lake week



Headed to the lake
 

Tuesday Oct. 2,2012

                Today was my first day being a professor! I woke up this morning being a little nervous and being excited at the same time. My class was at 10:30 and I had yet to make a lesson plan.  But one thing was for sure, I was going to look like a real professor. I dressed up in a yellow button up with some docker style pants and was all tucked in looking like a champ (even though I am a complete amateur) .

                The class period was only for 45 minutes, but for someone that has never taught and does not speak the language of the kids, can be an eternity. I had the 3^rd and 4^th grade class for the next 45 minutes and will have them every week until December. But class wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t great, but it could have been a lot worse. I started out by teaching them all of the body parts to the song “heads, shoulders, knees, and toes”. They seemed to have fun with that. I then taught them a few other body parts in order to sing another song that I learned when I was in elementary school 3 or 4 years ago.

                But it was by no means easy. Especially when they are trying to figure out how much they can get away with. I was fortunate enough to have Eric helping me today. I feel like either one of us alone would have been eaten alive, especially me. Some boys decided that they didn’t want to learn or participate and wanted to distract others. So Eric and I punished them according to school standards which is issuing an “X”. after 3 “X’s”, they either loos recess or some other form of punishment that is not up to me.  Overall, I am excited about the class, but I am also very nervous. I have never thought about being a teacher before, and I’m not sure how good I am/will be at it. But we will find out soon enough!



                Today was also a bread day. So after class, Eric and I changed and went to the cocina to meet up with the new volunteer Stephen. bread days are always long, no matter who you do it with. It is always super exhausting.



our 3 hour trip to the lake

                Later this evening, nothing happened other than a faculty meeting where we talked about some field trip that they want to take this Thursday. However, some are opposed to it as it is a 3 hour bumpy drive in an even worse truck. They are wanting to take us to a lake that is known to have anaconda’s and crocodiles. Eric and I agree that it is a terrible idea and that it is not worth the risk of the kids. However, we are both excited to go (in spite of the dreadful drive).

 

Wednesday Oct. 3, 2012

                Today was not too terribly exciting. It was simply another long day of making bread. Wednesdays are not usually bread making days, but the orphanage has just officially decided today that we are going on an outing tomorrow. So they need enough bread to feed the children on the trip.
                The outing has been talked about for several weeks now, but until today, nothing was finalized or ready. They are wanting to go to lake reyes which would normally sound fun to everyone, except for the fact that it is a 3 hour drive in the bed of a truck similar to a dump truck. Furthermore, there is one volunteer here who has been here for several years now, but used to work for another organization that went to this lake once per year. She was only there for a few years because literally, every year that she went, 2 children died via anaconda or crocodile attacks in the water.

                They have asked Eric and I to go as supervision for any animals and for the children sneaking off together. We gladly accepted as we like adventure. But both of us agree that it is not a wise decision to go at all. If there is any risk of danger to the kids, it is not worth it. Neither Eric or I think we will be getting in the water. At least not very far. Weare leaving tomorrow morning at 6 am. So it will be interesting to see what happens and how it goes.

                Today’s bread adventure was pretty normal with the exception of our new bread helper with his quirks. There is never a normal day with him. Again, he is super nice, just very hard to work with and enjoy being around. However, I did learn how to make Ciabata  bread today. So I am very excited to start making and eating that!

                I did have a little bit of a scare today concerning my plate and silverware for eating. Everyone has their own bowl and silverware that they use for every meal. However, I have a pretty fancy spoon and fork and knife that are all in one and fold up like a pocket knife. It is pretty nifty and the kids seem to think that it is pretty great. However, since we spend all day in the kitchen on bread days, I brought my bowl with me and set it on the table. However, when dinner came around, it was gone! I was getting very frustrated, 1 because I figured it was stolen, and 2 because I had nothing else to eat with. After asking several different people, and accusing others in my mind, I searched my house and found that I had brought it back earlier. So that kind of taught me a lesson in itself. Well that’s all I have for today, I better get some sleep.

Thursday Oct. 4, 2012

                Today is a very long, adventurous, fun day. Just last night, they decided that they wanted to take ALL of the children on an outing to a lake. Originally it was just going to be the older kids. This means that we would have about 100 people in the back on a truck. Fortunately, they decided to rent a truck from someone in Rurr. However, this truck was still way too small for the amount of people that were going. It was so jam pack in there. Have you ever seen those chicken coup trucks they have in the States where they put hundreds of chickens in tiny cages that look miserable? Well we were those chickens today. For three hours. Standing up.

                But it worked out because the lake was small, but very pretty and we all swam and didn’t have any incidents. The kids absolutely loved it. They continually wanted to sit on my shoulder, do chicken fights, or simply have me throw them in the air. These kids are so much fun to play with, even though they can be exhausting sometimes. But there was a long pier that we jumped off, and we played volleyball in the water and American football on the shore.

                After lunch, we decided to head back a little early because it looked like it was going to rain. And we most certainly did not want to be out in the pouring down rain in the back of a truck smashed together for 3 hours. But thankfully the rain held up most of the time for our drive back. Since we left early, we stopped at a pretty decent soccer field and all got out and played futbol for about 2 hours. However, there were some wild pigs, chickens, and roosters that we had to chase off the field a few times. It was so much fun and these kids are so good! It is very fun to play with them, even though they make me look awful!

                Once we got back to the orphanage, we all pretty much were exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. So that is exactly what I am about to do right now!

 

Friday Oct. 5, 2012

                Happy 1 month anniversary! Eric and I have now been here exactly one month. Only 8 months left to go! We didn’t really do a whole lot today. We simply made bread today. However, we wanted to be a little fancy so we decided to make pita bread. This was very interesting and good to know. The bread actually turned out REALLY well. Half of the bread we made with regular flour, and the other half, we made with kinowa seeds.  I have to saw, both were extremely delicious!
                That afternoon, I realized that it was Friday night, and that only means one thing, chocolate and rice soup……blah. So I decided to do something that I was hoping to hold out for Thanksgiving, I busted open a can of Big Franks (vegetarian hot dogs) I shared them with Eric, Erin, and Annie. All of whom were completely and utterly surprised and excited! It is like an Adventists dream come true to have Big Franks in a foreign country. We even used the pita bread as a bun. It was a wonderful meal to begin the Sabbath.

Saturday Oct. 6 2012

                Today was one of the longest days since I have been here. Eric, Annie, and I had to wake up at 4:30 in order to cook breakfast for the 100 or so people here. Not going to lie, it was a pretty darn good breakfast, we cut up fresh watermelon, papaya, pineapple, and bananas and made a fruit salad and gave out some more pita bread. Lunch was a little more involved. We decided that we wanted to make humus and some other stuff for lunch. This was hardly successful.  We were nowhere near ready finishing it before everyone was done with church. So we did what I think they do for every meal here, we just mixed everything together and made some sort of filling type stuff for the pita. We had carmelized onions, tomatoes, Garbonzo and Kidney beans, Scrambled eggs, garlic, and some salt. It actually turned out really well and was super tasty.

                However, I was barely able to eat any of it. I felt completely drained and weak. I could not even palate the food and I was starting to sway when I stood up. So once we finished, I came to my room and just passed out for a couple hours. But when I woke up, I thought I would feel better, but I felt 10 times worse. My whole body was aching and laying down longer just made things feel worse. So I got out of bed and sat in a chair for about 30 minutes. This seemed to help a little bit. But not much. After this 30 minutes or so, the posy (eric, erin, and annie) came over and just started singing and playing the ukulele outside of my window. I thought it was pretty funny and it helped me forget a little bit of how I was feeling. The rest of the day, I have just been trying to relax and feel a little better. Hopefully after a good night sleep I will.

                Tomorrow I will be driving the big truck for the first time into town. Lizelle (the girls dean) heard that I can drive stick shift and asked me if I would drive her and her class to town so they can do some homework at an internet café in town. Of course I said yes! I get to drive, I get to avoid making bread, and I get to go to town! What’s not to be excited about?!?!?  So hopefully tomorrow I will feel a lot better and hopefully I don’t make a fool of myself driving this monster!

Sunday Oct. 7, 2012

                Today was my big debut with driving a truck load of people down dirt roads that are extremely bumpy and sometimes windy. I actually didn’t do too bad. The shifter is quite old and doesn’t always like to slip into gear which gave way for some interesting moments. But by far the scariest part was driving in town with people everywhere, narrow streets, and motorcycles flying by. Intersections are never fun either in that there is no such thing as stop signs, and it’s always a little bit of a chicken fight for who goes first. Thank goodness I was driving the biggest chicken in town!

                After I dropped the kids off, it became a pretty relaxed day where I didn’t do too much other than surf the web and run a couple of errands. But I was able to talk to my family and girlfriend today which was super nice. It’s always fun and encouraging to talk to them. Once I got back, I watched the kids for a couple of hours until we all went to sleep.

Monday Oct. 8, 2012

                I don’t usually include Mondays on my blog which is because I usually spend it just sitting in Narguila’s stuffing my face and adding to my blog! However, today was a little different. I had fallen asleep around 11 at night but was woken up right at 1 AM. One of Eric’s children was sent over to my house to get me and said that Eric was sick and needed me as soon as possible. So I jumped out of bed not knowing what I was going to see when I got over there. When I walked in, Eric looked as if he was dead. He had no energy, was pale, and could barely move or talk. He told me that he had been in the bathroom for 3 hours straight and was being completely drained.

                He was not able to keep anything down at all. Everything he drank came right back up 5 minutes later. I told Erin (who was also called over) that I thought we needed to take him to the hospital to get in IV. Then a few minutes later he told me that he was freezing which I knew was a bad sign because trust me, it’s NEVER cold here. That’s when I told Juan that we needed to get the truck and get going. That’s about the time Melissa got there. She first asked him several questions, and then made the guess that he had salmonella. I don’t think that she is a nurse, but apparently, salmonella is pretty common over here, especially amongst the gringos. So after we all agreed that he needed to be taken in, we loaded him up and made the long trek into town.

                When we got into town and arrived at the clinic, they were initially closed. But we knocked several times until they opened the door and saw Eric. That’s when they decided that they were going to be open. It was about 1:30 when we arrive to the clinic. The doctor came out and was dressed in jean shorts and a sleeveless shirt. He looked smart, but it didn’t take me long to remember that we were still in Bolivia, not the great U.S. of A. I asked Juan if this was the best place to come and he said that it is by far the best place. The staff at the clinic are familiar with familia feliz and are a lot more hospitable. This all turned out to be correct, they even offered me a bed next to eric for the night. So after a few hours of probing, some vomit, some runs, some blood, and some IV, he was finally able to fall asleep for a brief time around 3:30 am. But that was short lived as he woke up about an hour later with more of the same. And that was the pattern of the morning. However, he did tell me that after having the IV for a while, he was beginning to feel stronger and a lot better. He was even starting to get some of his color back. The doctor confirmed for us that it was salmonella.

                Fortunately, I was able to get in touch with Eric’s mom shortly after we arrived to the clinic. So his parents were aware of what was happening.  The doctor says that he wants to keep eric one more night to observe him to be on the safe side. So keep him in your prayers.

 

You stay civilized…..planet Earth!!!!