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| Eric's new desks |
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.
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!!!!
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