Electrical work, hot shower, and twister

Sunday March 24, 2013

New ball from my mom

As you know, I don't normally blog about my days off in town. However, today had kind of a funny situation. This past month and this next month coming up are some of the busiest months out of the year for Rurre. During these 2 months, Rurre gets swamped with Isreali's.

Before I continue my story, when did they become Isreali's? Because everytime I refer to them, I want to call them Isrealites. It keeps messing me up!

Anyway, because of the lack of workers at Narguila's and the unbelievable rudeness of most all Isreali's, Narguila's doesn't even turn their Wifi on. This is a problem, because we pretty much only come to town for internet. So this forced Eric and I to go to the other few places in town with Wifi. All of which were closed. This put Eric and I in a predicament because we knew that we were going to be online all day long with can get expensive if we are paying 8 B's per hour.

However, we came up with a genius idea. We decided that we could go to one of the only hotels in town that has Wifi and get a room just for the day with no intention of staying the night. In the end, we paid 30 B's each, and sat there in that room with beds and a fan for about 10 hours. That works out to be 3 B's per hour for Wifi WITH a fan, a bed, and a bathroom. Kind of a good deal.

Later that evening, we were planning on going with our moto taxi buddies from last week at about 10 pm. However, around 9:15, Missy signed onto FB because she came into town to run a couple quick errands. Score! Free ride back to FF. Great day off.

Monday March 25, 2013

 Mike being here has good things and bad things about it. One bad thing is, he likes to work..... a lot. While everyone is on breaktime, he wants to keep working. This is a really good trait and I'm jealous of it. Since I'm working with him though, that makes me work a bit more than normal as well. Which again, isn't a bad thing.....usually. But fortunately, today it rained a lot. This made it so we had to work inside.



Gamenight with twister from Ryan and Liz

We started at Missy's old house where he and Samuel (the Venezualen) is staying. What we were doing was installing switches and lightbulbs and wireing the house correctly. Because before, it was wired so poorly (Bolivian stlye). This was actually kind of cool because I have never done electrical work before and now I was learning. Mike is actually really smart with electrical stuff. He spent awhile explaining the physics and graph formations of the electrical currents.

There is no doubt that I slowed him down today. But that was because he wanted to teach me by "trial by fire". He explained what we were doing and how to do it, then he would have me explain it back to him and then try it myself. Of course, that always meant that he had to go back and fix my mess. But I started getting it after awhile. I still need to do a few more houses before I actually feel comfortable doing it by myself though.

Tuesday March 26, 2013

 This morning was the final day that Missy's mom and grandfather were here in Rurre. They had a flight out today at 5:00 pm. But before they left, Pastor Moore wanted to have one last meeting with the younger volunteers about relationships and sex. So during the school's recess, we all met in the church and had one final chat. It has been great having them here and they are great people.

After the service, Mike and I went to the tool shed to work on more electricity. It was actually pretty cool, I installed a new light with a switch almost all by myself! Only problem was, I wasn't able to work with him very much today because today is Tuesday, meaning it is Juan and Emmy's day off. So I needed to cook lunch for the kids before they got back from school. Then they also needed supervision afterwards.



Solar shower from Ryan and Liz

After lunch, Eric informed me of some interesting news. Apparently, there is a vacation from school starting tomorrow until next wednesday. He also told me that many of the kids would be going home for the week and going to come back for school. This, needless to say, sounds great to us! Just a short breather with a few less kids. So we will see how that turns out and if things actually happen according to plan.

Wednesday March 27, 2013

First thing we did this morning was to have a staff meeting to make sure that everyone knew what the plan was for the day and for the holiday break. For today, both Juan and Emmy had to go to town to run errands for our family and for the rest of Familia Feliz. This once again left Eric and I in charge of all the boys with no school. No Problem.

Fortunately, before Juan and Emmy left, she had made breakfast. So all Eric and I had to do was serve it and keep the kids in line. After breakfast, we had all the boys do their chores and laundry while Eric and I supervised while doing our laundry too. Our clothes are long overdue for a good scrubbing. Someway or another, the kids are always able to fly through their chores and not have any problems when they are motivated by the fact that they can play afterwards.

Before Emmy left, she asked Eric and I to make majalito (basically a sort of fried rice with french fries and other random goodness inside) for lunch today. Only problem is, this meal takes just about 2 hours to prepare. I wasn't too worried about making it, but rather the time because another big job that we were asked to do was to work a lot of the trench. But so far, our day is getting really full, really quick.

Eric and I could probably make our own cooking TV show now. We were dominating this majalito! Chopping and boiling and deep frying left and right. We had Jack Johnson and the Beach Boys playing while we cooked all while the kids were swimming. I think the food came out pretty great, little salty, but still pretty great.

Right after lunch, Eric and I wanted to rest for just a few minutes before we went out to start digging. But almost as soon as we went in our room, I heard some commotion outside and I went out to see what was going on. Apparently, Moises and little Miguel were punching each other while they, and a few others, were finishing up eating. Then the parent inside of me rose up. I started off by telling them that fighting was NEVER ok. Punching and kicking never solve anything and if they have a problem they needed to talk to me or Eric. They said yes teacher, but I wasn't quite done with em yet. I asked them if they thought Jesus liked it when they fought? The whole table got really quite and a few of them looked at me and said no.

"Did Jesus ever punched or fought with anyone in his entire life?"

"No teacher."

" Then should we ever fight with each other?"

"No teacher."

As soon as I started talking about Jesus and asking them questions, it seemed to sink in pretty fast. It seemed as though the importance of the issue went up really fast. I then told them that there is actually a really interesting verse in the Bible that talks about fighting. They all perked up to see what I was gunna say. I told them about Matthew 5:39 where it says if someone hits us on one side of our face, we should turn the other side of our face to them. Anyway, I just thought that was kind of a cool story.

After a brief rest, I went out to start digging holes. Since it rained yesterday and it has been sunny today, It made the groud a lot easier to work with. The only issues I ran into were massive roots, and a massive ant that bit me.

Thursday March 28, 2013



Enjoying the hot water

This morning we were asked to attend a staff meeting. They warned us however that this was going to be a very long staff meeting and to bring our computers. When we got there at 8, Warren had a brief devotional then gave us the plan for the day. Basically, he gave us a few assignments to work on, and gave us all day to do them.

The only problem with that plan is that Eric and I were in charge of 5 boys as Juan and Emmy left at 3 am to take others to there homes for break. This schedule didn't leave us time to supervise them, or make them lunch. But we got super lucky when one of Missy's kids said that he was going to the Toma and could take our kids. That alone was an all day affair. So basically, Eric and I got a day off on campus. Not only did we get rid of our kids for the day, but the girls said that they would cook for us! Score!

The jobs that I was asked to work on was a work program layout, changing the website, and planning for the pathfinder camporee at the end of April. These things is what I pretty much worked on all morning. In the afternoon, I was finished with what I needed to do, so I grabbed a shovel and went to work on the never ending trench for awhile.

Now I have to make an apology. My brother and his wonderful wife Liz, sent me a package awhile ago that had a solar shower in it. It is basically just a bg that you fill with water, then set out in the sun for while to make the water hot. When I first saw it, I was just confused. I thought that was an incredibly random gift that I might use once just to say I did. Wrong.

I had actually forgotten all about it until yesterday. So technically, the first time I used it was yesterday, but I didn't set it out early enough and the water was just luke warm. But today, I had the bag sitting out all day and wowie, let me tell you, that shower was great! The water was so warm and it even had a good flow to it. The bag holds enough for 2 quick showers so Eric and I were able to both get a shower in before it ran out.

The only problem we will run into in the future is making sure no one can see us. Because here at FF, it is inappropriate for a guy to take his shirt off in public. And I'll tell you right now, I am NOT taking a shower witha shirt on. But other than that, amazing shower.

Later this evening, we also used another gift that my brother sent me. Twister! The kids here (and even some of the volunteers) had never even heard of that game. So tonight, we whipped out the game and popcorn and had an evening of fun. It almost felt like a saturday night.

Friday March 29, 2013

Today, Eric and I got a miniature day off. Early this morning, he, Juan, and I went up the road and talked with a chainsaw guy who sells wood for posts and houses and any other kind of boards you need. So we went to him and ordered all the posts and frames that we will need to build that ladies house across the river. The ball is finally rolling.

After that, Warren, Eric, and I wanted to go into town, then cross over the river and look for this ladies house to see the grounds and what we will be working with when we begin construction. But by the time we got to town, it was lunch time. So of course we are going to eat! We actually got to go to Ron the bakers new restaurant. Ron is the relgious baker that i've talked about who sells brownines and banana bread in town. The restaurant was super good! I had a carrot burger and fries and was pretty full afterwards.

Anyway, after eating, we made the trek over to San Buena (the other side of the river where the lady lives). Once we got to the other side however, there were no moto's that could take us up there as it was siesta time. Not a problem with me though. I'm all about walking in the hot sun in order to save a few pennies. I was a little nervous though, because out of the 3 of us, I was the only that had ever been to her house, and that was only once. But I was able to get us there with no problems.

When we got up the mountain to her house, we found Selena, Bismark, John Alex, and their 2 older sisters. The little ones were very excited to see us and kept giving us hugs all over the place. The mom of course wasn't there however as she was off selling ice cream.

After getting our measurements, we headed back down the mountain and back to the docks. Fortunately, Warren decided that he would let Eric and I have a few minutes online before we ran a couple errands and went back. This gave us just enough time to check our facebook's, check our mail, and see what is happening in the 1st world countries.

Saturday March 30, 2013

This morning, Eric and I were supposed to be in charge of the sermon. However, since there were so few people on campus (due to the vacation), we thought it would be a great idea to go up to the church up the road. This turned out to be a great idea as Samuel (the Venezualan volunteer) has been doing a week long revival with them, and they had asked us to attend church with them anyway.

The good news was that it got us out of doing a sermon. But the bad news was, we had to leave Familia Feliz at 8:30 am in order to be at their early service as well. But thats a small price to pay to get out of sermon duty.

The church is so great. It's a very small area in someones backyard. Half of it is covered by a roof while the other half is covered by a tarp. They are a very small congregation but are very devout. One lady who had to have been 60 got up for special music and sang maybe 3 notes on tune. But no one laughed, no one made fun, it was actually very nice and allows you to really focus on the words that are being sung.

Their service is a very on the spot kind of service. For example, when we got there this morning, they asked if Warren would give the sermon. When it was time for special music, they didn't have anything planned, they just got up front and asked if anyone would like to come up and sing or something. Then, 10 minutes before he had to do it, they asked Eric if he would give his testimony on how he came to Bolivia, in spanish. And he did a very nice job.

After church, they asked us if we would stay there with them and have a pot luck. This completely blew me away because we showed up with about 30 people and we were just in the backyard of some family's wood hut. So somehow, this congregation came up with the time and money to cook us a fantastic meal.

Following a couple hour nap, and my 3rd solar shower of the week, Eric was put in charge of putting on a game night. So tonight we played probably 5 different games with a group of the kids. The ones that played seemed to really enjoy it. The plan is to get this to be a more frequent social activity on Saturday nights.

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



 

Dig Dig Dig, and goodbye Soledad

 

Eric's new desks

Monday March 17, 2013

Today starts off by telling about last night. A few weeks ago, I took a moto around town and asked him if he drove people to Familia Feliz and how much it costed. The reason I did was because Eric and I, at the latesest, have to be at the taxi station at 5 which is before the dinner restaurants open. Anyway, the guy told me that he did, and the price depended on the time we asked him. So I took his name and number.

Yesterday, I thought about calling this guy up and asking him how much it would cost to take us back around 8 at night. We talked on the phone for awhile, and he agreed to 10 B's per person. He also said that he had enough room on his bike for both Eric and I.

Eric and I were super excited because this was a great deal and we got to spend a couple more hours in town! However, once 8:00 came, and our guy showed up, he brought along a buddy because apparently he didn't REALLY have enough room for both Eric and I. Problem was, he neglected to tell his friend how much he agreed to take us for (10 B's each). As soon as the friend heard this, he said no no, only for 30 B's no less. This was dumb. So I started telling him that his friend agreed to take us for 10 B's each. The guy we called was just a young guy and was being quiet the whole time. His friend looked at him and told him to charge us 30 B's each. So our guy looked at me and said it's too far for 10 B's and he wants 30 B's. That's when I began to repremand him (I felt kind of cool getting after him in spanish). But they wern't budging.

By now, there were about 10 other moto taxi's gathering around waiting to see what happened. This only added to the peer pressure of the original guy we called. Eric spoke up and explained that why would we pay 30 B's for a taxi, when we can pay 40 B's and get a hotel with wifi for the night. When they still didn't budge, we got off and told them we wern't going anywhere. But as soon as we started walking away, some of the other moto's that were around drove up to us and said they'd do it for 20 B's each. This was still a pretty good bargain. Especially for a moto, AND at night. So right in front of the other guys, we jumped on with them and headed back to Familia Feliz.

Eric and I each had our own drivers and had conversations with them. Both were super nice guys. They also told us that if we ever needed a ride back to Familia Feliz late at night, they work until 3 am and would take us back for 20 B's anytime. This was really great because on occassion, this will allow Eric and I to stay a bit later.

This morning was also the beginning to a super good day. I got to go to town....again!! The reason I got so lucky was because of 2 donors from my church who have generously given money to fix our broken down truck. So this morning, I talked with Juan about it, then he and I went out and looked over the entire truck and made a list of all the things that NEED to be fixed in order for it to function properly. We then organized the list into what is most important and crucial down to the just important stuff. After we made the list, Warren wanted us to go ahead and go into town and get it taken care of ASAP. So thats what we did.

However, leaving familia feliz was a little more difficult than we anticipated. First, we had to start the big truck which I was going to drive, then take the keys out (with it still running) and use the keys for the other truck that is barely able to turn on. But when Juan tried to start it, nothing happened. So I had to pull behind the little truck and attach a tow rope to it, pull it out of where it was parked, remove the rope, pull in front of the little truck, reattach the tow rope to the front of the little truck and give it a running start. The only way to get the little truck started is if it is being pushed or pulled first. So after a little effort, we were finally able to get both trucks humming.

After arriving in town, we met with the mechanics, negotiated prices and what they were to fix. After that, I pretty much had another free day as I simply waited for eveyone else who came into town to take care of their things. All I needed to do was bring the truck in. But I'm not complaining with another town day!

Then, this evening, things got even better! Normally, dinner at our house is very small and not very good. But tonight, it was very good because it was baby Emily's birthday! Eric and I knew that it was going to be delicious because Juan and Emmy like to spoil Emily SO much. So tonight, we had soapa americano (ramen noodles), Bolivian cheese puffs, Bolivian pop corn puffs, and cake. Baby Emily was dressed up in a princess dress and had a big fancy party hat on. She was so cute. After all of this, we were quite full which was a nice change.

Tuesday March 18, 2013

This morning I was awoken by lumber yard workers showing up at our house asking for me. As I have said before, I have been put in charge of a building project for a very poor lady with 7 children who live in the boonies. However, after talking with a construction worker here at Familia Feliz, he suggested that we build with wood instead of brick. I was totally open to the idea as it would be cheaper, easier, and just as durable. However I have never worked with wood. Just brick. So I had no idea what size boards we needed or how much. But the volunteer said he would help me figure that out before he left to visit another location. Little did I know, he left yesterday or the day before and wasn't able to make the list before he left. So these workers drove here to Familia Feliz and wanted to know what I needed so I could put an order in, but I had no idea. Not the BEST start to the day. But fortunately, it was all up hill from here.

This morning, I dug a couple holes to repaird electrical posts that were knocked down during storms. Between holes, I had some talks with Warren and with Missy. But I couldn't work too long this morning because today is Juan and Emmy's day off. Which you know what that means......Chad's cooking for the house. So I decided to make lentils and rice and french fries. Not too difficult, but I'm still cooking for a lot of people.

After lunch, we rested a little bit, then went off for the work program. Eric and I took all of our boys plus a few others and went off the machete down jungle plants. We all had our "swords" and were chopping down 7 foot grass and weeds. This all went extremely well with no incident. Well, except for that one time where I chopped my shin with a machete. But hey... not to worry, it was just a flesh wound. Seriously though, it was just a little cut. So it's not a big deal grandma, you're grand baby will be just fine. ;-)

One other thing to note, Moises and Rodrigo, have pink eye and have not been allowed to go to school yesterday of today. So I also had to keep an eye on them and make sure they didn't play in the dirt or play to much with the other kids.

Wednesday March 20, 2013

Wowie, time is really going by fast! Eric and I only have 8 more weeks here at Familia Feliz, and just over 10 weeks until we are back to our home's with friends, family, food, and all the other luxeries of life! It is so hard to believe that we have been here for 6 and a half months!

Anyway, today was another big work day for me. But it was a good work day. Mike came back today. He is the Austrian guy who helped out setting us up with electricity several weeks ago. But he wanted to come back and spend a couple more weeks finishing up here. So today, I spent a lot of time working on the long ditch in front of the church and measuring out a bunch of different distances on campus and figuring out where to plant posts. This afternoon, we were actually able to finally finish the ditch! So exciting! But there was one problem. Just today, they decided that they want to do a lot more underground wireing for the campus. So the trench in front of the church that we just finished is merely a sliver of what we now need to do. So for this, we will be using all of the kids for the work program to dig ditches for the underground wireing.

The other thing I did today was move about a 300 pound, massive, wood storage cubboard thing. It was in Warren's house, however, they wanted to move it to Missy's house. Not only did we have to lift this monsterous thing, but we had to finagle it around to get it through doors and into porches. This proved to be my workout not just for the day, but for the month!

Thursday March 21, 2013

Today was a little bittersweet. I started off today with shoveling in the never-ending trench. However, Juan was wanting to go in to pick up the truck as it was supposedly finished yesterday. Once again, the plan was for just me and Juan to go in real quick on the moto, pick up the truck, and come back. When will I learn, it is never that easy.

Before we left, one of the new girls heard that we were leaving and needed to do some food shopping. And Mike needed some supplies for installing switches in each of the houses. Warren also wanted us to take in all of the empty gas tanks and a couple of water jugs to be filled. All this led to us needing to take the big truck into town.

Because the mechanic is on the outskirts of town, we stopped there first to see if it was ready. And sure enough, it was ready! I almost couldn't believe it. The bad news was, that it was about 900 B's more expensive than what they had quoted us before. But the new parts looked really nice. I was so excited to drive it. However, I didn't have quite that much cash on me so I had to go to the bank and come back. Problem was, by the time we got into town, it was 11:00. So we only had 1 hour before everyone and their mother shuts down for siesta. From 12-3, good luck finding anything open. So while in town, we tried to go all over town looking for electrical parts and food. But lots of places were starting to close. Including the mechanic. This meant that we now needed to wait in town for a few hours until we could pick up the truck.

I ended up spending most of my time at an internet cafe not really needing to do anything. I also called up the pastor of the church here in town per request of Warren. Reason being, we were asked to do the entire service again this week. But Warren asked me to ask him if we could just do the church service and not Sabbath school. We also needed to get the number for the pathfinder director because they have asked us if Familia Feliz could host the camporee this year here on campus. Hopefully, after all this interaction, we will have a stronger relationship with the local church.

Once all the time was killed that was needed, we headed back to the mechanic to head out. This is when Chad began to get a little frustrated. As soon as we asked to pick it up, they said it wasn't ready. Apparently, there was one part that they forgot to fix, or they didn't fix it well enough. They proceeded to tell us that they needed another day. But we didn't want to keep going in and out of town for no reason. We also have to bring the truck back into town next week for further repairs with another specialty mechanic. So Juan and I decided to go ahead and take the truck now, and when we brought it in next week, we would also have these guys fix the problem.

Driving the truck back was amazing! This is the best it has ever run since I have been here. It felt like a Lexus! That is, minus the physical appearance of the truck. But the big shimmy is gone, and it shifts like a dream.

Later this evening, nothing too exciting happened. We had a 2 hour meeting with pastor Moore. Which was a little tough because we started at 7, and Eric and I hadn't eaten yet. By the time, that we got back to the house, all the kids were put to sleep, and there was a bowl of semola sitting on the table for us. Good news is, as soon as we walked into our room, we were greeted by the guests! Three big rats wondering around our room. I don't know why, but as soon as they saw Eric and I, they scurried off. Oh well, maybe next time we will meet some nicer rats.

Friday March 22, 2013

This morning was pretty intense for work. Mike, Soledad, and I were out at 7:45 with shovels in hand. Then we went hard at digging ALL morning. Dig Dig Dig. Nothing more. We were actually able to get a big chunk done. If we have another 2 or 3 days of that, I think we could be done! The big push for digging is that we want to finish in time for Mike to do all of the electrical work to all the houses before he leaves. There is so much going on here at Familia Feliz that it is sometime hard to keep them straight!

Saturday March 23, 2013

Great Sabbath. Once again, Familia Feliz was asked to do the sermon for the local church. So Warren was going to give the sermon (which was pretty much all we needed to do). This morning, Eric and I wern't sure if we wanted to go or not. I ended up deciding to go into town and take 2 boys with me while Eric stayed here.

We actually had a pretty large group that went into town. We had Warren, Missy, her mom, her grandfather, all of her kids, me, and 2 of my boys. Once again, our little truck was jam packed full of people. We couldn't use the big truck today because guess what. It's broken. Fortunately, it's just a tire that is messed up. But this seems to be a recurring thing. As soon as one truck is fixed, the other one breaks down. We have been blessed repeatedly by getting our trucks fixed in just the right time.

Town had a very nice service and Warren did a great job. The church is very friendly and very quaint. After the service, I met the leader of the Conquistadores (pathfinders) and spoke with him for awhile. We didn't talk too much about the actual pathfinder program, we talked more so about life and his family, whom I also met. But our conversation was cut a little short because we had to pull out and head back.

Once back at FF, we had yet another great lunch cooked by Emmy, then we did what the Sabbath was designed for....rested! YES! It had to be short and sweet though because we had another Bible study with Pastor Moore at 4. Today we spent almost 2 hours discussing the Trinity. He is a very wise man with very insightful information.

This evening was very bittersweet though. Tonight Soledad, the traveler from Argentina, left. She had to catch a bus to La Paz at 11 PM. We are all very sad to see her go. She was such a good worker and did very well with Jennette and was even helping Mike and I shovel. So the fact that she left was the bitter part of the night.

The sweet part of the night was that before she left, I wanted to give her a Bible and see if we had any other books written in Spanish for her. So I ended up giving her a spanish Bible, Eric got her a Desire of Ages, and someone else got her a Christ's Object Lessons. The main reason that I wanted to make sure she had a Bible was because she is not a Christian, much less an Adventist. However, she has had a couple Bible studies while here at Familia Feliz and has also fervently been trying to practice and figure out how to pray. She is 25 years old and has been very open to hearing about the Bible. After recieving these 3 books, she was extremely excited. She genuinely couldn't wait to start reading them. She has never had her very own Bible. And before she accepted them, she asked Eric and I to write her a message (me inside the Bible, and his inside the Desire of Ages). She must have said thank-you to me a hundred times. I was so happy to have met her and to have been able to give her a Bible. We have each others contact information so hopefully we will keep in touch.

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

Work and town!

Monday March 11, 2013




Rain got the best of this truck

This morning, Eric and I actually had to wake up at 6 am. The reason for this was because last night, we slept in town. We did this because these days, the truck doesn't stay in town very long. So if we want any kind of day off, we either have to pay for a taxi at 4:30, or spend the night. We both had a lot of things that we needed to do online so we decided to get a room at the only hotel in Rurre with wifi. Of course, since we had wifi, we took advantage of it and were up until 2 in the morning taking it all in.

This left us with only 4 hours of sleep. But not to worry, we are men, and internet in Bolivia drives men to do crazy things! Eric had to be back by 7:30 for class, and I needed to be back for......well, I didn't know what I was going to do today quite yet.

After getting back to FF, I layed down for about 30 minutes before I got up to make some bread. I figured on such little sleep, that would be a good job for today. However, as soon as I had finished mixing the bread, Warren came out and asked me if I could go with them to pick up some lumber to fix the bridge and to hold up electrical wire.

Yankin down coconuts

So we headed out to get the wood. The guy had everything we wanted all lined up ready for us to go. No problem. But on the way back, we made a few stops. The first was to pick coconuts and oranges. We ended up spending a lot of time yanking down 53 coconuts and picking 100 oranges. Totally worth it though because they are delicious!

After the coconut place, we stopped to see if the axe was ready. The new axe's were finance by the Howell's as well. But the thing with Axe's down here, they don't come with handles. So you have to custom make the handles. So we have simply been waiting for him to hand make them and fit the axe head on there. And he had one finished today! It looks great! The other one will be done next week. Then following the axe place, we stopped at another lumber yeard to price and compare.

After getting back to FF, I finished making the bread and was ready to relax. Our room is so much more appealing now because yesterday, Eric and I bought a fan in town! It is so great! Nice and powerful. I'm sure the other volunteers are a little jealous. ;-)

Wednesday March 13, 2013



Axe's and Saw donated by Mr. and Mrs. Howell

Today I had a pretty good work day. Since we had no kindling for a fire, I decided that I wanted to use the brand new axe that was donated for the very first time. So I went to town chopping up big logs. That axe works super good! It cuts through the wood so well. After awhile of chopping, one of the little kids walked over and wanted to help me. Normally, the little kids arn't allowed to handle the axe, but I was there and helped him through it. He was so funny. He wanted me to chop the big pieces and get them fairly small, then he wanted to use the axe and try to split the smaller pieces. He actually did really good! There were a few times that he just missed the wood alltogether and hit the dirt. But he had so much fun helping me and being a man!

Once my axe muscles were exhausted, it was time to use my shoveling muscles. So I grabbed a shovel and went to work on the ditch for the electricity. I didn't work for too terribly long because my plan was to dig for the work program. Which I was right. Eric and I put in a good couple of hours of digging later that afternoon. We are probably about 3/5th's of the way done.

After the work program, I went and sat down with Jenette. She was all by herself in the big house so she needed some attention. So I picked her up and took her outside. She is becoming so much more responsive. We just sat there and I tried tickling her, took her on a walking exercise to continue building her muscles, and swung her up in the air. Swinging her was my favorite part because she got the biggest smile on her face and even screamed in excitement. I had never heard her so happy! It's so great to see her improve, even if it is very minimal.

This afternoon Warren wanted to have a meeting with pastor Moore. Pastor Moore is Missy and Joy's Grandpa. Apparently he has written a few books and is extremely insightful. So this afternoon, we had an hour and a half service where he just talked with the volunteers about the nature of Christ and he touched on a few other topics. He said that he would like to have a meeting every day until he leaves. He will only be here for a little longer though. He is an older gentleman with some health problems and is going to be going to Africa after here.

A lot later this afternoon, right before dinner, Warren wanted me to load up with him, Juan, and Samuel to go pick up a bunch of wood that we had ordered the other day. Apparently, we have a carpenter that will be coming here in the next couple of days to build some furniture and other useful things for us. So we went out to pick up all of this wood for him to work with. Fortunately, it didn't take us the whole night like I thought. So I was still able to get back and get a plate of food.

Thursday March 14, 2013

Today was a pure work day. All morning I was busy doing something. It all started with me continuing to dig the long electrical ditch over by the church. Wowie, that thing is sure taking a long time! Trying to dig through tree roots in the hot sun is very hard. Especially by myself in the morning.

The other thing I did this morning was work a little bit on fixing the bridge on campus. A few weeks ago, some of the temporary volunteers began to pull up some of the rotted boards and wanted to fix it. But they had to leave before they could fix it leaving the the bridge unusable. So Gerry and I started working on it today, but after we started, Gerry said that the whole bridge is rotten and needs to be replaced. The wood is just being eaten away and when we walk across, the bridge sways from side to side. Looks like Gerry and I have yet another project ahead of us.

This afternoon Eric's desks arrived! Several weeks ago, Eric through his church, was able to raise enough money to purchase brand new desks for the school. The old ones were very beaten up and barely holding on. Anyway, he had ordered them a while ago and they finally arrived. We went ahead and moved them all into his classroom.

On a Sadder note, Joy and Max left today and they will not be coming back. They had announced that they were going to get married and do it this Sabbath. However, yesterday, Eric and I found out that they are going to have the wedding in Canada. So they have both left and have decided to live in Canada. Best of luck to them.

Friday March 15, 2013

Today, Eric and I got super lucky. Last night it rained all night really hard, and it rained all this morning too. School was cancled and we couldn't work outside due to the rain. It rained so hard last night that it knocked down one of of electricity poles which Eric, Warren, and I had to fix in the pouring rain. Anyway, Warren said that since we wern't going to do anything outside today, that Eric and I could go to town! Woohoo!

Town is always such a good time. Especially when it is a bonus day! I didn't want to spend too much money because my budget doesn't allow for bonus days. But that didn't work out so well because I needed to buy new sandles because mine broke last night while trying to fix the pole, and I needed a few snacks to take back to Familia Feliz as Eric and I get very hungry at times.




Sicles and bags donated by Mr. and Mrs. Howell

Also, another super exciting thing, I had 2 packages! They were both from my mom and loaded with awesome stuff! She sent down a soccer ball and a couple of other goodies, but most importantly, she sent me CANDY!!! Reese's pieces, whoppers, gummies, chocolates, fruit roll ups and others! Score! Eric and I miss american foods soooo much. We talke about how we can't wait for our mom's cooking, taco bell, olive garden, subway......AH! I'm getting super hungry just writing this! Hold on while I eat a chocolate........

Later on, we just hung out and were eagerly welcoming Sabbath. We had a fairly long vesper program for the volunteers with pastor Moore in which we talked about achieving perfection as described in the Bible. Afterwards, we had dinner, then Eric and I listened to a bunch of really cool scripture songs that I had on my iPhone from a Bible teacher at my high school.

Saturday March 16, 2013

Mmmmm sleeping in until 8:15. Love it! Then we just layed there, talked, and read our Bibles for awhile until we got up to get dressed for Sabbath school. Most of the volunteers left this morning along with a few students to put on the church service for the church in Rurre. So it seemed like our attendence was cut in half. So while we waited for all of the kids to show up, Eric and I played Bible pictionary of sorts with the kids. We drew pictures of Moses, Noah, David, Jerico, Adam and Eve, and numerous others, and had the kids guess who we were drawing.

Once everyone was there, we all sang some songs, then Missy read a story from a Bible book that I used to read growing up. I remembered all the pictures and what the words were. It wasa great blast from the past. But before the sermon, Missy, and her grandfather (who was supposed to give the sermon) got sick. So we had nothing for the kids other than a Bible video.

After church, Eric and I had a really good bonding afternoon. He borrowed Missy's guitar, and I borrowed her violin, and we had a Bible "jam session". We played songs like amazing grace and I'll fly away and other hymnal classics. We just relaxed and talked and hung out as buddies most of the afternoon until it was time for Rounda.



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


Mountain hike

King of Rurre!

Helping Jenette walk!

Monday March 3, 2013

So last night, after Eric and I got back from town, I come to find out that I will be working with Moises all day today. Apparently, he was asked to take the trash to the dump behind campus, and on his way, he decided to dump it right in front of someone's house on the ground. Juan saw him do it and told him that he needed to pick it up. But he refused. Then, not knowing Juan had already asked, Warren told Moises to pick up the trash and yet again, Moises refused. So Warren decided that for punishment, instead of going to school tomorrow (which Moises likes), Moises was going to work with me all morning doing hard labor. So that is what I had to look forward to today.

Enoch just being cool

Surprisingly, I actually had a really good morning working with Moises. Just before we started, I gave him a lecture about how he needed to work good and not complain at all or else the work would get harded and I'd punish him more. After that, no problems. I made him pick up all the trash that he had dropped in front of the house, and I walked around the entire campus with him making sure that he picked up any other trash too. After we finished picking up all the trash, I had him scrub down all of the bread pans (about 25) to get all of the oil, grim, and residue. After finishing that, I took him to rake up the tall grass that was mowed so that eventually we could burn it.

Moises worked really well today. I was super proud of him and it was kind of nice to have a partner. Especially because absolutely nothing grosses him out. He had no problem picking up dirty diapers that had been sitting in the rain for a few days. It's amazing, he picks it up as if it was just a random piece of paper. So that was another little perk to have him working with me, I didn't have to touch any of that stuff!

Later in the afternoon, after school, Eric and I did some laundry. But before we could even finish, it started storming and raining like crazy! This makes it a little bit hard to dry out our clothes in the sun. Fortunately though, the rain only lasted about 15 minutes. Then the sun came back out for a little bit.

Birds nest!

Eric and I also cleaned house! We cleaned and organized out room. Lemme tell ya, when 2 guys go on a cleaning spree after not having one for awhile, it looks like a completely new room! We even brought in a desk so that we could have a work space. Both of us are huge desk people. So now I have a picture of all my wonderful family members sitting on my desk along with some other nic nacs.

Tuesday March 5, 2013

Today was kind of crazy, little Edwin was cutting grass with a machete when I walked by and WACK! Right into the ankle. HAD to have hit some serious blood vessel......nah just kidding. Today wasn't too exciting.

So you think I can´t pick rice? Guess again!

Wednesday March 6, 2013

Today was kind of a work and fun day. Today, I got to go to town in order to do some more research for the ladys' house that we will be building. After talking with a new volunteer, Gerry (who is a construction worker), we decided that it would be much better and more efficient to build her house out of wood than brick. This completely changed all my plans that I had mapped out, but it is definitely a better idea.

So today, our goal was to research wood and roof prices and locations both in Rurre, and in San buena (which is across the river and where the lady lives). My other goal was to go to a hardware store and purchase some MUCH needed tools for Familia Feliz. This however was only possible with part of a very generous donation from a member of my church, Phil and Audrey Howell. So today I purchased 2 axe's, 2 hammers, a handsaw, 7 sickles, and 7 harvesting bags. These are all in great need and greatly appreciated by all here at Familia Feliz.

Gerry and I were able to get just about everything done that we wanted. Then I was hoping that he would want to eat lunch in town before we headed back. Turns out that not only did he want to eat lunch, but he needed to get his bike serviced. So this allowed me the ever craved internet time! I was able to have a chat with my mom, my dad, and the birthday girl, my lady.

Ended up staying most of the day......good day.

Lunch on the truck

Thursday March 7, 2013

Today was designed to be an all day rice collection day for everyone. We cancled school in order for everyone to work. The big rush is that the rice is only good for about 2 or 3 weeks and we have a TON. However, early this morning it was raining. Fortunately, it was only able todelay us by about 2 hours.

Once the rain lightened up, we all headed out. We had a decent amount of cloud cover which protected us from the extreme heat. Being out there for hours without any tree cover and in the direct sun gets extremely exhausting. Using the sickles however has been an extreme help and has sped up our speed greatly!

After several hours, we came in, ate lunch and took a small break, then headed back out there. We were only ablt to work a couple hours in the afternoon though because there is only so much the kids can do in one day. Ok ok, fine, there is only so much that I can do!

The Adventurers

Friday March 8, 2013

Today turned out to be a baking day. Jodi has requested that I make cinnamon raisin bread every friday for Sabbath. Apparently it is one of her favorites. So even though I had never made this kind of bread, I wasn't too worried. Steve showed me the ways of the bread samurai.

Everything went pretty good. The only problem that I had was finding all the bakery things. Before Steve left, we had our own bakery room with designated items that Steve purchased himself. However, it was decided to turn that into a guest room. This unfortunately left me without a baking room. Not only that, but I was not involved in the moving process. So, all of the various baking things were moved all over the kitchen and being used by other people for other things and several other items are still MIA.

It wasn't a HUGE deal. I simply had to go on a little treasure hunt before I started. But all in all, the bread turned out really well and everyone seemed to like it. So add that bread to the list of successfully completed.

Saturday March 9, 2013

Today was an absolutely perfect Sabbath. Earlier this week, Warren talked to us about how he wants Familia Feliz to start building a stronger relationship with the adventist church in town and start doing more outreach things. So we decided that this week, Eric and I would take a small group of some of the more well behaved kids into town for church.

We came, We conqured!

So this morning, Eric and I woke up early to cook rice with potatoes, tomatoes, and cumin for us to have in town for lunch. After we finished cooking, we loaded up Juancito, Jose Carlos, Damarise, Claudia, Lizette, and Sarah and took off. We wanted to leave earlier than we did, but the truck was out of gas and we needed to add more water to the radiator. So unfortunately, we were only able to make it to the church service.

The church building is fairly small, but was packed! We could not find anywhere where more than 2 of us could sit together. I'm sure that treeman and fire beard.... sorry, I mean Eric and I stuck out like sore thumbs there. We did however, see 3 of the workers from Narguila's there which was really cool.

After the service, we loaded up the kids and drove to the base of a mountain and parked under a tree and dished out the rice and had a picnic in the back of the truck. However, because the girls didn't bring and plates or spoons, we all had to share the 4 bowls that us guys brought.

Are we there yet?

 
After lunch, we started walking up the mountain. This mountain by the way is where the cross is that looks over all of Rurrenabaque and the River Beni. It is only a 15-20 minute hike, but it is completely straight up making it pretty difficult. The kids though made Eric and I look like gringos! And here I thought that after 6 months here, I thought I was pretty much Bolivian. But once we finally got to the top, it was completely worth it. It was incredibly beautiful up there and it was only made better by being there with my best bud Eric, and some great kids.

We probably sat up there trying to cool off for about 30-45 minutes before we came back down. It was a really hot day and we were expecting a good breeze once we got to the top. But unfortunately, it wasn't too much better up there than at the bottom.

Pause everything.... I am typing this at 11:15 pm Saturday night and Eric is in his bed beside me completely passed out. He has been snoring and not moving. But he just started talking in his sleep. The catch is, he is talking in spanish!!!! Haha! So funny! Ok, now to wrap up my day.

Eric and I overlooking the motherland (Rurrenabaque)

After coming back, guess what, everyone else that stayed here at Familia Feliz wanted to go swimming at Asunta. This wasn't a problem, but Eric and I decided to hang back and let them go because we were super tired from waking up early and the hike. So we just wanted a little nap. Then after my nap, I was able to get some good reading done. That pretty much concludes my day or at least as far as I can remember.
You Stay Civilized........Planet Earth!!!!

Bye bye Steve...

Monday Feb. 25, 2013

Today, I did something cool.....maybe.....I don't really know.....wish I could remember, but I procrastinated my blog.....

Tuesday Feb. 26, 2013

Today was not a good day at all. Last night, Eric started to feel a little under the weather. But this wasn't too surprising because he has felt a little poopy numerous times throughout our time here. But apparently, whatever he had, I had too. I just hadn't presented with the symptoms yet. However, it was just a couple of hours until it started to hit me. This proved to be a very long night where neither of us got much sleep at all. We were constantly groaning in pain. We had the chills, fevers, wanted to puke, had the runs, and we had absolutely no strength at all. We were completely week and every movement took an extreme amount of energy accompanied with some pain.

Because it took so much to simply roll over, we simply wanted to lay perfectly still in bed. Problem was, the longer that we stayed in one position, the more it began to hurt. So as I said, it was a long night. The next day wasn't any better. However, I think Eric had it a little worse than I did because he still had to wake up and teach for about 2 hours because nobody could substitute for him. I was at least about to lay in my bed and lather in my own self pity.

To make matters a tiny bit worse, today was Juan and Emmy's day off. And when they are gone, it is my responsibility to cook for the kids, and both Eric and I's job to care for them in the afternoon. We were in no condition to man the battlestations for these goobers, but the war goes on right? So I started, very slowly and painfully, cooking some lunch for them. After a little while, Eric shuffled into the door and was done for the day. So he helped me cut veggies and serve the kids.

One of the hardest things about cooking for them was simply the face that we didn't want to smell the food. We had absolutely no appetite and couldn't even think about touching food. The last meal I had was dinner last night. I missed breakfast, lunch, and didn't want dinner. Eric was the same, but he even missed dinner last night.

As we layed in our beds feeling awful, Tabitha, sweet sweet Tabitha, showed up at our window. "Eric, Eric. Are you there?"

Eric responded in a pathetic voice "yes."

"Hee hee. What about Chad? Chad are you there?"

In an extremely bleak and depleated voice I responded, "yes."

"Hee hee. Oh my, Oh my, you poor poor boys! Can I bring you anything? Maybe make you a special soup broth. How about some potassium soup broth?"

To which, Tabitha went to work and made us an amazing soup. It was the only thing that our bodies would allow us to eat. And I don't know what she did to it, but it was sooooo good. I think she sprinkled some love fairies inside and maybe a couple raindrops from a rainbow, because it made both of us feel a good bit better. Problem was, shortly after we finished, we tanked right back down. But we both felt a lot better knowing that we had something in our stomachs.

This continued throughout the rest of the day. There would be a short period where we felt a little better, then tanked. This made for yet another long night. However, not quite as long as last night. I actually fell asleep at 8:45 PM. And for anyone that knows me, that should tell you that something must seriously be wrong.

One fun fact that I did find out from the outside world today was that a man named Junior who visited for a couple days a few months ago arrived with a doctor/electrician from the States. Also, 2 Argentinian people arrived who I know nothing about. But I'm sure I will find out.



Wednesday Feb. 27, 2013

Today both of us were feeling so much better. We still were not 100% when we woke up, but we were pretty close. I wanted to work, but I also wanted to take it easy. So what I ended up working on, was repairing a busted water pipe that one of the volunteers hit with the weedwacker. That one pipe knocked out water for the whole campus. This was pretty cool because I haven't done pipework before, but now I know! We chopped out a portion of the pipe and reconnected the ends. It wasn't too terribly difficult, except the toolds that we were using were extremely old and rusted. So that made the process a little slower.

After fixing the pipe, I went to go start burning the trash pit. I have been wanting to get rid of that mess for a long time now, but because of the sporadic rain, the trash has been wet. But it was a hot day today so I figured it would work. Not so much though. I dumped about 10 liters of diesle just over the beginning of the trail of trash and hardly any burned.

The more I worked, the better I felt. Which is really weird to me because I could have sworn that I had an allergy to hard work! So later that afternoon, I ended up doing a lot of shoveling to bury electric cables.





Thursday Feb. 28, 2013

Very exciting news today. We got electricity!! Not only that, but they installed light switches in our house and an outlet in Eric and I's room. So now, we have electricity whenever we want it. No more dead computers.

But with every good news, there is always some sad news that comes along with it. Steve left today along with Lars and Mike (2 volunteers that were Eric and I's age). It was actually really sad to see Steve go. So I spent his last 2 hours with him and got some last minute bread tips and talked with him about regular things. He was sad to go, but anxious to see what lies ahead. I have learned a lot from that man and I appreciate it.

After Steve left, I went out to work. I started out by going to all the classes and loading up their trash buckets to haul to the dump. Then I went back to try and kill a massive wasps nest with easily 50-60 wasps. However, the spray that was purchased is only good for mosquitoes... Needless to say, I just made them mad and I was sent running the other way.

After these events, Elijah and I started working on digging the ditch again. Eric ended up joining us after his class too. But working out in that hot sun, we were only able to go for a couple of hours. But we had to be done by 4:00 anyways because Juan, Eric, little Warren, Elijah, and I needed to go to town.

Unfortunately this trip was for business not pleasure. Juan, Eric, and I needed to get to town, cross the river into San Buena, and see if we could get some pricing for roofing for the ladies house that I am planning. Unfortunately, we wern't able to get ALL the info that I wanted, but we were able to get some.

After crossing back over, we went to Narguila's for a tad bit too do our checksies online before we went over to a "pizza joint" that Eric had spyed once. We were all very excited to eat there, but once we got there, it wasn't exactly a pizza place. They had pizza, but they had all kinds and ethnithcities (don't know how that is spelled) of other foods too. It actually sounded quite delicious! However, half of the things we ordered they didn't have. They did however have a pretty good pina colada which I will gladly go back just to drink.

We ended up getting back quite late which was great because the kids were already in bed! That was just a bonus.




Friday March 1, 2013

Today actually started out quite funny. You see, there is this really stupid game that elementary kids like to play called "Rabbit Rabbit". It's where on the first of each month, if you are the first to say Rabbit Rabbit to someone, they have to be nice to you for the whole month. Well, Juan Tapia (big Juan) loves this game. He goes hard and makes sure he is always the first one. I generally never even try. But this morning, I wanted to win.

After we woke up, I came up with a devious plan. I was going to lay in my bed rolling around like I had a lot of pain, then Eric was going to get Juan and tell him that I needed help. So when Juan came in, I was rolling around like planned, then he got worried and came over and felt my head and was asking me questions while I just moaned. Then I slowly moved my hand away from my face and looked at him and said "Conejo conejo!" (which means rabbit rabbit in spanish). All the kids were at my door too and erupted in laughter.

Turns out, with what Eric had told them was wrong with me, and how I was acting, Juan and Emmy thought I had hemorrhaging Dengy fever which is apparently deadly here. So we actually scared them into thinking that we were dieing! Whoops. haha. Oh well, they got over it and thought it was funny.

After this little joke was when my plate got filled up. I went to talk with Warren about the days tasks and he was eager to talk to me. Apparently, he had a whole list of things that he was wanting done around campus. After looking at it, I knew that I was going to be quite busy. But not more than 10 minutes later, the girls asked me to bake bread. That in itself takes up a majority of the day. Along with Steven leaving also came a promotion for me to the role of head baker. The girls also added another cleaning job to my list, and asked me to plan the church service for tomorrow. Oh boy.

All I have to say is thank-goodness for Elijah. He has been my right hand man these past few days. It has been great getting to know him and work with him. He was able to help get a few things done while I was tied up in the bakery.

I have to say, I was a little nervous baking bread this time. This was this first time here at Familia Feliz that I would be making bread solo without Steve being here. If I blew it, I was going to get a lot of abuse! So all I did was add a little extra sugar to my dough. Sugar makes EVERYTHING better right? The bread actually turned out really good I thought. So bread number 1....success.





Saturday March 2, 2013

Sabbaths are always great! We get to sleep in a little bit more too. This morning, Eric and I decided to go matching mode and wore blue shirts, black pants, and yellow ties. But for some reason, he forgot to put on his red beard.

After church, we convinced Warren to let us take the truck to Asunta. Which is always a favorite of the kids. Oh, and by the way, the big truck is fixed. Juan was able to fix it this week. Just in time because the little truck is broken yet again. The tire is popped, and the clutch is broken again. But anyway, we loaded up, and were off.

At Asunta we started off by cooling off and thrashing around a little bit, but as usual, the mud war began. Mud was flying all over the place hitting everything and everyone. In fact one of the little babies got caught in the crossfire and got hit in the eye! Ouch. Other than the baby, the rest of the day went without incident.


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