working hard in the heat.

Sunday Jan. 27, 2013

                At 6:00 am, we arrived back at the bus station in Rurre. I could not have been happier to get off that bus. My entire body was so tired and my eyes were ready to pop out of my eyes and get a hotel. We had thought about staying in town for while, but nothing was open for a few hours, and we were dead tired. So we decided to get a taxi back. Fortunately, we only had to wait about 30 minutes for a taxi to take us back to Familia Feliz. We finally got back to FF at 7 am this morning. It was so good to be "home" all we could think about was crawling into our respective beds. All of us immediately crashed. Eric and I slept until about noon, while Ali only slept till 10. Basically, I woke up to eat, then I went back to bed until about 5.

                Later today we got a welcomed surprise though. Apparently there is a new volunteer that is here named Angelica. She is a Bolivian but has lived in the States for 16 years so she speaks perfect english. Only problem is, she doesn't know how to cook or take care of kids. She is mostly here for the upcoming school year where she will function as a teacher. But she is more than willing to learn new skills. And as long as someone has the willingness to learn, they will work here at Familia Feliz.

                This evening, while Eric and I were hanging out at the big house with Ali, Missy came over and talked with us for awhile. She came and discussed a few problems that she had run into and asked what we thought. She also told us about a family that was in need of help. But I will tell you their situation in my blog for tomorrow.

Monday Jan. 28, 2013

                Today, Ali, Steve, and I woke up early and went into town with Juan in the truck. After we arrived into town, we spent 1 hour on the computer and then were off to our mission for the day. As I promised, I will tell you about the family that needs help as our mission is helping them.

                Yesterday, Missy was informed of a family that needed help and was given a description of their situation. Apparently there is a 39 year old mother with 7 children ages 1-18. Her and her husband were married for about 20 years before he decided that he wanted to split and hookup with another young lady. As he was the sould provider for the house, this left the mother and the children with nothing. They have now moved from their small apartment with running water and electricity, to living under a tarp high up in the jungle. The mother works all day, every day as an ice cream vendor in the streets. She makes 20-30 B's per day, which is equivalent to $3-4, making it nearly impossible to provide for a family of 8. Since she works so much, she has to leave her 1 and  3 year old with the 6 year old daughter who cares for them. Her oldest son would help but is currently in the military on a 1 year manditory service.

                When Missy saw them yesterday, she could not help but to offer to take the 3 youngest children back to Familia Feliz in order to gove them food, a house, and provide for them. She also talked with Eric, Ali, and I about maybe building her a small house. If the plans work out, we could build her a 3 or 4 room house for about $2300. This would include sturdy wall, a good floor, and a solid roof.

                However, when we arrived there today to pick up the children, the mother told us that the husband had showed up yesterday after Missy. When he found out that the mother was going to give the 3 youngest children to us to take care of, he was furious. He proceeded to tell her that if she gave the children up to us, that he would no longer suppoert them financially and buy them food. Problem is, he doesn't do that anyway. But he said that he would if she didn't give the kids up. This obviously puts the mother in a tough position. But after awhile, we convinced her to come into town with us, eat lunch, and talk with social services to see what they had to say. But on our way down the mountain, we bumped into the father. Missy proceeded to tell him that she was from social services and that we were taking these children, and that he needed to come to the office to sign some papers. He was not too excited to say the least, but Missy has some magical powers and was able to get him to go around 4.

                So while we waited, we took the family to Narguila's for lunch which was a major treat, and then they were off to Social Services. But because it is such a small office, Missy asked us to wait at Narguila's. So Ali, Steve, and I waited, but then decided to go to another internet cafe to communicate with friends and family.



Goofing around



                After they worked everything out, Missy came with the family and picked us up from the cafe. We then proceeded back to Familia Feliz where we let the mother see the place for herself. We wanted her to feel absolutely comfortable because she kept having second thoughts. But finally, after awhile, she completely consented and left with Juan back to town in the truck.

Tuesday Jan. 29, 2013

                Wowie, today was a hot one. Today was definitely one of the hottest days that we have had since we have been here for sure! I have literally been sweating since I woke up until now when I'm going to sleep. Not once have I stopped sweating. Since it was so hot, we decided that today would be an excellent day to do our laundry. Besides, it has been awhile since we have done it, and I am out of clean boxers. So yeah, time to do it.

 

                Today, I actually had a really fun day with Jenette. Jenette is the 6 year old girl that doesn't look like she could be older than 3. She is the girl that was found in the dump a few months back and is mentally ill and cannot walk. Today I was able to hold her and make her smile! Just making her smile isn't always easy because of her condition, but it was very exciting to see that and play with her. I also picked her up, and tried to make her walk. And to my surprise, she actually took steps! Granted, she can't support hardly any weight on her feet, but she was actually doing the motions. She does have brain function and is absolutely adorable. I would love to be able to work with her and to get her taking a few steps by the time I leave. But we will see.

                The most significant thing I did was talk to one of the new volunteers that hasn't been here very long. She was feeling pretty discouraged about her situation at Familia Feliz and had a couple of other very valid concers. She was frustrated enough almost to the point of leaving. But non of us knew this until today when I saw her just standing out on the porch for awhile by herself. So I went out there just to talk to her and see what she thought of FF. Thats when she told me. That's when about a 30 minute 1 on 1 talk started between her and I. I felt like I was really able to encourage her and get rid of some of her concerns. But by far the coolest part of this, was that I honestly felt like God was talking through me. I haven't felt that too many times before in my life, but I felt it today. I felt as though God was putting the words in my mouth and I didn't have to worry about anything. That pretty much concluded our day today, of course, other than more sweat.

Wednesday Jan. 30, 2013



Preparing for battle!

                Today, Eric and I were planning on taking the kids into town and going to the pool. But it was looking like the weather wasn't going to be so good to do that. From the early morning, it was pretty cloudy and even sprinkled a few times. But we were both hoping that it would clear up and get hotter so we could go to the pool. But before the weather had a chance to clear up, Joy came over and asked me if I could drive the truck into town and take a few people in so that they could catch a bus to another city. She also needed the truck to be in town so that she could buy more food for FF because we are like completely out of food.

 

                The other reason that Joy needed me to go to town was because Lizelle, one of the long time volunteers at FF, got into an accident yesterday. Apparently she was on a motobike and a car swerved over and hit her. She got her legs scrapped up pretty good and the left side of her face is completely swollen and needed some stitches. So today, Joy needed me to take her in to go to the clinic.

                The 3 new kids that we took in this week seem to be doing quite well. Selena, the 6 year old, is super outgoing and is having a great time playing with all the other children. Alex, the 3 year old, is doing fairly well, but when his older sister is not around, he starts some serious crying because he wants her to be with and play with him. Bismark, the 13 month old baby, is quite the cryer. As long as he is sleeping, or in someone's arms for a long amount of time, he is ok. But the moment you give him to someone else to hold, even if he is familiar with them, he bawls crying. He doesn't like it one bit. Poor Ali and Angelica, they are having to deal with these 3 new ones and Jenette. This is not an easy job. But I think they are getting quite the education on how to be moms.

Thursday Jan. 31, 2013

 

Your children are now ours!



                For the past 2 or 3 days, we have been planning on taking all the kids into town where there is a hotel that allows you to use their pool all day long for 20 B's per person. However, plans kept falling through. Finally today, we were able to work it out! We were all ready to go. Granted, that even after we were ready, it was  still about an hour before anything actually happened. Bolivia right? But yes, we loaded up about 15-20 people in the small truck and were off to town. We were jammed in there like cattle. But it was a hot afternoon and we knew that it would be well worth it!



                However, once we got to the pool in town, the lady at the front counter saw how many kids that we had and then decided to tell us that they were closed today. The kids were going to be so upset because we have been telling them that we are taking them into the pool for the past 3 days. And here we go shutting them down again! But Missy thought that we could just drive everyone back up to Asunta. This was a really good plan, but was really far away (especially with the way that we were crammed into the truck). But before we left town, we picked up some snacks for the kids and Eric and I enjoyed a couple of ice cream cones.



                Once we arrived at Asunta, it was getting later in the afternoon, so we didn't have a ton of time. But we were able to get atleast 2 hours in. It was still fairly warm, but not like this morning. The water was actually surprisingly warm too! It was almost too warm, to the point where it ALMOST wasn't refreshing. But it was still a ton of fun. We had everyone there, including the babies. There were some fallen trees that the boys used as a diving board and Eric, Juan, and I took this weird pasty mud stuff and rubbed it all over our bodies so that we looked like jungle warriors!



                Just a side note, this morning I worked for quite awhile weed wacking a path all the way up to the choco. It took me a long time, especially in the heat of the day! This is probably a very poorly placed and poorly written paragraph, but such is life. My civility is getting lower and lower the longer I live here in the jungle. I have realized that I have become one with cockroaches.

Friday Feb. 1, 2013

 

                I just want to start out by saying that it has been great having Eric here. We have become so much closer and I consider him one of my best friends now. We are getting a long great and we help.....rather, he helps me through some frustrating times. Ok, no more man gushy stuff...



                This morning, I was planning on doing a lot of weed wacking out front of Familia Feliz. Because right now, you can't even see the sign from the road. The grass has litterally grown to where it is taller than me! But  before I went out there, Juan asked me if I could help him out there. I wasn't exactly sure what all he wanted to do, but I said sure. Turns out, that what he wanted to do was collect all the scrapped asphault that the construction workers discarded from them paving the main road, and use it to pave the road in FF. This was a good idea, but NOT a fun job. Especially when it has been over 100 degrees the past 3 days!

 

                So Juan, another guy, and myself were off, shovels in hand. We took the truck and the trailer down the road, and started shoveling the dried piles of asphault into the trailer. This was super hard! Hard because the asphault was pretty much already dried, and hard because of how hot it was. Once we loaded up the trailer, we went back to FF, and shoveled it onto our road from the trailer. After the first load, the other guy left, so it was just Juan and I. We were only able to do 1 more load before we decided that it was a death sentence to be working in this heat. But 2 trailer loads of this stuff was a pretty significant chuck of what we needed to do. This project will easily take us another week or so.



                The cool thing that happened today though was that Miguel and his sister came back today. They were 2 kids that were here earlier and were picked up by their father because he wanted them for awhile. Eric actually took care of Miguel for awhile too after Erin left as Miguel was one of Erin's boys.



                Later this afternoon, I helped Steve make more bread, and I played upstairs with the little kids a bit before I took a brief nap. I have been having the best time playing with Jenette! She LOVES to touch my beard and for me to help her try to walk. So working with her has been pretty rewarding.

Saturday Feb. 2, 2013



                This Sabbath, after church, we all loaded up into the truck and went back up to Asunta. We spent most of the afternoon swimming and playing in the water. This time the water felt a little more refreshing because it was yet another hot day.



                This evening, Eric, Ali, and I made some Betty Crocker cookies that we had recieved in a care package. We also made some mexican flavored ramen noodles and watched a movie. All this specialness reminded me of a Saturday night back in the States.

Sunday Feb. 3, 2013

 

                This morning, Eric woke up at 6:15 so he could go into town with Angelica. Fortunately, I was able to fall back asleep pretty quick after he left. But I didn't wake back up until 10 am! I accidentally slept in crazy late. I felt really bad when I woke up because I had wanted to be over in the big house with Ali because she was all by herself there with all the babies. But as it turns out, the rest of my house had slept in too. So when I walked out of my room, they were just sitting down to breakfast. However, Emmy was sick, so breakfast was 2 pieces of bread, and some chocolate milk.

  

Trying tohelp Jenette learn to walk



                I think the reason that everyone slept in, was because since the middle of last night it has been raining. So because the clouds were blocking the sun, our bodies were tricked into thinking it was still dark. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! But after breakfast, I went over to the Big House to see how Ali was doing. But, of course, she was just fine. So after I hung out for a bit, I went back to my house and found Juan already starting to cook lunch. So I jumped in and started helping him cut up some veggies.

 

                Due to the rain, after cooking, it was a pretty dead day. So I decided to bring out some of my balloons and stickers and give them to the kids to have fun with. That entertained them for awhile and they seemed to really enjoy it. I told them that they could put stickers on the balloons and decorate them. After that, we had lunch, then relaxed for a little bit. But after awhile, I wanted to get out and do something, so I asked Juan if he wanted to go work on the road some more. This alone is crazy, because normally Juan is the work horse and gets everyone to work, but this time, it was me. I figured that it was a good day because there was cloud cover, and the rain had almost completely stopped for awhile. But when I asked him, he was a little uncertain. He was completely willing to do it, but he thought that the asphault would be harder because it was colder and it was wet. But we went out anyway. 



                Once we got out there, it was actually a lot easier than we expected. The asphault was coming up in sheets. We didn't have to try and break it all up with our shovels first. It was still very hard work, but not quite as hard as Juan had originally thought. It also helped that Steven, and the boys were helping us. We worked on the road for a good while, got my hands nice and raw, and then called it quits after about 4 loads of asphault. I think that it was a pretty successful day. I was quite happy with the amount that we got done. Especially when we wern't planning on doing any to begin with.

                Again, I felt a little bad that I wasn't helping Ali at all, but she seems to be doing really well with the children. She has fit in perfetly here so far. In fact, Missy and Joy asked her tonight about maybe even staying for a lot longer. But she needs to go bak to school, so that isn't going to happen. But it was a good thought.

You Stay Civilized.....Planet Earth!!!!

After a long day