and her family), they were so much fun and we were just talking in Spanish back and forth about tons of different things! Turns out the Lisandro Diaz is an administrator for the Madidi National Park and because of my boyish charm and my wicked good looks, offered to take Eric and I on an excursion that tourists pay big bucks for! Ok, maybe it’s just because he is nice, same thing.

After we finished making the bread (which is a 4 hour process) I went into casa grande and met with Calvin and Erin because Friday, a neighboring village wants to come by and have a sort of festival kind of thing or something. So as it turns out, I will be playing a ninja and a very fat many in a veggie tale type of reenactment of the Good Samaritan. It should be interesting….
In the afternoon, as we do every afternoon, we played futbol (soccer to the Americano gringo). I scored a goal!!!! That’s right! My skin may be white, but my feet are Bolivian! Anyway, that was fun, but also extremely hot. So when we were done, I was REALLY hoping that my trickling shower would be working (because it’s a hit or miss. If you’re lucky, you can get a little water), but of course, it wasn’t. So I took a shower in the sink behind the house. I had to take my shower a little earlier because every Wednesday night, they have a vespers program which was very nice.
At this moment, I am finishing off my day with my hijo’s and my new friend Joel watching a Disney nature movie that is in Spanish that they had from previous missionaries or something. Life is Good and God is good. I still don’t know too much about the program because we haven´t gotten a chance to talk to the director or her sister. They seem to keep pretty busy. We still have not gotten “official” assignments or even had a conversation with them quite yet. We are simply keeping ourselves busy and helping whoever needs help.

Thursday Sept. 20, 2012
                I had a very interesting start to this day. After I woke up at 5:30 with the boys to have worship, I went into my suitcase, and the first thing I saw was a tarantula IN my suitcase! Kind of startled me, but not to fear, my wonderful kids love to beat the snot out of those things! Today was a big day of work for everyone. The kids do not have school on Thursday because Friday afternoon they do not work in the fields (as they normally do) in order to prepare for Sabbath. So today, we all went up into the Chaco and cleared brush, chain sawed trees, stacked wood piles, and burned everything else. It amazing how much quicker things go when you have 70 kids helping you. They also had a great time having soot battles and sneaking up on each other and smearing ashes in everyone’s faces.
                After the Chaco, guess what we did. Yup. You guessed it, soccer. These people have a crazy addiction to it! However, this game was only for the adults, volunteers, and the older kids. For this game, they went big, they brought out chalk and actually put lines down on the field! I don’t know what exactly it was that they used for the lines, but they were using an old coke bottle with holes in the bottom to lay the chalk. Unfortunately, I didn’t do so hot this game. I represented “gringo’s” all over the world! However, I’m giving a terrible name to Wayne Rooney who is a professional soccer player. Because as of Wednesday, when I wore a Rooney jersey, some people are now referring to me as “Rooney”.

That evening I got to talk to the director for a bit! We got a couple of our immediate questions answered as far as some finances, water, and scheduling go. However, we still don’t have a more permanent job description. For now, it seems as though we will be working in the Chaco, and making bread.
                For dinner, we had arroz con leche. That’s milk mixed with rice. It is some sort of soup. And let me tell you, if you don’t like rice or soup, you will flat out not survive here. We have had both almost every single meal! ALL of the meals are steaming hot. In spite of it being about 27 thousand degrees outside.

Friday Sept. 21, 2012

                Today, a neighboring tribe, the Saboo people came to visit to strengthen their relationship with us. They simply joined in on all of our daily activities. However, we did things a little differently. After morning worship in front of the school, it was show time. There were 3 Christian skits performed, and I was in the 3^rd one. Our skit was a spoof off of the good Samaritan. I was a Ninja hiding in the mountains before on sprung onto the passing traveler. It was a lot of fun.
                The rest of the day was kind of a dead day. So I took advantage of it and did what any adventurous person in the jungle in a foreign country would do……..I took a nap. That was of course, until I was jolted awake by the loudest thunder that I have ever heard in my entire life! Good thing I was already covered in sweat, or else somebody would have noticed why I was REALLY wet. The thunder was the start of something glorious! Rain! Oh, and it poured. At least for a while. Which was very nice as it cooled things down a bit.

                That night for dinner was, what do you know, chocolate liquid (or a brown liquid that they CALL “chocolate”) mixed with rice. That is what they have for dinner every friday night. After dinner I showed the kids pictures of Europe and Africa before we all went to sleep for the night.

Saturday Sept 22, 2012

This morning nothing too exciting happened. We simply went to church, sang our normal 45 songs, then a sermon, then lunch. But after lunch, I took my boys on a hike into the jungle. They were very excited are were my guides. We went deep into the jungle and found some vines to swing on, chased some cows with horns, and picked fresh fruit. It was wonderful. I had a blast! later that evening, we looked at pictures on my computer.

Sunday Sept 23, 2012

Today was pretty much a dead day. I relaxed, and slept a little bit. But Eric and i started to build him some shelves for his room since he is still living out of his suitcase. Again, there is not too much else to report for this day other than in the evening, I watched a pretty cheesy spanish movie with my kids as they LOVE movies.

P.S. If anyone just happens to be so moved as to send me a care package, please let me know. The mail is sent somewhere else and I have to be aware so that I can go pick it up. Great things to send are food. Food/snacks are like gold! haha but I am not starving and they are feeding me. So no worries mom and dad ;-)

You stay civilized…..planet earth!