update

Monday Jan. 7 - Saturday Jan. 12. 2013

So I'm getting this feeling that I'm becoming worse and worse about keeping up my day to day blog. But thats ok because now I'm just writing about the highlights. So it works!

1) Crash!

While I was in town, I was sitting at Narguila's online when I suddenly heard a scream followed by a screeching sound right behind me on the street. I immediately got up and went over to where I saw a baby, a young girl, and their mother at the corner of the street on the ground bleeding and crying. Since I was close, I was one of the first people to get there which gave me a front row view. Turns out, this mother and her 2 daughters were on a moto and as they were driving, they got "T-boned" by a truck flying down the adjacent road.

When I got there, the baby was fairly quiet but her face was almost entirely covered in blood. The other daughter (who was probably about 12) was sitting on the street just crying really loud while blood was dripping out of her legs and making puddles on the street. Getting queezy yet? The mother though got it the worst I believe. I could immediately tell that she was in shock. When I looked at her foot, I could very cleary tell that everything under her skin from ankle down was completely detached from her leg. When they touched her leg, her foot/ankle just wobbled freely. There was also a good amount of internal bleeding because it instantly became purple/blue. They had to take all of them away in the same truck that hit them, that is of course after they pulled the motorbike out from being lodged under the truck.

2) Poor truck.

The little truck we have just seems to keep breaking down week after week after week. Whether it be a flat tire (which literally does happen about once every week or 2), the clutch going out, the breaks not working, or it overheating, this truck is barely hanging on for dear life.

This week, the truck has gotten 2 flat tires, a door handle has fallen off, overheated, a window no longer rolls up, has a loose belt, and the clutch is all but shot. Everytime before we drive it, we need to check the oil, water, all four tires, and the diesel. Hopefully she keeps hanging in there for us because having a truck is absolutely crucial to the function of Familia Feliz.

3) Is Tracy Leaving?

I think Tracy is leaving Familia Feliz for good. After a surprise return from Santa Cruz, a man from another Adventist school under GMI came and interviewed her for a position at that school. This is very hard for her to do because Bryan, the boy that has been living with her, does not want to go. He will be staying her at Familia Feliz with Eric and I. Which is ok with us because he is a great kid who really has it together. A day or two after the interview, Tracy packed up all her blongings, came into town, and left on a bus. So as far as I know, she's gone.

4) Visitors.

Because there has been a few problems with Tracy, and Joy is worn out as a director, the head of the South American Division for GMI came to Rurre in the mission plane to help deal with all of the issues. Their plan was to only stay for 1 afternoon and leave the same day that they arrived. But as you all may now be aware, good luck sticking to any plan in Bolivia. They ended up staying 4 nights I believe. Maybe 3. This was due to rain, the plane being broken, and storms at their destination. However as it turns out, it was a complete blessing that their trip back was delayed by a couple days because the girls that were in that motorbike accident needed to be transported to another hospital in Santa Cruz. Beings how there were no other flights scheduled anytime soon, the mission plane was the only one here. So the mission pilot (Steve) was able to take them to a hospital.

5) Changes.

Some of the things that were decided while Jodi and Warren McDaniels (the head honcho's for the South American Division) were here was that next year, we are going to cut our enrollment down from over 110 down to 45. They have decided to completely cut out the high school in order to revamp Familia Feliz and to make it an easier situation for the new director. They have asked a young couple to come and take over as the new directors and are currently waiting to hear back. Furthermore, while we are making this transition, the McDaniels have decided to come to Familia Feliz to help facilitate some of these changes and to make things easier. Fortunately Eric and I both like them a lot. They are extremely nice people who wanna do everything they can to make the school better. They also want to implement a hands-on program that teaches the kids how to garden, build houses, make bricks and other different skills.

6) Where are they?

Juan and Emmy are still not back from their vacation to Santa Cruz and another city visiting their family. They were planning on being back on Jan. 1 and no later than Jan. 4. But what do you know, nothing is as it seems in Bolivia haha. But I do need to tell you that it is not their fault they they are not back. Apparently, their baby who they just finished adopting got very sick while they were away and they had to spend every penny they had to get her hospitalized. They now have no money in order to get back. So we shall see what happens.

7) Chaos Ball

Saturday night, both Eric and the kids all wanted to go into town and play "volleyball" again. If you don't remember, there is a racquetball court in town that has a finicky net hung up to play volleyball. The thing is, nobody has any idea how to play volleyball other than me and Eric. So it ends up just being kids kicking the ball and throwing it over the net with no form of organization whatsoever. Eric and I decided that we would never call it volleyball again because it simply is not volleyball. So we coined the name "Chaosball". But to break it up a little bit, 3 of the boys had a few B's (money) to spend. So Eric and I took them out and walked down the street and stopped at a few stores looking for some firecrackers. But no one had them, and the stores that did have the were closed.

Sunday Jan. 13 2013

Today was a big work day for me. As it was Eric's day off in town, I had plenty of time to get a lot done. I was able to wash every bit of my laundry by hand so I could save about $3. It took about 2 hours to wash all my clothes and hang them up. Then it took about 3 hours for them to dry. So basically, I just worked 7 hours to save $3 dollars. Worth it? I think yes.

I was also able to sweep my side of the room, reorganize my dresser, make/organize 3 "cubbies" beside my bed, and to make a rack to hang my church clothes on (which is just a string nailed into 2 support beams in the ceiling.

The hardest part of my day though was to deal with David. Today he made Edwin look like the good samaritan! No matter what anyone said, he would not listen. So hopefully that will improve.

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