Monday Oct. 22, 2012

The only exciting thing that happened today other than our day off was there was a campus picture taken today. Familia Feliz has had Calvin (a professional photographer/videographer) working here making a promotional video and helping to make a new website for Familia Feliz. So today, they wanted to get a picture of the entire campus for the website. Oh, and one other thing, while I was dressed up in my church clothes, I was sitting on the steps on the porch of the big house and a dog walked up behind me and lifted his leg to pee on my back!! Fortunately, I saw him lift his leg and I was able to move midstream before it hit me. But that was a very close call! Other than that, it was just a normal day off.

I have been preparing for my sermon on trusting in God and had a lot of my thoughts together. However, this evening France came to my room and told me that he had a powerpoint presentation for me to preach my sermon from. Needless to say, this was very unexpected. I immediately became a lot more nervous because this is a drastic change from what I was expecting. But then I figured that preaching with a slideshow behind me might actually be a lot easier. Thats when he told me that all the slides were in spanish. Was he kidding? I might be able to get the idea of what some of the slides say with my broken spanish, but I can't preach a sermon from a slideshow written in spanish! Especially 41 slides! This caused me to go into a little bit of a panic mode and I decided that I needed to talk with Erin and get her to help me

Tuesday Oct. 23, 2012

Bread day again. Today we decided to make Ciabatta bread again, one of my favorites! It actually started late last night so we could get a "12 hour preferment" for added flavor. But unfortunately, Eric got some shampoo spilled into his laptop and it completely stopped working. So he needed to go to town to see if he could do anything to fix it. So that left Steven and I baking bread all day. Which really wasn't that bad because I want to learn how to make Ciabata perfectly!

Half way through the day, I saw Erin and told herabout my sermon situation. I was just going to ask her to help me translate the slides so I could have an idea of what I was talking about for each slide. But then she read my mind and flat out said that this is ridiculous and that France can't expect me to do this. So she told me that she would talk to France for me. Later on, she brought France over and we all talked about it. He was confused at why I couldn't do it (even though he knew that I didn't speak spanish) because a month ago, he asked me if I would preach a sermon and I said yes. However, a premade slideshow in spanish was not part of the deal. I think he was a little disappointed, but he was very nice about it. So I suppose my sermon will have to wait until another day.

Wednesday Oct. 24, 2012

Tonight was very exciting though because in the late afternoon, Lizelle asked me if I would drive her to town. Of course I said I would. Then when I asked when, She said right now. Which was a little confusing to me because it was getting late and I wasn't sure why anyone would want to go to town that late. As it turns out, she had to catch a bus to go to a graduation service somewhere. So we all loaded up in the smaller truck that I have never driven and headed out. It was Lizelle, her sister, Limbert, Eric, and me in the truck. Limbert was going with her and the sister just wanted to spend more time with Lizelle.

Eric and I both thought that it would be a quick drop off and come back to town, quick and simple. But nothing is that simple in Bolivia (which is great because we never know whats in store for us from hour to hour). Once we got into town, Lizelle said she needed me to take her to her brothers house, then to her other brothers' house, then shopping for sandals for Limbert. During all this, at one point, she asked me to pull a U-turn. Now this is no problem in the States, even with a stickshift. But this truck has no power steering (which if you have never driven is a complete pain), the roads a extremely narrow, and this is like the busiest that I have ever seen Rurre. But I was able to make a 3-point turn and be on my way. So I was pretty proud, but the icing on the cake was when Lizelle was like "Wow, good job, very good!" because she doesn't just throw compliments around willy nilly.

After this I told her that Eric and I would wait for her at Naguila's because since we were in town, we might as well get online! Right? Turns out, we didn't end up leaving Rurre until about 11:45. It was wonderful! On the way back, Joy and 2 others were in the back seat (because they drove in later on the motobike), and they were able to fall asleep even with my driving and swerving to avoid all the potholes in the road. I felt like I was driving like Indiana Jones if he were driving in the middle of the jungle! But we got back safe and sound and I was able to crawl into bed around 1 am.

Thursday Oct. 25, 2012

Today was yet another bread making day. We were supposed to meet up with steven aroun 9:00 am but because of how late we got in last night, and then being woken up again around 5:30, I don't think either of us were physically ableto wake up that early. So we ended up meeting him around 10 or so. Today we are making Ficossie (not sure how to spell it) bread which has now become my favorite bread, at least when olive oil is not around. The plan was for me to make a small batch of ciabatta and Eric to make another small batch of ficossie on the side for extra practice, but because we didn't get as early of a start, we will have to postpone that until later.

Eric was a little disappointed that we were making ficossie today because it is his absolute favorite bread, but today was his class day so he could not help us make it. Steven and I were able to have a good day together without clashing shoulders too much. I think he is starting to warm up to Eric and I, but I think we are warming up too. Steven loves what he does and loves who he does is with. He wants to be able to teach others the art of bread making and throw is some spiritual insight in with it. I think he is beginning to kind of treat Eric and I as his "family" because he has not seen his family in several years and doesn't even know where they are at. But ever since he realized that we are the same age as his kids, and even have the exact same birthdays, I think really excited him.

Later on, right about the time to clean everything up, Eric finished his classes and came to help. Which was wonderful because in my opinion, cleaning up to Stevens standards is the hardest part of the bread making process. It is good that we are trying to be clean, but it just takes quite a long time.

In the afternoon, Calvin was finishing up the final product of his promotional video for Familia Feliz. So once their new site is up and running with the video, I will let everyone know.

This afternoon I also found out that this friday and following monday there is no school for the kids. They are having some sort of vacation. Which they love, as any kid would. So tomorrow some kids will be going to a relative's house nearby while others stay here.

This evening, since I only have about 4 kids, and there was no school tomorrow, I decided to show them a movie. The only problem about showing them movies is that all the movies I have are in English. But that does not keep them from enjoying them in the slightest. I actually kind of like it because I translate as much as I can for them so it might even be helping my spanish.

Friday Oct. 26, 2012

Today was the first day of vaction for everyone! One of the first exciting things to happen was Juan loaded up the truck with a bunch of the children and we went to a nearby school to play with them. This was a little surprise to Joy and Melissa because nobody told them about it which made them a little upset for obvious reasons. They were not told, much less asked about the whole situation and they are the ones responsible. Anyways, after some of the adults had a chit chat, we were on our way. Calvin, Eric, and I went with the kids but we were not sure if we were going to play because it was SUPER hot today. The kind of day where you can crack an egg and drop it straight into your mouth and by the time it gets there it's already fried.

Upon arriving, there where hardly any trees around the field so the 3 of us opted to not play and sit in the shade relaxing and talking. We had some serious guy talk. I would tell you all about it, but what guys talk about is of the upmost secret to the female species. And I know some woman are reading this. ;-)

After we came back, I relaxed and blogged for a little bit before I went outside to do my laundry. And as I said before, laundry takes a little bit more time than it does in the states. Especially if you just keep putting it off like I do. This was a good day to do laundry though because the heat would dry our clothes in a jiffy! I wanted to hurry up and get my laundry done so that I could have a penalty kick (soccer (for the ladies (haha))) competition with my house kids. They can turn any patch of ground into a soccer field and use anything to make a goal. Even though my kids are small, they are GOOD at soccer. I love to see how much passion they have for it.

Saturday Oct. 27, 2012

Today was Communion Sabbath which is always one of my most favorite Sabbaths. They do not allow the kids to participate only the adults and a few of the older children who understand what it means. Footwashing was very way more meaningful to me here than it ever has been to me in the states. I say that because in the States, we all wear shoes, bathe regularly, and don't have wild animals running around pooping and peeing everywhere. Here it is at least a little more like in the Bible days when you are actually humbling yourself to get on your knees and wash the dirt and grim off of unmanicured, gross looking feet. I think in the States, before we do footwashing, we should have everyone walk around in a big bucket of cow manure first! Ok, maybe not.

After church today I was able to do something that I have only done once since arriveing here, I got to take a nap. Or at least I tried. Remember how I said that on Friday we could drop an egg into our mouths and by the time it got there it would already be fried? Well today, the egg wouldn't even make it to our mouths because it would be incinerated.

I was laying in bed sweating like a pig. I wasn't able to get too much sleep because 1, it was obviously hot, and 2, everytime a bead of sweat formed on my chest, or back, or arm, or anywhere else for that matter, it felt as though it was an ant, mosquito, or some other little pest crawling all over me. So then I would slap myself for no reason. Later on, Joy asked me what I did this afternoon and I told her about how I tried to sleep but couldn't because I kept thinking bugs were on me. So she graciously told me that next time I wanted to take a nap, she would keep slapping me so that I wouldn't have to.

For dinner, everyone was on their own, so me being the guy that I am start to think, where should I go in order to find a good meal, cooked with love in every bite so I don't have to eat a raw carrot. So where else better to go than the girls dorm! Jackpot. Turns out, Calvin, Erin, and Annie were over there. So between the 4 of us, we cooked pasta with vegetables and vegetarian chicken broth.

This evening I let my now 3 boys watch Lion king while I went over to the big house to meet up with the other volunteers to watch Get Smart. But once again, nothing is THAT easy in Bolivia. On my way over, one of the older boys from the dorm stopped me and wanted to talk to me in private. Once we got to where no one could hear, he asked me if I could loan him 80 B's so he and his family could go to the pool tomorrow. I was pretty unsure about loaning out so much money to someone that I don't really know. So I told him I would think about it and I would let him know a little later. So I asked 4 different people about it and everyone of the immediately said that I should not do it and that he is the most untrustworthy person in the entire campus. So I discussed it with Max who is one of the deans and he said that he would take care of it.



You stay civilized......planet earth!